A Taipei Itinerary for 3 Days, With What Everything Costs

Nearest station: Longshan Temple (blue line)

Founded in 1738 and rebuilt more than once after fire, earthquake and wartime bombing, and still a working temple rather than a monument: people come before work with incense and folded paper, and the chanting starts early. Go at opening and you will see it used rather than photographed. It sits directly above its own metro station on the blue line.

The catch: It is a place of worship first. The courtyards get genuinely crowded by mid-morning and it is not the place for a tripod.

Nearest station: Ximen (blue and green lines)

A measured twenty minutes' walk northeast from Longshan Temple, or one stop on the metro. Taipei's pedestrianised youth quarter: neon, cinemas, street performers, cheap food and the Red House theatre building from 1908 at its edge. It is at its most interesting mid-morning when the shutters go up and least interesting when the crowds arrive.

The catch: There is no sight here as such. If you are not shopping or eating, forty minutes covers it.

Nearest station: Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (red and green lines)

Free, and a measured eight minutes and 618 metres from its own station. A vast white hall on a blue-tiled roof at the top of eighty-nine steps, flanked by the National Theater and Concert Hall across Liberty Square. The hourly changing of the guard is the set piece. The square below is where Taiwan's democracy movement gathered, and the hall's own exhibition now addresses that history rather than avoiding it.

The catch: The guard change draws a crowd, so stand at the side rather than the front if you want to see the drill rather than the phones.

Nearest station: Shilin (red line), then bus or taxi

Open Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00, admission NT$350 for general visitors, NT$320 each for groups of ten or more, with the audio guide NT$30 on top. Nearly 700,000 objects of which a fraction is shown at a time, so go for the jade and the bronzes rather than trying to cover it. Three hours is honest; two is enough if you are selective.

The catch: It has no MRT station, which almost no itinerary says. Our routing puts it 3,087 metres and 41 minutes on foot from Shilin station and 3,915 metres from Jiantan, so take the metro to Shilin and then a bus or a taxi. Budget that in both directions, and do not come on a Monday.

Nearest station: Beimen (green line)

Free, and the best street in Taipei. Dihua Street's nineteenth-century shophouses still sell dried seafood, herbs, tea and fabric out of the same premises they were built for, with small bars and design shops folded in between. Our routing puts Dadaocheng Wharf a measured twelve minutes and 905 metres from Beimen station, so walk down to the river at the end of it.

The catch: It closes early. The merchants keep shop hours, not tourist hours, and by seven most of the street is shuttered.

Nearest station: Jiantan (red line), not Shilin

Free to walk, and cheap to eat through. Taipei's biggest night market, with a covered food hall downstairs and a sprawl of stalls above. Get the oyster omelette, the pepper buns and whatever has the longest queue. It runs late, so there is no hurry.

The catch: A naming trap worth knowing: it is closer to Jiantan station than to the station that shares its name. Our routing gives Jiantan 523 metres and seven minutes, against 753 metres and ten from Shilin.

Nearest station: Dongmen (red and orange lines)

Start with lunch rather than a sight. Yongkang Street is a measured three minutes and 240 metres from Dongmen station and is where the beef noodle and soup dumpling arguments actually happen, with Daan Forest Park a short walk beyond it for somewhere to sit afterwards.

The catch: The famous places queue at lunchtime. The rule that works is to walk one street off Yongkang and eat wherever the queue is local rather than photographed.

Nearest station: Taipei 101/World Trade Center (red line)

The planned district under Taipei 101, three measured minutes from its station. The observatory on floors 88 and 89 is NT$600 for adults and NT$540 concession, with a Priority Pass at NT$1,200 and an outdoor Skyline 460 experience at NT$3,000. It opens 10:00 to 21:00 with last admission at 20:30, which is what makes a late-afternoon arrival the right call.

The catch: It is the most expensive single ticket on this itinerary by a distance, and on a hazy or wet day it buys you cloud. Check the weather before you commit, because Elephant Mountain gives you the same skyline for nothing.

Nearest station: Xiangshan (red line)

Free, and the photograph everyone brings home. A stepped trail from the Xiangshan trailhead climbs about twenty minutes to a platform looking straight across at Taipei 101 with the whole city behind it. Go up in the last hour of daylight and stay for the lights.

The catch: It is steps, continuously, in humidity. It is also the single most crowded viewpoint in Taipei at sunset, so go earlier than you think or carry on to the quieter platforms above the first one.

Nearest station: Zhongshan (red and green lines)

Finish where we would have had you sleep. The side streets between Zhongshan and Shuanglian stations are the city's coffee and small-design quarter by day and quiet places to eat by night, with Xingtian Temple at the northern end for anyone who wants one more temple without the crowds of Longshan.

The catch: It is deliberately low-key. If you want a big last night, Raohe night market in Songshan is the alternative and runs much later.