Taipei Day Trips Beyond the City Limits
Everything worth a day trip from Taipei sits in New Taipei City or beyond, not inside the capital’s own 12 districts, so the first thing to know is that you’re leaving Taipei proper the moment you board any of these routes.
The Northeast Loop: Jiufen, Shifen, Yehliu. Jiufen Old Street, the hillside gold-mining town made famous by its lantern-strung stone staircases along Shuqi Road, is reached by bus 965 from Beimen or Ximen, or bus 1062 from Zhongxiao Fuxing, about 75 to 90 minutes each way. A-Mei Tea House is the anchor teahouse if you want a sit-down break from the crowds. Continue to Shifen Old Street on the TRA Pingxi Branch Line to release a painted paper sky lantern along the active train tracks and see the 20-meter Shifen Waterfall. Yehliu Geopark, reached by bus 1815 from Taipei Main Station in about 75 minutes, delivers the wind-carved hoodoo rocks including the famous Queen’s Head formation.
Wulai’s indigenous hot-spring valley. Bus 849 from Xindian MRT gets you into this Atayal mountain enclave in about 45 minutes. Ride the historic Wulai Scenic Log Cart, see the 80-meter Wulai Waterfall, eat Atayal wild boar sausage and bamboo rice on Wulai Old Street, then soak in the sodium bicarbonate hot springs before heading back.
Tamsui and Fisherman’s Wharf. This one needs no bus at all: it’s the northern terminus of the MRT Red Line. See the 1644 Spanish Fort San Domingo, the old British Consular Residence, and time your visit for sunset at Fisherman’s Wharf’s Lover’s Bridge, with a ferry across to Bali on the opposite bank.
Yilan and Jiaoxi via the Xueshan Tunnel. Highway buses (Kamalan or Capital Star lines) run the 12.9 km Xueshan Tunnel from Taipei to Yilan in 50 to 60 minutes. Soak in Jiaoxi’s natural ground-level hot springs, tour the Kavalan Whisky Distillery in Yuanshan, and eat scallion pancakes made with Sanxing spring onions.
Sanxia and Yingge. Yingge is Taiwan’s ceramic capital, with a Ceramics Museum and Old Street pottery studios; Sanxia has the Baroque facades of its Old Street, Qingshui Zushi Temple’s carved stonework, and bull-horn croissants worth the trip alone.
One route to skip for now: Taroko Gorge. The magnitude 7.4 earthquake on April 3, 2024 triggered landslides that closed major trails like Swallow Grotto and Zhuilu Old Road for multi-year rehabilitation, and Highway 8 through the gorge runs under strict timed traffic releases. It isn’t a realistic same-day trip from Taipei in 2026.
Verdict: pick one region per day rather than chaining two together. Jiufen and Shifen pair naturally on the same Pingxi-line itinerary; Yilan and Wulai each deserve their own day given the travel time on either end.
Buy an EasyCard before you leave Taipei; it covers the buses, the Pingxi line trains, and the Xindian MRT connection to Wulai in one card. For longer regional trips, see our multi-day trips guide .