Taiwan in 7 days
Taiwan is a loop and most people run it the wrong way. A week down the west on the fast train and back up the east coast, with the timing that matters.
Photo · Timo Volz · Pexels
Taiwan is a loop, and most itineraries run it the wrong way round.
Go anticlockwise. Down the west coast on the high-speed rail, across the south, and back up the east coast. The west is fast, flat and urban; the east is slow, mountainous and the best part. This order gets the transit done early and finishes on the good stretch.
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Taroko Gorge is the headline sight of the east coast and it is not fully open. The gorge was badly damaged by the April 2024 earthquake and by typhoons since, and reopening has been staged trail by trail with closures still in place.
Check the national park's own status before you build a day around it, rather than trusting a guide or a tour listing. The park publishes current trail and road conditions.
The east coast is worth the trip regardless, and the specific walk you have seen photographs of may not be available.
The seven days
Days 1 to 3: Taipei
Three days for the city, the night markets and either the hot springs at Beitou or a day trip to Jiufen. Our three-day Taipei route has the detail and the areas guide picks the base and explains why the unlimited transport pass usually is not worth buying.
Day 4: Taichung and Sun Moon Lake, or straight to Tainan
The high-speed rail runs the length of the west coast in about 90 minutes end to end, which makes the west a series of stops rather than a journey.
Taichung for the Rainbow Village and the Miyahara ice cream parlour in an old ophthalmology clinic, and as the gateway to Sun Moon Lake, which is an hour inland by bus and is the prettiest inland spot on the island.
Or skip both and run straight to Tainan, which is the better call if you only have a week and prefer old cities to lakes.
Days 5 and 6: Tainan and Kaohsiung
Tainan is the old capital and the best food city in Taiwan. Danzai noodles, milkfish congee for breakfast, coffin bread, and the Anping district with its fort and the tree house where banyan roots have grown through a warehouse.
Give it a full day and a night. It is the most underrated city on the island.
Kaohsiung, forty minutes further south, is the port city: the Pier-2 art district, the Lotus Pond dragon and tiger pagodas, and the ferry to Cijin island for seafood.
Day 7: the east coast back to Taipei
This is the day the loop is for. The conventional railway runs up the east coast between the mountains and the Pacific, and it is one of the great train journeys in Asia.
Break it at Hualien for Taroko, subject to the closures above, or at Taitung for the East Rift Valley and the rice terraces at Chishang.
The high-speed rail does not serve the east coast. The TRA conventional line does, and the express trains sell out, so book the seat rather than turning up.
If you have ten days
Add Kenting at the southern tip for the beaches and the national park, Alishan for the forest railway and the sea of clouds at sunrise, or Penghu offshore for the basalt columns and the beaches.
Alishan is the best of the three and needs two nights to be worth the climb.
Getting around
The high-speed rail on the west, which is fast, frequent and expensive by Taiwanese standards and cheap by Japanese ones.
The TRA conventional line on the east, slower and the only option.
An EasyCard for local transport in every city. Our Taipei areas guide has the fares and the break-even arithmetic on the unlimited passes.
A hire car is only worth it for the east coast and the mountain roads, where the bus timetables are thin. In the cities it is a liability.
What we would skip
Skip the Taipei 101 observatory in favour of Elephant Mountain, which is free and has the tower in the photograph. Our Taipei route makes the case.
Skip Shilin night market if you are only doing one. Raohe and Ningxia are both better for food.
Skip trying to fit Alishan into a week. It is a two-night detour into the mountains and squeezing it turns a good week into a rushed one.
And skip the clockwise loop. Finishing on the west coast means ending the trip in a high-speed rail station rather than on the Pacific.
When to go
April is the best month, after the winter damp and before the plum rains, which our April guide argues at length.
October and November are the other window, once the typhoon season eases.
Typhoon season runs roughly July to October, and a direct hit closes transport and the mountain roads for a day or two, so a week in those months wants a flexible day in it.
The plum rains in May and June are a genuine wet season on a small island and are worth avoiding if the trip is about being outside.
Checked 21 Aug 2026.
Everything we check for Taiwan →We have not checked Taiwan against the five passports yet. The tool reads the Wikipedia article for yours and shows its own sentence, with the date it was last edited.
Short tourist stays only. Checked 21 Aug 2026; rules change without notice and the government page is the source of truth.
Check your own passport →Before you book
Three days in Taipei is the city half of this route in detail, and where to stay in Taipei picks the base.
Our April guide makes the case for the month, and solo travel destinations explains why Taiwan is one of the easiest countries in Asia to travel alone.
The itineraries hub collects the rest and the Taiwan country page has the practical layer.
Trail closures and transport detail checked September 2026 against Taroko National Park and Taiwan's official tourism site. Taroko's reopening is being staged and the position changes, so check the park directly in the week you travel. Here is how we research and re-check guides.
