Here’s a description for those of you that might be interested in isiting Taiwan. (Brooklyn, this might help you a little bit. Living in a place like this would be so very different than visiting.) I’m going to use a question/answer format.
If I go on a package tour, will I experience Taiwan?
Taiwan is clogged with people in package tours, a lot of them from the People’s Republic of China (they’re required to be in a tour group). If you go in a tour group, you’ll always be standing at a distance from the people of Taiwan. If you go on your own, you will have to take some small risks, like being embarrassed when you do the wrong thing or being given food that isn’t what you thought you ordered. If you make a mistake, the Taiwanese will politely forgive you.
Are there sources of information on Taiwan travel?
We have Lonely Planet and Rough Guide and they’re both very useful although they are outdated. Because they’re outdated , you have to get current information when you arrive for things like train schedules. Both books are very useful although Rough Guide is much better for finding food.
Tripadvisor.com is a great web site for travelers but you need to dig into the forums to get really detailed information. I got the name of our Taroko tour guide from forum entries and she was great.
Is Taiwan expensive?
The airfare is the greatest expense. There is a wide range of hotel prices so use Tripadvisor.com and the books to get rating and then reserve online using hotels.com or agoda.com. We mostly had very good places to stay for about $90 or less a night. You can get cheaper rooms and much more expensive ones.
Everything else is very cheap as long as you don’t eat in hotel restaurants or buy ridiculously expensive souvenirs. Riding the subway never cost us more than $1 and taking the fancy high speed chain on a long trip up the west coast cost $45 each. You might spend $2 for dinner eating on the street and up to $5 for a good dinner in a typical restaurant.
Is Taiwan safe for travelers?
It’s very safe. I never used the security pouch I bought for carrying money safely—I honestly felt I didn’t need it. Of course you need to be watchful and not get yourself into bad situations, but we walked down some pretty dark streets and I wasn’t worried.
How hard is it to travel here if you don’t speak Chinese?
All major transit stations have signs in English and the trains and subways have station announcements in English while en route. The hotels that serve foreigners all have English speaking staff and tourist attractions have English speakers and signs in the interpretive centers. Bus drivers don’t seem to speak much English but the prices is usally marked.
What about everywhere else? If you’re buying things in store or even a stall the price will usually be clearly marked. If it isn’t marked, you can ask for a price using the handy phrase “Duoshao quian” (how much does this cost) and pantomime writing it down. You should learn the words for numbers, if possible.
Public transportation is great in Taipei not as good in other parts of the country. Cabs are cheap but cab drivers don’t usually speak English so if you need to take a cab, either have the card from your hotel with the name in Chinese (if you are returning there) or have the characters for the place you are going to written down or available in a book. Rough Guide has the names of places in Chinese in each section.
Where are the best places to visit?
Taiwan has a lot of beautiful natural wonders as well as interesting cities. Want to lay on tropical beaches, go south to Kenting. Like mountains, there’s Taroko National Park. the cross island highways, Alishan, or Yangmingshan. Hot springs are anywhere there are mountains. Want to learn about Buddhism or Taoism, it’s everywhere. The best part is that the island is small enough that you can do a lot of those things in a short period of time.
Is there tipping?
The general rule is no, there is no tipping. I guess some expat businesses and some high end hotels ask for or expect tips but we haven’t run into that.
Send me any more questions I need to answer.
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