2 Days: Taipei and Beyond
Two days is not enough time to do Taipei justice, and it’s definitely not enough to also get you up into the mountains and back. Do it anyway. This itinerary spends one full day on the city and burns the second entirely on a trip out to Jiufen and Shifen, because Taipei rewards a tight sprint and the coast rewards a slower one. Want the whole 48 hours in the city instead? Our 3 day Taipei itinerary trims to fit; want more time for both? See the 3 day version of this plan.
Book these before you go
- Jiufen and Shifen day tour , on a 2 day trip you cannot afford a missed bus connection
- Taipei 101 observatory ticket
- A Ximending or Zhongshan base on Agoda
The 2 day route at a glance
| Day | Focus | Transit time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Longshan Temple, Taipei 101, Elephant Mountain, night market | in-city, MRT only |
| 2 | Jiufen and Shifen day trip | 1-1.5 hours each way |
Day 1: Taipei, Fast and Full
Morning. Start in Wanhua at Longshan Temple. Get there before 9am if you can, while the incense smoke is still thick and the worshippers shaking fortune sticks outnumber the camera phones. Walk the surrounding lanes into the Bopiliao Historic Block afterward; this is the oldest surviving stretch of the city and it looks it, in a good way.
Afternoon. Take the MRT to Xinyi for Taipei 101. Get the standard 88th-floor observatory ticket, roughly 600 NT, and skip the pricier outdoor Skyline add-on unless money genuinely isn’t a factor, the outdoor tier now runs NT$3,000. Note that the ticket counter and entrance sit on the office tower’s ground floor now, not up in the mall like they used to. From there it’s a short ride to Xiangshan station for the Elephant Mountain trail, a steep 20 to 40 minute climb that puts Taipei 101 right below you for the photo everybody takes.
Evening. Skip Shilin Night Market on a two-day trip; it’s the biggest and also the most crowded, and crowds thin out the food quality more than they add atmosphere. Head to Raohe Street Night Market instead, near Songshan, for a much better ratio of good food to elbow room. Try the peppery pork bun baked in a clay oven and the stinky tofu if you’re brave, cash in hand since plenty of stalls don’t take EasyCard.
Day 2: Jiufen and Shifen
Morning. Take the train from Taipei Main Station to Ruifang, then a local bus up into the hills to Jiufen. Go early, ideally arriving by 9am, because Jiufen fills up fast and the narrow lantern-lit alleys become genuinely hard to move through by midday on weekends. This is a mountain town, not a Taipei neighborhood, so budget the full 1 to 1.5 hours of transit each way and don’t try to squeeze it into a half day.
Is 2 days enough to see Taipei and Jiufen?
Barely, and it’s a real trade-off, not a free bonus. You’ll see less of central Taipei than a two-day visitor who stays put, and you’ll spend real hours on a train and a bus instead of wandering Da’an’s cafes or Beitou’s hot springs. It’s worth it because Jiufen and Shifen are the two places people ask about most after a Taiwan trip, so go in knowing you’re choosing breadth over depth.
Afternoon. From Jiufen, a short bus ride gets you to Shifen, where the old railway street runs right past the tracks and vendors sell sky lanterns for you to write wishes on and release. It’s a genuinely good pairing with Jiufen: one town for the views and tea houses, one for the lanterns and the waterfall a short walk beyond the station.
Evening. Head back into Taipei for dinner at Din Tai Fung. It gets filed as an international chain by people who don’t know its history, but it’s Taiwanese through and through, started as a cooking oil shop in 1958 before it ever sold a dumpling. Expect a queue and expect it to be worth it.
Where to Stay
Base yourself in Ximending or Zhongshan. Both put you within a few minutes of an MRT line, which matters more here than proximity to any single sight, since you’re covering the whole city plus a mountain range in 48 hours.
Transportation
Buy an EasyCard the moment you land, at any MRT station or convenience store, and use it for everything: the metro, the buses out to Ruifang, YouBike if you want it, even the odd 7-Eleven coffee. It’s the one piece of admin that actually saves you time on a schedule this tight.
Tips
Cash still matters even with EasyCard covering transit. Plenty of night-market stalls and the smaller Jiufen tea shops are cash-only. And the MRT bans eating or drinking, water included, past the ticket gates, with fines that start around NT$1,500, so finish your bubble tea before you tap in.
If a mountain day trip on a two-day visit doesn’t appeal, swap Day 2 for Beitou instead: same MRT ease, no bus transfer, and a hot-spring soak instead of a lantern crowd.
Official references: Travel Taipei , Taipei Metro , Taiwan Railway .