Taipei was a surprise trip for us in the end of 2023, it was my husband’s business trip, and my daughter and I decided to tag along. We only stayed in the city of Taipei, it was an amazing week for us.
Being in Taipei, you can not miss the Taipei 101 tower, most iconic building in the city, full of opportunities for shopping, viewing, art, dining, and photo taking opportunities.
You can do exactly like us go up to the 89th floor observatory within 37s in one of the world’s fastest elevators, enjoy 360 degree views of Taipei, there are many photo opportunities, gift shop, ice cream shop and post office. Take a photo with the giant 660-tonne tuned mass damper (TMD), located between the 87th and 91st floors, which stabilizes the tower against movements caused by high winds. After that, you can go down and enjoy some shopping and delicious food in the lower levels of the building.
What surprised me the most was the Taipei zoo, the tickets are really cheap, and you can see a great number of animals from all over the world. The zoo is massive in size, and sectioned really well, kids can spend all day in there and not being bored. Some of my daughter’s favourite animals that she got to see are grand pandas, red pandas, flamingos, elephant, giraffes and so on.
Taipei is full of unique art culture, a lot of contemporary arts and culture district for design and creative industries really gets me. I spent some time hang around some of the art districts, although was not the best time as a lot of the exhibitions are in planning and constructing phase, I did get to see some art and feel the artistic vibes. They are Huashan 1914 creative park and Songshan cultural and creative park.
One of the most important thing to do in Taipei is EAT. You can not leave without visiting the night markets. There are few of them in different area of Taipei, I have gone to 2 of them that is near where I stay. The food options are various, unique and delicious, you should be open to try some new food that you have never had before. Here are some good tours I recommend you to join if you really don’t know where to go and what to eat.
- Taipei Private Food Tour – 10 testings with locals
- Night Market Food Tour with Testings
- Din Tai Fung Restaurant Experience – Michelin
Elephant mountain is probably the closest mountain in the city, it is less than 20 minutes walk from the Taipei 101 tower, once you walk up elephant mountain, you can see the tower and the city from the iconic look out. There are also some unique scenes within the mountain, locals love to do their walks and exercise here, it is such a treasure that has fresh air and hiking trail, but also close to the city and everything. If you don’t stay close to the area, you can also take a private car customised day tour, which will bring you around including elephant mountain.
Last but not least, Taipei is such a beautiful place, that gives you the chill vibe, also very busy at the same time. The people are very nice, major facilities staff speaks very good English such as hotels and airports. However, local shops can be a bit more difficult in terms of communication. It is always good to prepare before you visit. See all essentials you may need below:
- 30 Attractions & Transport Card Fun Pass
- Taoyuan Airport return bus transfer
- Taiwan eSIM roaming mobile data plan
- Taipei Hop-on Hop-off sightseeing bus
- Best of Taiwan 5 day Tour
