Tips for a more budget travel in Taiwan
Are you planning to travel to Taiwan? Are you travelling around asia and you want to include Taiwan but you’re not sure it will fit your budget? Here we will be discussing some ways to budget travel in Taiwan and reduce the cost of travelling around Taiwan so you get the chance to travel this country on a budget. Taiwan is a country you certainly don’t want to miss out on, its often a country that people skip so its low in relatively low in tourism for western people. In general is Taiwan more expensive in comparison to the rest of south east asia, but with some effort and some of these tips you can still do it on a smaller budget!
Accommodation for budget travel in Taiwan
The cheapest way to stay in Taiwan are the hostels. There are hostels all over Taiwan, so you don’t have to worry about finding them. The average dorm price is between 13 and 16 usd. If you’re lucky you can find cheaper ones and if you want some more comfort there will always be more expensive ones. Hostels are always the way to go to meet new people for if you’re solo travelling. If you’re really adventurous you can always try using couchsurfing. Couchsurfing is a community where you send messages to people that host people for free, they do this to meet new people, discover different cultures or to practise language.
Transportation for budget travel in Taiwan
For transportation around taiwan, public transportation is the most convenient and cheapest way there is. The public transportation system is very well organized and easy to use. The MRT (subway) in taipei for getting around Taipei is a fast and fairly cheap way to get around the city, you can also use the local bus to explore the city and they also drive in all other parts of Taiwan. You have the express bus that can take you to neighbouring cities or towns. They are a bit more expensive but its still alright. For trains you have 3 types of trains. The express train, the semi-express train and a local train. The local train is the cheapest option but also the slowest, the semi-express is somewhere inbetween and the express train is the fastest but also most expensive to cost the country but its still fairly priced. You also have the THSR (Taiwan high speed rail) but this one is very expensive and you have to book in advance.
Food
There are many small local food restaurants that offer a wide variety of local cuisine for a very good price. You can also opt for street food, there are small stands at the side of the road that sell local things very cheap and if you’re into street food you can’t miss the nightmarket. Almost all towns and cities have a nightmarket they’re not everywhere open all day so make sure you check when they are open. In Taipei you will almost everyday find a nightmarket thats open. The prices of local food in Taiwan can be find for a price between 1-3 usd, you can go crazy ofcourse but if you’re budget travelling you can find some delicous streetfood for this price. They’re some unique dishes to find like stinky tofu, this is fermented tofu that smell a bit weird like the name suggests and they pour some sauces over it, its a very loved dish. Other examples are different type of fishballs, ommelette pancakes, pork rice, and don’t forget to try the famous bubble tea while you’re in Taiwan.
