Where to stay in Taipei: the best areas for a first visit

Zhongshan or Taipei Main Station: decide this first

For most first visits, sleep near Zhongshan MRT or Taipei Main Station. They are one stop and two minutes apart, and between them they cover the airport train, the high-speed and conventional railways and the two MRT lines most visitors ride: the red Tamsui–Xinyi line to Taipei 101, Beitou and Tamsui, and the green Songshan–Xindian line to Ximen. Main Station wins if you arrive late or leave early by train; Zhongshan wins if you want cafés, small shops and a night market within walking distance of your bed. Four nights give an arrival evening, three full days and a departure morning, and the MRT makes one hotel work for the whole stay, including the Beitou, Maokong and Yangmingshan days.

The other three areas are for a particular kind of trip. Ximending puts you among the west side's pedestrian shopping streets, one MRT stop from Longshan Temple. Da'an gives you Daan Forest Park and the department stores around Zhongxiao Fuxing, and Xinyi puts Taipei 101 and its malls on the doorstep; from either, the older western districts are a 12- to 17-minute ride.

The five areas compare like this:

Taipei Main Station and Zhongshan: the first-visit pair

Taipei Main Station is three stations in one: Taiwan Railway, Taiwan High Speed Rail and Taipei Metro's Bannan and Tamsui–Xinyi lines share the connected complex, while A1, the Airport MRT terminus, has its own entrance at 8 Zhengzhou Road. That is what makes the area so convenient and also its catch: a hotel described as 'at the station' can still mean a long walk through concourses with a suitcase. Pick a hotel near the side you will use most, A1 for the airport or the railway halls for an early THSR or Taiwan Railway departure. Evenings here are mostly about getting somewhere else, which is easy: Ximen and Zhongshan are each one MRT stop away, and so is the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

Around the station, Smile Inn Taipei Main Station is the lower-priced choice, about five minutes' walk from the station's shopping streets by its own description; its Deluxe Double has one 152 cm double bed. CityInn Hotel Taipei Station Branch I has a Standard Room with one double bed for two, and Cosmos Hotel Taipei, at 43 Zhongxiao West Road Section 1, is the full-service hotel, where a Superior room can be made up with one double or two single beds.

Zhongshan is the better place to spend your evenings. The Taipei City Office of Commerce describes the streets around Zhongshan Station as a district of designer clothes and restaurants along a long, narrow park with public art. West of the station, Chifeng Street, once a hardware and auto-parts lane known as 'Blacksmith Street', is now a web of alleys with cafés, dessert shops, creative restaurants and clothing boutiques; east of Zhongshan North Road, a grid of lanes laid out in the Japanese era is full of Japanese restaurants and izakaya. Ningxia Night Market, more than sixty years old, is near Shuanglian, the next stop north. The station is on both the Tamsui–Xinyi and Songshan–Xindian lines, so Beitou, Taipei 101 and Ximen are all one ride away.

Choose by the station walk, not the district name: Zhongshan District stretches far north and east of the MRT. Near the station, Royal Inn Taipei Nanxi is on the 8th floor at 1 Nanjing West Road, with Standard Rooms that have one double bed for two; The Okura Prestige Taipei, at 9 Nanjing East Road Section 1, is the most expensive of the three; and Dandy Hotel Tianjin, on a lane off Zhongshan North Road Section 1 towards Taipei Main Station, has Standard Double rooms for two.

Ximending: the west side's pedestrian shopping streets

Ximending grew up as Taipei's cinema district: its first theatre opened in 1896, and Ermei Street, Chengdu Road and Xining South Road were once lined with movie houses. It is now the city's first car-free shopping zone, a place of street performers, comic and animation shops, streetwear and tattoo studios, and the Tourism Administration says its plazas fill with art, cultural and music events at weekends and on holidays. Stay here if you want the street life outside your door.

Ximen Station is on the Bannan and Songshan–Xindian lines, one stop from Taipei Main Station and one from Longshan Temple, so the older city of Wanhua and Bopiliao is close. The drawback is the east: Taipei 101 is a 14-minute ride, and Songshan Airport 18 minutes.

Hotels here include Newful Hotel, which describes itself as a short walk from Beimen, Ximen and Taipei Main stations and has a Fashion Double with one double bed for two; Ximen Hotel, on the 2nd floor at 78 Zhonghua Road Section 1, with Standard Doubles for two; and WESTGATE, at 150 Zhonghua Road Section 1, whose Cozy Room has a 160 × 200 cm bed for up to two guests but no window.

Da'an and Xinyi: the park and the tower

Da'an is the park-side choice in the east-central city. Daan Forest Park covers twenty-six hectares between Xinyi Road, Jianguo South Road, Heping East Road and Xinsheng South Road, with an amphitheatre, fish ponds, pavilions and strolling paths, and Daan Park Station takes its name from it. One stop north of Daan on the Wenhu line, the Eastern Shopping District around Zhongxiao Fuxing is department stores and international brands, and one stop west of Daan Park, Yongkang Street near Dongmen has the restaurants that Din Tai Fung helped make famous. From Daan Station, Taipei 101 is four minutes away and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall six; Taipei Main Station takes 10 minutes and Longshan Temple 12.

Da'an's hotels sit by different stations. Taipei Fullerton South is at 41 Fuxing South Road Section 2, beside Daan Station by its own description, and its Superior Room has one queen bed; WOWHappy Daan, at 81-1 Da'an Road Section 1, and Les Suites Taipei Da-An, at 135 Da'an Road Section 1, are on the northern, Zhongxiao Fuxing side. Les Suites' Standard Room has a queen bed for two adults.

Xinyi is Taipei's new east district. The Taipei City Office of Commerce calls the Xinyi Planning District a busy commercial and finance centre by day and a glamorous one by night, with department stores and cinemas, and its plazas become a stage for events and carnivals at weekends and on holidays. Stay here for Taipei 101, shopping and Elephant Mountain at sunset, whose trail starts from Xiangshan station, one stop beyond Taipei 101/World Trade Center on the Tamsui–Xinyi line; the cost is the cross-city ride to the old west side (17 minutes from Taipei 101/World Trade Center to Longshan Temple) and a 14-minute MRT ride from the airport train at Taipei Main Station.

Xinyi has two stations on different lines: Taipei 101/World Trade Center on the Tamsui–Xinyi line and Taipei City Hall on the Bannan line, so match the hotel to the station. The Tango Taipei XinYi, at 297 Zhongxiao East Road Section 5, is on the City Hall side; its Deluxe King is an inside room with a double bed and no window. Pacific Business Hotel, on the 11th floor at 495 Guangfu South Road, has Standard Doubles with a 150 × 200 cm bed for two, and Home Hotel Xinyi, at 90 Songren Road, has rooms from its 27-square-metre Original Bedroom up to suites.

From Taoyuan or Songshan Airport to each area

From Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), every area starts with the same train. Taoyuan Metro's Airport MRT runs from A12 Terminal 1 and A13 Terminal 2 to A1 Taipei Main Station: the Express takes 35 minutes from Terminal 1 and 39 from Terminal 2, and the all-stops Commuter 49 minutes from Terminal 1. The fare is NT$160 per person one way. From A1, walk to a hotel near the station or change to Taipei Metro, a separate system with its own fare. The Taiwan transport guide explains EasyCard and the Metro passes.

Taipei Metro's own tables give these fares and times from Taipei Main Station (one adult, one way; the times include changing trains but not waiting):

For a late landing, the last Express trains to A1 leave Terminal 1 at 22:58 and Terminal 2 at 22:55, and the last Commuter trains at 23:37 and 23:35; the first Express trains in the morning leave at 05:58 and 05:55. If your flight lands too late for the last train, take a taxi and show the hotel's address in Chinese.

Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA) is a separate, urban airport with its own station on the Wenhu line. By Taipei Metro's tables, Da'an is the closest base (8 minutes between Daan and the airport station, NT$20), followed by Zhongshan (14 minutes, NT$20), Taipei Main Station and Taipei 101 (16 minutes each, NT$25) and Ximen (18 minutes, NT$25).

How far each base is from the main sights

The MRT keeps every base within 17 minutes of the big sights. Taipei Metro lists these fares and journey times from each base station (one adult, one way, changes included, waiting not):

The pattern is simple: the western bases are a few minutes from Longshan Temple and the old city and about a quarter of an hour from Taipei 101; the eastern bases are the reverse. For Maokong's gondola, which starts near Taipei Zoo at the end of the Wenhu line, Daan Station is on the same line.

What rooms cost, and the service charge

These are the prices the hotels in this guide publish on their own sites, read on 28 October 2026. Several are list or starting prices rather than a quote for particular dates, so use them to compare each hotel's level; prices marked about are approximate:

In Ximending, Ximen Hotel lists its Standard Double at about NT$12,880 per room, a holiday list price only, for national holidays and the spring break; tax and service are not stated. The other hotels named here publish no rate on their own sites: CityInn Hotel Taipei Station Branch I, Cosmos Hotel Taipei (where all rates carry a 10% service charge and breakfast is NT$450 plus 10% per guest), Dandy Hotel Tianjin, WESTGATE, Les Suites Taipei Da-An (breakfast included in all its rates), The Tango Taipei XinYi, Pacific Business Hotel and Home Hotel Xinyi. The Tourism Administration notes that a 10% service charge is customary in Taiwan's hotels, which is why some rates above include it and others add it, so compare totals with tax and service in.

Choosing in thirty seconds

Match your trip to an area, then compare rooms near its station. If more than one line fits, take the first.

Four nights in one hotel cover the city and its suburbs; a fifth night adds the day trip to Shifen and Jiufen that our five-day Taiwan itinerary times train by train, and the Jiufen guide covers a slower version. A night at a Beitou hot-spring resort is worth it only when a private bath and a slow morning are the point; otherwise keep the city room for Beitou too.

• A late landing, an early train or a short stay: Taipei Main Station, on the side you will use.
• A first visit with evenings out: Zhongshan, close to the station.
• Street life, shopping and the old west side: Ximending.
• Daan Forest Park, the east-central streets and Songshan Airport: Da'an.
• Taipei 101, Elephant Mountain and the malls: Xinyi.