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TIME FOR TAIWAN: THE SMALL ISLAND WITH MANY LAYERS

Taiwan has long rewarded travelers who like journeys with plentiful variation: a capital that feels both contemporary and traditional, a food culture that ranges from night markets to meticulous fine dining, and landscapes that shift quickly from mountain air to sea views. The best place to start is Taipei itself. With Capella Taipei now offering a world-class urban base, Asia's most underrated capital is a strong Remote Lands recommendation for 2026. From there, Taiwan opens up into tea country, coastal drives, heritage strongholds, and a south that deserves far more than a passing mention.

TAIPEI’S PERFECT BALANCE

Capella Taipei

Capella Taipei gives the city a compelling new luxury anchor. Conceived as an 86-key urban retreat, it brings André Fu’s refined “modern mansion” sensibility to the capital, along with five dining venues and wellness facilities. It is a fitting base for a city that increasingly reveals itself through texture and contrast rather than obvious spectacle.

That contemporary energy runs through Taipei’s creative districts. Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, a former tobacco factory turned design hub, offers a useful way into the city’s current mood, while Huashan 1914 Creative Park adds exhibitions, installations, and a more improvisational cultural pulse. Then there is Ximending: youthful, fast-moving, a little rainbow-tinged, and one of the best places to feel the city in motion. Set against all this modernity is the enduring gravity of the National Palace Museum, whose peerless collection of Chinese art and artifacts remains one of the great cultural experiences in Asia.

CLASSIC PLEASURES, REWRITTEN

Following the coast under the Qingshui Cliffs.

Taiwan’s better-known pleasures still more than justify themselves, but they are best approached with a lighter touch. Food remains one of the great reasons to come. Taipei’s night markets are still essential, though less for box-ticking than for the sheer concentration of appetite and atmosphere: bowls of beef noodles, peppery snacks pulled hot from the griddle, and decadent desserts. Tea, too, remains fundamental to understanding Taiwan, whether encountered in a formal ceremony, in the mountain traditions that shape its finest leaves, or on a detour into Pinglin’s tea country, where tastings and the Tea Museum pair naturally with views over nearby Thousand-Island Lake.

For those willing to range a little farther, Kavalan offers another expression of Taiwanese craft, its Yilan distillery producing whiskies that have long since outgrown novelty status. And for a classic northern arc from Taipei, Jiufen, Shifen, and Yehliu still make a rewarding trio: old hillside lanes, sky lanterns drifting upwards, and wind-carved rock formations that feel almost theatrical. The drive past Qingshui Cliffs remains one of Taiwan’s great scenic gestures, with mountain walls dropping toward the Pacific in a sweep that is both dramatic and strangely composed.
 

A SECOND TAIWAN IN THE SOUTH

Fo Guang Shan

To head south is to encounter a different register of Taiwan. Kaohsiung feels looser, broader, and more outward-looking, with its waterfront districts and the revived Pier-2 Art Center giving the city a creative confidence that is easy to underestimate from afar. It is also the natural gateway to Fo Guang Shan, whose monumental Buddhist complex offers a quieter, more contemplative counterweight to the city’s urban edge.

Then there is Tainan, the island’s former capital and, in some ways, its most atmospheric city. Slower in tempo and heavier with history, it rewards those who prefer depth over gloss: temples tucked into old streets, traces of Dutch rule, and a snack culture that gives the city its own edible identity. Together, Kaohsiung and Tainan make the strongest case for extending a Taiwan journey beyond Taipei.

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