How to spend 5 days in taipei

i’m new to taiwan and i’ve booked 5 days hotel in taipei. my plan for these 5 days goes like this:

day 1: yeliu, jiufen
day 2: pingxi
day 3: yilan
day 4: taoyuan
day 5: taipei city tour

any comment or recommendation?

You’ll need to tell us what sort of places/activities you do and don’t like for us to be able to give you appropriate recommendations.

Regardless, though, I think a lot of people here are wondering about no. 4. Taoyuan? Really? Why?

In no particular order:

1-Jiufen and environs
2-Wulai and environs
3-National Palace Museum, followed by a night on the town (Wednesday, Friday or Saturday for the night on the town - go to a big club like Luxy, Room 18 or Spark to get a feel for the douche bag club set, then on the weekend do the 4am-7am shift a Roxy 99, to get the true durrty feel of the city. Check here for events too, the DJ parties and live performances attract a lot of foreigners and are often more enjoyable than clubs)
4-Hangover recovery (brunch), chillin, 101 ascent, shopping, night markets (avoid Snake Alley, instead go to ShiLin or Tunghua Street)
5-Fulong beach, or Baishawan beach or whatever beach

things to consider eating while here

-Dingtaifeng (Chinese restaurant)
-local NT$100 stir fry + beer place (they are everywhere, Yenchi street, North of civil Blvd is a good place to start)
-sushi, good value comparatively (but DO NOT go to Sushi Express, pick a proper restaurant)
-jumbo shrimp prepared locally (either go to a shrimp fishing’ place or one of the restaurants on Keelung Rd. near the intersection of Dongxing Rd.)
-hit a cheap veggie buffet or cheap Chinese buffet for lunch one day to get that local feel
-hit a high end buffet at a hotel or in one of the department stores for supper one night. a ton of selection and quality is good. If you are crafty or know locals have them take you to a banquet style dinner.
-Get post booze latenight snacks at a YongHe Dojiang type restaurant

I am sure many more people can offer better food ideas.

dear cranky laowai,

we’ll like a a big portion of scenery, a bit of history, a bit of shopping. beaches are not on my list though. isn’t there anything to see or do in taoyuan?

dear deuce dropper,

thank you for the proposed itinerary. but i’ll scrap the beaches and replace it with pingxi. what about yilan? is it worth going?
as for food, i think road side 小吃 suits me fine, being budget travellers. the buffet would have to wait until next trip.

[quote=“jasminelai”]dear cranky laowai,

we’ll like a a big portion of scenery, a bit of history, a bit of shopping. beaches are not on my list though. isn’t there anything to see or do in Taoyuan?

dear deuce dropper,

thank you for the proposed itinerary. but I’ll scrap the beaches and replace it with pingxi. what about yilan? is it worth going?
as for food, I think road side 小吃 suits me fine, being budget travellers. the buffet would have to wait until next trip.[/quote]

There is nothing to see in Taoyuan except factories. If you want to see a lot of scenery, go to Wulai and Yangmingshan. I suggest you go to Yongkang St. and the Shida night market area. See our advice in this thread.