One Day in Taipei Itinerary: 8 Must-See Stops

If you have one day in Taipei, you can see many of the city's highlights—even if you're only there on a long layover.

That's exactly what happened to us. We found ourselves with nearly a full day between flights, so instead of spending hours at Taoyuan Airport, we booked a nearby hotel for the night and spent the day exploring Taiwan's capital instead.

It was enough time to visit historic landmarks, climb Taipei 101, soak in Beitou's geothermal scenery, and finish the day wandering through Shilin Night Market. If you have one day in Taipei, you can see many of the city's highlights—even if you're only there on a long layover.

That's exactly what happened to us. We found ourselves with nearly a full day between flights, so instead of spending hours at Taoyuan Airport, we booked a nearby hotel for the night and spent the day exploring Taiwan's capital instead.

It was enough time to visit historic landmarks, climb Taipei 101, soak in Beitou's geothermal scenery, and finish the day wandering through Shilin Night Market.

Here's the route we followed and why we'd recommend it.

Planning Our One Day in Taipei

We originally planned to take Taipei's free half-day transit tour, which is available to qualifying passengers with a long layover. Unfortunately, our airline changed our flights before departure, leaving us with more time in the city—and a decision to make.

We could explore Taipei on our own using the MRT, or we could book a guided tour that would let us see more of the city in the time we had available.

The more we thought about it, the less sensible the DIY option seemed. Tired travelers like ourselves might not navigate a new transit system very efficiently. Omigosh—can you imagine realizing you'd gone in the wrong direction or gotten off at the wrong stop? What a waste of precious sightseeing time!

Besides, this might be our only chance to visit Taipei. We'd rather spend our limited time seeing the city than stressing about whether we'd boarded the right train. If we ever made it back to Taiwan, we could always explore more on a future trip.

So we booked a Taipei tour that covered eight of the city's top attractions. Our guide introduced us to the history behind each stop and kept the day moving smoothly.

The original group tour we took is no longer offered, but we'd happily follow the same route again. It covered Taipei's major highlights efficiently and made an excellent introduction to the city for first-time visitors.

Looking back, I don't think we could have seen nearly as much on our own, especially as first-time visitors.

Tour route: Presidential Office Building → White Terror Memorial → Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall → Longshan Temple → Taipei 101 → Lin An Tai Historical House → Beitou Hot Springs → National Palace Museum → Shilin Night Market.

💡 PRO TIP:  If city sightseeing isn't your thing, consider spending your time exploring the dramatic scenery of Taroko Gorge instead.

What to see in Taipei in a day

Our first impression was that Taipei is perfect for first-time visitors to Asia. It's got an east-meets-west vibe, plus it's clean and safe enough for a solo female traveler.

1. Presidential Office Building and White Terror Memorial

We began our tour with a stop at the Presidential Office Building. The building was a governor's mansion during Taiwan’s Japanese colonization. Now, it's used as offices, so there's nothing to see inside. Still, it's an important building and nice for a couple of photos.

Just a short walk away is the White Terror Memorial. I was more interested in this memorial than the Presidential Office itself. Since I'd never heard of the White Terror, I asked our guide about it. She gave us a two-sentence history lesson, so I looked it up myself.

Briefly, the White Terror was a 38-year period of martial law during which the government suppressed political dissidents and others. Triggered by an anti-government uprising, it remains one of the darker chapters of Taiwan's history.

2. National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Next, we drove to the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, arguably the best-known landmark in all of Taiwan.

Built to honor the founder of the Republic of China, its main hall houses a bronze statue of the hero. Downstairs is a museum of Chiang's life, complete with sedans and uniforms.

We arrived near the top of the hour, so we were able to watch the Changing of the Guard ceremony. Even if you aren't into memorials, the synchronized rifle twirling is worth watching.

3. Longshan Temple

Longshan Temple is probably Taiwan’s best-known temple. Dating from 1738, it was built by settlers from Fujian province as a gathering place for Chinese immigrants. Since then it has been rebuilt many times, thanks to earthquakes, fires, and even an air raid.

As we approached, our guide pointed out the dragon guarding the right door and the tiger guarding the left. Dragons represent power, creativity, wisdom, and good fortune. Tigers are powerful animals, symbolize heroism, and are believed to protect people from misfortune.

Once inside, we found the temple crowded with worshippers. On the 1st and 15th day of each lunar month, regular visitors will come to the temple to worship and petition the gods for favor.

We had arrived while a ceremony was going on. The chanting and gonging added to the experience as we walked among the faithful.

Longshan Temple is Buddhist and has a central hall with a statue of Buddha. It is dedicated to Guan Yin, sometimes called the Goddess of Mercy, who represents compassion in the Buddhist faith.

There are also side rooms with statues and altars to other Chinese deities. It would be interesting to learn how it all fits together in the worshipers' minds.

4. Taipei 101

Our lunchtime stop was Taipei 101, the city's most iconic landmark. Although it's called Taipei 101 because it has 101 floors above ground, it actually has five basement levels as well.

When it opened in 2004, Taipei 101 became the world's tallest building, a title it held until 2010, when the Burj Khalifa surpassed it. It's still one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers today.

Our guide gave us an hour of free time where we could either:

• have lunch in the enormous underground food court, or
• pay extra to visit the observation deck on the 89th floor.

ⓘ PRO TIP:  If the forecast calls for clear skies, buy your Taipei 101 observation deck ticket in advance. Time slots can sell out, especially during weekends and holidays.

Food always wins with us, so we chose lunch instead. We wanted to try Taiwan's famous beef noodle soup, a dish so beloved that Taipei even holds an annual beef noodle festival.

Unfortunately, our restaurant wouldn't have won any prizes. The soup was pretty bland.

5. Lin An Tai Historical House

After lunch we were brought to Lin An Tai Historical House. This open-air museum is about 200 years old, which makes it one of the oldest houses in Taipei. Lin An Tai is a very refined Fujianese-style home. It was built by successful immigrants from Fujian, who designed and oriented to have especially auspicious feng shui.

My first impression was that the front wasn't particularly impressive. Too much empty space.

But looks can be deceiving. Once we'd crossed the threshold, I was enchanted.

Behind that rather ordinary façade is a remarkable 25-building complex with a traditional Chinese courtyard, pond, arched bridge, stepping stones, intricate carvings, and elegant pavilions.

Lin An Tai House is so unique that when road construction threatened its existence, Taipei opted to move the house piece-by-piece rather than tear it down. Unfortunately, they rebuilt the house in a less auspicious location, so they needed to create an artificial mountain with a waterfall to compensate.

Yup here as well. Never would the builders have suspected that one day the Taiwanese would use it as a setting for wedding photos!

6. Beitou Hot Springs – Thermal Valley

Taiwan is a volcanic island. We next drove out to the Thermal Valley, where we spent an hour exploring the Beitou Springs area with our guide. The temperatures of the springs are in the range of 55° to 58° Celsius (131.0°-136.4° F).

Taiwan's hot springs are very effective in healing dermatosis and arthritis. Judging from the many spas and hotels in the Thermal Valley, this looks like a popular place to go for a bit of R&R.

I made a mental “Note to Self: as I soaked my tootsies. This would be a great weekend getaway! I could definitely spend some time here. Not sure if we could fit a visit into a half-day layover, but I did find a day trip, which was kind of nice to know about.

Here's the tour I found, in case you were wondering.

Ha-ha … here we go again. Can you guess what they're doing here? (Hint: Notice the changing tent and the white dress.)

7. National Palace Museum

If you have the time, don’t miss this museum. It’s wonderful!

When Chiang Kai-shek had to flee mainland China, he managed to bring many of the country’s historic treasures to Taipei with him. Our next-to-last stop was at the National Palace Museum to see many of these paintings, calligraphy, ceramics and bronzes.

This single museum is said to house 10 percent of all the cultural artifacts from 7,000 years of Chinese civilization! That's pretty remarkable, wouldn't you say? We began with its most famous treasures, including the jadeite cabbage, the meat-shaped stone (created from banded jasper) and the Mao Gong Ding cauldron.

We then spent some time exploring the museum on our own. If you'd like to see more of the museum, here's the link to our photo gallery.

8. Shilin Night Market

Our day in Taipei ended at Shilin Night Market, the largest night market in Taipei. Believe me, there are more delicious food and shopping options here than you can possibly imagine! And some you wouldn't even dream of.

Shilin Market was the drop-off point, so everyone could stay as long as they wished before making their own way back to their hotel or next sightseeing destination. (The Jintian metro station is nearby.) However, we had all toured Shilin Night Market the night before, so they kindly offered to drive us back to our airport hotel.

Where to stay near Taipei airport

Which brings us to the most essential part of a layover: getting some sleep. There are bazillions of places to stay in Taipei to choose from.

Here's the thing: When catching some ZZs between flights, you need to book a room in or near the airport. Consider it added insurance against missing a flight because you've slept too long. At the very least, you won't have to fight city traffic if you're running late!

We chose to stay at Novotel Taipei for our layover because it's next to Taoyuan International Airport. Super convenient location for a transit traveler, plus, they have a free shuttle! That's a huge bonus.

Plan your trip

Before you go:

• Book a guided Taipei tour if you'd rather maximize your sightseeing time than navigate the city on your own.
• Reserve Taipei 101 observation deck tickets in advance, especially if you're visiting on a weekend or holiday.
• Compare hotels in Taipei if you're staying overnight. If you're visiting on a long layover, consider staying near Taoyuan Airport.
• Get a Taiwan eSIM before you arrive so you'll have maps, translation, and mobile data from the moment you land.
• Check Taiwan's visa requirements before booking your trip.

You may also enjoy these Taipei travel guides:

• Aussie on the Road shared his one day Taipei experience.
• True Nomads' guide to what to do in Taipei has more ideas.

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