May 25, 2026

CITYBREAK IN TAIWAN

Make the most of 4 days in Taipei and Jiufen

Taiwan has been a great surprise for us and we would have liked to allocate more days to explore this amazing little country. We combined this trip with South Korea, as there are cheap direct flights from Seoul, lasting about 2-3 hrs. Before going on with the article, I would like to highlight some quick impressions about Taiwan.

The main island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, lies between the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Although it officially belongs to Republic of China, Taiwan has uccessfully transitioned throughput the 1990s into a full-fledged, progressive democracy, holding its first direct presidential election in 1996. More over, contrary to the impression of many people, the Taiwanese people have an Austronesian indigenous origin, whereas the Chinese people are derived from early modern humans who migrated from Africa along the Indian Ocean route and into Southeast Asia.

However, Taiwan’s history is defined by successive waves of colonization, shaping its unique cultural, economic, and political landscape. Over the last four centuries, the island was ruled by six distinct foreign powers: the Dutch, the Spanish, the Ming loyalist Zheng family, the Manchu Qing dynasty, Japan, and the Chinese Nationalists. The last two were The Japanese Empire (1895–1945) and The Chinese Nationalists (1945–1980s), therefore this is where the country gets its current influences.

Currently, Taiwan functions as an independent country with its own constitution, democratically elected government, military, currency, and passport.

As Europeans, for us it seemed a bit of an off the radar place, however, Taiwan is really popular among Asians, especially Chinese, and the places were way more crowded than expected. But we loved it, regardless.

Visa

A number of countries are visa free entry in Taiwan, Romania included. For the exact status of your country, check out this official government website. However, even if you do not need a visa, within three days prior to arriving in Taiwan, please complete an online immigration arrival card (https://twac.immigration.gov.tw) on the website of the National Immigration Agency.

Additionally, you will need a passport with remaining validity of at least six months as of the date of entry ( but this is pretty standard ) and the proof of the return ticket.

Getting around Taiwan

Initially, we wanted to rent a car or a scooter and go around the country by ourselves. However, for the first time since we are travelling, we discovered that Taiwan is not accepting a Romanian European driving license, nor an International Driving Permit issued by Romania. It was pretty shocking, considering that the purpose of an IDP is exactl that, to drive internationally, right? So we had to reconfigure our trip.

Your ability to drive in Taiwan with an IDP depends on the reciprocal agreement between Taiwan and the state where your driver’s license was issued. There is not a lot of information regarding this, however, we were first informed about this from a company that we wanted to rent from. Bear in mind that they do not speak great English and if you do intend to rent a car and your country`s name appear on the list above, please ask specifically the rental company about this. They tend to not care.

The cheapest way to go around Taiwan is by public transport, which works very well. Google Maps is pretty reliable and you can plan your journey based on that.

Uber is also widely available and the prices are fairly decent compared to Europe or North America ( around 20 Euros for a 30 km trip ) and Uber is also a very convenient option if you need to go to the airport. However, bear in mind that there is a surcharge at night.

What to see in a 4 days citybreak in Taipei

This is just a proposal, based on our research, of places quite close to Taipei. We didn`t get the chance to go to all of these places but we would love to go next time. Also, bear in mind that in just a few days time, there might not be enough time to go to all of them, so pick whatever suits you better.

TAIPEI
JIUFEN
THOUSAND ISLAND LAKE AND EMERALD TEA GARDEN
ZHENGBIN PORT COLOR HOUSES
MOUNTAIN TREKKING – there are so many trekking trails,the nature is so incredible here; just check out Google Maps ( Keelung mountain trail and Tea pot mountain trail in Jiufen are just two examples )

Keelung mountain trail – a two hour trail from Jiufen

Getting around Taipei

Taipei Metro (MRT) is the fastest option to go around the city. For more comfort, you can use Uber, too.

The EasyCard (悠遊卡) is the primary contactless smartcard used for the Taipei Metro (MRT), buses, YouBike rentals, and convenience stores. It can be purchased and topped up at all MRT stations, Taoyuan Airport, and convenience stores (like 7-Eleven and FamilyMart) for NT$100 (non-refundable card fee ). However, bear in mind that, if you purchase the card from a convenience store, the card will be empty and it needs to be topped up. In order to do that, you can either use the machines in the stations ( cash payment only ) or better go to a information desk in a metro station, where you can pay by card as well.

Just for reference, a single journey costs between 20 NTD and 65 NTD, depending on the distance travelled. A bus ride to Jiufen costs around 90NTD.

Where to eat in Taipei

Before anything, bear in mind that most restaurants have a strict opening schedule, with lunch going on between 12:00 and 14:00 and dinner opening from 17:00 or something like that.

Here you can find a lot of quality Japanese food like NCI Sushi in Songshan district. The food is great and they also have vegan options.

Another thing that we loved was this tofu pudding at Bai Shui Tofu, that is said to be one of the best in town.

Another restaurant that we loved was 椿Tsubaki, which is a modern Izakaya restaurant. Their fried tofu was amazing.

Specialty coffee

We were surprised to find out that specialty coffee is a thing in Taipei, and it`s actually really good. Here is a list of most famous specialty coffee shops. We personally tried Oasis Coffee Roasters and Simple Kaffa 101 from this list, but we would like to add another one: % ARABICA Taipei Elephant Mountain ( perfect to fuel up for the Elephant mountain small trek )

Shopping area

Songshan District is an area full of boutique shops of locals designers, coffee shops and small bars. After wandering for about half a day in this area, it became our favorite area in Taipei. However, this place is only vibrant during the day, there is not much going on at night.

Where to stay in Taipei

To be honest, the city is so well connected that, no matter where you stay, it will still be easy to go around places. Make sure you will be close to an MRT – metro station. However, if you get the chance, we would reccommend staying in the city centre – Zhongzheng District. We personally stayed in Datong District and close to Nanang Exhibition centre but we didn`t find it difficult to go around.

We found a really cool hotel close to Nanang Exhibition Centre which, although is not in the city centre, looked amazing and had a great pool with views. This is a proper 5* hotel, but with a good price/ quality ration. It is called Grand Hilai.

For other hotels reccomendations, you can check out this link.

But anyway, the hotels quality in Taiwan is generally really good and as long as you don`t go for the very low budget range, most of them will be nice.

Jiufen

Jiufen is a cute little village about 30 km away from Taipei. The legend says that this is where Spirited Away anime got inspired from, but I think it`s just a myth. Although it can easily be done in a day trip, the village looks really cool at night, so we reccomend spending a night there. On top of that, there are various treks with amazing viewpoints ( as long as it is not cloudy ) and if you have extra time, we would reccomend doing one of those as well. The most popular are Keelung mountain Trail ( 2-3 hrs max ) and Tea Pot mountain trail ( 4-5 hrs ). They can be done both in the same day.

Apart from this, the area is very well known for the tea plantations, so make sure you try some oolong tea here. Or maybe even take some home. 🙂 In Jiufen, there is one of the oldest tea houses – Jiufen Tea house, with proper tea ceremony. We loved it.