Taiwan
A compact island of night markets and high mountains, stitched together by one of the best railways in Asia.
Taiwan is the easiest country in the region to travel and one of the most underrated. The island is small — roughly the length of Scotland — and the High-Speed Rail runs the populated west coast end to end in well under two hours, so Taipei breakfast and Tainan dinner is an ordinary day. The west is flat and urban; the centre and east rear up into a spine of peaks over three kilometres high, with marble gorges and tea terraces tucked into the folds. Most Western passports get visa-free entry for ninety days, the currency is the New Taiwan dollar (TWD), and a single tap-and-go EasyCard covers metros, buses, trains, and even convenience-store snacks across the country. The food culture is the real draw: night markets are an institution, the people are genuinely, disarmingly kind, and nothing here is expensive.
Cities & Regions
When to Go
Autumn (October–November) and spring (March–April) are the sweet spots — warm, dry, and clear, with the cherry blossom arriving in the high mountains in March. The two windows worth working around are the plum rains (mei-yu) of May and June, which can grey out the sky for days, and typhoon season from July to September, when a single storm can shut the east-coast roads and railways. Summer is hot and sticky island-wide. Winters are damp and chilly in the north around Taipei, but stay mild and pleasant down south in Tainan and Kaohsiung — a good reason to head to the bottom of the island in January.
| Season | Months | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Spring | Mar–Apr | Warm and clear; mountain cherry blossom; the best all-round window. |
| Plum rains | May–Jun | Long humid grey spells (mei-yu); workable but unreliable skies. |
| Typhoon & summer | Jul–Sep | Hot and humid; storms can close east-coast roads and rail — watch the forecast. |
| Autumn | Oct–Nov | Dry, mild, and bright — peak travel weather. |
| Winter | Dec–Feb | Damp and cool in the north; mild and sunny in the south. |
Entry is straightforward for most travellers — see our visa notes for the ninety-day visa-free arrangement and the latest on arrival requirements. When you are ready to plan on the ground, the illustrated Taiwan maps cover every region on this page and a dozen more.