I have an American cousin who’s visiting Taiwan for two-days (she got a stopover on a business flight) with her daughters. She’s asking me to find her a hotel plus come up and take them around ( she’s 65 and active, her daughters are 30ish)
Actually it’s less- she gets in at noon Friday and leaves at 8:00 am Sunday. Any suggestions for a quick look around , places to eat etc?
The New York Times’ “36 Hours In…” series may be a good place to start:
I recommend one of the hotels across from Daan Park. Great location as there is an MRT station right there, the park is across the street, and Yongkang Jie is a 5 minute walk for food. The Formosan Vintage Cafe is right at the start of Yongkang Street and has a great collection of Taiwan memorabilia.
My wife and I stayed at the Waikola in January. It should be satisfactory for most travellers. Get a park view room as it appears as if Daan Park just extends all the way to the mountains around Xindian and Maokong. You don’t feel like you are in a big city at all.
Schedule a guided tour of Baoan Temple, then visit the Confucius Temple.
Have lunch and coffee on Dihua Street at Fleisch, dinner at Qing Tian Xia (also on Dihua Jie); it’s Taipei’s only Guizhou restaurant (classy and great spicy food).
Walk from SYS Park to Taipei 101 with a visit to Good Cho’s for bagels and coffee in the old military dependents village.
Tea in Maokong or Zhongshan Hall near Ximending (take them to the veranda where CKS used to address the masses a la Mussolini). The teahouse there is beautiful and you can also pop over to the Redhouse.
The teahouse above Hakka Blue on Dihua Street is also lovely and definitely take them to Hakka Blue for ceramics and other cool gifts.
If they want to see a bit of casual local life take MRT to Xindian Station and then walk along the river paths back to Xiao Bitan. Beatiful walk and they can see how people enjoy themselves in Taipei.
Alternately head up to Yangmingshan, lunch as CKS’s old house, then catch the bus down to Beitou, stopping at the Folk Art Museum, tea, and maybe a hotspring next door. You can walk down to the MRT from here in 30 minutes. Lots of interesting old houses and temples and a couple museums on the way down.
Friday night the Palace Museum is open till 9pm which is the ideal time to see it as the Chinese tourists go for dinner around 5-6 and don’t come back.
Clipped, Evernoted, and my parents thank you for planning part of their trip next year!
Y’know, I do buy those Taiwan LP guides, but the fact that I didn’t know there were guided tours of Baoan Temple available suggests that I don’t really pay enough attention to them.
Clipped, Evernoted, and my parents thank you for planning part of their trip next year![/quote]
Lol. Glad to help out.
[quote=“Mucha Man”]I recommend one of the hotels across from Da’an Park. Great location as there is an MRT station right there, the park is across the street, and Yongkang Jie is a 5 minute walk for food. The Formosan Vintage Cafe is right at the start of Yongkang Street and has a great collection of Taiwan memorabilia.
My wife and I stayed at the Waikola in January. It should be satisfactory for most travellers. Get a park view room as it appears as if Da’an Park just extends all the way to the mountains around Xindian and Maokong. You don’t feel like you are in a big city at all.
Schedule a guided tour of Baoan Temple, then visit the Confucius Temple.
Have lunch and coffee on Dihua Street at Fleisch, dinner at Qing Tian Xia (also on Dihua Jie); it’s Taipei’s only Guizhou restaurant (classy and great spicy food).
Walk from SYS Park to Taipei 101 with a visit to Good Cho’s for bagels and coffee in the old military dependents village.
Tea in Maokong or Zhongshan Hall near Ximending (take them to the veranda where CKS used to address the masses a la Mussolini). The teahouse there is beautiful and you can also pop over to the Redhouse.
The teahouse above Hakka Blue on Dihua Street is also lovely and definitely take them to Hakka Blue for ceramics and other cool gifts.
If they want to see a bit of casual local life take MRT to Xindian Station and then walk along the river paths back to Xiao Bitan. Beatiful walk and they can see how people enjoy themselves in Taipei.
Alternately head up to Yangming Shan, lunch as CKS’s old house, then catch the bus down to Beitou, stopping at the Folk Art Museum, tea, and maybe a hotspring next door. You can walk down to the MRT from here in 30 minutes. Lots of interesting old houses and temples and a couple museums on the way down.
Friday night the Palace Museum is open till 9pm which is the ideal time to see it as the Chinese tourists go for dinner around 5-6 and don’t come back.[/quote]
Great recommendation. Just one tiny little thing. The Taiwan Folk Art Museum is now named Beitou Museum (beitoumuseum.org.tw/eng/main.asp), not to be confused with the Beitou Hot Spring Museum of course. 
If you prefer something new and relatively inexpensive, there’re lots of recently opened hotels around Ximen, like the Westgate, Taisugar Hotel, City Inn, Just Sleep, Look Hotel, all within minutes walk from the MRT station.
The Corner House and the Royal Biz Taipei Hotel are higher-end hotels also close to Yongkang St. Both provide a good buffet breakfast.
If they stay in that area then the Dongmen market is a local morning market worth visiting. The Sugar Bistro is a small coffee shop in a renovated old house in a lane just off the market - great for a break. Since they will be there over a weekend, the flower market and the jade market (on Jianguo Rd) will be open and are within walking distance.
The flower and jade market are exceptionally lame imo.
Thanks all, and especially Mucha Man. I’ve lived in Taiwan for 27 years and have spent a total of about 7 days in Taipei, almost entirely involving passport renewals.