The last time VT and MC were in Taiwan was 2019, quite a long time ago. Therefore, both of us were eager to visit Taiwan again and to eat all the delicious food we watched on many YouTube videos.

Our visit was for 14 nights from November 1st to 15th. Taipei was cool in the mornings and evenings, while Kaohsiung and Tainan were still very warm in the 80s.

We spent 5 nights in Taipei, 4 nights in Kaohsiung, 4 nights in Tainan, and one last night in Taoyuan at the Novotel hotel at the airport. We are very happy with all our hotel choices and are appreciative of all the courteous service staff we encountered at every hotel.

This trip report is more like a photo album of the food we enjoyed in Taiwan. So, let's go.

Below is a simple map to show the relative locations of the 3 cities we visited.

Lodging

We compared the hotel room rates on Booking.com versus the hotels' own websites. If the price difference were negligible, we booked with booking.com because its user interface is easy to use and easy to manage should one need to modify or cancel. Otherwise, we'd book directly on the hotel's website.

• TAIPEI (5 nights, Fri-Tue): HOTEL COZZI Taipei Zhongxiao (和逸飯店 台北忠孝館), 4-star.
  - ADDR: No. 31, Section 1, Zhongxiao E Rd, Zhongzheng District, Taipei.
  - Direction: MRT 善導寺站 Exit 6, or take EXIT 3 which has elevators if you are with luggage.
  - Hotel Cozzi has more than one location in Taipei. We chose this one on 忠孝東路一段, which is only 1 metro stop away from Taipei train station.
  - Average rate: TWD 5563 (US$174)/night, including 2 breakfasts, and our stay spanned over a higher-priced Saturday. Breakfast was pretty good and was included in the room rate. There was no option to not want to include breakfast.
  - Very large TV in the guest room.
  - The breakfast room on the 2nd floor becomes a lounge during the day with coffee, tea, cold beverages and snacks so that guests are free to come and enjoy them (open till 11 pm).
  - No laundry facility, but the hotel can point out a facility about a 10-min walk away.
   
• KAOHSIUNG: Chateau de Chine Hotel Kaohsiung (高雄翰品酒店), 4-star
  - ADDR: 鹽埕區大仁路43號, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  - We like 鹽埕區 because this is our familiar neighborhood. We booked via a staff member at the hotel, so we got a very good rate.
  - A lounge on the 7th floor with free beverages and snacks for all guests.
  - Free self-service laundry facility on the 10th floor. We did laundry 3 times in the early morning around 7 am and always found vacant machines to use.
   
• TAINAN: (4 nights, Sun-Wed): Silks Place Tainan (台南晶英酒店, a 5-star) in the Ximen district.
  - ADDR: 台南市和意路1號, 中西區 (台南, 700)
  - Booked on Booking.com. Average rate TWD 4743 (USD$150)/night w/o breakfast. Breakfast is additional, TWD 726 per person per day.
  - We booked a two queen-bed room at 420 sq ft, very spacious, and the room also had a round table with a chair and bench to sit and eat fruits or takeouts.
  - Large room but small TV. Coffee/tea maker in the room.
  - No lounge for guests' use. Like any 5-star hotel, it has no self-service laundry facility.
  - This hotel is near the Shin-Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越) department store. There are two other hotels nearby, a Hotel Cozzi Tainan Ximen and a Lakeshore Hotel Tainan (煙波大飯店). Both hotels were very good too.
   
• TAOYUAN (1 night, Thursday): Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (華航諾富特桃園機場飯店)
  - ADDR: 桃園市 大園區 航站南路 1-1號
  - Room was not large, but adequate for just 1 night.
  - Free shuttle to the airport terminals. Must book your free shuttle bus at the time when you check in. (由於座位有限，接駁車僅供 Check in 當日現場預訂，恕無法提前預訂。) 接駁車為每日行駛，發車地點為飯店1F大廳門口. The shuttle bus was about every 30 minutes during peak periods (otherwise it was once per hour).
  - Booked on Booking.com, paid about USD$130/night w/o breakfast (for a non-refundable rate).

MC bought an inexpensive personal hotspot unit from Amazon (hardware only, no SIM card in it, cost USD $20) before the trip, hoping to use it in Taiwan. At Taipei Songshan airport there was a Chunghwa Telecom Company (中華電信) booth. She asked the clerk if he could install a SIM card in this Made-in-China hardware to make it work. He read the tiny printed instructions that came with the unit and was able to install and activate a 中華電信 SIM card in the unit. TWD 700 for the SIM card and good for 15 days. That way MC could keep her US phone number but could connect to this hotspot for WIFI when needed.

Vincent had a Taiwanese eSIM installed in his iPhone for TWD 700 at the 中華電信 booth in Taoyuan Airport. He told the clerk that he wanted to keep his US phone number for text messages, and the clerk did some configuration, that was it; it worked wonderfully. He had WIFI connection via 中華電信's eSIM but could still send/receive iMessages via his US phone number.

Our friend, Sara Wang, said that she rented a personal hotspot unit online in Taiwan (which came with an installed SIM), and it cost only TWD 1000 for 30 days. That was a very good deal.

As noted above, only the Kaohsiung hotel had a self-service laundry facility, so MC did all her laundry in the Tokyo Ginza hotel before flying to Taipei. Then we did laundry several times while in the Kaohsiung hotel.

MC arrived in Taipei on 11/1, a day ahead of VT's arrival. Both of us are very happy with our Taipei hotel. Its location is super convenient, just across the street from Blue line 善導寺 (Shandao Temple) MRT station Exit 6.

We added money (using machines at any MRT station) to our Easy Card (悠遊卡) purchased in 2019, and off we go. By the way, Taipei's Easy Card can be used in Kaohsiung to ride Kaohsiung's Rapid Transit system too.

Our highlights in Taipei include:

• 鄭記豬腳飯 Zheng Pork Knuckle: 台北市中正區延平南路22號. Watch this YouTube video from 進擊的台灣, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVf3496e28Q, to whet your appetite.
   
• 迪化街 Dihua Street: both Dihua Old Street and 迪化街 年貨大街 are long, continuous streets. VT's childhood home is not far from here, so we also went to take photos of his former elementary school and his childhood home from the street.
   
• 永康街 Yongkang Strret: Yongkang Beef Noodles had a long queue. Two branches of Din Tai Fung nearby also required a long wait, but we enjoyed walking the streets watching vendors in full swing at noontime.
   
• 阜杭豆漿 Fuhang Soy Milk: on the 2nd floor of 華山市場, near 善導寺 (Shandao Temple) MRT station. Opens 5:30 am to 12:30 pm. (Closed Mondays.) If you Google 阜杭豆漿, you'll see many YouTube videos ranking it as one of the top breakfast places in Taipei. Whether it is worth a 1- to 2-hour wait to eat this breakfast is purely a personal judgment.
   
• 南門市場 Nanmen Market: MRT (Red 08) 中正紀念館站 EXIT 2. Very impressive. Not only is the entire building very new, the store's furnishings are also very neat, and the floors are all dry. A lot of cooked food can be bought to take home. There is also a food court on the second floor with many shops. Read this article for an introduction to its top stores: https://supertaste.tvbs.com.tw/amp/pack/346160
   
• 金峰魯肉飯 Jin Feng Braised Pork Rice: right next to 南門市場, just look for the unique billboard of the restaurant with a mountainous landscape background. There was a queue but the line moved quickly.
   
• 鼎泰豐 Din Tai Fung: We went to the 101 branch on a weekday at 2 pm, hoping the wait time would be short, but we were wrong. Our wait was 80 minutes; it might be because most of the groups are 2 people, therefore the wait time for a 2-person table took the longest.
   
• 竹家莊避風塘漁家料理 Bamboo Village: 台北市捷運松江南京站附近. Hong Kong-style storm-shelter cuisine: dumplings, seafood, and meat dishes. 仲璞 and 菊琴 treated several Chen siblings and spouses to a banquet dinner including lobster and crab dishes.
   

Kaohsiung 高雄 (11/6 ~ 11/9/2024): Link to our photo

We took the Taiwan High Speed Rail (高鐵, THSR) to Kaohsiung; it took less than 2 hours on the train. Kaohsiung is MC's hometown and our hotel is in 鹽埕區, a familiar neighborhood.

MC's sister Meggy was also in Kaohsiung and staying at the same hotel. One morning, both Meggy and MC went to Kaohsiung Girls High School to attend the 100th anniversary celebration of the school. We saw not only the high school students looked like kids; their teachers also looked like kids to us. Imagine we were like them not too long ago. Since when have we become old?

In Kaohsiung we were feasted by young lawyer Steve Huang and his parents and older brother for 3 days (2 dinners and 1 lunch). It is a luxury to have locals who know where to go and what to eat treating us.

We were also very glad to get together with our #5 brother (who passed away in 2018)'s family for dinner. The 3 grandkids are lively and speak some English. Elementary school's curriculum includes English lessons at school.

Our Kaohsiung highlights include:

• 海天下海鮮餐廳 Seaworld seafood restaurant: 來自澎湖的海味，是高雄老字號的海產名店之一. Extensive menu, seafood lover's paradise. Here is a food blog.
   
• 韻藏中餐廳 Yun Zang Chinese Restaurant: Opened by chefs from the former Ambassador Hotel Kaohsiung (高雄國賓大飯店, which had been closed). Very popular, roast duck is a specialty. Here is a food blog. We dined here twice, but no repeat of dishes except for the roast duck, which was excellent.
   
• 鳳儀書院 Fongyi Academy: built in 1814 during the Qing Dynasty to educate locals for the imperial examination (清代科舉). 現為高雄市市定古蹟. Located in 高雄市鳳山區. Steve and his brother drove us here. By public transportation: take the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Orange line to the O12 or O13 stop, then walk. Closed Mondays.
   
• 衛武營 Weiwuying, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts: consists of an Opera House, a Concert Hall, a Playhouse, a Recital Hall, and one or more outdoor theater spaces. The location is accessible by Kaohsiung Rapid Transit, very convenient for citizens to attend a performance here. (We visited on a day when there was no performance.)
   
• 東港 Donggang: Steve and his father drove us for 1 hour to 東港 for a seafood lunch. We stopped at 華僑市場 (Huaqiao Fish Market) first to see fresh seafood, then drove a short distance to a famous restaurant called JiaZhen Seafood (東港 佳珍海產) for lunch. The food at 佳珍 was outstanding. Here is link to a food blog.
   

Tainan 台南 (11/10 ~ 11/13/2024): Link to our photo

We booked a taxi through our Kaohsiung hotel to drive us from Kaohsiung to our Tainan hotel. The taxi fare was TWD 1400, very reasonable, and it saved us from hauling 3 suitcases up and down the train. Yes, we had 3 suitcases at this point; we had to borrow a 21-inch spinner from Steve's family in order to bring pineapple cakes and other purchases home.

Our Tainan highlights include:

• 國華街三段 (near 永樂市場): 石精臼 蚵仔煎 (oyster pancake), 蚵嗲, 臭豆腐 (smelly tofu), 扁擔豆花 etc. 
   
• 安平老街 Anping Old Street: 台南安平 陳家蚵卷, and 延平街 to buy 蜜餞 (candied fruit).
   
• 成功大學 National Cheng Kung University: this is VT's alma mater. The campus has expanded over the years and is now quite large with beautiful boulevards flanked by coconut trees.
   
• 奇美博物館 Chimei Museum: exhibits the private collection of a Taiwanese entrepreneur, Shi Wen-Long of Chi Mei Corporation. This is a gem in southern Taiwan. Young students as well as elementary school children may visit the museum often to learn about western arts in many forms. Open 9:30-17:30, closed Wednesdays and New Year's Eve.
   
• 阿堂鹹粥: one of the best breakfast joints, best known for milkfish and porridge (煎虱目魚肚 and 綜合鹹粥). Open 6 am to 1 pm. Closed Tuesdays.
   

Taoyuan 桃園 (10/14/2024) & Flying Home (11/15/2025):