Taipéi
6 Nights- Check-in
- Sun, Sept 20
- Check-out
- Sat, Sept 26
Regent Taipei ★★★★★ · six nights as a base for the city and its day trips
Taipei · Jiufen · Beitou · Yangmingshan · Angkor · Bangkok
September 20–30, 2026 · 10 nights / 11 days
Three stops and a single unpacking at each. Six nights in Taipei from one base hotel, which is what lets you treat the city properly and leave it every day: the lanterns of Jiufen, the fumaroles of Yangmingshan, the hot springs of Beitou and sunset over the river at Tamsui. Then three nights in Siem Reap for the temples of Angkor in the green season, moats full and none of the January crowd. And to finish, one night in Bangkok that exists for a single reason: to eat properly before flying home.
The route
North → southwest: the island first, with its short-radius day trips, then two flights to the jungle of Angkor and the Chao Phraya delta. Click a marker to jump to its stage.
Where you sleep
Three hotels, all three already booked and paid, with check-in and check-out dates exactly as they appear on the booking. Check-out is always the morning after the last night.
Flight Arrival at Taoyuan (TPE) · Airport MRT to Taipei Main + 1 stop
Regent Taipei ★★★★★ · six nights as a base for the city and its day trips
Flight Taipei → Siem Reap (SAI) · via Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City or Singapore
Waka Villa ★★★★★ (adults only) · villa with private pool and breakfast included
Flight Siem Reap (SAI) → Bangkok · 1 h 20 direct flight
The Okura Prestige ★★★★★ · one night on Wireless Road, over BTS Ploenchit
Flight Bangkok → Madrid · flight still to be booked (usually an overnight departure)
Stage 1 · Days 1–7 · Nights 1–6 · Sept 20–25
Six nights from one hotel: city, volcano, hot springs and sea
The table
Taipei eats at two altitudes and excels at both. Below, six night markets and a whole country of stalls where dinner costs three euros standing up. Above, 156 restaurants in the Michelin Guide of the July 2026 edition — and every two- and three-star table in Taiwan bar one is here. The odd thing is that they do not compete: the same local queues for a pepper bun and books the omakase two months out. Two of those stars are inside your hotel.
Beef noodle soup
牛肉麵 · niúròu miàn
The national dish, and the most argued-over: wheat noodles in a broth of beef stewed for hours with star anise, cinnamon and soy, with shin and tendon falling apart. 150–350 TWD. Order it hongshao (red-braised) the first time.
Xiaolongbao
小籠包 · xiǎolóngbāo
A steamed pork dumpling with the soup inside; the house standard is 18 hand-made pleats. 220–320 TWD for ten. Eat it off a spoon: pierce it, drink the broth, then the rest — or it burns.
Braised pork rice
滷肉飯 · lǔròufàn
White rice with minced pork braised in soy until the fat turns to jelly. It costs 30–50 TWD and is the whole island’s comfort food. The one at Jin Feng 金峰, by the Chiang Kai-shek memorial, is the benchmark.
Pepper bun
胡椒餅 · hújiāo bǐng
Slapped onto the wall of a clay oven and pulled out with a glassy crust and boiling pork inside, with a great deal of black pepper and spring onion. 60–65 TWD. The one at Fuzhou Shizu, at the Raohe entrance, has the market’s longest queue for a reason.
Gua bao
割包 · gēbāo
The “Taiwanese burger”: a folded steamed bun with braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens, coriander and ground peanut and sugar. ~70 TWD. At Lan Jia 藍家 (Gongguan) it is cash only.
Oyster omelette
蚵仔煎 · ézǎi jiān
Small oysters with egg and sweet-potato starch, which gives it a gelatinous middle and a crisp edge, under a sweet red sauce. 80–180 TWD. The night-market dish par excellence.
Stinky tofu
臭豆腐 · chòudòufu
You smell it before you see it. Fermented in brine and fried until crisp outside and creamy within, topped with pickled cabbage that fixes everything. 50–120 TWD. It tastes far better than it smells: that is literally how it works.
Bubble tea
珍珠奶茶 · zhēnzhū nǎichá
Born in Taichung in the eighties and now the island’s number one cultural export. 60–190 TWD. You order it by sugar level (半糖, half) and ice level. Chun Shui Tang 春水堂, the house that invented it, has a branch in Xinyi.
Pineapple cake
鳳梨酥 · fènglí sū
Buttery shortcrust around pineapple jam: the edible souvenir. 35–42 TWD each. Chia Te 佳德 is Taipei’s best-seller; SunnyHills 微熱山丘 uses whole pineapple and comes out sharper — and gives one away with tea to anyone who walks in.
Douhua
豆花 · dòuhuā
Silken soy curd, warm or over shaved ice, with syrup and whatever you pick on top: stewed peanuts, taro, red bean, sweet potato. 50–100 TWD. The pudding that closes a market night.
Ba-wan
肉圓 · bàwán
A translucent ball of sweet-potato starch stuffed with pork and shrimp, steamed then fried, under a sweet-savoury sauce. 40–110 TWD. It comes from Changhua, in the middle of the island, but Taipei does it well.
Danzai noodles
擔仔麵 · dànzǎi miàn
A small bowl — made for snacking, not filling — of thin noodles in shrimp broth with stewed minced pork, a whole prawn and coriander. The original house, Du Hsiao Yueh 度小月, has been going in Tainan since 1895 and has a Da’an branch.
Spring onion pancake
蔥抓餅 · cōngzhuā bǐng
Layered dough stretched and griddled with a lot of spring onion, then “clawed” with two spatulas to fluff the layers. From 30 TWD, and you order it 加蛋 (with egg) without thinking. The Yongkang stall has had the same queue for decades.
Giant fried chicken cutlet
雞排 · jīpái
A whole flattened breast, breaded and fried, the size of your face, in a paper bag with white pepper and chilli to taste. 70–90 TWD. It started as a Shilin market gimmick and stayed.
Sausage in a sausage
大腸包小腸 · dàcháng bāo xiǎocháng
A hot dog in which the bun is another sausage, made of glutinous rice, split lengthways, with the sweet pork one inside, plus pickles and raw garlic. 40–55 TWD. It sounds like a joke and it works.
Aiyu jelly
愛玉 · àiyù
A translucent jelly made by hand-rubbing the seeds of a climbing fig endemic to Taiwan, served with lemon and honey. It barely tastes of anything, which is the point: cold water with texture, and in September that is exactly what you want.
Jin Jin Soy Milk 津津豆漿
Order: Hot soy milk (熱豆漿), salty or sweet, with youtiao — the savoury cruller — to dunk, and a rice ball (飯糰) stuffed with pickle and dried pork.
Taiwanese breakfast is savoury and early: most places shut by midday. Order the salty soy milk (鹹豆漿) at least once: it curdles with vinegar in the bowl into a kind of savoury custard.
Fuhang Soy Milk 阜杭豆漿
Order: The 厚燒餅: the thick flatbread straight out of the clay oven, with egg inside. And the salty soy milk.
Taipei’s most famous breakfast, and therefore its longest queue: fifteen minutes to an hour and a half. Opens at 5:30 and closes on Mondays. Before 6:30 there is no queue; by 8:00 it wraps round the building.
Shuangcheng Street 雙城街
Order: The stall street next door that no guidebook lists. 黃記滷肉飯 (Bib Gourmand) for the braised pork rice, 鴻記 for dumplings and beef noodles, and black-chicken soup at 阿宏烏骨雞.
Yong Kang Beef Noodle 永康牛肉麵館
Order: The spicy beef noodle (紅燒牛肉麵) with tendon, which is what they have been doing since 1963. Menu in four languages.
Bib Gourmand since 2018, eight years running. It is ten minutes from Yongkang Street, so it fits the day-2 afternoon.
Hao Gong Dao 好公道金雞園
Order: Xiaolongbao at a third of the price of the Din Tai Fung round the corner, and for many locals just as good. Get the cold sesame noodles too.
Bib Gourmand. Shanghainese cooking, not Taiwanese.
Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐
Order: The pork xiaolongbao and the crab-soup ones, plus the day’s stir-fried greens. You order on a paper slip with a pencil before sitting down.
The original Xinyi Road branch no longer has tables: takeaway and cash only. To sit down, use the 101 one (takes cards) or Xinsheng, across from the original.
Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle 阿宗麵線
Order: A cup of thin noodles in a thick broth with pork offal, eaten standing in the street with a spoon, because there is not one chair. Since 1975 and they do nothing else.
Ningxia Night Market 寧夏夜市
Order: The fried taro ball with salted egg yolk at Liu Yu Zi 劉芋仔, Bib Gourmand every year since 2018; the pork-liver soup at Zhuganrongzai; and the oyster omelette at 圓環邊, open since 1965.
The nearest and the densest: 200 metres of street, all food, no sock stalls. The best one for arrival night. Cash only.
Tonghua / Linjiang 通化街夜市
Order: Cuttlefish stew, lu wei (the tray of marinated offal and vegetables you pick with tongs), gua bao and stinky tofu. This is a neighbourhood market: recipes unchanged for decades.
Fifteen minutes’ walk from Taipei 101, so it closes day 2 without taking the metro.
Raohe Street Night Market 饒河街觀光夜市
Order: The Fuzhou Shizu 福州世祖 pepper bun, at the entrance beside Ciyou temple: it is the queue at the gate and it is worth it. Then Chen Tung’s medicinal pork-rib soup and Boss Shi’s stinky tofu, both Bib Gourmand.
One straight 600 m street with a spectacular temple at each end. Go in from the temple side and out the other.
Shilin Night Market 士林夜市
Order: The cold noodles with peanut sauce at Good Friend 好朋友涼麵 and the fifteen-herb pork-rib soup at Hai You 海友, going fifty years. The pan-fried bao at Chung Chia 鍾家 only if you swap days: it closes on Wednesdays, which is exactly day 4.
The biggest and the most touristy, but the food hall was rebuilt in April 2025 — air conditioning and buzzers — and improved a lot. Get off at Jiantan: the stop actually called “Shilin” is far away.
Le Palais ★★★ 頤宮
Order: The honey-glazed roast pork, which is what everyone who has been talks about, and the duck. Classic Cantonese taken to the limit.
Three Michelin stars for the ninth year running and the best Cantonese table outside Hong Kong. It is genuinely expensive: reckon on a good 150 € a head with wine. Booked through the hotel website or by phone and it needs several weeks; three weeks out, call now and take whatever slot they give you.
Taïrroir 態芮
Order: The long menu, no questions. This is contemporary Taiwanese cooking by chef Kai Ho: island produce with French technique, not shop-window fusion. The benchmark of the “new Taiwanese cuisine” and winner of Michelin Taiwan’s Service Award.
It is in your own district, a walk from the hotel, and has spent years at the top of the guide. Confirm its current star count when you book: the 2026 edition came out in July and the lists move every year.
Silks House ★ 頤宴
Order: Dim sum, Cantonese barbecue and seafood. This is the table for the night you come home wrecked: you take the lift.
A new Michelin star in the 2026 edition, promoted from “Plate”. It is in your own hotel: ask reception for a table the day you arrive.
Circum- ★
Order: A set menu of French technique with Chinese flavours. The building’s second star, two floors below reception.
A hotel with two starred restaurants inside is not normal: use it at least one night. Book at reception.
Mountain and Sea House ★ 山海樓
Order: The 1930s Taiwanese banquet menu, nine courses: heritage-breed chicken, river prawn, vegetables from named farmers.
One Michelin star and a Green Star (sustainability) since 2019. The most affordable starred table on the list and the most Taiwanese of them all: if you only do one high-end dinner, this is the one that tells you most about the country.
Molino de Urdániz ★★
Order: The Taipei outpost of Navarre’s Molino de Urdániz, with two stars in the 2026 edition and one oddity: it is the only non-Asian, non-French name among Taiwan’s two-star tables.
It is in your neighbourhood and, being Spanish-speaking, one of the easier stars to book from Spain. That said: with six nights in Taiwan, spending one on Spanish cooking has both a charm and a cost.
Bar Mood · Draft Land · Indulge
Order: At Bar Mood (吧沐), Taiwanese whisky and cocktails with flowers from their own garden — ask for the “Season With Flowers”. At Draft Land, cocktails on tap, no shaker, 200 TWD. At Indulge, the black-tea Ruby Black.
Taipei is strong on Asia’s 50 Best Bars: The Public House (no. 40 in 2025) and To Infinity & Beyond (no. 41) are the two inside the top 50.
Day 1 · Sun, Sept 20
September average Taipéi 30° 24° 51 % days with rain
Today is not planned, it is survived. Taipei runs six hours ahead of Spain, so the only duty of the day is not to sleep until it is night here. Check-in is at 15:00, but they will hold your bags from first thing and the neighbourhood is walkable.
Taoyuan is 40 km out. The Airport MRT is the cleanest way: the purple Express takes 35 min to Taipei Main Station and costs 160 TWD; there you change to the red line for a single stop to Zhongshan, the hotel’s station. With luggage and jet lag, a taxi is 1,160–1,400 TWD and takes the same time.
At any metro machine or 7-Eleven: 100 TWD for the card plus whatever you load. It works on the metro, buses, local trains and convenience stores, and saves you fighting the ticket machine every time. Load 400–500 TWD each to start; you top it up at any 7-Eleven.
16:00 – 18:00
Fifteen minutes on foot from the hotel is Dadaocheng, the Taipei that made its money on tea and camphor in the 19th century. Dihua Street keeps the façades: herbalists with roots in drawers, fabric by weight, shops of dried mushrooms and fins, and third-wave coffee inside houses from 1910. You walk it without a plan.
18:00 – 18:45
At the end of Dihua, through the flood gate, is Dadaocheng Wharf: shipping containers turned into bars, people sitting on the concrete and the Tamsui river turning orange behind the bridge. It is the first sunset of the trip and it costs nothing.
19:00 – 21:00
The night market ten minutes’ walk from the hotel, and the best one to start with: Ningxia is short, it is about food rather than socks, and it is full of locals. One street, two rows of stalls, dinner standing up for 200–300 TWD. Bring cash: there are no card machines here.
No nap on arrival, however rough you feel: holding out until 22:00 local time fixes the jet lag in a day, and giving in at six in the afternoon stretches it to three. If you need a push, the hotel has a rooftop pool.
Day 2 · Mon, Sept 21
September average Taipéi 30° 24° 51 % days with rain
Today is Monday, the day Taipei’s museums close — the National Palace, the Confucius Temple, the Maokong gondola. Which is perfect: the whole day goes outdoors, south to north, and ends 380 metres up.
09:00 – 10:30
Blue line to Longshan Temple. Longshan Temple (1738) is the devotional heart of the city and it runs at full tilt: incense smoke, mountains of fruit, people throwing jiaobei — two wooden crescents — to ask the gods very specific questions. Free, open 06:00 to 21:45. You enter by the right-hand door and leave by the left.
10:30 – 12:00
Behind the temple, Bopiliao Historic Block: a whole block of Qing and Japanese-era brick, restored and nearly always empty. From there, twenty minutes north on foot to Ximending, the pedestrian zone where Taipei is fifteen years old: neon, record shops, tattoo parlours and teenage queues.
13:00 – 14:30
Taiwan’s largest and most argued-over square: 76 metres of marble flanked by the National Theatre and Concert Hall. The changing of the guard runs hourly, on the hour, 09:00 to 17:00, and lasts a quarter of an hour. Since 2024 it no longer happens under the statue but outside, on the boulevard — a political gesture, and far easier to watch. Free.
15:00 – 17:00
Ten minutes east is Yongkang Street, where Taipei goes for an afternoon snack: mango shaved ice, steamed buns, a tea house in a courtyard and the original Din Tai Fung on the corner of Xinyi. It is where you kill the afternoon before climbing the hill, and where you buy pineapple cake to take home.
17:30 – 19:00
Red line to the end, Xiangshan, exit 2. It is 20 minutes of steps — about 600, unbroken and unshaded — to the first platform, and there it is: the photograph of Taipei, tower 101 head-on and the whole city behind. Go up an hour before sunset to get a spot on the rocks.
19:30 – 21:00
Coming down the hill you can walk to the tower. The 89th and 91st floor observatory costs 600 TWD and closes between 21:00 and 22:00 depending on the day — check the last entry. Inside sits the mass damper: a 660-tonne golden ball hung between floors 92 and 88, which absorbs up to 40% of the building’s sway.
Skyline 460 steps out onto the open deck on floor 101, at the very rim of the building, and costs 980 TWD. The detail that decides it: only 36 people a day are allowed up and it must be booked ahead. If you fancy it, this is one to buy from Spain the week before, not at the ticket desk on the day.
21:00 – 22:30
Fifteen minutes on foot from the 101, the Tonghua (Linjiang) night market: a neighbourhood market rather than a guidebook one, and at that hour it is at its best. If your legs are done, the Din Tai Fung on B1 of the 101 itself settles dinner without leaving the building.
Day 3 · Tue, Sept 22 T1T2
September average Jiufen 27° 23° 69 % days with rain
The big day out of Taipei: the north coast in the morning and the gold mountains in the afternoon. Three stops — Yehliu, Shifen and Jiufen — that line up on the map but connect badly, so the order and the transport decide whether the day works or is spent at bus stops.
The three stops by public transport are ten hours and four changes. A private car with driver (Klook or KKday, ~4,000–5,000 TWD for a full day for two) links them door to door and leaves real time at each. This is the recommendation: it is the one day of the trip where paying for transport pays off.
It works, minus Yehliu: train from Taipei Main to Ruifang (T1, 40–50 min), then the Pingxi Line train to Shifen (T2) with the 80 TWD day pass. Back at Ruifang, bus 788 or 1062 to Jiufen. The Pingxi train runs once an hour: note the return time before you get off.
09:00 – 11:00
A sandstone headland the sea has carved into stone mushrooms, and among them the Queen’s Head (女王頭), the profile on every postcard. Open 08:00 to 17:00, no booking needed. Note: the Queen’s neck loses a centimetre and a half a year and is given 5 to 15 years to live.
12:30 – 14:30
A one-street town where the street is the railway: the shops pull back when the train comes through and spill out again behind it. This is where you release paper sky lanterns (150–300 TWD depending on how many colours, each with its wish written on). Ten minutes away is Shifen Waterfall, the widest in Taiwan, free.
16:30 – 19:30
The mining town clinging to the hillside, the sea below and Shuqi Street climbing in steps between red lanterns. Arrive before dark and stay for the lighting: it is literally a different place. The A-Mei tea house, the one with the black timber front, is the postcard — and also the most crowded.
Ten minutes by car from Jiufen, the Gold Museum in the old Japanese mine: you walk into a real tunnel and can touch a 220 kg gold bar. Next to it stand the ruins of the Golden Temple, above the valley. It closes at 17:00, which is why it only fits if the day has run fast.
Day 4 · Wed, Sept 23
September average Yangmingshan 24° 19° 56 % days with rain 41 km/h gusts 27° / 21° feels like
Taipei has an active volcano inside the city limits and a hot-spring district half an hour from the centre, and both sit on the same hillside. The day strings them together: you sweat among the fumaroles in the morning and end up in 40 °C water.
08:30 – 09:30
Bus 1717 from Taipei Main Station or bus S15 from Jiantan MRT; both climb to Yangmingshan in 50 minutes and take the EasyCard. Up top, the 108 buses run a loop between the park stops. Leave early: the mist usually rolls in by midday.
09:30 – 12:00
The hillside genuinely steams: sulphur fumaroles hissing between yellow rocks, with the north sea open in front. The trail is 4 km and 2–3 hours, much of it boardwalk. It is the park’s best ratio of effort to spectacle.
The highest point in Taipei, 1,120 m, up continuous steps: 5.7 km and 3 h 15 for the full loop, or 2–2 h 30 versions turning back early. Worth it only if you actually want to walk and the sky is clear; in mist you see nothing from the top.
14:00 – 15:30
Bus 小9 (S9) runs straight down from Yangmingshan to Xinbeitou in half an hour — no need to return to the centre. Beitou is a Japanese-era spa district, with timber houses, a steaming valley (地熱谷, free, 09:00–18:00, closed Mondays) where the water surfaces at 90 °C, and a wooden library that is among the loveliest in Asia.
16:00 – 18:00
Three levels, pick one. A private room at the Beitou Hot Spring Resort: 1,400 TWD on weekdays for 90 minutes, shared with nobody. Villa 32, the smartest in the district, over-16s only. And Longnaitang (瀧乃湯, from 1907, 150–200 TWD), an old-school public bath: sex-segregated and no swimsuits.
19:00 – 21:00
Boiled soft, the last thing you want is to cross the city: eat in Beitou itself or, back on the red line, at Shilin (two stops before home), Taipei’s biggest and most touristy night market — worth seeing once.
Day 5 · Thu, Sept 24
September average Taipéi 30° 24° 51 % days with rain
Treasure day: in the morning, the largest collection of Chinese art in the world; at midday, two temples that are the opposite of tourism; and in the afternoon, the red line to the end of the line to watch the sun set over the estuary.
09:00 – 12:00
What Chiang Kai-shek carried out of the Forbidden City in 1948: nearly 700,000 pieces, of which some 3,000 are shown in rotation. Open 09:00 to 17:00, closed Mondays, 350 TWD. There is no MRT: buses 255, 304, 815 or Red 30 from Shilin. Three hours is about right.
Two tiny pieces draw the queues: the Jadeite Cabbage (翠玉白菜), carved to use the stone’s white and green veining, with two grasshoppers hidden in the leaves; and the Meat-Shaped Stone (肉形石), a jasper that looks like braised pork belly. Ask at the entrance whether they are out: they rotate and sometimes travel.
13:00 – 15:00
MRT Yuanshan, and eight minutes on foot two temples side by side. Bao’an (保安宮, 1830) holds a UNESCO award for its restoration and murals worth looking at closely. Facing it, the Confucius Temple is the exact opposite: no images, no incense, no noise. Both free; Confucius closes on Mondays.
16:00 – 17:30
Same red line, to the end: Tamsui (淡水), the port the Spanish, Dutch and British all came through. Fort San Domingo — founded by the Spanish in 1628, rebuilt by the Dutch and later the British consulate — costs 80 TWD including two more buildings, and closes at 18:00.
17:30 – 19:00
The riverside walk is all squid stalls, impossibly tall ice creams and oyster omelettes, and the sun goes down straight ahead, behind Guanyin mountain. For about 60 TWD the ferry crosses to Bali in ten minutes, or runs up to Fisherman’s Wharf and its white bridge, which is the best view of it.
Day 6 · Fri, Sept 25
September average Taipéi 30° 24° 51 % days with rain
Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節), a national holiday and the night the whole of Taiwan drags a barbecue onto the pavement and looks at the moon. The day is deliberately gentle and ends in two good places: a tea house above the fields and the best table of the trip.
10:00 – 12:30
Two factories turned into culture parks, and one is enough. Songshan (松山文創園區) was the 1937 Japanese tobacco plant: a courtyard with a pond, design shops and the Not Just Library built into the old bathhouse. Huashan 1914 was a sake distillery and has more cafés and more cinema. Both free.
15:00 – 16:00
Brown line to Taipei Zoo and up: 4 km of cable in 20–30 minutes, climbing over the forest and the Zhinan temple. 180 TWD one way or 300 for the day; for 50 TWD more, the Crystal cabin has a glass floor. Closed Mondays; today, a public holiday Friday, it runs until 22:00.
16:30 – 18:30
Up there are actual tea fields — Taipei’s tieguanyin comes from here — and tea houses with terraces over the city. Yaoyue (邀月茶坊) is the classic: tables beside a stream, open 24 hours, and they hand you the pot and the burner so you brew it yourselves. About 300–400 TWD a pot, refilled endlessly.
20:00 – 23:00
The night held for the table booked months ago — it is in this stage’s food guide, with prices and how each one takes reservations. Come down the hill early: the gondola and the metro are packed on a holiday, and Maokong to the centre is a good hour.
This is the full moon of the eighth lunar month, the one the festival is named after, and looking at it is literally the national plan. People eat mooncake (月餅) and pomelo, and the city smells of barbecue from midday. Any riverbank will do; so will the hotel roof.
Day 7 · Sat, Sept 26
September average Taipéi 30° 24° 51 % days with rain
Taipei Main Taoyuan (TPE)
Purple Airport MRT Express · 35 min · 160 TWD
Taipéi (TPE) Siem Reap (SAI)
Not yet booked · via Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City or Singapore · 7–9 h in total
Siem Reap (SAI) Sala Kamreuk (Waka Villa)
50 km · 1 h – 1 h 30 · ~35–45 US$ with a hotel transfer
The world changes: from an island of 23 million with an immaculate metro to a plain of rice paddies and 12th-century temples. There is no direct flight from Taipei to Siem Reap, so today is an airport day — via Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City or Singapore and 7 to 9 hours door to door.
11:00
Check-out at the Regent is before 11:00, but they will hold the bags as long as you need. If the flight is an afternoon one, there is a whole morning for a proper Taiwanese breakfast — hot soy milk and youtiao — and for whatever is left to buy.
Pineapple cake (鳳梨酥) from SunnyHills or Chia Te — both have city-centre shops and gift boxes — loose-leaf high-mountain tea, and peanut nougat. All of it clears security. What you cannot take out: fresh fruit and meat, vacuum-packed jerky included.
Back to the Airport MRT: one red-line stop to Taipei Main and the purple Express, 35 minutes and 160 TWD. At Taipei Main Station you can check your bags in at the station itself with some airlines if the flight is more than three hours away, and reach Taoyuan empty-handed.
Since October 2023 flights land at Siem Reap Angkor International (SAI), not the old city airport. It is 50 km from the centre: one to one and a half hours by car, and that is not a minor detail. Ask the hotel for a transfer when you book; it usually runs 35–45 US$ and saves haggling in the dark.
If you land in daylight, it is worth stopping at the official ticket office before the hotel: passes bought from 17:00 count for the next day and let you in that same evening for sunset. Otherwise buy online at angkorenterprise.gov.kh. The details are in the next stage.
Stage 2 · Days 8–10 · Nights 7–9 · Sept 26–28
Angkor in the green season: full moats and nobody in front
The table
Khmer cooking is the quiet neighbour between Thai and Vietnamese: far less spicy than the first, earthier than the second, and built on two things — kroeung (the paste of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric and lime root that goes into nearly everything) and prahok, the fermented fish paste that gives the base note. There is no Michelin Guide in Cambodia, so “the best” is measured differently here: two chef-driven tables of international standard, and street food that costs two dollars.
Fish amok
អាម៉ុក · amok
The national dish: a fish curry steamed inside a banana leaf until it sets to the texture of a mousse. If it arrives as a soup, it is not amok. 6–8 US$.
Lok lak
ឡុកឡាក់ · lok lak
Cubes of beef seared hard with oyster sauce and Kampot pepper, over lettuce and tomato, with a fried egg on top and a lime-and-black-pepper dip alongside. 5–10 US$.
Num banh chok
នំបញ្ចុក · num banh chok
The Khmer breakfast: lightly fermented rice noodles drowned in a mild green fish curry, with a heap of sprouts, banana flower and raw herbs on top. Sold from a cart for 1–3 US$ and gone by nine.
Bai sach chrouk
បាយសាច់ជ្រូក · bai sach chrouk
“Rice and pork”: thin slices marinated in palm sugar and coconut milk, grilled at dawn, with broken rice, pickles and a bowl of broth. 1.5–3 US$ and it is what the whole country eats for breakfast.
Kuy teav
គុយទាវ · kuy teav
Thin rice-noodle soup in pork-bone broth, with sprouts, fried shallot and lime that you finish yourself at the table. 0.75–4 US$. Breakfast or a late supper.
Cha kroeung
ឆាគ្រឿង · cha kroeung
A stir-fry — usually beef — marinated in kroeung, the mother paste of Khmer cooking: pounded lemongrass, galangal, garlic and turmeric. It is the flavour to learn to recognise. 4–7 US$.
Prahok ktis
ប្រហុកខ្ទិះ · prahok ktis
A thick dip of fermented fish with minced pork and coconut milk, for raw vegetables. The most Khmer dish of all and the most divisive: if you like it, you have understood the cuisine. 3–5 US$.
Samlor korko
សម្លរកកូរ · samlor korko
A thick stew of a dozen or more vegetables with kroeung, ground toasted rice and sometimes prahok. Considered the oldest dish still cooked in Cambodia. 3–5 US$.
Nom krok
នំក្រូក · nom krok
Little balls of rice-and-coconut batter set in a dimpled griddle, crisp outside and creamy within, served in pairs on a leaf. 0.5–1 US$ a cone.
Kralan
ក្រឡាន · kralan
Sticky rice with beans, coconut and palm sugar, roasted for ninety minutes inside a bamboo tube that you then peel like a banana. 1–2 US$. Sold along the Banteay Srei road.
Red ants with beef
ស្រមោចក្រហម · sramoch krorhom
Weaver ants stir-fried with beef and basil: they bring a citric, crunchy edge, not a taste of insect. It is the dish that made Marum famous, and far less brave than it sounds.
Fried insects
សត្វល្អិតបំពង · satl’it bapong
Crickets, water beetles, silkworms and tarantula, fried and salted, on a market tray. 0.12–1 US$. You eat the tarantula without the legs and it tastes like land crab.
Kampot pepper
ម្រេចកំពត · mrech Kampot
The only pepper in the world with EU protected origin status, from the south coast. The green kind, fresh on the stem, is stir-fried with crab — and that dish, though it belongs to Kep, is served all over Cambodia. It is the best souvenir of the trip.
Sombai
សុំបាយ · sombai
Rice liquor infused with fruit and spice — anise and coffee, coconut and pineapple, ginger and chilli — bottled in Siem Reap in hand-painted bottles. Tasting 5 US$, and they run a cocktail workshop.
Angkor Beer
ស្រាបៀរអង្គរ · sra bier Angkor
The national lager, 5%, going since 1963, with the slogan “My Country, My Beer”. 1–3 US$ a bottle, and in many places 50 cents a draught at happy hour. Cold, it is exactly what two in the afternoon requires.
Waka Villa
Order: It is paid for all three days. But on sunrise days you leave at 04:45, so ask the night before for a breakfast box, or save it for when you get back mid-morning — which is what everyone does.
Num banh chok carts នំបញ្ចុក
Order: The fish-curry noodle breakfast, from whichever cart has the most local women around it. It sells out before 09:00 and is not served at any other time of day.
The stalls inside Angkor
Order: Tin-and-plastic canteens inside the park: lok lak, fried rice, cut fruit and cold water. Not a tourist trap — it is where the drivers eat. Agree with yours where to stop.
Rule of the park: carry two litres of water each from the hotel. Inside it costs triple, and in September you sweat in a way you do not anticipate.
Marum
Order: The red-ant salad, the amok and the winged-bean shoots. Khmer small plates to share, in a house with a garden.
It is a training restaurant run by Friends-International, the network that has been training at-risk young people for over twenty years. The food is good and the money goes somewhere.
Cuisine Wat Damnak
Order: The tasting menu (45 US$, vegetarian 38, plus 5% service and 10% tax). High-end Khmer cooking by chef Joannès Rivière with French technique and a menu that changes fortnightly with what the market and the lake give.
Closed Sundays, which is exactly the night of day 8: the one that works is Monday the 28th (day 9), back from the grand circuit. Book online at least 24 h ahead. It is the closest thing to a starred table in Cambodia, and it is a walk from the hotel.
Embassy Restaurant
Order: The nine-course menu, no alternative. Chef-driven Khmer cooking by the “Kimsan twins” — Kimsan Pol and Kimsan Sok, same surname and no relation — with an all-female kitchen brigade trained by Michelin-starred chefs.
Few tables: book ahead. It is the other half — with Cuisine Wat Damnak — of Cambodian fine dining, and both are on Asia’s 50 Best Discovery.
Malis Siem Reap
Order: The crab fried rice with Kampot pepper, the amok and the lotus-leaf curry. Modern Khmer cooking by Luu Meng, the country’s best-known chef.
Open from 07:00, so it also does breakfast and lunch. The smart option without the price of the two above.
Bugs Cafe
Order: The insect tasting menu: tarantula, scorpion, cricket, silkworm and ant, cooked properly — tapas, skewers, wok — rather than as a stunt. Nothing else in town does it.
Miss Wong
Order: The Indochine Martini (vodka, ginger cognac and fresh pineapple) or a Singapore Sling. Cocktails in a room done up as 1930s Shanghai: red lacquer, lanterns and real air conditioning.
Tuesday to Sunday, 17:00 to midnight — which means closed on Monday the 28th, exactly the Cuisine Wat Damnak night. For that drink, Laundry Bar or the hotel itself.
Asana Wooden House
Order: The Little Sweet (gin, ginger, sugar cane and turmeric) or the ginger mojito. It is the last traditional wooden house left in the centre, run as a cocktail bar built on Khmer herbs.
They run a 90-minute cocktail class every day at 18:00, three cocktails included. Mind the hour: on days 8 and 9 you will be watching sunset at a temple, so the class only fits on arrival night.
Day 8 · Sun, Sept 27
September average Siem Reap 31° 24° 95 % days with rain
The big day. Angkor is not a temple, it is a 400 km² city with a thousand monuments, and today covers the inner ring. One rule governs the whole day: be at each place before the coaches and leave when they arrive.
You hire a tuk-tuk for the whole day (15–20 US$ for the small circuit, per vehicle, not per person) or an air-conditioned car (55 US$). A licensed English-speaking guide is 35–45 US$ on top, and on the first day they are worth it: without someone telling it, half of Angkor is handsome stone and little else.
05:15 – 06:15
Sunrise at the Angkor Wat pond is the most crowded photograph in Southeast Asia: hundreds of people shoving from five in the morning, and if there are clouds there is no photograph. The alternative repeat visitors use: Srah Srang, the “royal bath”, a naga terrace facing a huge lake where there is almost nobody, then into Angkor Wat at 06:30 with the light still low and the crowd already dispersing.
06:30 – 09:30
The largest religious monument on earth: 162 hectares, a moat 190 m wide and 800 metres of bas-relief in the outer gallery — the churning of the ocean of milk, the battle of Kurukshetra, the 37 heavens and 32 hells. The central tower, the Bakan, does not open until 07:40 and demands real sleeves: no bare shoulders, and a scarf will not do.
10:00 – 12:00
You come in through the South Gate, with its 54 gods and 54 demons hauling a serpent along each side of the causeway. Inside is the Bayon: 216 stone faces smiling from 54 towers, which is the image that stays. Beside it, the Baphuon with its raised walkway and the Elephant and Leper King terraces.
12:30 – 15:00
This is not optional, it is tactics. From noon to three it is over 33 °C at 77% humidity, the light is flat and it is when every coach arrives. You go back to the villa, eat, sleep and let the afternoon downpour pass — in September it falls nearly every day.
15:00 – 16:30
The temple they deliberately left to the jungle: strangler figs and spung trees with five-metre roots pouring over the walls. It is the Tomb Raider one and the most photographed after Angkor Wat. This is the good window, or 07:00 to 08:00; between eight and eleven it is a queue.
17:00 – 18:15
The stepped pyramid of red laterite with a 360° view over the rice fields and the forest. It is the smart alternative to Phnom Bakheng, which has a 300-person cap at the top and a queue to climb. Pre Rup closes at 19:00, so there is time to spare. Its name means “turning the body”: it is thought to have been a royal crematorium.
Day 9 · Mon, Sept 28
September average Siem Reap 31° 24° 95 % days with rain
Today you leave the ring. In the morning, 37 km north, to the most delicate temple in all Cambodia; in the afternoon, the outer circuit, which has half the people of yesterday. And at night, a circus that is also a school.
07:45 – 09:00
“The citadel of women”: small, in pink sandstone, and with the finest carving in all Angkor — reliefs so deep they look like woodwork, cut in the 10th century. Get there first thing: the low light is what brings the carving out, and by mid-morning the place is tiny for the crowd it holds.
09:30 – 11:00
Twenty minutes further: “the river of a thousand lingas”. You climb 45 minutes through the forest to a stretch of river where the stone bed is carved underwater with lingas, Vishnus and Shivas from the 11th century. Last entry 15:00. In the rain the path is genuinely slippery: bring grippy shoes.
If jungle over stone appeals more than water: Beng Mealea, 65–77 km out, is an unrestored temple, collapsed and swallowed by vegetation, crossed on wooden walkways between fallen blocks. It is the most different experience of the three days. In the rainy season go by car, not tuk-tuk: the track turns to mud.
On the same road is the Cambodia Landmine Museum, set up by Aki Ra, a Khmer Rouge child soldier who spent his adult life clearing the mines he had laid himself. 5 US$, open 07:30 to 17:00. It takes forty minutes and explains the country better than any temple.
14:00 – 17:00
Four temples in a row and not a crowd among them. Preah Khan (“the sacred sword”) is the largest: a maze of courtyards 700 m long that you cross end to end. Neak Pean is an island temple in the middle of a pond, with serpents coiled round its base. Ta Som has a doorway eaten by a tree, and East Mebon, stone elephants at its corners.
18:00 – 21:00
Not a circus with animals: it is physical theatre, acrobatics and live music telling Cambodian stories — the war, the spirits, village life — by performers from a free arts school in Battambang founded for kids with nothing. Doors 17:30 with food outside, show at 20:00, one hour long. 18–38 US$ depending on the row.
The Tonlé Sap is the lake that changes size with the monsoon, and in September it is at its fullest. Of the three floating villages, Chong Kneas is a declared tourist trap; Kampong Phluk is acceptable; and Kampong Khleang — 50 km out, half a day — is the big one and still an actual village. Only if you would swap temples for water.
Day 10 · Tue, Sept 29
September average Siem Reap 31° 24° 95 % days with rain
Siem Reap (hotel) Siem Reap Angkor (SAI)
50 km · ~1 h · official taxi ~35 US$ or a hotel transfer
Siem Reap (SAI) Bangkok
~1 h 20 · Bangkok Airways (to Suvarnabhumi) or Thai AirAsia (to Don Mueang)
Bangkok airport Wireless Rd (Okura)
30–45 min depending on traffic · ~400–500 THB + tolls
Half a morning of Cambodia and a hop of an hour and twenty. Check-out is at 12:00 and the airport is 50 km and a good hour away, so the morning fits one thing, not two — and the evening, the best table you can book in Bangkok.
07:00 – 10:30
With the three-day pass still valid, the best closing note is the oldest part of Angkor: the Roluos temples, from the 9th century, three hundred years older than everything you saw these two days. Bakong is the first stone temple-mountain ever built; Preah Ko keeps its Nandi bulls; and Lolei stands on what was an island. They are close together and ninety minutes covers all three.
If by now temples are one too many: Psar Chas (the Old Market) first thing, while it is still a food market rather than a souvenir one, and Artisans Angkor, the silk-and-carving school-workshop where you watch the craftspeople work. The guided visit is free, 08:00 to 17:30, and you should call ahead.
12:00 – 13:30
Siem Reap Angkor (SAI) opened in October 2023 and sits 50 km to the east — nothing like the old city airport, and easy to get wrong with an old map. Allow a good 60 minutes. Official taxi ~35 US$, or a hotel transfer. Leave three hours before the flight.
Bangkok Airways is the route’s historic operator and has the most frequencies; Thai Airways and Thai AirAsia also fly it (the latter into Don Mueang, DMK, not Suvarnabhumi — important if you leave from the other one the next day). Flights run from 09:40 to 23:50: take a mid-afternoon one, which leaves the morning free and lands in time for dinner.
17:00 – 18:30
From the airport to Wireless Road is 30–45 minutes by taxi depending on traffic. The hotel sits literally on top of BTS Ploenchit, which is the best possible address for a single night. The room is on floors 26–32 and comes with green tea, a kyusu pot and a yukata — it is a Japanese hotel in Bangkok, and it shows.
20:00 – 23:00
The one dinner in Bangkok, and this is where the actual three-star tables are. The options, with prices and how hard each is to book, are in the next stage’s food guide. One logistical note: by far the most convenient one is on your own street.
Stage 3 · Day 11 · Night 10 · Sept 29
One night, one dinner and the flight home
The table
Bangkok is the city with the most Michelin stars in Southeast Asia and, at the same time, the only city on earth where a street stall holds one. With a single night you have to pick a side, because there is no time for both: either you book a tasting menu months ahead, or you queue on a plastic stool. Both are the right answer. What follows is ordered by that, with the price up front.
Tom yum goong
ต้มยำกุ้ง · tom yam kung
The soup that sums up the country: sour, hot and scented with lemongrass, galangal and lime leaf, with prawns. 100–150 THB on the street, 300–500 with a tablecloth. Order it nam khon (with milk) or nam sai (clear); the clear one is the real one.
Pad thai
ผัดไทย · phat thai
Rice noodles fried with tamarind, egg, tofu, sprouts and peanut. 40–60 THB on the street, 150–250 in a restaurant. The good version arrives deliberately bland: you adjust it at the table from the four pots.
Som tam
ส้มตำ · som tam
Green papaya pounded in a mortar with lime, chilli, long bean, tomato and fish sauce. 40–60 THB. You order it by number of chillies: “song met” (two) already burns.
Pad kra pao
ผัดกะเพรา · phat kaphrao
What Thailand actually eats every day: minced meat fried with holy basil, garlic and chilli, over rice with a crisp-edged fried egg on top (kai dao). 50–70 THB.
Gaeng massaman
แกงมัสมั่น · kaeng matsaman
A mild curry of dry spices — cinnamon, clove, cardamom — with Persian ancestry, beef and potato. 100–150 THB. The sweetest and least fiery of them all: the beginner’s curry.
Khao soi
ข้าวซอย · khao soi
From the north: coconut curry with noodles soft underneath and crisp on top, chicken, raw shallot and pickle. 50–90 THB. Not from Bangkok, but eaten in Bangkok.
Grilled pork skewers
หมูปิ้ง · mu ping
Skewers of pork marinated in coconut milk and soy, over charcoal, 10–15 THB each. It is street breakfast, with a bag of sticky rice alongside.
Khao niew mamuang
ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง · khao niao mamuang
Mango with sticky rice and salted coconut cream poured over — the sweet-salt contrast is the trick. 60–100 THB. September is out of mango season: dearer and slightly worse.
Larb
ลาบ · larb
Isan salad of minced meat with ground toasted rice, lime, dried chilli, spring onion and mint. 60–100 THB. Eaten with sticky rice and with your hands.
Khai jiao poo
ไข่เจียวปู · khai chiao pu
The crab omelette that won a street stall a Michelin star: a puffed, crisp roll stuffed with whole crab meat, fried in a charcoal wok. 800–1,500 THB at Jay Fai — hundreds of times what a normal omelette costs, and still there is a queue.
Blue by Alain Ducasse ★★
Order: A French tasting menu from the Ducasse house, with two Michelin stars in the 2026 edition. With one night and a flight the next day, this is the sensible answer: two stars five minutes on foot from the hotel, no taxi, no traffic, no margin to calculate.
Mind the dress code at the Wireless Road luxury hotels: no shorts, no flip-flops. And you will be carrying a three-week suitcase: pack something presentable near the top, uncreased, before leaving Siem Reap.
Sorn ศรณ์
Order: The long menu. Southern Thai cooking by chef Supaksorn “Ice” Jongsiri, who brings the ingredients, the water and even the charcoal up from the south. It was the first Thai restaurant ever to reach three stars, in the 2025 edition.
One of the hardest bookings in Asia: they open specific windows and they sell out in minutes. Three weeks out the real odds are low — but the Okura concierge can try, which is what they are for. Have your plan B decided before you ask.
Sühring ★★★
Order: A tasting menu of contemporary German cooking — yes, German, in Bangkok — by twins Thomas and Mathias Sühring, in a restored house with a garden. Three stars in the 2026 edition: today it is the highest table in Thailand.
Weeks of notice, though slightly less impossible than Sorn. Booked through their website.
Mezzaluna ★★ · Chef’s Table ★★
Order: Two stars each, in the same tower: Mezzaluna is French with a Japanese accent (chef Ryuki Kawasaki, two stars running since 2018) and Chef’s Table is classic French by Vincent Thierry. They sit sixty floors up and are among the priciest in the city.
This is the Sky Bar and Sirocco building, the rooftop from the film: you can have the drink up top and come down for dinner. Formal dress is compulsory, and they check at the lift.
R-Haan ★★ · Nusara ★ · Potong ★
Order: If you want the last dinner to be Thai rather than French: R-Haan does royal-court cooking with two stars and is among the more affordable in its class; Nusara is modern Thai by chef Ton (no. 3 on Asia’s 50 Best in 2023); and Potong, Thai-Chinese fusion by chef “Pam” in an old Chinatown pharmacy.
All three want days or weeks of notice — Potong, weeks — but they are not impossible like Sorn. R-Haan is the likeliest to have a slot three weeks out.
Gaggan
Order: Progressive Indian cooking by Gaggan Anand, three times number one on Asia’s 50 Best (2015–2018) and with no Michelin stars at all — by his own choice, not for want of level. A menu of twenty-odd courses served almost as a performance.
It went back to its original name, plain “Gaggan”, in 2024. And here is the catch: it opens Thursday to Monday, and your only night is Tuesday the 29th — it is closed. Noted in case the day-10 flight moves or someone comes back to Bangkok, but for this dinner it is not an option.
Jay Fai ★ เจ๊ไฝ
Order: The crab omelette (khai jiao poo) and the drunken noodles. Supinya Junsuta, 82, still cooks it herself, in ski goggles against the smoke and with two charcoal woks. It is the only street stall in the world with a Michelin star.
There is no online booking: a phone line in narrow windows, which jams instantly, or hours of queueing in person. Closed Sundays. With one night it is a gamble: if you try, have the concierge call the moment the line opens, and keep a decided plan B.
Yaowarat (Chinatown)
Order: The street turns into a grilled-seafood market the moment it gets dark. T&K Seafood, the green-shirt one, does curry crab and fried fish on the pavement; Nai Ek Roll Noodle and Guay Jub Ouan Pochana, both Bib Gourmand, do kuay jub, the rolled noodle in black pepper broth.
The plan that needs no booking and no dress code, and for many the best on this list. It starts moving around 19:00 and peaks at 21:00.
Day 11 · Wed, Sept 30
September average Bangkok 31° 25° 82 % days with rain
Wireless Rd (Okura) Bangkok airport
30–45 min · ~400–500 THB + tolls in cash · leave 3 h before
Bangkok Madrid
Not yet booked · direct on Iberojet (12–13 h) or with a connection (15–17 h)
Last day, and it hangs entirely on one time that is not fixed yet: the flight home. What is fixed: check-out is at 12:00 and they will keep the bags afterwards. With a night flight you have a whole day; with a midday one, only a morning.
06:00 – 08:00
Bangkok’s big park is ten minutes on foot and opens at 04:30. First thing it is the best of the city: hundreds of people doing tai chi, mass aerobics with a loudspeaker, and five-foot monitor lizards strolling across the grass as if nothing. It closes at 21:00, so there is no evening walk.
09:00 – 12:00
If this is your only Bangkok morning, make it the Chao Phraya: BTS to Saphan Taksin and the orange boat, 16 THB and run like a river bus. Get off at Tha Tien and you are steps from Wat Pho and its 46-metre reclining Buddha and, across the water for 5 THB, Wat Arun (200 THB), which up close is entirely broken porcelain set into the stone.
12:00
Check out and leave the bags. Use the room for a shower and a change of clothes before you hand it back: there are a lot of airport and aeroplane hours ahead, and after this there is no other chance.
13:00 – 17:00
Two plans with air conditioning, which at that hour is the only sensible sort. One: a two-hour Thai massage, 650–750 THB at a proper chain, or the InterContinental spa two minutes away if you want to finish the trip in style. Two: the malls, which here are a genuine outing — Terminal 21 at Asok has each floor decorated as a different city.
There is one direct Bangkok–Madrid, on Iberojet (12–13 h from Suvarnabhumi), but it does not fly daily: in 2025 the return legs ran Fridays and Mondays, and September 30 is a Wednesday. With a connection there are many, all daily: Qatar (Doha), Turkish (Istanbul), Etihad (Abu Dhabi, fastest at ~15 h), Emirates (Dubai) and Air France (Paris).
To Suvarnabhumi, 30–45 minutes by taxi depending on the hour, about 400–500 THB plus tolls, paid separately in cash (~100 THB: keep it loose). Traffic-free alternative: the Airport Rail Link from Phaya Thai. If your flight leaves from Don Mueang it is a different airport and a different road: check the boarding pass.
If you bought at shops with the “VAT Refund for Tourists” sign and went over 2,000 THB per shop and 5,000 in total, you must show the goods at the customs desk before checking in and collect afterwards, past security. Two more queues: if you are doing it, leave half an hour earlier.
How the trip moves
This trip moves by plane between countries and by metro inside the city: the train table has just two rows, both on day 3, because the Pingxi line is one you take for the ride, not the destination. Everything else is below: transfers and day cars. The trip’s four flights are not here — they live in the booking calendar, which is where you have to act.
Ruifang 瑞芳 is the local hub: buses to Jiufen and the Pingxi train both leave from there. Pay with the EasyCard, no ticket needed.
A single-track line up a valley: Houtong (the cat village), Shifen, Pingxi and Jingtong. The train passes a metre from the stalls on Shifen’s main street.
| Day | Leg | How | Duration | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun, Sept 20 Day 1 | Taoyuan (TPE) → hotel | Airport MRT (purple Express) to Taipei Main + 1 red-line stop. With luggage and jet lag, a taxi | 45–60 min | ~180 TWD (taxi 1,160–1,400) |
| Tue, Sept 22 Day 3 | Yehliu · Shifen · Jiufen (day car) | Private car with driver booked on Klook or KKday; hotel pick-up. Public alternative: bus 1062 from MRT Zhongxiao Fuxing to Jiufen (101–110 TWD), without Yehliu | 09:00 – 20:00 | ~4,000–5,000 TWD/car |
| Wed, Sept 23 Day 4 | Yangmingshan and Beitou | Bus 1717 from Taipei Main or S15 from Jiantan; up top, the 108 loops the park; down to Xinbeitou on bus 小9 (S9). All on the EasyCard | 50 min up | ~30 TWD a leg |
| Thu, Sept 24 Day 5 | To the National Palace Museum | It has no MRT: red line to Shilin, then bus 255, 304, 815 or Red 30 to the door | ~20 min from Shilin | ~15 TWD |
| Fri, Sept 25 Day 6 | Maokong gondola | Brown line to Taipei Zoo and the gondola, 4 km over the forest. The glass-floored Crystal cabin is 50 TWD extra | 20–30 min | 180 TWD one way · 300 all day |
| Sat, Sept 26 Day 7 | Hotel → Taoyuan (TPE) | MRT Express from Taipei Main. With some airlines you can check bags in at the station itself if the flight is over 3 h away | 35 min + walking | 160 TWD |
| Sat, Sept 26 Day 7 | Siem Reap (SAI) → hotel | The new airport is 50 km to the east, not where the old one was. Transfer arranged with Waka Villa, or an official taxi at the arrivals desk | 1 h – 1 h 30 | ~35–45 US$ |
| Sun, Sept 27 Day 8 | Angkor · small circuit | Tuk-tuk hired for the whole day (it waits at each temple) or an air-conditioned car. A licensed English-speaking guide is 35–45 US$ on top — worth it on the first day | 05:00 – 18:30 | 15–20 US$ tuk-tuk · 55 US$ car |
| Mon, Sept 28 Day 9 | Banteay Srei and the grand circuit | Same driver, long day: 37 km out to Banteay Srei and back round the outer ring. For Beng Mealea, take a car not a tuk-tuk: in September the track turns to mud | 07:00 – 17:30 | 25–35 US$ tuk-tuk · 75 US$ car |
| Tue, Sept 29 Day 10 | Hotel → Siem Reap Angkor (SAI) | Official taxi or hotel transfer. Leave 3 h before the flight: it is 50 km and a good hour | ~1 h | ~35 US$ |
| Wed, Sept 30 Day 11 | Okura → Suvarnabhumi (BKK) | Taxi from Wireless Road. Tolls are paid separately and in cash (~100 THB). Traffic-free option, the Airport Rail Link from Phaya Thai | 30–45 min | ~400–500 THB + tolls |
What to buy, and when
The three hotels are already booked and paid, so this list is deliberately short: what is missing are the flights — the urgent part at three weeks out — two entry formalities with fixed windows that cannot be brought forward (Cambodia’s e-Arrival, 7 days; Thailand’s TDAC, 3) and the tables that fill up. Tick each one off as you do it: the browser remembers.
By far the most urgent item on this list. The hotels are paid and the trip leaves in three weeks: every day that passes costs money. To Taipei you must leave the day before, Saturday the 19th, to check in on Sunday the 20th. Coming back, Iberojet is the only direct (12–13 h from Suvarnabhumi) but it does not fly daily and the 30th is a Wednesday: check before assuming, and if there is none, use Qatar, Turkish, Etihad or Emirates, which all fly daily.
At the same time as the long ones, because they shape two whole days. Taipei–Siem Reap has no direct: the usual route is China Airlines to Bangkok and Bangkok Airways on to Siem Reap, 7–9 h in total. For day 10, take a mid-afternoon flight: they run from 09:40 to 23:50, and the 09:40 eats your last morning of temples. Watch out for Thai AirAsia, which lands at Don Mueang, not Suvarnabhumi.
Today, because they need weeks. In Taipei, Le Palais (3★) or Molino de Urdániz (2★, in your own neighbourhood), and if there is nothing, Mountain and Sea House (1★ plus a Green Star, 1,980–4,680 TWD), which is easier to get and far more Taiwanese. In Bangkok, Sühring (3★) and Sorn are near-impossible at three weeks: the safe bet is Blue by Alain Ducasse (2★), which is on the Okura’s own street. All the detail is in each stage’s food guide.
Mon 31 Aug
It takes three working days and needs a digital passport photo. Use evisa.gov.kh and nothing else: there are dozens of copycat sites that rank higher on Google and charge triple. Since January 2025 it costs 30 US$, the same as on arrival — but the e-Visa saves you the airport queue.
Sat 5 Sept
It is the one day of the trip where paying for transport pays off: those three stops by public transport are ten hours and four changes. 4,000–5,000 TWD for the car for the two of you, hotel pick-up. Ask specifically for the order Yehliu → Shifen → Jiufen, because Yehliu closes at 17:00 and Jiufen is only worth it after dark.
Sat 5 Sept
It fills up in season and the good rows go first. 18 US$ side section, 28 centre and 38 front. Show at 20:00, doors 17:30 with food stalls outside. It runs an hour and is the best night in Siem Reap that is not a dinner.
Mon 7 Sept
Easiest is to ask the hotel, which works with regular drivers. Tuk-tuk 15–20 US$ for the small circuit and 25–35 for the grand, per vehicle, waiting at each temple; air-conditioned car 55 US$ on day 8 and 75 on day 9, which is longer. A licensed English-speaking guide is 35–45 US$/day on top and is worth it on the first day. Warn them that day 8 starts at 04:45.
Thu 10 Sept
The new airport (SAI, open since October 2023) is 50 km and a good hour from the centre — the old one was ten minutes away, so old maps and blog posts mislead. 35–45 US$. Book both legs at once and give the flight number, so they wait if it is late.
Sat 12 Sept
With Cambodia as the middle leg, this is not optional: private care in Siem Reap is paid up front and a medical evacuation to Bangkok costs tens of thousands. Check it covers all three countries and includes repatriation. Also check whether the credit card you buy the flights with already includes something.
Tue 15 Sept
Buy it online and skip the pre-dawn ticket office on sunrise day. There is only one official site, ticket.angkorenterprise.gov.kh, and imitations rank above it. The 3-day pass covers three days within a ten-day window, so it takes days 8, 9 and the morning of 10. If you prefer the desk: Road 60, opens at 05:00 and they take your photo there.
Fri 18 Sept
Twenty-four hours before you take off on Saturday the 19th. While you are there, check the baggage allowance on the internal flights, which are usually a different airline with a different rule: Bangkok Airways is generous, AirAsia charges for anything that does not fit under the seat.
Sat 19 Sept
A new and compulsory step, separate from the visa: since 2025 Cambodia runs fully digital immigration and without this you do not clear the control. Fill it in at arrival.gov.kh and it can only be done in the 7 days before you fly — for September 26, the window opens on this very day. It is free and takes five minutes each.
Sun 20 Sept
On arrival, before you go up to the room. The hotel has two Michelin-starred restaurants inside — Silks House (3rd floor, Cantonese, a new star in the 2026 edition) and Circum- (B2, French technique with Chinese flavours) — and that solves the night you come back wrecked without a taxi. Book it for whichever day has the least plan.
Sat 26 Sept
Compulsory, free and one per person, at tdac.immigration.go.th. It cannot be done earlier than 3 days before arrival, so you will be doing it from Cambodia — which is why it sits here and not at the top. Save the QR to your phone and print it too: hotel wifi in Siem Reap is what it is.
Sat 26 Sept
They want 24 hours minimum and close on Sundays, so the night that works is Monday the 28th (day 9), after the grand circuit. Tasting menu 45 US$ (38 vegetarian) plus service and tax: about 52 US$ real a head. The menu changes fortnightly with whatever the market gives.
Before you go
Taiwan: nothing. An ordinary Spanish passport enters visa-free for up to 90 days; you only need to show an onward ticket. Cambodia: two things, both compulsory — the e-Visa (30 US$, three working days, at evisa.gov.kh and no imitation) and the e-Arrival Card (free, at arrival.gov.kh, and it can only be filled in during the 7 days before you fly; since 2025 Cambodian immigration is fully digital and without it you do not pass). Thailand: no visa needed either, but the TDAC is (tdac.immigration.go.th), free and no earlier than 3 days before arrival. All three dates are in the calendar.
The odds of a typhoon affecting Taiwan during September are around 60–70%, and the east coast takes the worst of it. Taipei, in the north, usually gets heavy rain and wind. What to know: each city government can declare a “typhoon day” (颱風假) the night before, and then museums and offices close and transport thins out. Check the CWA forecast (cwa.gov.tw) each morning and remember that days 3, 4 and 5 can be shuffled among themselves without breaking anything: they are the three day trips and none depends on another.
The detail that catches everyone out: Taiwan runs on 110 volts with US plugs (two flat pins, type A/B). Your phone and laptop chargers take both voltages — it is in the small print, “100–240 V” — but you need an adapter, and a European hairdryer or iron will not work at 110 V. In Cambodia and Thailand, on the other hand, it is 220–230 V and the sockets take the European two-round-pin plug with no adapter. Bring a universal adapter and a small power strip: the Siem Reap hotel will thank you.
Taiwan (TWD): cards in hotels, department stores and tablecloth restaurants; cash compulsory at all six night markets, at temples and at stalls. Carry 300–500 TWD each on a market night. Cambodia (USD): the country runs on dollars and riel is only the small change below 1 US$ (at 4,000 to the dollar). Bring crisp, untorn notes — they refuse damaged ones — and plenty of 1s, 5s and 10s. Thailand (THB): card at the top, cash on the street; ATMs charge foreign cards 220 THB per withdrawal, so withdraw rarely and a lot.
It is hot and humid at all three stops: 30 °C highs and 75–80% humidity everywhere. Breathable summer clothes, a spare shirt in the daypack for Elephant Mountain and the temple days, and a light rain jacket or folding umbrella always with you — in Cambodia it rains most afternoons. Shoes with grip (600 steps in Taipei, loose stone at Angkor and the Kbal Spean path, which is slippery). For temples, shoulders and knees covered: at Angkor Wat’s Bakan they want actual sleeves and a scarf will not do. And DEET repellent, which in Siem Reap is not optional. Add something presentable and uncreased: there is a dress-code dinner in Taipei and another in Bangkok.
Cambodia has had two years of sharp dengue resurgence and Siem Reap is among the worst-hit provinces; transmission season runs May to October, exactly when you are going. There is no meaningful malaria risk in the town or the temples, so no prophylaxis is needed, but dengue is carried by a mosquito that bites during the day: repellent in the morning and again mid-afternoon, especially at Ta Prohm and Preah Khan. Tap water is not drunk in any of the three countries; ice in established hotels and restaurants is safe (it comes factory-made, cylindrical, with a hole).
Taipei runs entirely on the EasyCard (100 TWD for the card plus credit, at any 7-Eleven): metro, buses, local trains and even shops. The metro is immaculate and reaches nearly everything except the Palace Museum. Siem Reap runs on tuk-tuks, hired by the day for the temples and by the trip in town; Grab and PassApp both work and save you haggling. Bangkok, on the BTS and MRT wherever possible: the hotel sits on top of Ploenchit station, the gates take contactless and street traffic is what it is.
Route decisions
An itinerary is also defined by what it discards. These stayed on the cutting-room floor, for a reason.
Taiwan’s most spectacular landscape, and it is largely closed. The magnitude 7.4 earthquake of April 3, 2024 and the typhoons that followed wrecked the gorge: still shut — and expected to stay shut for years — are Shakadang, the Swallow Grotto, the Tunnel of Nine Turns, the Zhuilu Old Trail and Baiyang Waterfall; the Eternal Spring Shrine can only be seen from the road. Public buses inside the gorge have been suspended since 2024, so you need your own car and there are timed windows to get through. What remains open — Tianxiang, Lushui — does not justify two and a half hours of train each way and a night in Hualien. If it is ever rebuilt, it deserves a trip of its own.
It is on every Taiwan list and it does not fit: high-speed train to Taichung (an hour) plus a bus to the lake (an hour twenty), which is two and a half hours each way and five hours of transport for a short afternoon, with the last bus back at 17:45. It is doable, but the day is spent in seats. It deserves a night there, and this trip does not have that night: the six in Taipei are worth more as a fixed base than chopped up.
With three nights in Siem Reap you get two full days and a morning, and that forces a choice. Koh Ker, with its stepped pyramid, is 120 km out: two and a half hours each way for an hour and a half of visit — a whole day that would eat the grand circuit. And of the Tonlé Sap, the good village (Kampong Khleang) is 50 km away and takes half a day; the near one, Chong Kneas, is a declared tourist trap, complete with pressure to “donate” to a fake school. Both are out without regret: in September what pays off is Angkor with its moats full.
One night is enough for a dinner and little else, so the Grand Palace, Chatuchak, Ayutthaya and the floating markets are out by definition. It is no loss: Bangkok here is not a destination, it is a hinge — the place where the flight home connects and where you take the chance to eat in one of the most Michelin-starred cities in Asia. Anyone who wants real Bangkok should give it three days on another trip. If the return flight is at night, the morning of day 11 fits the river and Wat Pho, which is the best short version there is.