Taiwan for the first time: what actually surprises people

So the surprises are not the ones travellers brace for. Nobody arrives worried about the mountains and almost everybody leaves talking about them. Here is what actually catches people out.

One: it is a mountain country with cities on the edge

Almost two thirds of the island is mountain, there are 268 peaks above 9,840 feet (3,000 m), and Yushan at 12,966 feet (3,952 m) is the highest point in Northeast Asia. From central Taipei you can be at a trailhead in under an hour.

The consequence for planning: the map misleads in the opposite direction from most countries. The high speed train crosses the whole populated west in about two hours, so Taiwan looks like a short trip. Crossing the middle by road is a full day, and the east coast beyond it is where most people’s favourite days end up being.

Two: the food is genuinely as cheap as people say

A superb bowl of beef noodle soup is around five dollars. Lu rou fan, braised pork over rice, is a dollar and a half and is one of the great cheap plates anywhere. A night market dinner for two is under twenty dollars.

The corollary surprises people the other way: hotels are not cheap. Taipei rates are closer to Tokyo than to Bangkok, and the hot spring properties at Beitou and Jiaoxi price like Japanese ryokan because that is essentially what they are. Budget the way the country is actually shaped, which is what our cost article does line by line.

Three: the night markets are dinner, not a sideshow

First-timers treat the night market as an evening activity and eat dinner beforehand, which is the wrong way round. This is where Taiwanese people eat.

Order oyster omelette, gua bao, pepper buns pulled straight off the wall of a clay oven, grilled squid, and stinky tofu if you are brave, which is better than it smells and only just. Raohe and Ningxia are better eating than Shilin, the famous one. We rank them in Taipei night markets.

Four: the weather is two weathers

The north is subtropical, the south is tropical, and the range in the middle separates them.

Three specific things to know. From roughly late October the north-east monsoon pushes damp air onto Taipei, Keelung and the Yilan coast, and December in Taipei can be a run of grey drizzly days at around 63F (17C) while Tainan is sunny. Meiyu, the plum rains, bring sustained frontal rain from around May to mid-June. And Taipei in July and August runs to around 95F (35C) with humidity that makes it feel considerably worse.

November is the month we recommend above all others. The full calendar is in Taiwan month by month.

Five: typhoons are a schedule problem, not a danger

The season runs roughly July to October and peaks in August and September. A direct or near hit shuts the island for a day or two: high speed rail suspends, the east coast line closes, ferries stop, mountain roads close and are usually the last thing to reopen.

Warning is normally two to four days, which is enough to rearrange days and not enough to reroute a trip. It is disruptive rather than dangerous for a visitor in a city hotel. We build an alternative for every exposed day at the quoting stage and our partner team reworks the plan on the ground. Taiwan is not one of our own offices, which we say on every page: ours are in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines, and Taiwan runs through a Taiwanese partner we have worked with for years.

Six: the mountains have two permit systems, and one lottery

This is the single most common source of disappointment on a first trip, because people discover it after booking flights.

There are two separate permits. A national park entry permit is required for routes inside Yushan, Taroko and Shei-Pa national parks. A police mountain entry permit is required for designated mountain areas, and some routes need both.

For Yushan’s main peak, the entry permit and the bed at Paiyun Lodge are allocated by lottery, applications open months ahead, and demand far exceeds supply. We apply in the correct window and we tell you honestly what the odds look like. We do not sell a Yushan summit as though it were a booking.

What most visitors are better served by, and it is not a consolation prize: Hehuanshan on the high road, where the pass reaches about 10,745 feet (3,275 m) and several short peaks are walkable in a morning with no permit at all, and the Tataka saddle at around 8,560 feet (2,610 m), reached by road, which gives you Yushan without the lottery. The system is set out in Taiwan’s high mountains and how permits work.

Seven: Taroko Gorge is not a given any more

For decades this marble gorge on the east coast was the single most spectacular half day in Taiwan. On 3 April 2024 a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck off Hualien and caused severe rockfall and structural damage through the gorge. The national park has been reopening in stages, with some trails, some sections of road and some facilities available and others not, and the situation has continued to change.

We will not publish a list here that will be wrong by the time you read it. We check the current position with our partner and with the park at the time we quote, build the day around what is genuinely open, and say plainly if the answer is not much.

The alternative on the same coast is good rather than consoling: Mugua River Gorge and the Sanzhan river south of Hualien, the East Rift Valley with its rice terraces and hot springs, and Highway 11 south to Shitiping and Sanxiantai. Several clients who have seen both have preferred the second.

Eight: Sun Moon Lake is beautiful and very busy

Both are true at once, and the visitor management is the whole art of the place. We go midweek, stay overnight so the early morning and the evening belong to you, cycle the quieter western shore before nine, and be elsewhere in the middle of the day. Queueing for the ropeway at noon on a Saturday is the version people complain about.

The same applies at Jiufen, the hillside town of stepped lanes and tea houses above the sea, one of the most crowded places in Taiwan on a weekend afternoon. Go early, go after the coaches leave, or do not go.

Nine: the small practical things

The stored-value card. Buy one at the airport. It covers metros, buses, city bikes and convenience stores across most of the island.

Cash. Cards work in cities and hotels. Night markets, small restaurants and rural buses want cash, and convenience store machines are everywhere.

Earthquakes. Taiwan is seismically active and buildings are constructed for it. Follow the instructions in your hotel room and do not panic at a tremor.

Shoes off. In homes, some temples, some guesthouses and every hot spring. Public hot spring pools are usually single sex and unclothed, and you wash first.

Language. Mandarin, with Taiwanese Hokkien widely spoken and sixteen recognised indigenous languages. Transport signage is good in English and small-town menus are not, which is where a guide changes what you can order.

Vegetarian. Unusually easy, thanks to a strong Buddhist vegetarian tradition. The shopfront sign to look for is a swastika symbol, which here is Buddhist and nothing else.

Ten: what we would do differently on a first visit

Three nights in Taipei, not five. The city is excellent and it is not the reason Taiwan is worth two weeks.

Cross to the east early. The weather there is the least predictable, so it wants the front of the schedule and a spare day behind it.

Take a guide for two or three days, not fourteen. A guide earns their fee at a tea farm, in an indigenous community in the east, and on a day in Tainan where forty things are worth ordering and nothing is labelled.

Put a hot spring night in. Two across a fortnight, with dinner and breakfast included.

Eat in Tainan. The oldest city and the best eating on the island, which is a strong claim in a country that eats this well.

Book the east coast train the day the window opens. Seats sell out. Everything else can be adjusted.

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Keep reading

• Taiwan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• Taipei night markets, and what to order
• Taiwan’s high mountains and how the permits work
• Taiwan month by month
• Taiwan food and culture in 12 days
• All our Taiwan trips

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