How to Spend 48 Hours in Taipei

Name: How to Spend 48 Hours in Taipei
Uploaded: 2026-08-04T17:49:53+00:00
Duration: 13 min 24 s
Channel: Condé Nast Traveler

00:00Taipei is one of Asia's best-kept secrets. It's the home of buzzy night markets, scenic heights,

00:06centuries-old temples, and one of the world's most exciting new hotels. And it's all packed

00:12into these incredible walkable neighborhoods. I'm going to show you how to spend 48 hours here,

00:18including where to stay, what to eat, and how to experience the culture of this small but welcoming

00:33city. Temples are woven into the everyday life here, and you'll find temples of all sizes in

00:38all different types of neighborhoods. People like to stop by after work, before work, during their

00:43lunch break, and so there's not any sort of like formality or a strict policy here. It's very

00:48welcoming and opening to everyone. Just make sure that you look up the details on the ceilings,

00:53rooftops. There's just so much to see. So usually when we arrive at a temple, we usually introduce

01:01ourselves. We say our name, we say our address, where we're from, and maybe while we're here,

01:05to kind of just let the deities know our purpose for the visit.

01:11In this temple, there are several different deities, and people pray to them for different

01:15purposes. For example, there's career, health, wealth, love.

01:30There's nowhere else you would feel more like you're in the middle of everything

01:33than standing in the middle of a night market. A night market isn't just about the food. It's like

01:39plugging into the electricity and pulse of the city. The sounds, the lights, the smells, the people.

01:45It's Taipei at its most alive. Raohe Night Market officially opened in 1987, but I feel like the

01:52character and soul is so much older than that. Today, it has hundreds of stalls, several which are

01:58featured in the Michelin Guide. My strategy for navigating a night market, I think a good rule of

02:03thumb is to follow the lines. If you see a long queue, especially of locals, you know it's going to

02:09be a good

02:10spot. And the most important thing is to pace yourself. I kind of like to treat it like a five

02:15course meal. I'll go in with an appetizer, a second appetizer, a main course, a second main course, a

02:21dessert and a drink because there's just so much to eat and you don't want to fill yourself up on

02:25the

02:26first thing that you see. So these are like deep fried sweet potato balls. They're kind of like our

02:32version of like a donut ball, but they're a little sweet, a little savory, and they're my daughter's

02:37favorite snack. So every time we go to a night market, we have to get this. So country, so good.

02:48Beer bar.

02:57So this is like a guapao, which is basically like a Chinese hamburger. It's in a steamed bun. There's

03:03braised pork belly, cilantro, pickled mustard greens, which is kind of like a sauerkraut and

03:09topped with crushed peanuts or like a peanut butter. So bubble tea was invented in Taiwan in the 1980s.

03:22But since then, it's been taking off all over the world. So if you're to visit Taipei,

03:27you will have to try our bubble tea. So this is the infamous stinky tofu and a must try, in

03:33my opinion,

03:34at any night market. Really just fried tofu with an extra layer of fermentation. It's crispy on the

03:41outside and soft on the inside. And to be honest, the smell is part of the experience. You just have

03:46to commit to it. It's really good. The food is the reason you come here, but it's the people that

03:51make the

03:52experience fun. You'll see grandparents bringing their grandchildren here for a snack. You'll see

03:57couples on a date. And speaking of dates, this is where my husband and I went on our first date.

04:03And I think that's why I love the night market. It's very casual. You're just walking and chatting

04:08and eating and laughing. It's the most natural setting, I think.

04:17Capella Taipei is on Conde Nast Traveler's hot list. And it's easy to see why. The hotel is imagined as

04:24a

04:24modern mansion. Calm, residential, and merging bespoke luxury with architectural elements inspired

04:31by local culture. My first impression was the quietness. Which sounds strange for a hotel in the

04:38middle of Taipei. But that's exactly it. You walk through the doors and the city just falls away.

04:45It doesn't feel like a hotel lobby. It feels like walking into someone's very beautiful home. At the

04:51base of the grand staircase, there's a sculpture called Quiet Dynamics, which is 10 stacked hardwood

04:57blocks that trace the shape of a calla lily. And that choice is so deliberate because we have a huge

05:02calla lily festival every spring in Yao Ming Sen, which is the mountain right above Taipei. And I

05:08think that design choice really sets the tone for everything that follows. In Taipei, you get two

05:14types of days. It's either hot and humid or it's raining. And I think that's part of the whole Taipei

05:20experience. And what I love about the hotel is that there's so much to do indoors. There's a great

05:25wellness spa, restaurants, bars, and weather permitting. You can go to the 14th floor rooftop pool,

05:32which gives you this amazing panoramic view of Taipei, including 101. So the hotel doesn't have like

05:40a lounge. They have what is called a living room because it's designed as a modern mansion. And if

05:46you take a look, there's real fire. It's not every day that you see a fireplace here in Taipei.

05:51I love this space. It looks like a friend's kitchen or like a pantry. And there's so many snacks.

05:59A lot of these are from local vendors. It's really good.

06:20The Fuzhou Trail is also part of the Taipei Da Zhongzhou, which is the Grand Taipei Trail,

06:26which is basically a hike that connects all the mountains surrounding Taipei. So you could hike

06:31the circumference of the city if you wanted to. But what I really love about getting up here is the

06:36perspective. Down on street level, you'll see all these snapshots of life, the streets and the alleys

06:42and the people. But once you get up here and you zoom out, you kind of notice that all those

06:47little

06:47moments are all part of a bigger, grander, more beautiful picture. And I always get this overwhelming

06:53sense of pride for the city whenever I'm up here. The best thing about Taipei is that there's genuinely

06:59something for everyone here. But I think what makes Taipei truly special is the people. They're

07:06incredibly welcoming. And that warmth is woven into the everyday fabric of the city.

07:11I really like this neighborhood where we're in, where Capella Taipei is an integral part of,

07:16because it has so many hidden gems where you can actually easily connect to Taipei's local heritage,

07:22to the culture, to the food, to the drinks, but also to the people. Welcome to Wolf Tea Shop,

07:31established since 2014 part of our major community. I feel like tea culture before it was just like

07:37our grandparents or our older generations, but now it's really a lot of the younger generations.

07:44They're being very creative with tea. Tea shops also crafted cocktails with tea, brewing beers with tea.

07:52I think it's special that we kind of keep that tea culture and it transcends through the generations.

07:58I think one of the most famous products going around in everybody in India is bubble tea.

08:02Exactly. It's the most easiest way to connect for the young generation with tea.

08:07And trust me, making bubble tea here in Taiwan, it's an art, it's an craft. I think this is the

08:13beauty

08:13about Taiwan. Taiwan has still in our blood the intent to get the best product and really work

08:19with artisanal single-origin products and I think we're fortunate to have it here.

08:26But let's go to Frontier Gallery. Okay. One of the places here in our neighborhood.

08:31Here, Henry is the owner. Hi, Henry. Hi. Hi. Here in the Frontier Gallery,

08:36you have every like six to eight weeks different art exhibitions. Amazing. So I'm sure that Henry can talk

08:41more about it and I'm going to share more about the artist which we're currently looking at. It's a local

08:44artist. His name is Mr. Yan. Okay. And he started painting when he's like 40 years old. Oh, it's quite

08:53unique and he lives in a suburban near the ocean. So everything inspired by a very natural color.

09:07Food is very important for us. Absolutely. We have already experienced some tea, but what would be tea

09:12without a beautiful egg roll? Welcome to Mr. Roll, our fresh egg roll shop. Please come inside. Oh,

09:19it smells amazing in here. It smells so nice, right? I might want to directly dive into it. Two years

09:24ago,

09:24when I moved here into this community, when I passed by, he said, wow, they're really handmade because I

09:29haven't seen this anywhere. Yeah, here in town too much. So this cultural heritage, you know, Japanese

09:36and Chinese culture here in one beautiful role. And I think everybody should try this when you come

09:41to Taiwan. Yeah, it makes a great souvenir. It makes a great souvenir.

09:52I'm at Rongju, which is one of the hotel's several restaurants. And it's a modern take on

09:59traditional Cantonese dishes. And I just know it's going to be delicious. Wow. Oh, that's pretty.

10:07This is gorgeous plating. So dumpling is actually kind of a comfort food here in Taiwan. And especially

10:14during like the holidays, like Chinese New Year, we like to kind of gather around and we like to make

10:20our homemade dumplings. And it just becomes a really nice sort of family tradition. And then afterwards,

10:24we all just kind of gather and eat the dumplings that we make. So the space itself is really gorgeous.

10:31There's the red and the black and the dark wood. And if you notice the design details on the ceiling,

10:37it pays homage to our traditional brick rooftops that are usually made of clay tiles. And it really

10:46does feel like kind of you're all dining under one roof. Communal eating is definitely part of our

10:51culture. We try to eat with our parents or grandparents. And in a space like this,

10:57even though it's very modern, but it still has that very homey feeling to it. Wow. Is this a poem?

11:04There's a poem in my dish. Yeah. Okay. This is a lobster dumpling. And we're using a black travel.

11:10Yeah. And you can see it. I love that. And it represents the poem. Yeah. I love that there are

11:18so many little details and elements of surprise throughout the entire experience that really

11:23makes this place feel so elevated.

11:33Okay. I'm going to be honest. The glass house bar concept really excites me. Three bars under one roof,

11:41each with a completely different vibe. And what I love is that the cocktails are made with local

11:46Taiwanese ingredients. So you're still experiencing the culture, even when you're just unwinding after

11:52a long day of exploring. That, for me, is the perfect end to a Taipei day. So until here, we

11:59focus

11:59on the seasonality of the ingredients from Taiwan, both for the food and for the cocktail. Oh. So today

12:04for you, we're going to prepare one of our best sellers, which is called Guava. Oh. We pick up the

12:09guava from Kaohsiung, which is kind of in the south of Taiwan. So the guava is actually taking a lot

12:16of

12:16the sun. So instead of the cocktail, we're going to have some gin. This is actually Taiwanese gin,

12:21in this case. Okay. Some white wine in those mantis, which is going to give a nice dryness to the

12:26cocktails. And of course, our perfumed guava. So in Chinese, we say ganbei as a form of saying cheers.

12:33And ganbei literally means like dry your glass or finish your glass. So ganbei.

12:46Taiwanese people will go out of their way to help you, even if there's a language barrier. It's really

12:52special. You don't always get that in every big city. The second is there's no snobbery around food

12:59here. A Michelin starred chef and a night market uncle get equal status in this city. And third,

13:06I think, is the safety. And that freedom changes how you move through a place. You wander out more,

13:12you stay out later, and you say yes to more things. And there you have it. These are my favorite

13:17things

13:17to do in Taipei. You just have to come here and experience it for yourself.

13:22So

13:23you

13:24you

How to Spend 48 Hours in Taipei

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