Greetings! I am planning to take a three day trip to Taipei at the end of this month (March 2009). I have drawn up an itinerary of what I’d like to do, but I’m having a hard time finding out how much things cost in Taipei. Here is what I’m planning on doing:
Day one: Longshan Temple, National Palace museum, and Taipei 101 for shopping.
Day two: Chiang Kai-Shek Shilin residence, Xingtian Temple, Martyr’s shrine and the Shilin night market for shopping.
Day three: Beitou hot spring, Yangminshan hot spring and National Park, and the Zhuzihu scenic spot.
As you can see, I’ve done my best to go to see thing that are close together on the same day (day one didn’t work so well, but two and three did.) That way I can cut down on my transportation costs. I’m planning to use buses, the MRT and walking the whole time I’m there. (I’d only taxi in an emergency, as I’ve heard they are quite expensive.) I’m going to prepay my hostel, so that won’t need to be taken into consideration. I have to confess that Western food is my weakness, so I will likely indulge in a few Western style meals, which I know are more expensive than the local food.
How much money do you think I should bring with me to be comfortable? I’m a Canadian, so USD amounts aren’t so helpful. If you could give me your estimates in TWD that would be great. I can make the conversion back to CAD.
hard to say when it looks like the most expensive things on your list are probably the shopping… transportation dirt cheap, restaurants dirt cheap (except for the expensive ones of course), but go to Taipei 101 and start buying things and the sky’s the limit…
You probably wouldn’t spend more than Can$50 a day over your accommodation, not including shopping of course, and not including a stay in a nice hot spring hotel (there are cheap public options if you are going that route).
To eat and get around Taipei for one day, you can budget 1000NT and you’ll have change for sure.
Most of the places you want to visit are cheap or free, so that’s not a big factor. Hot springs will cost you 1-400NT, the Nat Pal museum is 100NT - I think.
Shopping costs are entirely up to you: electronics will be a bit cheaper than Canada, quality clothes or imported stuff a bit pricier. But overall, costs about the same as in Canada.
Accomodation is the real variable: You can spend a night in a crappy hostel bunk for 300NT, or get a deluxe room for 10,000. I would recommend hotels in the 2-3000NT range, as they will be clean and comfortable.
Not including shopping, accommodation or big splurges (e.g. fancy hot spring resort, Western steakhouse, observation deck of Taipei 101), I’d say you could get by quite easily on NT$500 a day if you’re careful (taking bus and MRT, eating at night markets/street stalls, avoiding Western food with the exception of McDonald’s), but I would budget for NT$1000 per day just in case.
Bus transportation around Yangmingshan can be time-consuming: I’d recommend devoting a day to just that.
Taxis are quite inexpensive within the city, but if mountain driving is involved, they can be pricey.
Beitou hot springs: to save money, go to the public hot springs at the upper end of the park. NT$40, + NT$20 for a locker. Note that they have some odd rules you must follow: make sure your swim trunks don’t have pockets, and don’t sit on the edge of the pools with your feet in the water (entirely out or entirely in are OK).
I drink a LOT, and beer is not cheap in Taiwan. Given that you wouldn’t want to miss meeting me and my buddies you should probably budget in a few hundred Canadian just for that. :roflmao: