Can you help me build a list of places to visit and eat for a group of first-time visitors to Taipei?
My cousin is flying over with 20 people from top management of his company for some R&R and he’s asked for suggestions. His crew is relatively young - 25 to 35 years old - and he would like them to have a memorable, safe, and fun trip.
They plan to stay for 4 days and 3 nights. The first day will be spent at Leofoo and for the rest of the trip they will be staying at a hotel in Xinyi district. Please help me suggest things they can do, especially for when his colleagues are “let loose” on their own to enjoy the city.
Their hotel is on Kuangfu S Road, so the obvious sites on my list would be:
the park around Sun Yat Sen Memorial
Taipei 101
Eslite Books - at City Hall and the 24 hour Main Store on Dunhua
High-end shopping at A9 and Breeze City Hall
Tonghua St Night Market (it’s actually called Linjiang St Nightmarket)
Outside the vicinity
Guanghu Computer Market - at the 2 tall buildings on Civil Boulevard (the one with Sauron’s Eye and the one next to it connected by bridges)
National Palace Museum - kind of a must-see on any first-time visitors trip, I suppose. But if they are in a hurry, I would suggest they at least hit the museum store and the children’s waiting area, which are both my favorite parts of the museum (I am embarrased to admit) plus they are free and do not need any queues to enter. From there, jump a cab to Miramar beyond the tunnel or head over to Shilin Night market
Maokong Gondola / Taipei Zoo - take the Maokong Gondola (go early and skip the crystal gondolas) to the first stop and enter the zoo from that back entrance, then walk downhill back towards the MRT
CKS + Ximending - since they are staying in Xinyi, these may not offer good value for the time spent to get there (not unlike the NPM, especially if you aren’t a museum buff, so it’s key to combine that destination with another)
These threads are useful
And this one is recent - although I agree with Andrew0409 about there being more sensible choices in Southeast Asia, if I was in my 20’s and my company was treating me to a trip to Taipei, I think I would want to know about this…
Restaurant Recommendations?
He would like to treat them to a group dinner for one night - hotpot, ideally. Can you recommend a good place for a large group? I’m not a fan of hotpot, so I don’t have any places in mind. Please also recommend other places for dinner where the team members might go on their own with a budget of NT$ 1,000 per person.
(NOTE: Din Tai Feng has 3 or 4 locations in Manila, and while it is probably a big part of the wave of Taiwanese restaurants that have opened there in the past 5 years, I don’t think this group will have a strong need to visit the original location near Yongkang St)