Taiwan

Capital City

Taipei

Language

Taiwanese, Mandarin,
Hakka

Currency

New Taiwan Dollar
(TWD)

Weather & Nature

Hot, tropical. Typhoon season (June to October), Earthquakes

Medical

No Vaccine requirements, mosquitos (dengue)

Visa

90 visa-free tourist entry
for UK, EU citizens

Get In

The main access point that most visitors will greet on their way in and out of La Ilha Formosa is Taipei Taoyuan International Airport. Taiwan's major two airlines are China Airlines and EVA Air. Between them they offer flights to several destinations world-wide.

Of course, Taipei Taoyuan also is an excellent gateway to other parts of the island. Flights are available to major cities, such as Kaohsiung, and some of the smaller islands in the Taiwan strait, like Penghu.

To/from destinations in Asia, flying to Kaohsiung International is also an option, giving visitors immediate access to the country's beautiful south.

Get Around

Train

There are many ways to discover Taiwan, by land, sea and air. Taiwanese public transportation is excellent, safe, clean and afforable and criss-crosses most of the island. A network of high speed rail connects Taipei in the North to Kaohsiung in the south, traversing via Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Taoyuan along the way.

Another, denser network of regional trains connects the major cities in a slower route, stopping at smaller towns, which make a good option for moving around the island, stopping and discovering locations along the way.

The East coast is also served with a regional train network, which connects Taipei to Taichung, via Hualien in one of Taiwan's most scenic routes, crossing along the stunning Pacific coast and passing close to Toroko national park.

Trains do not got to the southern coast locations, including Kenting national park, nor to the mountains in the country's interior, expect for the tourist train to the mountain's from Chiayi.

Tickets can be purchased at a train station and a desk, at a machine or in the TRA app. Many journeys can also be paid for on the EasyCard, a more useful version (see Financing, below) of the pre-pay, tap in, tap out card systems across many major cities (such as the Oyster Card in London).

Bus and Subway

Long distance buses offer competing services to the train networks, which tend to be a little cheaper (and slower) than the trains. For tourists, The Taiwan Tour Bus has a network that goes from many major cities to top tourist destinations, such as Kaohsiung to Kenting national park, Chiayi to Alishan national park, Taipei to Jiufen and many others.

Within towns and cities, local buses are one of the bus ways to get around, though schedules outside of large cities and especially on outlying islands, might be unreliable. Destinations tend be written in both traditional Chinese and Latin (English) script, making life a little easier for foreigners.

Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung have a mixed light rail/subway system which can get you around those cities quickly. While excellent in the inner city, getting to some of the outlying areas of town usually still requires taking the bus.

For finding your way around a city, navigation apps like Google Maps are quite reliable for trains and subways but less so for buses. Buses are usually numbered, making ensuring you are on the right line easier, but sometimes only written in traditional Chinese.

Paying for transportation is best done on the Easy Card.