Where to stay

Taipei's central Xinyi district, home to the Taipei 101 skyscraper, is an affluent, modern neighborhood with an amazing selection of restaurants. As luck will have it, this neighborhood also has some of the city's best hotels. More traditional Wanhua District in West Taipei is another great place to stay and provides easy access to Taipei's best hawker stalls. This bustling retail and nightlife neighborhood also has the city's three major night markets. Book a hotel in hip and trendy Ximending (aka Shi-men Ting or Ximen) to be in a neighborhood that has hugely popular restaurants along neon-lit shopping streets. This is the place to try Taiwanese mee sua (wheat flour noodles). Find budget accommodations in nearby Shida, which is young at heart with its cheap Taiwanese restaurants aimed at the students of the national university.

The luxury accommodations in Taipei's Zhongshan neighborhood are close to the city's riverside parks and Ferris wheel, as well as many other great attractions for families. For epic views of the Taipei 101 tower in Xinyi, teens (and fit parents) may enjoy hiking to the summit of Xiangshan, or "Elephant Mountain." Nearby Nangang is great neighborhood to stay if you want to get an early start on the hike to beat the tropical heat in summer. Another highlight in this neighborhood is taking the Maokong Gondola up to the Taipei Zoo, just to the south. Closer to Taipei's city center, the leafy and residential Da'an District has a big forest park, as well as quiet tea houses and hotels for some downtime with the kids. Don't limit yourself to the capital though; New Taipei City, farther down the river, and nearby Keelung on Taiwan's east coast, are other great places to stay for family vacations.

Taipei's northern Shilin district has the National Palace Museum and the huge Shilin Night Market, two of the city's star attractions. While this neighborhood isn't that central, it may suit culture buffs. The traditional Zhongshan neighborhood, just to the south, has some of the city's most-visited temples and shrines, as well as a good selection of luxury hotels for those wishing to enjoy the riverside parks as well. The even more central Zhongzheng district, with its huge range of hotels for all budgets, is conveniently close to many of the city's main cultural attractions, including the very impressive Liberty Square and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. From central Zhongzheng hotels it's possible to stroll to the 2/28 Peace Memorial Park, the site of the National Taiwan Museum.

Zhongshan has some of Taipei's most prestigious modern and fine arts museums and finding a good hotel in this central neighborhood is easy. An alternative is booking accommodations in the central Zhongzheng neighborhood to be closer to the Huashan 1914 Creative Park. Art enthusiasts will also love the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in affluent Xinyi, where the hotels are some of the city's most popular places to stay, especially those around the Taipei 101 tower. The historic Red House Theatre in the Ximending neighborhood of the Wanhua District is not just a creative hub for aspiring artists, but also the epicenter of the city's LGBTQI scene. There are countless bars and wonderful little craft and gift shops to discover for those who base themselves here.

Taipei has a huge amount of shopping options and, since the Taiwanese are famously tech-savvy, there are plenty of stores with the latest in electronic products. The hotels around the Taipei Main Station in Zhongzheng are among the most central and convenient places to stay for shopping. The Ximending neighborhood, just west of Taipei Main Station in the Wanhua District, was the first place in Taiwan to have a pedestrian mall. The shops along its central Zhong Hua Street, outside the Ximen Station, are great for souvenir and gift shopping, especially for families with excitable teens. The area's street performers will keep the rest of the family entertained. The much quieter, leafy Da'an District has become very residential lately, but still has some great hotels and traditional and trendy shops, night markets, tea houses and lunch cafés where visitors can mingle with the neighborhood's expat community.