One day trip theme is enough—pick one anchor, leave buffer, and come back for dinner.
01 · Day trips
Day trips are best when they feel spacious. Choose one primary anchor (old street, coast, waterfall, hot springs), then add at most one nearby stop. Your photos, your mood, and your feet all improve when you’re not rushing.
Yellow pins are day trips outside Taipei city.
Day tripA classic night-market day trip outside Taipei, wrapped around the historic Dianji Temple—‘Miaokou’ means ‘temple entrance.’ More than 200 food stalls line roughly 400 meters of Ren 3rd Road with port-city seafood snacks, from pork-rib soup to the famous ‘nutritious sandwich.’ Perfect after a north-coast or Yehliu afternoon.
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Day tripA former coal-mining town—once Taiwan’s most productive—reborn as a cat village in 2008, where free-roaming cats wander among preserved railway and mining-era structures. An easy, photogenic stop right beside the station on the way to the Pingxi Line.
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Day tripOn the slopes above Houtong’s famous cat village, this free open-air park preserves what was once Taiwan’s most productive coal mine. The Ruisan operation ran from the 1930s until 1990; today you can walk among the coal-transport bridge, the old preparation plant, Japanese-era ruins and a historical trail for real “old Taiwan” texture.
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Day tripA scenic, history-rich hillside above Jiufen where Taiwan’s biggest gold and copper mines once ran under Japanese rule. Its Gold Ecological Park and Gold Museum tell the mining story – including a 220 kg gold bar you can touch – with mountain views and a calmer pace than the old-street crowds.
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Day tripOpened in 2004 in the old mining town of Jinguashi, this open-air “ecology museum” tells the story of the region’s gold and copper boom. Highlights include a 220kg solid-gold ingot you can actually touch, the Benshan Fifth Tunnel where you can step underground, and restored Japanese-era buildings — real context for any Jiufen-area day trip.
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Day tripA mountainous headland on Taiwan’s northeast coast nicknamed the ‘Taiwanese Great Wall’—dramatic sea-eroded landforms, a clifftop lighthouse, and big ocean views about 50 km east of Taipei. The clifftop and lighthouse section has been closed for landslide safety, so it's worth a quick check before you go.
Read more →Day tripA small white lighthouse first built in 1897, perched on the dramatic headland of Bitou Cape in Ruifang on New Taipei’s northeast coast. The lighthouse compound itself is currently off-limits, but the surrounding Bitoujiao coastal trail delivers the cliffs, sea-carved rock platforms, and big ocean views that make this stretch famous.
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Day tripA classic half-day escape from Taipei: a riverside walkway and a shop-lined street along the Tamsui River, packed with local snacks and famous for its sunset views—nostalgic, relaxed, and reached in one quick MRT ride.
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Day tripA riverside escape in Xindian, New Taipei—built around a 1937 suspension bridge that lights up after dark, with pedal boats, an easy hike, and a relaxed pace. Ideal when you want a day-trip vibe without spending the whole day in transit.
Read more →Day tripA dedicated tea museum in the mountain town of Pinglin, New Taipei — open since 1997 — with exhibitions on tea history and culture plus free gardens, trails, and pavilions. A calm, affordable day trip for travelers who want to understand Taiwan tea beyond bubble tea.
Read more →Day tripA beach escape on the northeast coast—about 3 km of fine golden sand at the mouth of the Shuangxi River, home to the annual Fulong International Sand Sculpture Festival. Best for warm months when you want ocean air and a full ‘different Taiwan’ day outside the city.
Read more →Day tripKeelung’s ‘rainbow harbor’: a 1934 Japanese-built fishing port whose row of waterfront houses was repainted in vivid colours in 2018, turning it into one of northern Taiwan’s favourite photo stops. Best as a short, high-payoff add-on to Heping Island or a Keelung food day.
Read more →Day tripA coastal geopark on the northeast tip of Keelung, Heping Island is laced with wave-cut platforms, tofu rocks and pedestal rock formations sculpted by the sea. Once called Sheliao Island — where the Spanish built San Salvador castle in 1626 — it’s a high-payoff, mostly-outdoors “different Taiwan” day with big ocean scenery.
Read more →Day tripA ~260 m heritage street of over 100 preserved houses, with red-brick Baroque-style arcades from Japanese-colonial renovations—plus the carving-rich Qingshui Zushi Temple next door. A photogenic, snack-driven day trip best paired with Yingge.
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Day tripThe heart of Taiwan’s ‘ceramics capital’—hundreds of pottery factories and artisan shops cluster along Wenhua Road and Ceramics Street. Browse for a practical souvenir, try a DIY workshop, and pair it with neighbouring Sanxia or the Ceramics Museum.
Read more →Day tripA famous Pingxi Line stop where a ~300 m old street runs directly along active railway tracks—release a sky lantern, browse small-town snacks, cross the Jing’an suspension bridge, and combine it with Shifen Waterfall for a full day.
Read more →Day tripA ~300 m pedestrian old street known as the ‘Hometown of Tofu’—stinky tofu, tofu popsicles and dried tofu made with mountain spring water, set among preserved Baroque red-brick architecture. A great half-day outing without long transit.
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Day tripA small, atmospheric old street in New Taipei’s Shiding District, built along the Beishi River with rare stilt houses and a shaded “street without sunlight.” Once a tea-and-coal trading hub, it’s now a quiet riverside escape — best for travelers who like under-the-radar finds.
Read more →Day tripA roughly 300-year-old street on Taiwan’s north coast—said to be the only remaining Qing-dynasty old street in the area—famous for ‘Jinbaoli duck’ and traditional market snacks. Ideal as a food stop on a Yehliu or Keelung day.
Read more →Day tripA former gold-mining town in the mountains of Ruifang, New Taipei—stepped alleys, red-lantern-lit lanes, and traditional teahouses made famous after Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1989 film ‘A City of Sadness’. A high-atmosphere day trip; start early and stay for the lanterns at dusk.
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Day tripTaiwan’s broadest waterfall—about 20 m high and 40 m wide on the Keelung River, nicknamed the ‘Little Niagara of Taiwan’. A free, family-friendly nature stop on the Pingxi Line, best paired with Shifen Old Street’s sky-lantern releases.
Read more →Day tripA mountain-town day trip south of Taipei—Atayal indigenous heritage, sodium-bicarbonate hot springs, and river-valley air, with a slower rhythm when the city feels dense.
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Day tripA historic mountain town with a century of coal-mining history—preserved ‘long’ houses, Japanese-colonial storefronts, and the famous sky-lantern tradition. The Pingxi Line runs right past the street, making it a day-trip classic best paired with Shifen.
Read more →Day tripA ~700 m rocky cape on Taiwan’s northern coast, famous for mushroom-shaped ‘hoodoo’ rocks and the iconic ‘Queen’s Head’—sculpted by sea and wind over thousands of years. A coastline day trip best on a clear day, right at opening to beat the tour groups.
Read more →Day tripA classic Tamsui stop with deep history layers: first built by the Spanish in 1628, rebuilt by the Dutch in 1642 as ‘Fort Antonio,’ and later leased by Britain as a consulate. Known locally as Hongmaocheng (‘Fort of the Red-Haired’), it pairs a thick-walled stone fort and a Victorian British consular residence with a hilltop view over the Tamsui River.
Read more →Day tripA sunset-forward waterfront at the mouth of the Tamsui River—come for the long wooden boardwalk, the sail-shaped Lover’s Bridge, the rotating Lover’s Tower, and the ‘end of day’ feeling that’s hard to get in the city center.
Read more →Day tripA sleek white cable-stayed pedestrian bridge at the mouth of the Tamsui River—about 196 m of curved deck shaped like a sailing ship’s mast, named on Valentine’s Day 2003. A premier sunset viewpoint that lights up with rainbow projection-mapping after dark.
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Day tripTaiwan’s first museum dedicated to ceramics—opened in 2000 in a striking concrete-and-glass building in Yingge, with exhibitions on Taiwanese pottery, hands-on DIY classes, and an outdoor arts district. A great culture, craft, and rainy-day day trip.
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Day tripA hillside Taoist temple complex above Tamsui, crowned by a striking five-storey circular ‘Temple of Heaven.’ It’s most famous for cherry blossoms — Taiwan cherry in late January to mid-February and Yoshino cherry roughly a month later — drawing big spring crowds.
Read more →Day tripYilan’s famous town of flatland hot springs, where clear, odourless sodium-bicarbonate water surfaces in the heart of town. It’s one of the most train-accessible soaks from Taipei – pair a public footbath or private bathhouse with a waterfall walk or a Luodong night-market dinner.
Read more →Day tripA three-tiered waterfall in the Wufengqi Scenic Area of Jiaoxi, Yilan, dropping a combined 100 metres beneath five flag-shaped peaks. The lower two tiers are an easy, leafy walk, making it a perfect pre-soak add-on to a Jiaoxi hot-springs day.
Read more →Day tripYilan’s largest and best-loved night market, wrapped around Luodong’s Zhongshan Park. It’s the natural evening finish to a Jiaoxi or Yilan day trip – a dense, lively snack crawl of regional specialities like smoked duck, scallion pancakes and Luodong’s own iced-bean cassava dessert.
Read more →Day tripA 24-hectare cultural park on the bank of Yilan’s Dongshan River, opened in 2002 to preserve and showcase Taiwan’s traditional arts. Wander a Folk Art Boulevard of craft demonstrations, visit Wenchang Temple, and catch Taiwanese opera or glove-puppet shows — an easy, family-friendly day trip from Taipei.
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Day tripOnce a thriving river port for camphor and tea, Daxi is famous for the ornate baroque shophouse façades its merchants built in the early 1900s under Japanese rule. Heping Old Street is the heart of it, lined with carved storefronts, woodcraft workshops, and the town’s celebrated braised dried tofu — a relaxed, photogenic Taoyuan day trip.
Read more →Day tripA genuinely unusual Taoyuan day-trip stop: a lakeside park near the Cihu Mausoleum where more than a hundred statues of Chiang Kai-shek — removed from schools, parks, and plazas across Taiwan — have been collected together. Free to enter, it’s a thought-provoking walk through a singular chapter of Taiwan’s recent history.
Read more →Day tripA vast Taoyuan reservoir ringed by mountains and lakeside trails, opened in 1964 as one of Taiwan’s largest. It adds open views and fresh air to a day trip — best combined with Daxi Old Street or Cihu for a relaxed ‘nature + culture’ day, with fish-street restaurants for lunch.
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