Taipei: Tickets, Hours and How to Visit
Taipei 101, the National Palace Museum, and Longshan Temple will eat two full days on their own if you let them, so know the hours and prices going in and build the rest of your visit around them, not the other way around. Here’s exactly what each one costs, when to go, and what to skip. Slotting all of this into a full trip? Our 3 day Taipei itinerary already maps the order.
Taipei 101: key facts
| Price | NT$600 (about US$19) for the 88F/89F/91F observatory |
| Skyline 460 add-on | NT$3,000, outdoor 101F skywalk |
| Hours | Roughly 9am-10pm daily |
| Time needed | 60-90 minutes |
| Booking lead | Book a timed slot a day or two ahead for sunset |
What time should I visit Taipei 101 to avoid queues?
Weekday mornings right at opening, or a pre-booked sunset slot. Midday and weekend afternoons draw the longest base-level queues, sometimes 30-45 minutes just to reach the ticket line. If your trip lands after July 1, 2026, the ticket counter and entrance have moved to the office tower’s 1st floor, not the mall level where it used to sit.
The tower was the world’s tallest building from 2004 to 2010, before the Burj Khalifa passed it, so it hasn’t held that title in over a decade. It’s still worth the ride: a 730-tonne tuned mass damper hangs visible in the lobby, one of the largest in the world, countering wind sway during typhoons. Book the sunset slot on GetYourGuide if you want that specific window, it’s the one that sells out first.
National Palace Museum: key facts
| Price | NT$350 for adults |
| Free days | Select holidays, including Taiwan Culture Day, October 17, 2026 |
| Hours | 9am-5pm, later on some evenings |
| Time needed | Half a day for a proper visit |
Is the National Palace Museum worth a full afternoon?
Yes, if you care at all about East Asian art. It holds around 700,000 Chinese imperial artefacts relocated to Taiwan in 1949, and the Jadeite Cabbage and Meat-Shaped Stone alone draw crowds several rooms deep. Skimming it in under an hour means missing most of what makes the collection significant. Reference the official National Palace Museum site for current exhibition hours before you go.
Longshan Temple and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall
Longshan Temple in Wanhua is a working 1738 Buddhist-Taoist temple, free to enter, and best visited at dusk when the incense, chanting, and fortune-stick readings are in full swing, not staged for tourists. Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a 76-metre white marble structure with free grounds; the hourly changing of the guard is a precise, well-rehearsed piece of theater worth timing your visit around.
Elephant Mountain: key facts
| Price | Free |
| Time needed | 20-40 minutes each way, steep |
| Best time | Sunset, expect company on the platform |
Elephant Mountain (Xiangshan) is a stone-staircase hike to a rock platform with the classic Taipei 101 skyline shot, jungle-framed and free. It’s a steeper climb than it looks in photos, so budget real time and bring water.
Eating Taipei
Beef noodle soup (niurou mian) is Taiwan’s national bowl, and the best way to find a good one is to ask a local where they eat it rather than trust a ranked list. Xiao long bao got popularised internationally by Din Tai Fung, which started as a Taipei cooking-oil shop in 1958 and only began selling dumplings in 1972; the original Xinyi Road flagship is still the reference point, and smaller restaurants around Da’an often serve equally good versions with a fraction of the queue.
Bubble tea (boba) is a Taiwan icon, but the honest correction is that it was invented in Taichung, not Taipei, in the 1980s. Enjoy it constantly anyway, at NT$50-80 a cup nobody’s checking your loyalty to the birthplace.
The night market circuit is close to mandatory. Shilin is the most famous and most touristy. Raohe Street, in Songshan, is often the better pick for a more local atmosphere and a stronger food-to-crowd ratio; the pepper bun bakery at the Ciyou Temple entrance, charcoal-baked buns stuffed with pork and spring onion, is worth the specific trip.
Beitou Hot Springs
A short MRT ride north of central Taipei on the Xinbeitou branch, Beitou is the traditional hot-spring district, developed by the Japanese colonial administration in the early 20th century. The Beitou Hot Spring Museum sits in a preserved 1913 bathhouse and explains the geothermal geology behind it. Public baths offer outdoor soaking for a few hundred NT; free public foot baths cover it if you’d rather not book a paid spa hotel.
Practical notes
October through April is cooler and drier; May through September runs hot, humid, and brings typhoon season. Get an EasyCard at any MRT station for trains, buses, YouBikes, and many shop payments, it’s the one card that covers nearly everything on this list. Tipping isn’t customary. The MRT bans eating and drinking, water included, past the ticket gates, and it’s enforced.
If you’re building a full stay around these sights rather than a single day, compare neighborhoods and rates on Agoda before you book; Ximending and Zhongshan both sit within easy reach of everything above.
Official references: Travel Taipei , National Palace Museum .