The Bella-Ruta 9-Day Taiwan Route: Taipei → Taichung → Tainan → Kaohsiung

This route breaks a rule, on purpose

The standing Bella-Ruta position is that nine or ten days holds three cities. Four stops in nine days means three journeys, three check-outs, three check-ins, and roughly a day and a half lost to moving.

Taiwan is the exception, and it is worth understanding why, because the reason is specific rather than a general licence to over-fill.

All four cities sit on one high-speed rail line down the west coast. The hops are short. Taipei to Tainan on the fastest service is 83 minutes. Taipei all the way to Zuoying, at the far end, is 95 minutes.

When a city change costs you 90 minutes plus two station transfers instead of half a day, the arithmetic changes. On this route a change costs roughly a quarter of a day, not half. Four stops become affordable.

That is the exception. It does not transfer to Vietnam, or Japan outside the Tokaido corridor, or anywhere the hops run four hours.

The free stopover

Here is the fact that settles the argument.

Taipei → Taichung → Tainan → Zuoying, bought as three separate standard reserved tickets, costs NT$1,490.

Taipei → Zuoying, bought as one ticket, also costs NT$1,490.

Source: Taiwan High Speed Rail official fare table.

Breaking the journey costs nothing. The only cost of stopping in Taichung and Tainan is time, and on this line the time is small.

A reading note, because most guides get this wrong: the THSR fare matrix is triangular. The lower-left half is Standard Car and the upper-right half is Business Car. Misreading it produces fares roughly double the real ones.

The 9-day night split

Eight nights, nine days away.

Be honest about what one night in Taichung is. It is a stop, not a city. You arrive early afternoon, you have an evening and a morning, you move on. On any other route that would be a mistake. Here it is the whole point — the HSR makes a one-night stopover cost about two hours of travel rather than a day of it.

If that does not appeal, cut Taichung. Taipei 4, Tainan 2, Kaohsiung 2 is a clean three-city nine-day trip and it obeys every rule.

The station problem — this is the real cost

The HSR is fast. The HSR stations are not in the city centres. Every one of your three intermediate stops has a transfer on the end of it.

Add 20 to 25 minutes to every published HSR journey time. An 83-minute Taipei–Tainan run is closer to two hours door to door. It is still short. It is just not 83 minutes.

Free shuttle buses also run from HSR stations — THSR confirms passengers are entitled to them and to keep your ticket for inspection. [VERIFY: the specific shuttle routes into Taichung and Tainan city centres were not found.]

The rail pass is a trap on this route

The 3-Day Pass costs NT$710 more than buying singles. The Flexible 2-Day costs NT$1,010 more. Against Early Bird fares the pass loses by over NT$1,200.

The pass only breaks even if you add substantial extra HSR mileage — a day trip back north, or a Taipei–Zuoying return on top of the one-way run.

Buy singles. Book at least five days ahead. Use the app.

Early Bird, properly explained

THSR sells a limited number of discounted seats per train at 35%, 20% and 10% off. When the 35% tier sells out the 20% opens, then the 10%.

Conditions:

• Book at least 5 days before the boarding date, inclusive

• One-way adult tickets, reserved, Standard Car only

• Passport or ID registered on each ticket

• Available only through the THSR online booking system, the T Express app, or partner convenience stores — not at station counters or ticket machines

• Not offered on some peak trains

At 35% off, Taipei to Taichung drops from NT$700 to NT$455.

The booking window

Tickets are available from 29 days before departure until one hour before. If the 29-day mark falls on a Friday or Saturday, the window extends to the following Sunday.

Payment deadlines: departing 3 or more days out, pay within 3 days of reserving. Departing within 3 days, pay by the day before. Same-day booking, pay at least 30 minutes before departure.

So the sequence is: book flights months ahead, then diarise the date 29 days before your first HSR leg, then book all three legs at once with Early Bird.

Airports — and the awkward truth about flying home

In: Taoyuan (TPE).

Airport MRT Express to Taipei Main Station: 35 minutes from Terminal 1, 38–39 minutes from Terminal 2, every 15 minutes. The commuter service takes about 49–50 minutes.

[VERIFY: fare NT$160. Widely and consistently reported but not obtainable from an official page.]

There is a verified joint ticket: Airport MRT round trip plus a Taipei Metro pass, 48 hours NT$520 or 72 hours NT$600.

The Kuo-Kuang 1819 bus takes 60–70 minutes, runs every 30 minutes, effectively 24 hours, and costs NT$280 round trip. It saves about NT$20 and costs 25 extra minutes. Take the MRT unless you land when it is closed.

Out: this is the one weak point in the route.

Kaohsiung International Airport (KHH) has no intercontinental service. Its roughly 37 nonstop destinations are all domestic or intra-Asia: Tokyo Narita, Osaka Kansai, Fukuoka, Okinawa, Seoul Incheon and Gimpo, Busan, Jeju, Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, and the domestic islands.

So:

• If you are connecting through an Asian hub anyway, flying home from KHH works well. Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Seoul and Tokyo all offer onward long-haul, and the metro from central Kaohsiung to the airport is 16 to 18 minutes for NT$30 to NT$35.

• If you want a direct long-haul flight, you must return to Taoyuan.

The backtrack is not as bad as it sounds. Zuoying to Taoyuan HSR station (A18), then the Airport MRT, is under two and a half hours and does not require going into Taipei city at all. On a nine-day trip that is a morning, not a day.

Kaohsiung Airport connects directly to the Red Line at station R4. Formosa Boulevard is 16 minutes and NT$30; Kaohsiung Main Station is 18 minutes and NT$35. Trains run every 4 to 6 minutes at peak.

Entry requirements

Visa-exempt for 90 days: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and EU and Schengen states. Canadian and UK passport holders may extend to 180 days. Passport valid at least 6 months on the date of entry.

The Taiwan Arrival Card is mandatory. Since 1 October 2025 paper arrival cards have been fully replaced by an online card, completed before immigration clearance at twac.immigration.gov.tw. It is free.

Note a discrepancy between two official pages: the National Immigration Agency says complete it within 3 days before arrival; the Bureau of Consular Affairs says within 7 days. File within 3 days to be safe.

A lot of older guides still tell people to fill in a paper card on the plane. That has not been true since October 2025.

Common mistakes

Buying the THSR pass. It loses by NT$710 to NT$1,200 on this route.

Booking at the station counter. Early Bird is not sold there. Book online or in the app.

Reading the fare table wrong. Lower-left is Standard Car, upper-right is Business Car.

Assuming the HSR station is the city. Every intermediate stop has a 20-minute transfer on the end.

Expecting a long-haul flight from Kaohsiung. There isn't one.

Adding Taroko Gorge or Hualien. The east coast is a different rail line and a different trip.

Giving Tainan one night. Tainan is the stop that most rewards a second night. If you have to cut one, cut Taichung.

Alternative routes

Three cities, nine days: Taipei 4, Tainan 2, Kaohsiung 2. Two journeys instead of three. Obeys every rule and loses very little.

11–12 days, four cities: Taipei 4, Taichung 2, Tainan 3, Kaohsiung 2. This is the comfortable version, and if the nine-day pace worries you, this is the answer rather than dropping a city.

Reverse it: Kaohsiung in, Taipei out. Works if your inbound flight routes through an Asian hub with a KHH connection, and it puts the long-haul departure at Taoyuan where it belongs.

Final booking checklist

• Priced flying home from KHH via an Asian hub against returning to Taoyuan

• Diarised the date 29 days before your first HSR leg

• Booked all three HSR legs at once, at least 5 days ahead, in the app for Early Bird

• Chose Standard Car reserved — Early Bird does not apply to Business Car

• Filed the Taiwan Arrival Card within 3 days of arrival

• Checked your hotel's distance from the TRA station, not the HSR station

What needs checking before this is published

• HSR journey times for Taipei–Taichung express, Taichung–Tainan and Tainan–Zuoying. The official timetable PDF does not survive automated extraction and produced self-contradictory values, which were discarded. Only Taipei–Tainan (83 min) and Taipei–Zuoying (95 min) are verified.

• Zuoying to central Kaohsiung: exact metro journey time and fare. Kaohsiung's metro publishes fares only through a JavaScript widget.

• Xinwuri to Taichung TRA fare and Shalun line fare (NT$25). Times are confirmed; the fares are not.

• Taoyuan Airport MRT fare NT$160. No official page render.

• Kuo-Kuang 1819 single fare. Only the NT$280 round trip is verified.

• THSR Flexible 2-Day Pass NT$2,500. Single source. The NT$2,200 3-Day figure has two.

• KHH destination list is seasonal. One source lists United Airlines at KHH; it is not a US mainland service and should not be cited.

• Anny's decision, noted: four cities in nine days was approved as an exception justified by the short HSR hops. The article argues that case explicitly and offers the three-city version as the alternative.