Okay so I have my flight booked and all… but what I wonder about is my first few days… the advice I get from the forums is not to rent a place to you see it… so the first few days Ill be in a hotel or hostel… any reccomendations? do any of the hostels have private rooms where its safe to leave your belongings during the day?
Also once I get off the airplane, Im going to Taipei, I understand its abotu an hour into Taipei, what differnet ways is there to get into the city?
There are many buses you can take from the airport to the city of Taipei.
You can go to this site for a list of reasonably priced hotels around the train station area:
Depending on your money there is also the Happy Family Hostel (sorry I don’t have the address, Lonely Planet?). Many a Taiwan long termer has past through those doors.
HG
its about 75 a week for a single room, I can handle that, Im guessing its a good place to meet people
There’s a convenient place very near the Chungshan MRT station called Formosa Hostel 1. That’s near the corner of Chungshan and Nanjing. About NT$2000/week. Decent, clean, and the people who stay there says it’s fine. Easier than an apartment.
Good luck.
My friend and I are going to be arriving in Taipei on the 8th of October and have no idea what to do when we arrive. We will be either staying at Amigo
NO. 14. Lane 157. Sec. 2. Yungho RD. Yungho, Taipei, Taiwan
or
Fortuna Hostel
Lane 27, Alley 2, #5, 3f, Lane 27, Alley 9, #5, 3f, Taipei, Taiwan
or
Fortuna Hostel
Lane 27, Alley 2, #5, 3f, Lane 27, Alley 9, #5, 3f, Taipei, Taiwan
or
World Scholar House
Sung Chiang Road., Lane 38, No.2, 8th Floor, Taipei, Taiwan
I was just wondering which one is the closest to the airport, most recomened and how to get there?
Can some one tell me how to get downtown from the airport and how much it will cost?
Any other information that will help us with our stay would be great! thanks!
about your arrival…
well, first, for one, the airport is about an hour outside the city by bus, so there’s no reason to stay near the airport.
abouit getting to the city, there are a whole slew of bus companies that run shuttles to the city for about 100-200 NT ($3-6US), and if you don’t know any chinese you shouldn’t have a problem getting a ticket. if you’re a foreigner and you say taipei they’ll handle the rest from there. i recommend airbus or feigo (the flying dog, which is on the side of the otherwise green bus).
as far as where you’re staying, i guess it depends on your purpose…are you coming for travel or to look for work?
for one, excepting the first and last address listed, all the others are incomplete…you didn’t list a main street for a couple of the hostels. just to let you know, addresses usually start from a main thoroughfare (such as songjiang rd) and then list the cross streets that intersect it as alleyways or lanes (lanes can be offshoots of alleyways).
at any rate, welcome to our fair land.
Wow, arriving right before National Day on double 10(Oct 10th), it’ll be fun!
There are plenty of shuttle buses from CKS airport straight to Taipei Main Station, and tonnes of taxi’s waiting outside to drive you to your Hotel afterwards.
(I suggest writing down the address and name of the hotel in chinese if you can before you leave… or at least the street name where the hotel is located, but mind you any taxi driver knows where YongHe rd or SongJiang Rd is even in english.)
I wouldn’t worry about cost for the bus ride from the airport, it is the best and cheapest way to get from CKS to Taipei, all the locals take one of the airport shuttle buses unless they have a ride waiting for them. Closest to the airport? No big difference, Taipei is Taipei. You get dropped off at the bus station and hop into a taxi. Price for the ride? Not too sure but NT1000 should plenty cover both of you for the bus and taxi ride, transportation is so cheap in Taiwan.
What to do: Grab one of the tonnes of Taipei tourist maps at the airport. If your stay is short, there is more than enough there for you to go visit… just point to one of the pictures to your taxi driver and away you go! (CKS Memorial Hall and ShiLin Nightmarket would be two must sees.)
Weather is nice and cooler now, but i think we got rain scheduled for next week.
[quote]NO. 14. Lane 157. Sec. 2. Yonghe RD. Yonghe, Taipei, Taiwan
or
Fortuna Hostel [/quote]
Wow! I didn’t know there was a hostel in Yong He. Which is in Taipei County by the way, not Taipei City.
If you want to get a bus from the airport to Yong He, bei er gao the number two highway will get you there in around half an hour to 40 minutes.
Yong He is really crowded and a notorious black hole for getting lost in! But don’t let that put you off. It’s cheaper than Taipei City for rents and just across the river. You’ll be quite near a MRT (underground) and of course some of this Forums best people live there. 
HG
If you’re looking at hostels, I think the Taipei Hostel is probably the best bet these days (it has improved). I say thsi because they’re very convenient now. You can look up their webpage, taipeihostel.com I think, and it will have all the directions you need, which (AFAIK) is the only hostel to do this.
Brian
Posted elsewhere:
Happy Family Hostel, right near the Taipei Main Station.
http://happyfamily.tripod.com/
HG
Just had a look at taipeihostels.com. It seems to me, that if you want to rent a single or double room, you can get better ones for the same price on Chang’an West Road. Get a map and walk there from the train station, you will find tons of cheap hotels.