🇬🇧 London Heathrow → 🇹🇼 Taipei · 1 week

Eat at Lin Dong Fang for beef noodle soup — this 70-year-old Michelin Bib Gourmand spot on Xinyi Road uses a broth simmered with Chinese medicinal spices that makes every other beef noodle taste unfinished. Arrive at 11:30am when it opens; by noon there's a queue.

Hike Elephant Mountain (Xiangshan) on a weekday evening — the 20-minute climb from Xiangshan MRT Station ends at the famous row of rocks with the Taipei 101 skyline directly ahead. Arrive 30 minutes before sunset for the best light; the trail is lit at night and safe to descend in the dark.

Take the bus from Ruifang Station to Jiufen Old Street on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning — the mountain-clinging former gold-mining town with its red lanterns and steep tea-house stairs is overrun on weekends. The A-Mei Tea House has the most dramatic view; order the house oolong and stay for an hour.

Skip Shilin Night Market (full of tourists) and go to Raohe Street Night Market instead — it's shorter, more local, and the pepper pork buns (hujiao bing) from the famous stall at the temple end of the market are genuinely one of the great street food experiences in Asia. Queue before 7pm.