The public transport network in Taipei seems to be well developed. However, I can’t tell you much about the bus trips because I didn’t really understand the system. This was mainly due to my lack of knowledge of Chinese characters.
There is also a Sightseeing Bus (Hop on, Hop off) but here too, the problem arises that the departure points are not made clear enough – or maybe it was me, you are welcome to try it out and then tell me.
Another disadvantage of these buses is that they run very far clocked. So you might have to wait 45 minutes until the next one passes by. Where I’m not sure if there’s only one on the blue and one on the red route anyway 😉.
The MRT works without any problems and besides the Chinese characters, there are also Latin letters to recognize where you are going.
Basically it’s very cheap. Here you pay by distance. If you drive 30 km you pay 65 NT$ (approx. 2 Dollar US). 5 km 20 NT$ (0,64 Dollar US). A day ticket until midnight costs 150 NT$ (4,79 Dolalr US) and for 24 hours 200 NT$ (6,39 Dollar US). If you are here longer, I recommend the Easycard, which you can recharge at the MRT stations or in the 7/11. You will also receive a 20% discount on each trip with the card.
More information about the metro in Taipei can be found here.
Taxis are comparatively cheap. The basic taxi fee in the city is 70 NT$ (2,23 Dollar US), plus 5 NT$ (0,16 Dollar US) every 500 meters. Most taxi drivers do not speak English! Here it is recommended to have the destination in Chinese characters.
From the airport you need about 40 – 50 minutes by taxi and that costs about 1300 NT$ (about 41 dollars US). The airport is located 40 km west of Taipei.
I have not tried the trains and tour buses, but you are welcome to do so and I would be happy to hear about your experiences. Maybe these pages will help you:
- The Taiwan High Speed Train page is in English.
- The one for the trains not really 😉.
Here are the Taiwan Tour Buses with which you can get cheaply to sights in the country.
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