The Best Area to Stay in Taipei, Rated by What Each One Costs You

A grid of Japanese-era side streets between Taipei Main Station and the river, now the city's coffee and small-design district, with Xingtian Temple at its northern end. Our routing puts the nearest MRT entrance at 20 metres from the middle of it, which is as connected as Taipei gets, and the station sits on the red and green lines. It is the area we would send a first-time visitor to.

Good to know: It has no headline sight of its own, so it can feel like nowhere in particular on the first afternoon. That is also why it is quiet at eleven at night when Ximending is not.

A pedestrianised block of neon, street performers, cinemas and cheap food, three measured minutes from Ximen station. It is Taipei's Shibuya comparison and it earns it after dark. Longshan Temple is a measured twenty minutes' walk southwest and Taipei Main Station sixteen minutes northeast, so you can walk out of it in either direction.

Good to know: It is genuinely loud until late and the hotel stock is mostly small business rooms rather than anything characterful. Ask for a room off the pedestrian streets, and do not book here if you are travelling with anyone who wakes easily.

Tree-lined streets around Daan Forest Park, with Yongkang Street's food strip a measured three minutes from Dongmen station and 240 metres from the middle of it. This is where the beef noodle and xiaolongbao arguments happen. It is the most pleasant part of central Taipei to walk around in the evening and the prices reflect that.

Good to know: It is the most expensive of the seven and the least dramatic. If your trip is three days of sights rather than a week of eating, you are paying for something you may not use.

The planned business and shopping district under Taipei 101, three measured minutes from the Taipei 101 station and sixteen minutes' walk from Taipei City Hall station at the other end. Wide pavements, department stores, the best hotel stock in the city and the Elephant Mountain trailhead close enough to walk to for sunset.

Good to know: It is a business district, which shows on a Sunday morning and in what a coffee costs. It is also the furthest of the seven from the old Taipei most people came to see.

The government and transport core: the Presidential Office Building, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall a measured eight minutes from its own station, and Taipei Main Station itself, where the metro, the high-speed rail, the conventional railway and the airport line all meet. If you are moving on to Tainan or Kaohsiung, sleeping here removes a journey.

Good to know: The blocks immediately around Taipei Main Station are the least charming part of central Taipei, and the station itself is a genuinely confusing building with multiple levels and operators. Give yourself longer than you think for the first departure.

Dihua Street's nineteenth-century shophouses, now dried-goods merchants, tea sellers, fabric shops and a growing number of small bars, running down to the river at Dadaocheng Wharf, a measured twelve minutes from Beimen station. It is the most atmospheric street in Taipei and the least like everywhere else.

Good to know: It is the only area here where the walk to the metro is real: ten measured minutes from the middle of Dihua Street to Beimen. It also closes early, so it is a daytime and early-evening neighbourhood rather than a late one.

The eastern district around Songshan station, two measured minutes from Raohe Street Night Market and the Ciyou Temple beside it. Raohe is the night market we would send you to over Shilin: it is one straight covered street rather than a maze, and the food is better. The station is on the green line and the airport bus stops nearby.

Good to know: A night market operates until well after midnight and the smell of stinky tofu carries. That is a feature if you booked for it and a problem if you booked on price alone.