Taipei in 4 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Four days gets you the whole Taipei city core, temples, the skyline, hot springs, and a riverside ride out to Tamsui, without leaving the metro network once. Buy an EasyCard on arrival. Prefer a mountain day trip instead of the bike ride? Our Taipei + Taiwan 3-day itinerary swaps one in; want a fifth in-city day, see the 5-day version .
Book these before you go:
- Ximending, Zhongshan, or Da’an stays on Agoda
- National Palace Museum tickets or a guided visit
- Everything else, temples, the observatory, YouBike, is walk-up or app-based, no advance booking needed
Base yourself in: Ximending for cheap eats and nightlife, Zhongshan for a central mid-range option near Songshan Airport, or Da’an for quieter streets and better cafes. All three sit on the MRT.
Day 1: temples and imperial treasures
Breakfast at a soy milk shop (NT$50-150) then Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, free grounds and Liberty Square, time it for the changing-of-the-guard if you can. The National Palace Museum is next, NT$350 adult, give it three to four hours for the jadeite cabbage, the meat-shaped stone, and the rest of one of the world’s best collections of Chinese imperial art. Lunch at Din Tai Fung (NT$500-800, a real queue, and a Taiwanese chain since 1958, not an import) or a cheaper Yongkang Street dumpling shop. Afternoon at Longshan Temple in Wanhua, free, thick with incense, one of the city’s oldest working temples. Dinner at Raohe Night Market instead of Shilin, better food-to-crowd ratio, NT$150-250 for a full round.
Day 1 spend: roughly NT$1,000-1,400 plus MRT fares.
Day 2: the skyline and the streets
Morning hike up Elephant Mountain, free, steep, 20-40 minutes, for the classic 101 skyline shot with no ticket required. Lunch in Ximending, street food for NT$100-150. Afternoon up Taipei 101 itself, standard ticket NT$600 for floors 88, 89, 91. Skip the NT$3,000 Skyline 460 skywalk unless it specifically matters to you. Correction worth knowing: 101 was the world’s tallest building only 2004-2010, not now. Dinner at Ningxia Night Market, NT$150-250, smaller and more local than Shilin.
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, no transfers needed. Free public foot baths; a proper hot-spring hotel soak costs extra. Afternoon on the Maokong Gondola up to the tea plantations, NT$70-120 one-way depending on stops, plus NT$50 for a glass-bottomed crystal cabin if you want it. Sit at a tea house for a pot of local oolong. Dinner around Yongkang Street, dense with good, reasonably priced restaurants near Da’an Forest Park.
Day 3 spend: roughly NT$300-600, more with a Beitou spa soak.
Day 4: Dadaocheng and Tamsui by bike
Morning at Dadaocheng, the old merchant quarter along the river: dried-goods shops, tea merchants, and a genuinely photogenic old street with a fraction of the crowds of a typical day-trip town. Rent a YouBike (remember the free bicycle injury insurance enrollment via the app is mandatory since January 1, 2026, do it before you try to unlock a bike) and ride the riverside path north to Tamsui, an easy, flat ride with the river on one side the whole way. In Tamsui, snack on iron eggs and a-gei (NT$50-100 combined) and catch the sunset over the harbor before the direct MRT ride back into the city, no transfers, easy after a long day.
Day 4 spend: roughly NT$100-200 in food and bike rental, the cheapest day of the trip by a wide margin.
| 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 |
| 4 | Dadaocheng, YouBike to Tamsui | NT$100-200 |
How much does 4 days in Taipei cost on a budget?
Total spend across the four days lands around NT$2,250-3,200 for food, tickets, and MRT fares, before your hotel. Day 4 is the cheapest by a wide margin since a bike rental and a plate of iron eggs beat any museum or observatory ticket on price.
Things to know: MRT runs about 6am-midnight and bans eating or drinking, water included, past the fare gates, fines run NT$1,500-7,500. Cash still matters at night markets and in Tamsui’s harborside food stalls even where EasyCard works elsewhere. Renting a YouBike anywhere on this trip now requires enrolling in free bicycle injury insurance through the app before your first ride, a rule since January 1, 2026.
One opinion worth acting on: skip Shilin entirely if your four days only fit two night markets. Raohe and Ningxia both beat it on food quality per crowd, and you won’t miss what you didn’t see. If Jiufen is still calling, don’t bolt it onto this trip, our Taipei + Taiwan itineraries build the north-coast day trip in properly instead.