7 Days in Taipei: First-Timer Plan
A full week in Taipei is the version where you stop sprinting between landmarks and actually get a feel for how the city breathes, temples in the morning, mountains at sunset, and a proper lazy day near the end that doesn’t involve a single queue. Prefer to trade the last two days for wider Taiwan instead? See the Taipei and Beyond 7 day itinerary . Need less time? Try 6 days or 5 days .
Book these before you go
- Jiufen and Shifen day tour
- Yehliu Geopark day trip
- Taipei 101 observatory ticket
- A week-long base in Ximending or Zhongshan on Agoda
The 7 day route at a glance
| Day | Focus | Base |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wanhua temples, Ximending, night market | Ximending |
| 2 | Taipei 101, Xinyi, Elephant Mountain | Ximending |
| 3 | National Palace Museum, Beitou | Ximending |
| 4 | Da’an, Yongkang Street, Maokong tea | Ximending |
| 5 | Jiufen and Shifen mountain day trip | Ximending |
| 6 | Yehliu Geopark and Tamsui | Ximending |
| 7 | Zhongshan, Songshan, slow finish | Ximending |
Day 1: Wanhua, Longshan Temple, Ximending
Get an EasyCard the moment you land and load it generously, it covers the MRT, buses, YouBike, and most convenience stores for the entire week.
Start at Longshan Temple in Wanhua, oldest working temple in the city, free, incense-thick, wrapped in old-town alleys that feel like a different decade. Lunch at a family-run beef noodle shop rather than a chain, NT$150-250 for a solid bowl, up to NT$400 at the famous names. Afternoon in Ximending, the pedestrian youth-culture district, and at night get to Ningxia or Raohe rather than Shilin, smaller, more local, better food for the crowd. Stinky tofu, NT$50-70, don’t skip it.
Where to stay: Ximending or Zhongshan both work well as a base for the opening stretch, walkable and well connected.
Day 2: Taipei 101, Xinyi and Elephant Mountain
Morning at Taipei 101, observatory decks 88F/89F/91F, NT$600. Worth carrying with you: it was the world’s tallest building 2004 to 2010, not since, Burj Khalifa passed it more than a decade ago, still a genuinely great view. Visiting after July 1, 2026, the ticket entrance has moved to the 1st floor of the office tower.
Explore Xinyi’s malls, then Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, free grounds, Liberty Square, changing-of-the-guard if timing lines up. Late afternoon, climb Elephant Mountain, 20 to 40 steep minutes, free, for the sunset skyline shot everyone’s seen and still gasps at in person. Skip the Skyline 460 add-on at the tower itself, this free hike does it better.
Day 3: National Palace Museum and Beitou
Morning at the National Palace Museum, NT$350, free on select holidays, one of the great collections of Chinese imperial art anywhere, jadeite cabbage and meat-shaped stone included.
Afternoon, the Xinbeitou branch line drops you into Beitou for hot springs, free public foot baths if you skip a paid spa hotel, Thermal Valley worth a walk-past even dry.
Dinner: Din Tai Fung, and a correction worth knowing before you order, it’s a homegrown Taiwanese chain, a Taipei oil shop since 1958 that only started making dumplings in 1972, not an import from anywhere else. NT$500-800 per person, queue included.
Day 4: Da’an, Yongkang Street and Maokong
Morning coffee and a walk through Da’an Forest Park, lunch on Yongkang Street’s proper local kitchens. Afternoon, the Maokong Gondola into the hills for tea, glass-floor cabins for the view straight down, tea houses at the top happy to walk you through an oolong pour properly. Evening, whichever market you haven’t hit yet, or an early night before tomorrow.
Day 5: Jiufen and Shifen, the mountain day trip
Jiufen is a hillside mountain town, not a Taipei neighborhood, roughly 1 to 1.5 hours out by MRT plus the Kuo-Kuang 1062 bus, or train to Ruifang and a connecting bus. Go early on a weekday, the lantern-lit alleys are lovely quiet and miserable crowded.
Pair it with Shifen, sky-lantern releases and an old railway street running right alongside a waterfall, trains rumbling past the stalls. Writing your own wish on a paper lantern gets you every time, tourist cliche or not. Lunch in Jiufen, local seafood and street snacks both deliver.
Day 6: Yehliu Geopark and Tamsui
Morning, bus 1815 out to Yehliu Geopark, about 75 minutes, for the coastal rock formations, the Queen’s Head is the famous one but the whole eroded coastline is worth a slow wander. Afternoon, Tamsui, directly on the MRT, riverside walk, sunset over the water, iron eggs and a-gei from the old street. Dinner along the waterfront, a calm end to the busiest two-day stretch of the trip.
Day 7: Zhongshan, Songshan and a slow finish
Is a full week too long for just Taipei?
Not if you use the extra days for coastal and mountain trips rather than more city checklist. By day 7, you’ve earned a slow morning: this is the day for a former tobacco factory turned art park, a last souvenir run, and dinner at whatever stuck with you most, not another must-see landmark.
Morning in Zhongshan, mid-range hotel territory with genuinely good design shops and department stores, then over to the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, a former tobacco factory turned into galleries, small studios, and a much quieter afternoon than anywhere else on this list. If you didn’t make it to Bopiliao Historic Block back in Wanhua earlier in the week, this is a good last chance, a well-preserved stretch of 19th-century Taiwanese architecture tucked a few minutes from Longshan Temple.
What’s worth doing on a slower last day?
Souvenir shopping that doesn’t feel rushed, and a dinner you actually choose rather than default to. Taipei Main Station’s underground mall and the shops around Ximending cover most gift lists, and returning to the night market or noodle shop that stuck with you all week beats trying something new the night before a flight.
Spend the rest of the afternoon picking up souvenirs, Taipei Main Station’s underground mall and the shops around Ximending both cover most of what you’d want to bring home. For a last dinner, go back to whichever night market or noodle shop from earlier in the week actually stuck with you, this is not the night to experiment.
Transport for departure: the Airport MRT Express runs from Taipei Main Station to Taoyuan (TPE) in roughly 35-38 minutes for NT$160, tap your EasyCard on the way in same as you did on day one. Give yourself extra buffer if a typhoon is anywhere near the forecast, June through October is the season for it and it can shuffle both trains and flights with little warning.
Things to know: cash still matters, EasyCard doesn’t cover every night-market stall. The MRT bans eating or drinking, water included, in paid areas, fines up to NT$7,500.
Concrete tip: don’t schedule your Zhongshan and Songshan day right after Yehliu and Tamsui without a buffer, back-to-back full days will burn you out right before a flight. Swap the order if you’re feeling it.
Official references: Travel Taipei , National Palace Museum , Taipei Metro , Taoyuan International Airport .