Eva Air flies from six European airports to destinations such as Bangkok, Bali, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, and Phnom Penh. That calls for a stopover in Taipei. 13 insider tips for 36 cool hours in and around Taiwan’s capital …
Taipei in 36 hours! Looking for an unforgettable stopover on your way to exotic destinations such as Bangkok, Bali, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur or Phnom Penh? Eva Air offers flights from six European airports via Taipei – and you’ll have a stopover in vibrant Taipei! Don’t fret though, because we’ve got you covered with insider tips for 36 cool hours in and around this bustling city. Get ready to embark on a whirlwind adventure filled with captivating sights, mouth-watering cuisine, and fascinating cultural experiences. So let us take you on an unforgettable journey through Taipei’s hidden gems!
After landing early in the morning, take the Airport Line subway to Taipei Main Station in the city center in about 50 minutes (ticket 160 NTD). Buy an „Easy Card“ at one of the many convenience stores and load it with 300 NTD. You can use it to pay for subway and bus rides, as well as convenience stores like 7-Eleven and Family Mart. A short walk through Yanping Road and the pedestrian zone of Wuchang Street to the „amba Ximending“ hotel.
MRT-System in Taipei
10:00 a.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | amba Taipei Ximending
Tip #1 This hotel in a former department store is Taiwan’s answer to 25hours. It is located in the heart of the hottest and most progressive part of the city on the pedestrianized Wuchang Street. 160 rooms ranging from 21 to 60 square meters in cool industrial design. Free WiFi router for exploring the city. Rich breakfast buffet with a nice Asian flavor. Japanese washlets.
The 41 square meter Loft Rooms are suitable for families with a 2.40 meter wide king-size bed and two large day beds. Located 150 meters from Graffiti Lane and 300 meters from Ximen MRT Station, this is a great place to stay while in Taipei. Convenient: washing machines on the 6th floor. Bring your colorful flip-flops for free. DZ/F from NTD 2,780.
No. 77, Section 2, Wuchang Street, Ximending.
Rooms and rates of amba Ximending
11:00 a.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Otaru Coffee Shop
Tip #2 Tired? Then it’s time for a wake-up caffè at Otaru. In this beautifully designed café, you can sit at the open window overlooking Lane 32 and enjoy excellent hot or cold coffee specialties, such as cappuccino with fine aromatic rose petals. All while enjoying a relaxing view of the hustle and bustle of the street.
Dihua Street/Corner of 32 Lane. Beimen/ Daqiaotou MRT Station
12:00 a.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Shop! Eat! Drink! Shop!
Tip #3 On both sides of the shopping street, pharmacies and herb shops such as Hua Qi Fang, known for its herbal throat lozenges, offer mountains of herbs, nuts and spices behind historic facades.
For generations, Dihua Street has sold bamboo products (for example, at Lin Feng Yi, No. 214), kitchen utensils (Zhumu Zaoka at No. 161), beautiful traditional paper lanterns (Lao Mian Cheng Lantern Shop), as well as cinnamon rolls, abalone, dried sea cucumbers, and clothing. Just across the Taipei Bridge is the Yansan Night Market.
Beimen/Daqiaotou MRT Station
12:30 p.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | San Formosan Coffee
Tip #4 Chic shop in the building where Taipei’s first coffee house was opened in the 1930s: „Café Werther“. What’s on offer? A large selection of hand-picked single-origin coffees such as Jiufen Ershan, Taitung Taimali or Nantou Guoxing from Taiwanese cultivation. All as „pourovers“, i.e. for filter infusion. The price? 30 to 40 euros per 227 grams.
Yanping N Rd Sec 2.
sancoffee.shop
1:00 p.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Lunch with Tradition
Tip #5 Rice and Shine is a recommended restaurant in a 110-year-old brick building with wooden stairs and panelling at the end of Dihua Street. In the former rice warehouse you can enjoy good rice dishes every day except Mondays: boiled beef cheek braised with dates, jade perch with mushrooms and clover sauce, three cup chicken or Hokkaido scallops with crab meat (340 to 370 NTD). 329, Dihua Street. Daqiaotou MRT Station.
Rice & Shine
2:00 p.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Stunning Taipei 101
Tip #6 The view of Taipei’s skyscraper forest from 390 meters is worth the NTD 600 entrance fee (book your ticket in advance). If the weather is nice, be sure to go outside: Skydeck on the 91st floor. Cool effect: the steel grid howls in strong winds.
The 508-meter-high „one-o-one“ made of 44,000 tons of steel and concrete was the world’s tallest building for five years and is now in tenth place. One of its most notable features is the 660-ton „Damper Swing“ pendulum sphere, which reduces the building’s vibrations during earthquakes and storms.
Taipei 101 MRT Station.
Tickets & Infos for 101
4:30 p.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Elephant Mountain: Sweat!
Tip #7 If you want to enjoy the iconic view over the tropical greenery to Taipei 101 and the glittering skyline, you have to work up a sweat. The stairs to the 170-meter-high Xiangshan Mountain are quite challenging: the climb is very steep, alternating between extremely low and extremely high steps.
There are about 500 steps to the Rock Viewing Point, six large boulders. After another 100 steps, you reach the covered overlook. The walk takes 30 minutes, but the more athletic can do it in 20. The starting point is 1.5 kilometers from Taipei 101.
1,000 meters from Xiangshan MRT station.
8:30 p.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Din Tai Fung: Dim Sum Nirwana
#8 Hungry from all that walking up and down the stairs? Then head to the 101, Xinsheng or Xinyi branch of the world-famous „Din Tai Fung“ for a dumpling treat. The long queues say it all: the food here is good, very good. Many say they are the best dumplings in Asia.
Din Tai Fung is especially known for the xialongbao filled with hot broth, which are not easy to eat. Don’t just bite into it! First dip a xialongbao into the bowl of ginger julienne, soy sauce and vinegar, then place it on the spoon and puncture it with the chopstick so that the broth flows out. Then take a bite.
Tip: If you move your dinner to 9:00 or 9:30 p.m., you can avoid the usual 60-minute wait. Glass kitchen: The speed and precision with which thousands of 18-fold dim sum dumplings are handmade here at Coram Publico is incredible.
All about Din Tai Fung and the outlets in Taipei
11 p.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Nightcaps in the MUD Bar
Tip #9 Considered one of the ten best cocktail bars in the city. Anyone who has had a First Flush or Dragon Well will understand why. Be sure to make a reservation (phone +886 2 2565 2898). The cellar club is small. When live DJs heat up the place on Fridays and Saturdays, it gets „very full very quickly“, says the friendly barmaid.
The style of the bar? A little speakeasy chic, dim lighting and lots of vintage ambience. Plus a deliberately gloomy, almost dive-like cellar exit. The craft cocktails cost between 450 and 500 NTD and all have a very clear Taiwanese flavor.
No. 57, Zhongshan N Rd, Zhongshan MRT Station
MUD Bar
00:30 a.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Graffiti Lane
Tip #10 Right around the corner from the „amba Ximending“ hotel, you can see many murals, some as tall as a house, and some paste-ups in the graffiti lanes. Lane 96, Kunming Street, Lane 120, Wuchang Street and Lane 50, Hanzhong Street are particularly colorful. Just drift past street art, tattoo and piercing shops, as well as garish arcades full of claw machines and loud, colorful junk shops like the Japanese Don Donki. A fitting end to the first day of your stopover in Taipei.
MRT Ximen
10:00 a.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Dalongdong Baoan Temple
Tip #11 After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, our second day in Taipei is all about temples. In addition to the famous Longshan Temple, we recommend this magnificent Taoist temple built in 1804, not far from the large Confucius Temple. It is a small, quiet complex with beautifully carved stone pillars and ornate shrines.
Important: Temples are always entered through the right „Dragon Gate“. Leave through the left „Tiger Gate“. You will always find wash basins and toilets there. Never step on the threshold when entering.
Hami Street, Datong.
11:30 a.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Vegetarian cuisine at its best
Tip #12 According to many Taiwanese, Yang Shin is not only the first, but also the best vegetarian restaurant in Taipei. Seasonal and regional is the credo. It is also healthy: less oil, less sugar, less salt than usual. This sounds like deprivation, but it is quite the opposite.
The quality of meat substitute creations such as „Beijing Duck Style King Oyster Mushroom“ or „Deep Fried Vegetarian Chicken Tender“ is breathtaking. Stir-fried Crisp Egg Tender Tofu, Deep Fried Radish Cocoon, Pine Nut and Vegetable Cheese Rolls, and the eye-catching Purple Crystal Dumplings were also palate pleasers.
Main courses eight to twelve euros. Huge, unpretentious second-floor room with plenty of seating. Be sure to make a reservation, though.
Just a few meters from the Sonjiang Nanjing MRT Station (Exit 8). 128 Songjiang Road.
ysvege.com
1:00 p.m. | Taipei in 36 hours | Coffee, Tea and Lanterns
Tip #13 A good 40 kilometers from downtown Taipei is Jiufen, a gold mining village in the mountains high above the northeast coast. Since many flights depart late in the evening, there is plenty of time for a stopover in Taipei. The „Old Street“ is characterized by hundreds of red lanterns of all sizes in front of tea shops, restaurants and cafes. Many of them offer beautiful views over the lush green mountainsides to the Yinyang Sea and Keelung Island.
Bus No. 965 will take you from Taipei’s Beimen Station to Jiufen Old Street in a little more than an hour (90 NTD). Be sure to book a tea ceremony at the over 100-year-old Jioufen Teahouse. Costs from 580 NTD including something sweet like oolong cheesecake. You will learn a lot about the secrets of Taiwanese teas such as the beguilingly fragrant Oolong Osmanthus Jinxuan, High Mountain Wild Tea or 25-year-old Songbailing Aged Oolong (37 grams, NTD 1,500).
They also sell beautiful teapots and cups made of clay and porcelain as well as complete sets. Certainly one of the nicest souvenirs you can get in Taiwan. The last stage of the Stopover Taipei is the subway ride out to the airport.
Jiufen Teahouse
Info Taipei in 36 Hours
Taipei Travel Hacks
Public Toilets
There are many public toilets and they are almost always spotlessly clean, but there is often a lack of toilet paper, so take precautions!
How to get there?
Eva Air flies with the Dreamliner Boeing 787-9 several times a week from six European airports to destinations including Bali, Tokyo, Okinawa, Sapporo, Phuket, Koh Samui or Seoul with a stopover in Taipei. The duration of the stopover is flexible and can be booked free of charge or for a fee, depending on the fare type. Tickets from 880 euros. evaair.com
Vor Ort unterwegs
Cabs or rental cars are absolutely unnecessary. The MRT network as well as bus and rapid transit connections are excellent, clean, punctual and inexpensive.
Money
30 NTD = about 1 Euro. Credit cards are also accepted for small amounts. Subway rides are paid for with the EasyCard. The best place to top it up is at one of the many convenience stores, where you can also get free Wi-Fi and withdraw money from ATMs.
Infos Taiwan und Taipei
Official Website of Taiwan Tourism
You can find more tips (in German) on Taipei here: If you’re looking for something a little bigger, we recommend Tokyo or Singapore
