Taipei Chill Out walking tour: a review of Tour Me Away
An honest review of my experience with Tour Me Away in Taipei
As a first time visitor to Taipei, I was looking for something to do on a Sunday afternoon and I wanted to experience a different neighbourhood away from where my hostel was located and I was hoping to meet some other travellers as well.I also wanted to understand more about local life in Taipei after I had already visited several tourist attractions, so I booked this ‘Taipei Chill Out’ walking tour on my phone using the Klook App.
You can read a detailed summary of all the experiences I had with Tour Me Away in Taipei or jump straight to my final recommendation at the end.
Go to final recommendation
Keep reading to find out what we did on this Taipei Walking Tour !
Quick Overview of the Chill Out Taipei Walking Tour
Destinations: On this Taipei walking tour we visited Daan Forest Park, Heaven Road, Qingtian Teahouse, an antiques market, a stop for drinks and snacks, and ended at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.
How long was the tour: This Taipei walking tour lasted about 3 hours.
Who was on the tour: There were about 15 people on this English speaking walking tour. Myself and three other people were solo backpackers, there were a few couples, and a family from Singapore.
Who was the guide: This Taipei walking tour had one guide and one photographer. I believe the guide was a student, she was easy to understand and was very energetic and engaging and provided facts and commentary about the different stops in Taipei.
How did we travel: As the name suggests, we walked around Taipei on foot, both the meeting point and end destination were at major subway stations, which made the tour convenient to join.
When did I take this tour: Late November 2019.
Taipei Walking Tour: Daan Park
Tour Me Away provided clear instructions on which metro station was closest to the departure point and the guide was there waiting wearing an orange ID badge so you can’t miss them. I had no issues locating the group for any of my tours, just give yourself enough time to arrive on the Taipei metro.
The first stop was Daan Forest Park, which is a major park in Taipei, kind of like Central Park in New York City. We saw flower gardens, fountains and, most interestingly, a reflexology pebble foot path ! When you first see the pebble path, you might think ‘why would someone create such an uncomfortable pathway to walk on ?’ You are meant to walk over it in bare or sock feet and the stones provide a sort of foot massage, I tried it and it was not the most comfortable but also felt kind of nice after so much walking in the past few days.
The guide also briefly explained how the Mandarin characters work for writing, for example the sign at the entrance of the Daan Forest Park actually means something like ‘Big Safety Forest Park’ in English based on the Mandarin writing system. I found that so interesting to learn more about a non-alphabetic writing system.
Photos courtesy of Tour Me Away Taipei.
Taipei Walking Tour: Culture, Religion and History
The next few stops focused more on the surrounding neighbourhood, with stops at a tea house to learn about the significance of tea in Taiwanese culture (you will probably notice how available tea is everywhere in the city, make sure to try bubble tea !).
We also passed by some religious institutions to understand the presence of different groups in the country. There was additionally a stop at a smaller antiques market to quickly look around. I have included a few pictures taken by the official Tour Me Away photographer so you can see the size of the walking tour group and some of the stops.
Taipei Walking Tour: Food and Shopping
Next, we had some free time in a shopping area to go and try bubble tea or look in some of the little shops. There were some really cute little stores with souvenirs, stationery, that sort of thing. I also got my first non-milk bubble tea just from the Coco chain, a passion fruit tea with regular boba and coconut jellies.
A tip for bubble tea: if you don’t like really sweet drinks you can often specify the sugar level, I always ask for only 30% of the sugar at Coco and light ice to get the exact drink I prefer !
We all met back up in a little park and there was a big school graduation ceremony going on in this area and it was nice to just see people out with their families in the city. What I enjoyed about this tour is that I felt like we were learning about regular life in Taipei and not just looking at tourist things without understanding how people live in this city.
The guide also pointed out some famous restaurants to try soup dumplings and the classic Taiwanese mango ice dessert. I decided to just have my bubble tea as I had to save room for the Hunger Game night market tour later in the evening !
Taipei Walking Tour: Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
As we continued on towards our last stop, the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, the guide explained some of the important events in the history of the island of Taiwan relative to China which I honestly don’t think I fully understood before this tour.
As we arrived at our last stop right before the sun started going down, there were the most beautiful little clouds in the sky and we saw the changing of the guards on the steps of the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. There is quite a bit of interesting symbolism in some aspects of the building design and architecture and the surrounding area, called ‘Liberty Square’ has been the location of many significant demonstrations and events, you can learn more about it here.
We said goodbye to the guides at this point, and I had just enough time to see the upper level of the main building with the large statue of Chiang Kai-Shek and quickly look around the lower levels to see an art exhibition and a gift shop. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to fully explore the museum, if you do want to see the museum, check what day you are doing the tour and the museum hours, you may have to visit the museum first.
Final Recommendation:
Tour Me Away ‘Chill Out’ Taipei Walking Tour
I really enjoyed this walking tour with Tour Me Away Taipei. It was a nice addition to solo travelling, as I found it was an easy way to meet other travellers and it was so helpful to have a local guide from the city.
I felt that the descriptions on the Tour Me Away website accurately reflected the activities. I had no issues finding or meeting the groups, the guide was friendly, helpful and easy to understand.
Overall, I found this walking tour was a great option for a first time visitor to Taipei and I enjoyed learning more about local life in the city and not just visiting tourist locations.
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