3-Day Taipei Itinerary & Expense Breakdown
- Tanya Adiong
- Sep 16, 2018
- 8 min read
Hello!
On July 31, I flew to Taipei with my sister for a short vacation. We spent three days in Taipei from July 31 to August 3. It was a rather spontaneous trip as I have only decided and planned the trip a week before. I have three reasons for going on this trip. They are a little personal, but I’m still sharing them with you:
My last trip before I enter the workforce - I started work the week after I arrived from Taipei.
My first trip where all-expenses are paid by myself! No financial support. Woohoo independence
Lastly, I hoped it would help me find peace and clarity.
Despite planning it only a few days prior, I was still able to score cheap flights and accommodations. Klook was also helpful when booking day trips.
The airfare costed ~8,500 PHP roundtrip via AirAsia. If I’m not mistaken, you can get a flight as low as 3,000 PHP roundtrip especially during promo periods so I suggest you still plan ahead to get those very sulit deals. But 9,500 PHP is already a good deal in itself especially when the airfare can also go as high as 15,000 PHP or even 30,000 PHP. We took an early flight to Taipei, and a red eye flight back to Manila which gave us a full-day in Taipei without having to pay for an extra night at our hotel.
For our accommodation, we chose a hotel located in the Ximending Area so it wouldn’t look sketchy at night since there would be bright lights everywhere. Also, it’s nice to be close to a shopping district so you are sure of having restaurants and convenience stores nearby. We didn’t book a fancy hotel, of course since we are on a tight budget. In fact, our hotel is located at the 4th floor of an old rundown building. It doesn’t have any highlight per se but it’s location was its selling point. We spent 3,000 PHP for 2-nights, 1,500 PHP each (we checked out on August 2 since our flight is at 2:00 AM on August 3).
ITINERARY:
Day 1:
We arrived at Taipei Taoyuan Airport at around 10:00 AM. We took the train to our hotel as it is cheaper and faster compared to taking a cab or the bus. We had our lunch at a diner beside our hotel. Having settled in, we went straight to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, our first tourist stop.
There are no entrance fees to the memorial hall and you can go there by bus or metro. We initially planned on taking the bus but we couldn’t find the stop and were just confused with the metro & bus system so we took a cab. If you can, do not take the cab. They are quite expensive.
We stayed in Chiang Kai-shek for about an hour or two just sitting on the steps and observing the activities going on. There were a lot of young locals using the hall to practice and hang out with their friends. And there were also tourists like us doing the same thing of chilling and hanging out. Another reason why we decided to just sit on the steps was the heat. It was too hot to walk around the area that my sister and I decided to just sit on the step and leave when the sun is no longer glaring at us.
We took the metro to Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Both memorial hall has a station inside which made it really convenient to move from one place to another. I suggest you get the metro card and have it loaded a few bucks based on your estimated usage to avoid queuing for a ticket every time you ride the metro. It is convenient and it does not break the bank to have one.
Unlike our stay in Chiang Kai-shek that lasted about two hours, we only stayed for a few minutes in Sun Yat-sen before we walked to Taipei 101 to have our dinner. Taipei 101 has a food hall on its ground floor with a variety of restaurants/stalls to choose from. It was already full when we arrived so it was a little hard to find a restaurant or stall we can eat from. Also, some stalls are pricier than the others, obviously we went for an affordable restaurant with seats available.
My sister and I planned to go to Raohe Night Market afterwards but we got really tired and decided to head back to our hotel.
Day 2:
Our second day in Taipei was brought to you by Klook (non-sponsored). We availed the Jiufen, Shifen, and Keelung Day Trip Bus Shuttle to get us to those places. We didn’t have any tour guide and the bus driver was Cantonese-speaking only, but we were able to manage since he also used signs to remind us of the time of departure and etc.
Our first stop was the Shifen Waterfall. In order to get to the waterfall, you have to cross a bridge. The bridge is a sight in itself, and there were food stalls in the area so the walk to the waterfall isn’t “boring”. We were able to grab spicy fried squids in one of the food stalls.
After the waterfall, we went to Shifen Old Town. The town is along a railway. I thought the railway was out of use until I saw an old train pass by. The town is small and beautiful. We get to make a wish and fly a lantern in the old town. I think the lantern worked, I hope it did.
Our third stop was the Jiufen Old Town. Jiufen is very steep so it can easily get tiring to walk up. A tea house in Jiufen (Amei Tea House) was the inspiration for Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away. It looked amazing, unfortunately we weren’t able to try the menu of the tea house. We went to a different tea house when we were in Jiufen called the Skyline Tea House, just right across the Amei Tea House. We got a voucher from Klook to have tea in the place. Their tea was good and I loved the charcoal nut, but it was unfortunate that their set meals weren’t available as we were already very hungry when we were there.
Thankfully our last stop is the Keelung Miaokow Night Market. We had two meals in the night market because we were just that hungry. I do not exactly remember the name of the food we tried but one was rice toppings (pork) and the other was noodles. There were more food stalls in the area that I would have loved to try but my stomach can only handle so much.
Our bus driver dropped us off Ximending Station 6 and we looked around at Ximending Shopping District before heading to our hotel.
Day 3:
On our last day in Taipei, we woke up a little late and so we missed our chance to catch the sunrise at the Elephant Mountain. We had another booked itinerary from Klook which is the Volandu Hot Spring Spa. I know, why did we decide to go on a hot spring on a very hot day? I didn’t expect Taipei to be scorching hot. The weather forecast kept on saying it was raining and all so I expected Taipei to be a little cooler.
The experience was great, nevertheless but I was hoping the hot spring was outdoor and not indoor. It was a let down that it was indoor, but the view was very calm and mesmerising. We also had our lunch in the resort.
Since we’ve been very thrifty for the past two days, we decided to splurge a little on our third day especially that it’s our last day and we still have TND left. Our meals are much pricier compared to the previous meals we’ve had (street food).
After soaking ourselves in the hot spring, we hiked up elephant mountain. After relaxing our body, we gave them a workout. Again, the way was very steep and it kept us panting until we reached the rocks. We took so many breaks along the way because let’s be honest, none of us were fit. It was a good workout though and it feels great to reach the “top”. We didn’t go up the top floor when we were in Taipei 101, but I guess it’s okay since I think the view is the same with the view seen on the Elephant Mountain (and there are no fees to hike the Elephant Mountain). We saw Taipei 101 from the Elephant Mountain.
I just want to add that the Elephant Mountain is called the Elephant Mountain because it is shaped like an Elephant’s trunk.
After our hiking adventure, we went straight to Da’an District to eat xiao long bao. That’s it. That was the only reason why we went to Da’an District. A friend recommended me a restaurant with good xiao long bao so we decided to have our last meal there. Unfortunately, I do not know what the restaurant is called because everything was in Chinese characters. It’s not a tourist restaurant unlike Din Tai Fun, most of the customers were locals so it was nice to have dinner there - no queues and the ambience was warm and pleasant. It did bother me though that they do not serve water so we ordered a shake. Their xiao long bao, of course, did not fail us! It was delicious. Generally, the food was great! I loved the pork rice meal (I don’t exactly remember the name)! I’m hungry just thinking about it. The Da’an District area in general was posh. I wish I could’ve explored it more, but our flight was at night so we wanted to be near our hotel early (aka Ximending area).
After our dinner, we went straight to Ximending and did some last minute souvenir shopping before we head back to our hotel and to the airport.
Going to the airport, we took the metro again because it was convenient. We didn’t have a lot of luggages too so it wasn’t a hassle to carry our bags around.
We also had a 4G Unlimited Pocket Wifi so navigating our way in Taipei wasn’t a sweat.
So that’s it. That is our “chill 3-day itinerary”. I spent a total of ~15,000 PHP for the trip. And knowing how much I spent on the airfare and accommodation, I only have less than 5,000 PHP as pocket money and yet I survived! Taipei has very cheap food, especially if you just go with their street food which is not a problem since they are savoury.
BREAKDOWN OF EXPENSES:
Pre-book Expenses:
Roundtrip Airfare via AirAsia (in. travel tax) 7,990.00 PHP
Hotel Accommodation for 2-nights at ShinShin Hotel 1,579.37 PHP
Jiufen, Shifen, Keelung Shuttle via Klook 1,149.00 PHP
Skyline Teahouse in Jiufen via Klook 674.15 PHP
Volandu Urai Public Hot Spring Spa via Klook 1,245.00 PHP
4G Unlimited Wifi 520.00 PHP
Variable Expenses
Metro Card (inc. to and from airport) 1,000.00 PHP
Food & Drinks 2,000.00 PHP
Souvenirs 500.00 PHP
TOTAL 16,657.52 PHP
PS: I used my Klook credits for some of my Klook activities so I didn’t cash out on those but I still put the equivalent amount just to get a general overview of the expenses I incurred.
I hope you enjoyed reading through the itinerary. If you have any questions or clarifications or just want to discuss your trip or anything really, just hit me up. I’d also love to help curate your travels so hit me up with that too!
Yours truly,
Tanya
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