As you know, I've booked scoot tickets to Taipei, Taiwan in November. I haven't been to Taipei since I was a kid.
I ended up booking budget flights, accommodation for A$600 return from Gold Coast to Taipei with Scoot, staying 7 nights at Chair Man Hotel, near Taipei Main Station
Prior to arriving I needed to: book flights, buy travel insurance, book accommodation, draft itinerary for 7 day trip.
Things to do before I go to Taipei, Taiwan
- Book flights
- Booked flights with Scoot (OOL- TPE) = A$140 (departure) + $153 (return) + $115 (taxes) + $6 (baggage on the way back) + $13 (Scoot Thru on return)= $427 return!!
- The process booking directly with Scoot was frustrating, the servers were slow due to the 50% off sale.
- There were lots of add ons that we had to pay for, which is fine given the massive discount.
- We did not purchase food (because of bad reviews online about food quality), we did not purchase entertainment (because I plan on using the time to read, plan, sleep).
- We deliberately chose to stop over in Singapore for 15 hours (instead of 2 on the departure flight), so we can spend some time there. We couldn't book Scoot Thru for the departure journey since the connection was more than 5 hours, so we will try to pay for early check in instead. Should cost about $5 in Singapore.
- There are also options to leave luggage at Changi Airport for around $5 for 24 hours.
- Buy travel insurance
- Sometimes I don't buy travel insurance, but last time I went to Taiwan, I had my luggage completely stolen, well it wasn't even my stuff, but my mum's stuff. So I decided to fork out the extra cash.
- 10 days travel insurance, from $72 (Zuji), from $62 (TID)
- Annual single travel insurance, from $350 (Zuji), from $339 (TID)
- Annual family travel insurance, from $419 (TID)
- For travel insurance, I always try to return premiums to nil, so I don't feel bad claiming when I need to. Always do a quick good search to see if there are discount codes available. When buying travel insurance, make sure you check out the inclusions and exclusions!!
- Book accommodation
- We didn't want to move our luggage, so we wanted to stay in one place
- We wanted to stay near the main train station for ease of transport
- Should be easy, I'll sleep on it.. BUT, the day after I booked my flights nearly ALL of my ideal accommodations were booked out for the dates I was in town!
- In the end we decided on Chair Man Hotel ($64/night for triple) and booked through Hotels.com
SUPER CHEAP. Had decent reviews. And we can collect welcome rewards!
- And extremely happy that we did because when I compared the prices with other sites, it was at least $50 cheaper and had a great cancellation policy.
- SAVE up to 40% off with Hotels.com
- Other places I considered
- Cosmos Hotel. Right at the station, good reviews, traditional design, but I blinked and missed out.
- CityInn Hotel Good location, great reviews, funky design, double the price of Chair Man Hotel. but often booked out months in advance :(.
- Just Sleep . Good location, great reviews, funky design, double the price of Chair Man Hotel and unavailable during our stay.
- YMCA. Excellent location, good reviews, completely booked out.
- Vacation rentals, but because we had to organize to collect keys, and wire money to people on paypal, did not feel comfortable doing it. And it was more expensive than Chair Man Hotel. Pig Minsu was also totally booked out.
TOP TIPS FOR PLANNING
- Book accommodation as soon as possible
- Search for discount codes for travel insurance
Do you have any other accommodation recommendations?
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