By tight travellers, July 2026
Ey up! Us tight travellers just spent 1 week ‘aving a gander round Taipei.
We found Taiwan to be similar to Japan (on public transport, cleanliness) but with hints of SE Asia (there was some chaos thrown into the mix). In terms of prices, Taiwan surprised us. Compared to Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos), it was only a couple a quid more expensive per day.
Compared to North Asian capitals like Tokyo (where we spent £30 per person per day) and Seoul (where we spent £20 per person per day), Taipei was in between. In Taipei we spent a total of £21.61 per person per day.
Budget Guide to Tokyo: Under £50 a Day Each
Tokyo on a budget? Aye, it’s possible! Here’s how two Yorkshire tight-arses explored one of the world’s most exciting cities for £50 a day each. Where we stayed, how we got around, what we did for free, and where we ate without spending a fortune.
Here’s our honest budget breakdown as a tight Yorkshire couple.
| Category | Total for 2 | Per person |
| Accommodation (7 nights) | £173.60 | £86.80 |
| Food | £84 | £42 |
| Transport | £24 | £12 |
| Activates | £16 | £8 |
| Esim | £5 | £2.50 |
| Total | £302.60 | £151.30 |
First up, get ya cheap flights ‘ere.
Accommodation
Tight travellers don’t look for much in budget accommodation, preferably just: cheap, good location, clean, options for private rooms / en-suites, breakfast included … Now we nearly had that in Taipei, but not quite.
We averaged £24.80 per night in Taipei – not bad for a capital city. Let’s compare. In Seoul, South Korea our daily average was £13.20 more expensive (!!) at £38 per night. Seoul’s accommodation costs us more per night, but food and activities there were significantly cheaper, which brought the overall daily total down. In Tokyo, Japan our daily average for accomodation was £32 a night.
We stayed across 2 hotels in Taipei. You can check them out below!
Sleepbox– good location in ZhongZheng district. It is located a short walk from 228 Peace Park and Taiwan’s National Museum. There is breakfast available for NTD100; we chose not to pay this and go out for breakfast, but by the looks of it, it included hot drinks, juice, dumplings, toast. The room was clean, and definitely what it said on’t tin – an actual box room. Make sure to bring your own towel as they only provide one at an extra cost!
City Suites– located closer to the airport in Taoyuan, boujee on a budget. There are less tourist spots nearby, but we did walk in Hutoushan Environmental Park, stopping at Taoyuan Martyrs’ Shrine and Cultural Park. It was incredibly humid when we were there in June, and make sure to watch your head – the amount of spiders is insane!
Transport
We skipped the Taxi’s in Taipei, and got the train / bus – Google Maps is our lifelong friend. It’s a piece of piss to use!
We bought an easy pass card at the airport for NTD150 which makes getting public transport so easy – You just tap on and off. And then we used our legs! We spent £12 each for our week in Taipei. We bought the easy card at the airport, but you can order them online with Klook here. The easy card works on all modes of public transport (bus and MRT) and you can even use them for small purchases in convenience stores!
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Food
We like to get acquainted with new countries by either doing a food tour or a cooking class. Nowt like throwing yoursen into the deep end and trying new food.
We spent £84 on food for the week in Taipei. We ate at local restaurants, and also did a food tour with GetYourGuide (use TIGHTTRAVELLERS5) for money off your booking!
Some of our favourite restaurants include:
A-Kuei Beef Noodle Restaurant, where we got the beef noodles and a pork cutlet with noodles for 360NTD (£8.60 at the conversion at the time with Wise).
Formosa Chang NingXia Main Restaurant, located at Ningxia Night Market, where we got a cutlet curry and braised pork rice for 217NTD (£5.18).
We even found a Coco’s curry in Taoyuan, however this was £15.81 for 2 cutlet curries! It only cost us 9.90 in Japan.
Night Markets
There are so many night markets in Taipei, and honestly these have been the only ones that haven’t had us running to the loo!
Make sure to check out Ningxia market where you can try the above curry at Formosa Chang NingXia Main Restaurant, and also delicious dumplings.
Ximending Walking District has it all – clothes, food, tatt. This is where I tried my first bubble tea, not a fan. The tea was nice, the bubbles not so much.
Huaxi Street Market however, was definitely our favourite. This is where we did our food tour and learned that this is the centre of the old town. The market seems to go on for ages, and the smell of the food is enough to make your mouth water. Until you walk past someone selling stinky tofu that is!
Visiting on a food tour encouraged us to try so many different things like Snake Wine, the famous oyster pancake (an experience I won’t repeat), and braised pork at the Michelin Guided Wang’s Broth. All the dishes here were covered in our food tour, so we are unsure of each individual price – but there was a no hunger guarantee so you best believe us cheapskates took advantage of that!
Activities
We spent a whopping total of £16 on things to do during our week in Taipei. We declined the £15 viewpoint from Taipei 101 – the views on our 7 day road trip were 1000% better. Instead we stuck to free things to do, such as: 228 Peace Park, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Ximending Walking District, and Lungshan Temple.
The £16 we did spend, was on our food tour and we managed to get this half price thanks to GetYourGuides Creator Programme!
Other
Like proper tight travellers, we shop around for everything. We have consistently found the cheapest E-sims on Trip.com. Ours cost us £5 in total.
Total for 1 week in Taipei
Us tight-arse travellers spent a total of £302.60 for 1 week in Taipei! (And wow just typing that is making us cringe!)
But let’s put it into perspective: £302.60 for 2 people for the week. That’s £43.23 per day, and £21.61 per person per day. That breakdown ain’t that bad, right?!?
Do you think we successfully travelled Taipei as tight travellers ? It’s looking pretty good so far (we think) but just wait until our daily average in Taiwan surpasses our £50 per person, per day budget! Because it did (even though we were only there for 2 weeks), but it was 100% worth the splurge.
Check back for that blog!
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