The best two-week route through Taiwan, and the three alternatives

The route below is the one we build most often, argued properly. It runs anticlockwise, down the east coast first and back up the west by high speed rail, and the reason for that direction is at the end.

The route: anticlockwise, east first

Fourteen days, arriving and departing Taipei, with six hotel changes.

Days 1 to 3: Taipei

Three full days. The National Palace Museum, which holds the imperial collection moved from Beijing in 1949, and where the famous small objects rotate and are sometimes on loan, so we check before we build the morning. Longshan Temple at dusk when it is full of people praying rather than photographing. Dadaocheng and Dihua Street for the old merchant city and the tea and dried goods trade it was built on. Beitou for hot springs inside the metro system. Elephant Mountain at sunset for the skyline.

And the night markets, which are dinner rather than an activity. Raohe and Ningxia are better eating than Shilin, and we set out what to order at each in Taipei night markets.

We would not add a fourth Taipei night on a fourteen-day trip. The city is excellent and it is not the reason Taiwan is worth two weeks.

Day 4: the north-east coast, then the train south

Yehliu’s eroded rock formations, the Keelung coast, and Jiufen, the hillside town of stepped lanes and tea houses. Jiufen is one of the most crowded places in Taiwan on a weekend afternoon, so we go early or in the evening after the coaches leave, and if the day falls on a Saturday we do not go at all.

Then the train from Taipei through Yilan to Hualien, around three hours. These seats sell out, especially at weekends and around holidays, and the booking window opens a set number of days ahead. We book the morning it opens, which is one of the specific things a ground team earns its keep on. In Taiwan that team is a long-standing local partner rather than one of our own offices, and we say so on every page.

Days 5 to 7: Hualien and the east coast

Three nights, and the reason to cross the mountains.

Taroko Gorge needs a plain paragraph. For decades this marble gorge 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, and the national park has been reopening in stages, with some trails, some sections of road and some facilities available and others not. 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.

What we build instead, or alongside. Mugua River Gorge and the Sanzhan river south of Hualien. The East Rift Valley inland, with its rice terraces at Chishang, hot springs and small towns. Liyu Lake. Highway 11 down the coast with the Pacific on one side and the range on the other, stopping at Shitiping and Sanxiantai. Whale and dolphin watching in season. Several of our clients who have seen both the gorge and this have preferred this.

An evening with an indigenous community in the valley, eating millet, mountain vegetables and smoked pork, is one of the two or three days on this route where a guide changes everything.

Days 8 and 9: Taitung and the south-east

Down the coast, quieter again, with the strongest indigenous cultural presence on the island. Two nights, hot springs, and the option of Green Island for snorkelling and a saltwater hot spring if the sea allows, which it does not always.

This is the stretch of Taiwan that people are most surprised by, because it is the part that appears in none of the photographs they arrived with.

Days 10 and 11: across the south to Tainan

Round the southern tip, past Kenting if the season suits, and up to Tainan. Two nights.

Tainan is the oldest city on the island and the best eating in Taiwan, which is a strong claim in a country that eats this well. Fort Zeelandia at Anping, the Confucius temple from 1665, Shennong Street, and about forty things you should order. We give it a full article in Tainan in two days.

Days 12 and 13: the centre, Alishan or Sun Moon Lake

A car day inland, because rail does not reach here.

Alishan. Cypress forest at around 7,200 feet (2,200 m), a narrow-gauge forest railway up from Chiayi, a sea of clouds at dawn if the weather cooperates, and high mountain oolong off these slopes. One night, not a day trip.

Sun Moon Lake. Genuinely beautiful and genuinely very busy, and both are true at once. Stay overnight, cycle the western shore before nine, and treat the middle of the day as time to be elsewhere.

We would take Alishan of the two on a first trip, for the tea and the forest, and we would take the high road over Hehuanshan instead of either if you want mountains rather than scenery: the pass reaches about 10,745 feet (3,275 m) and several short peaks are walkable in a morning with no permit at all.

Day 14: high speed rail north

Taichung or Chiayi to Taipei in an hour or so, or straight to the airport. The high speed line runs down the west from Taipei to Zuoying in Kaohsiung in under two hours, and it makes the western return effortless.

Alternative one: the rail-only loop

The same circle with no car at all. It costs you Alishan’s summit area, Sun Moon Lake and the high road, and it buys simplicity, lower cost and the pleasure of a country where the trains genuinely work. The Alishan forest railway from Chiayi covers part of the gap.

This is Taiwan by rail in 14 days and it is the version we recommend to travellers who dislike being driven.

Alternative two: the mountain-weighted route

Fewer cities, more altitude. Taipei for two nights, Hualien and the East Rift Valley, then across on the high road with two nights at altitude, Alishan for two, the Yushan foothills and the Tataka saddle at around 8,560 feet (2,610 m), the tea country around Lugu, and out through Tainan.

The permits matter here and they need lead time. There are two separate systems: a national park entry permit for routes inside Yushan, Taroko and Shei-Pa, and a police mountain entry permit for designated mountain areas, with some routes needing both. The Yushan main peak and its bed at Paiyun Lodge are allocated by lottery months ahead and demand far exceeds supply. We apply in the correct window and we tell you honestly what the odds look like rather than selling a summit as though it were a booking. See hiking Taiwan in 12 days.

Alternative three: the summer route

If your dates are July to September, the standard loop is the wrong shape. Typhoon risk peaks in August and September, and Taipei and Tainan run to around 95F (35C) with humidity that makes it feel worse.

The summer version goes up rather than around: the high mountains, which run about 25F (14C) cooler, Alishan, the East Rift Valley in the early mornings, Penghu or Green Island, and city days that start at seven and stop at eleven. We hold an alternative for every exposed day and we keep two half days genuinely free.

Why anticlockwise

Three reasons. The east coast weather is the least predictable, so it wants the front of the trip and a spare day behind it. The east coast train seats are the scarce resource, and booking them for early days is easier than for late ones when your dates may have shifted. And the western return by high speed rail is fast, which is the right way to end a fortnight rather than the right way to start one.

What we deliberately left out

Kenting as a two-night stop. Beaches and coral at the southern tip, pleasant in winter, packed at weekends and in summer, and skippable on a fourteen-day route where the coast has already been the best part.

The outer islands. Weather-dependent, boats cancel, and they belong in a third week rather than in a fortnight. The full list of what we remove and why is in what we would skip in Taiwan.

A fourth Taipei night. Covered above.

Any day that crosses the mountains twice. One crossing, done properly, on a clear day.

Plan this trip

Tell us which of these four routes sounds like your trip and a Taiwan specialist will rebuild it around your dates, with the trains reserved and a plan for the days that might move. Free first outline, no obligation.

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Keep reading

• Taiwan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• Taiwan by rail in 14 days
• Tainan in two days
• How many days do you need in Taiwan?
• What we would skip in Taiwan
• All our Taiwan trips

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