Taipei in 3 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Three days is the sweet spot for the city core without rushing: temples and museum on day one, skyline and shopping on day two, hot springs and tea on day three. Get an EasyCard before you do anything else. Only got two days? Use our 2-day version ; got a fourth, see the 4-day itinerary .
Book these before you go:
- Ximending, Da’an, or Zhongshan stays on Agoda , all three bases below sit on the MRT
- Maokong Gondola and tea-house tastings if you’d rather not figure out the crystal-cabin queue yourself
- Everything else on this route (temples, the observatory, the night markets) is walk-up, no advance ticket needed
Where to base yourself: Ximending for budget and nightlife, Da’an if you want quieter streets near National Taiwan University, or Zhongshan for a mid-range middle ground close to Songshan Airport. All three sit on the MRT.
Day 1: old town and imperial art
Breakfast at a soy milk shop like Fuhang (NT$50-150 for the works: soy milk, youtiao, dan bing) before heading to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, free grounds, free Liberty Square, and a changing-of-the-guard ceremony worth timing your visit around. Next: the National Palace Museum, NT$350 adult, budget three to four hours for one of the world’s great collections of Chinese imperial art, jadeite cabbage and meat-shaped stone included.
Lunch options run the range: Din Tai Fung for xiao long bao (NT$500-800 a person, expect a line, and know it’s a Taiwanese chain that started as a Taipei oil shop in 1958, not an import) or a Yongkang Street dumpling shop for half that price and comparable quality. Afternoon takes you to Longshan Temple in Wanhua, free, incense-thick, and one of the oldest working temples in the city. Dinner at Raohe Street Night Market, skip Shilin tonight, Raohe gives you better food for less elbow-to-elbow crowding. Budget NT$150-250 for a full round of street food.
Day 1 spend: roughly NT$1,000-1,400 depending on lunch choice, plus MRT fares.
Day 2: skyline and street culture
Climb Elephant Mountain (Xiangshan) in the morning, free, steep, 20-40 minutes, and the reward is the classic Taipei 101 skyline photo without paying for it. Head to Ximending for lunch, street food runs NT$100-150, and the pedestrian core is worth wandering regardless. In the afternoon, go up Taipei 101 itself: standard observatory ticket (88F, 89F, 91F) is NT$600. Skip the NT$3,000 Skyline 460 outdoor add-on unless the skywalk specifically matters to you, you already got the free view earlier. Worth knowing: 101 was the world’s tallest building 2004 to 2010 only, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa took the title after that.
Evening at Ningxia Night Market for dinner, smaller and more local than Shilin, budget NT$150-250. If you’d rather sit down, a family-run beef noodle shop runs NT$150-250 a bowl and usually beats the tourist-facing restaurants near the big sights.
Day 2 spend: roughly NT$850-1,000, plus MRT fares.
Day 3: hot springs and tea plantations
Morning in Beitou, direct MRT via the Xinbeitou branch line, no transfers. The public foot baths are free; a proper hot-spring hotel soak runs extra if you want the full spa experience. Wander Thermal Valley before you go. In the afternoon, take the Maokong Gondola up to the tea plantations, NT$70-120 one-way depending on how many stops you ride (add NT$50 for a glass-bottomed crystal cabin), and sit down at one of the tea houses for a pot of locally grown oolong with a view over the city.
For your last dinner, Yongkang Street near Da’an Forest Park has a dense cluster of good, reasonably priced restaurants, easier on both your feet and your wallet than a splurge after two full days of walking.
Day 3 spend: roughly NT$300-600 for gondola and tea, more if you add a spa soak in Beitou.
| Day | Focus | Rough spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Temples, National Palace Museum, Raohe Night Market | NT$1,000-1,400 |
| 2 | Elephant Mountain, Ximending, Taipei 101, Ningxia Night Market | NT$850-1,000 |
| 3 | Beitou hot springs, Maokong Gondola, Yongkang Street | NT$300-600 |
How much does 3 days in Taipei cost on a budget?
Plan on NT$2,150-3,000 total across the three days for food, tickets, and MRT fares, before your hotel. Day 3 is the cheapest by far since the two main costs, Beitou’s foot baths and the free viewpoint on Day 2, don’t charge admission at all.
Things to know: the MRT runs about 6am to midnight and bans eating or drinking, water included, past the fare gates, with fines of NT$1,500-7,500. Cash still matters at night-market stalls even though EasyCard works almost everywhere else. If you’re renting a YouBike anywhere in this itinerary, tourists have had to enroll in the free bicycle injury insurance through the app before their first ride unlocks, a rule since January 1, 2026.
Three days won’t stretch to Jiufen and still leave time for Beitou and Maokong properly, that mountain town is a half-day-plus trip on its own, not a quick add-on. Our 3-day Taipei + Taiwan itinerary builds that day trip in instead of this one, if that’s the version you want.