Budget Travel - Cheap flight from Taipei to anywhere?

Hi

I'm heading to Taipei on a business trip tonight. It looks like I'll have to stay away into next week and I don't particularly want to stay in Taipei over the weekend (been there a lot recently). Any suggestions of where I could go?

Hong Kong is the obvious choice but it looks like flights are in the £250 region, searching online. I have been there before but happy to go back.

I have been to Macau recently so not bothered about that.

I read that buying air tickets from agents in Hong Kong can be cheap - but am I likely to find anything much cheaper than £250? (I have a LHR-HKG-TPE-HKG-LHR ticket already so I can break that where I like).

Or any other suggestions of interesting places to spend a weekend? I've never been to Japan or Korea...

Cheers
potfish

I would check out Eva Air's Hot Fares (https://eservice.evaair.com/online/html/english/plan/eibsa002.asp?Trans_Type=P). I plugged in random dates from TPE to ICN, and the total came out to about 230GBP round trip. You're limited to certain times and flights.

I've never bought a hot fare, but am planning to when I side trip it to Hong Kong from Taipei this October.

...and the standard weekend getaway spot was the phillipines because of its proximity. Unfortunately asia hasnt grasped the last minute seat sale like here in NA but if you look in the classifieds in the china post there are certain travel agencies who cater to philipinos working as domestics/labourers in taiwan. You can usually get cheap flights to Manila from them. Then book an internal flight (domestic airport is a 20 min. cab ride) to either puerto gallera, cebu, or calibo (for boracay). We used to do this for 3 day weekends alot. Of course you could always take the bullet train to koashuing then the regular train to kenting.

Thanks for the responses. It now looks like I'll be here until the end of next week, so I can get a night or two in Hong Kong next weekend instead of this one. With that in mind, I'm now thinking I'll stay in Taiwan as I haven't seen anything outside Taipei yet and it's only fair to give the countryside a chance!

HomerJ (or anyone else) - what would you suggest to do if the weather's bad?

You can get KL BC tickets to BKK for about that much. The route is not one of KL's most punctual or reliable, unfortunately.

I'm now thinking I'll stay in Taiwan as I haven't seen anything outside Taipei yet and it's only fair to give the countryside a chance!
That's a wise decision! :D

Being a Taiwanese with home in Taipei, I can tell you Taiwan is much more than just Taipei. Even though I haven't updated this thread about Taiwan (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=762562) recently :o, you probably can find some interesting places to visit from the discussion. I've been doing some research and will introduce more places to visit in the above thread when time allows. Post indexes will be added in the future as well.

Noted due to impact from two recent typhoons, it may not be a good time to visit east and middle Taiwan in the next week or two (maybe longer).

For a short weekend, Tamsui/Tanshui (淡水) or Keelung will be a fine choice. With approximately 1,566 kilometers of coastline, the island of Taiwan offers four types of coastal landscape (eastern fault coast, western uplifted coast, northern mixed coast, southern coral-reef coast. Since Taipei is your temp base, you may want to start with the Northeast coast (governement's website is here (http://www.necoast-nsa.gov.tw/en/)).

When heading north, don't miss out on Chinkuashih/Jin Gwa Stone (金瓜石) (http://www.goldens.com.tw/en/discover_all.htm)* and Jioufen/Juifang/Jueifang/Jiufen (九份) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jioufen), where the award-winning movie, City of Sadness (悲情城市) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Sadness), was filmed. Not only you get to see the beautiful landscape, but also you'll take a walk into the Taiwan history (gold mining, architecture, nostalgia..etc). Jioufen's speciality food is another attraction. Be warned it is always very crowded during the weekend.

More beauty of Taiwan awaits you outside the City of Taipei!

* It may be confusing why Chinkuashih and Jun Gwa Stone are the same place. The town consists of three Chinese characters, 金瓜石. The word-by-word translation is "Jin Gwa Stone." The 1st character, 金, means "gold" and is pronouced as "Jin" or "Chin." The pronounciation of the 2nd character, 瓜, is "Gwa" or "Kua." The third Chinese character is "石", meaning "stone" and pronounced as "shih." So "Chinkuashih" is the direct phonic translation, while Jin Gwa Stone is a mixed "product." ;)

ps.
1. A youtube clip of Jioufen: here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbbq22ES8nU).
2. a photo gallery of Jioufen & Chinkuashih: here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivsphoto/sets/573183/)
3. Gold Ecological Park in Chinkuashih (http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?CtNode=122&xItem=44620)

More beauty of Taiwan awaits you outside the City of Taipei!


I totally agree! I've been to Taiwan many times (following my business trip husband), and there are so many places to see. Just around Taipei itself you can go up to the Maokong tea farming area for a nice green break. The huge National Palace Museum always has great exhibits and their weekend evening programs are quite cool.

- Bubbles

...its unfortunate the cross island highway has been closed since the earhtquake cuz it was a beautiful drive. Kenting is a passable beach resort, and sun moon lake is nice enuf...hike up to the weather station or behind the huge tea plantation. Jade mountain is very nice and a little more strenuous of a hike. Problem is its summer and hot as hell, but at least if u get in the mountains its a little cooler. Downside is summer vacation for kids so you get millions of em on day trips taking their photos in front of everything imaginable while flashing the peace sign. As far a HK goes I've lived there too so if you have any questions just ask, but as you know at this time a year its a sauna everywhere.

That's a wise decision! :D

Being a Taiwanese with home in Taipei, I can tell you Taiwan is much more than just Taipei. Even though I haven't updated this thread about Taiwan (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=762562) recently :o, you probably can find some interesting places to visit from the discussion. I've been doing some research and will introduce more places to visit in the above thread when time allows. Post indexes will be added in the future as well.

Noted due to impact from two recent typhoons, it may not be a good time to visit east and middle Taiwan in the next week or two (maybe longer).



I cycle daily in the mountains around Taichung for 2hr, and can assure you the damage is nothing from the 2nd typhoon. The 2nd typhoon was nothing like what they predicted and everyone enjoyed a day off work for what was a rainy day by anyone elses standards. I was even out tunning in it at the height of the storm and it was nothing.

Your cheapest bet is use skyscanner.net and book a chep flight with cebu pacific, but I can assure this place is a first class S*** hole. HKG should be on line with CI or BR dfor about 100 pounds max, you can also get Okinawa and loads of other places if you want to get away.

Don't waste your time with airports, customs/immigrations for a few days. I would highly recommend Tainan or the countryside. Southern Taiwanese food is much better than that in Taipei, and few Taiwanese people would dispute that. The nightmarkets esp have excellent food in the south.

You might also consider Hualien/Ilan for outdoors activity. If the weather cooperates, Taroko Gorge is beautiful, and by Western standards the prices are extremely reasonable. You could even book a nice room and spend the night there.