TAIWAN Budget Travel Blog Guide 2019

OFFLINE

Me being offline means I'm travelling. This time around I'm going with my colleagues/friends to Asia. Yes, off we go to Taiwan. it is a last-minute trip

that started with only a joke and it turns out to be a reality later on. 

How did we Plan? Did we set up an estimated Budget for it? Decide and research on the places we love to visit. So here it goes.

It was a joined head of four and become 5 persons who planned and agrees for this trip.

Credit to Cielo for planning our itinerary. Mhaivel for the high-grade photos. Joanna for the human selfie stick. Myra for joining the squad so we can save more. And Meeh just simple recording and vlogging this trip. As the saying says no man is an Island. It really takes a group to have fun, explore and save.

Requirements for Filipino Citizen to visit Taiwan:

Good news to all Filipinos going to Taiwan is easy as we are a visa-free entry( for tourism, business, visiting relatives) for 14 days until July 31, 2020.

With the following conditions

1. Passport must have at least remaining 6 months validity from the date of entry.

2. A return ticket or onward ticket to the final destination (travellers visa for the next destination if transiting only to Taiwan).

3. Must have no criminal record in Taiwan.

4. Proof of accommodation such as hotel bookings or tour packages with contact and address information.

Best time to visit Taiwan or Taipei is not on the rainy season. Taipei is located at the northern part of Taiwan so it has subtropical weather. The best time to visit Taipei is during fall around November to early Spring In April. When going to a certain place always checked the weather so you can plan accordingly. And also if there is a festival or holidays so the prices will not be at the peak.

So we visited Taipei last October 23-27, 2019 and the weather was cooperative and we can explore.

Where to stay in Taipei? I recommend accommodations next to MRT stations or Night market that you would like to visits for easy access. For us, we booked our accommodations through booking.com and look for the best price ever. When browsing through booking. com or Agoda always checked the ratings and feedbacks. As for us, we got a good deal at

Beauty Star Hotel in Taipei. It is only 8 minutes walk from Jiantan MRT station and Shilin Night Market. The price depends on the season and room availability.

Address: No. 38-1號, Qiangang Street, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111

Taipei Currency and Money Exchange

Taiwan or Taipei uses New Taipei dollar (NTD/TWD) with the exchange rate of TWD 1 = 0.1210  UAE Dirhams/1.6641 Philippine Pesos/ 0.0330 USD. We are coming from Dubai UAE so TWD is not available in the money exchange so we change our dirhams to USD in Dubai International Airport. And once we reached Taipei we exchange the USD to TWD at the airport. You can exchange money at your hotel however it will be really low.

Next thing that we did is buy a Pocket 4G WIFI at the Taoyuan Airport at the arrival area. You can purchase it advance through Klook to be a lot cheaper. However, in our case, we couldn't decide whether sim or wifi. This 4G wifi can connect to 10 devices. For 5 -6 days. We paid around TWD 285 which we divided into 5, each of us paid only TWD 57./ 6.89 UAE Dirhams/ 95 Philippine Pesos.

Transportation from The Airport to hotel Accommodation

There are three ways to get to Taipei City or your accommodations from Taoyuan Aiport is through Train /MTR (this the purple colour train and coin), by bus or renting a car. Since we are five and we are all so tired we just rented a car.

For fares and distance, you may refer HERE.

TAIWAN has 4 rechargeables IC CARDS: Easy Cards, Happy Cards, ICash and IPass. We are planning to buy the easy card however we decided not to since we are travelling in a group it is easy to navigate through a taxi or a cab.

Before Immigration at the arrival Area

Transportation

We rented a car to go to our accommodation

Through WWW. shanyu.okgo.tw /contact number +09101871799. The downfall is the only speak Mandarin or Taiwanese. So for us, we asked our hotel to speak when we are leaving. At the airport, fortunately, we understand each other(wink*). 

We paid around TWD 1200 divided by 5, 240 TWD each.

Our Accommodation at Star Beauty Hotel  

2 Double bed (fits 5 persons)

 Mini-Bar / free coffee/ teas/ Water /Soda everyday
 
 Bath Tub, unfortunately, we are unable to use due time restriction

with toiletries replenished every day.

Automatic Toilet bowl

EXPLORE THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Next to our accommodation was a Family Mart, 7-eleven, park and nearby restaurants. Shilin Night Market. Quite and good neighbourhood for family and tourist.

Family Mart

 

 7-Eleven

 Meet Special ladies travel Squad

                                            Spicy Wonton Soup

                                                    Korean style Spring Roll

                                                                    Wonton Soup

 From Dubai 

                                            To Taipei/ Taiwan

This is our first day in Taipei. We survived and went through our itinerary just like how we planned it. We just had a total of 700 UAE Dirhams/9,625 Philippine Pesos equivalent to 5,779 TWD.

Will, we survived so stay tuned for the upcoming vlog series Team Special ladies travel to Taiwan. The secret for a budgeted trip is to plan, booked in advance for tickets, accommodation, and tour packages.

Will be back tomorrow for you guys to see the places we've been. Goodnight from Taipei.