First Time in Taiwan: Night Markets, Gorges and the Easiest Asia Trip You'll Ever Plan

If you've never been to Asia and you're wondering where to start, the honest answer is Taiwan. It's one of the safest countries anywhere, the high-speed rail is cheap and painless, the food is absurdly good at street prices, and it's still somehow underrated. People agonize over Japan itineraries for months. Taiwan you can plan in an evening, and it gives back far more than its reputation suggests.

The island is small enough that nothing is ever far, but varied enough that a first trip has real decisions in it. Here's the shape I'd recommend for 10 to 14 days.

Start with Taipei, and stay a while

Almost every trip starts and ends in Taipei, and the right move is to base yourself there for four or five days rather than rushing out.

The city itself covers the classics fast: Taipei 101 for the skyline, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall for the scale and the changing of the guard, Longshan Temple for incense and real everyday worship, and the National Palace Museum for one of the great art collections of the world. Climb Elephant Mountain in the late afternoon and you get the famous view of 101 with the city turning gold behind it.

Then let the city show you its softer side. Ximending is the loud, young, neon quarter. Dihua Street is the opposite: old shophouses, dried goods, tea, and the best street for souvenirs that don't feel like souvenirs. When your legs give out, Beitou Hot Springs is a metro ride away, Yangmingshan sits just above it for volcanic scenery, and the Maokong Gondola floats you up to tea houses in the hills south of the city.

For food, Taipei's night markets are the main event. Shilin is the giant everyone knows; Raohe Street is smaller, older, and to my taste better. More on strategy below.

The day trips that make Taipei worth five days

The area around Taipei is arguably better than the city. Jiufen Old Street is the lantern-lit hill town clinging to the coast that everyone photographs. Pair it with Shifen Waterfall in the same valley, or with Yehliu Geopark and its strange mushroom rocks on the north coast. Tamsui Old Street gives you a riverside sunset at the end of the metro line, Wulai is the mountain hot-spring village to the south, and Keelung's Miaokou Night Market is reason enough on its own to spend an evening in the harbor city.

All forty places in this article are pinned on the free companion map linked at the top of the page, so you can see exactly how these day trips cluster around Taipei instead of guessing from a list of names.

Then pick a coast, honestly

This is the one real decision of the trip, and the mistake first-timers make is trying to do both. Don't. Pick one coast for your remaining five to eight days and save the other for the return trip you'll already be planning on the flight home.

The west coast is the classic route, and the high-speed rail makes it effortless. Around Taichung you get Rainbow Village's painted alleys, the elegant old Miyahara building, sandbar sunsets at Gaomei Wetlands, and the temple-lined streets of Lukang Old Town nearby. Inland, Sun Moon Lake is the island's postcard, with Wenwu Temple above the water, and Cingjing Farm sits high in the mountains beyond it. Alishan Forest Recreation Area is the famous sunrise-and-ancient-cypress mountain, worth a night up top. Further south, Tainan is the old capital, where Anping Old Fort and Chihkan Tower carry the Dutch and Qing history. Kaohsiung closes the run with the dragon-and-tiger pagodas of Lotus Pond, the warehouses-turned-galleries of Pier-2 Art Center, the enormous Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum, and Ruifeng Night Market for dinner. If you have days to spare, continue to Kenting National Park at the island's tropical tip and walk out to Eluanbi Lighthouse.

The east coast is slower, emptier, and for many people the highlight of Taiwan. The regular railway (no HSR here) runs down to Hualien, gateway to Taroko Gorge, a marble canyon that feels impossible on an island this size. Qixingtan Beach gives you mountains dropping straight into the Pacific, and Dongdamen Night Market feeds you afterward. Keep going south toward Taitung for the lone tree-lined road of Brown Avenue in the rice fields, the arched footbridge of Sanxiantai, and Duoliang Station, a railway platform so scenic people ride out just to stand on it.

If you want cities, food density and easy logistics, go west. If you want scenery and quiet, go east. Both loop you back to Taipei for the flight out.

A few things worth knowing

Night markets reward the hungry. Skip dinner, arrive with an empty stomach, and graze: one skewer here, a bag of something fried there, dessert three stalls later. Ordering a full meal at the first stand you see is the rookie move.

Get an EasyCard on day one. It works on the Taipei metro, buses, most trains and even convenience stores across the island. It removes friction from everything.

Do Jiufen at dusk. The tour buses drain away in the late afternoon, the lanterns come on, and the narrow lanes finally feel like the place in the photos. Most people see it at midday and wonder what the fuss was about.

Mind typhoon season. Late summer brings typhoons, and heavy rain can close mountain roads and trails, Taroko especially. Build a spare day into the plan and check conditions before committing to the gorge or Alishan.

Take the map with you

Everything above, all 40 places, is pinned on the free companion map linked at the top of this article. Open it, look around, and if you have an Ikuzo account you can copy the whole map into your own in one click, then reshape it: drop the pins that don't speak to you, add your own finds, and turn the clusters into days.

Taiwan doesn't need months of preparation. It needs a flight, an EasyCard, an appetite, and one good map. Start with this one.