National Taiwan Museum

One thing I try to do on almost every trip is understand a little of the history behind the place we're visiting. Not because I want to turn a vacation into a history lesson, but because places make more sense when you understand some of what shaped them.

That led us to the National Taiwan Museum, where we visited both the Main Building and the nearby Natural History Branch. The Main Building gave us more context around Taiwan and its history, while the dinosaurs were understandably more interesting to our son. There was a children's area that helped extend our visit, but after about an hour and a half, his museum attention span had officially expired.

Nearby, we walked through 228 Peace Memorial Park. Today it's a peaceful green space in the middle of Taipei, but the park commemorates the February 28 Incident of 1947 and the period of political repression that followed. Knowing that history gave a completely different weight to what otherwise might have felt like simply a pretty city park. Some places deserve a little context before you walk through them.

Huashan 1914 Creative Park gave us a completely different side of the city. The former sake winery has been transformed into a creative and cultural hub filled with shops, cafés, restaurants, exhibitions, murals, and rotating pop-ups. It was the kind of place where we didn't need much of a plan - we could wander, duck inside when the August heat became too much, grab ice cream, and see what caught our attention.

It also reinforced something I came to appreciate about Taipei as a family destination. We never felt like we had to choose between a trip built entirely around our child and the trip Adam and I wanted to take. We could visit a museum or explore a neighborhood, then find somewhere like Magic Box Planet Paradise where our son could run, play, and just be a kid for a while. The enclosed interactive space gave him a break from sightseeing and gave us a chance to sit and cool off. Everyone won.

Taipei Zoo was probably our biggest lesson in adjusting expectations. The zoo is enormous, well laid out, and home to an impressive variety of animals. We arrived fully expecting to spend several hours there.

The heat had other plans.

It was one of the hottest days of our trip, and a huge outdoor zoo combined with an increasingly cranky almost four-year-old was not the winning combination we'd hoped for. We prioritized the pandas, saw a few other exhibits, and lasted about an hour before admitting everyone had had enough. On a cooler day, I would absolutely plan for three or four hours. The free water refill stations throughout the zoo were also incredibly helpful - bring a reusable bottle.

Luckily, the Maokong Gondola is right nearby, making the two very easy to pair. We paid a little extra for a Crystal Cabin on the way up, which has a glass floor and lets you look directly down at the landscape below. I think it's worth trying once, especially since the price difference was small, but we took a regular cabin back down and didn't feel like we were missing anything by not doing the Crystal Cabin twice.

What I wasn't prepared for was how stuffy the gondolas could feel in the summer. Hand-held fans were hanging inside the cabin for passengers to use, and they helped more than I expected with the air circulation. You simply return the fan to its hanging spot before getting off - a small detail we definitely appreciated in August.

Jiufen was the place I'd probably seen the most pictures of before our trip. The lantern-lined alleyways, A-Mei Tea House, mountain scenery, and coastal views looked almost unreal. Getting there independently took a little effort to find the correct bus stop, but once we did, the ride itself was easy, clean, and comfortable.

What I underestimated was both the travel time and the crowds. The scenic bus ride was close to two hours, so download a podcast, bring a book, and have something ready to entertain younger travelers. And those dreamy photos of empty lantern-lined streets? They don't exactly show the full reality…Jiufen was packed!

There were moments when we had to wait or work around crowds to get the photos we'd envisioned, but I still thought it was absolutely worth visiting. Old Street is sensory overload in the best - and occasionally most exhausting - way. We browsed for souvenirs, stopped for food, made our way to A-Mei Tea House, and tried the famous A-Zhu Peanut Ice Cream Roll. The wait at A-Mei was longer than we wanted to tackle with a toddler, so we skipped eating there. Sometimes knowing when not to wait in a line is a family-travel skill too.

We spent about three hours wandering the streets and alleyways and taking in the coastal views. If it had just been Adam and me, we probably would have stayed longer, eaten at more stalls, and wandered farther. With an almost four-year-old walking through crowds and climbing stairs, three hours felt about right.

One decision I'm very glad we made was leaving our stroller at the hotel. We normally travel with a compact stroller that folds down small, but we'd read that Jiufen's stairs, uneven walkways, and crowds could make it more trouble than it was worth. That advice was completely accurate. Letting our son walk and carrying him when he got tired was much easier than trying to maneuver a stroller through Old Street.

By the time we made it back to Taipei, we were exhausted. But it was our last night, and there was one thing I didn't want to leave Taiwan without doing: visiting a night market.

We took the MRT and walked to Linjiang Night Market. Even walking around Taipei at night with our son, we never felt unsafe. Linjiang was smaller than I'd pictured, but in retrospect, that made it a great introduction. We could wander, try different foods, and take everything in without feeling completely overwhelmed.

Jiufen Old Street

Maokong itself was one of my favorite surprises of the trip. We experienced both sides of it: the larger tea houses with sweeping views and a more traditional atmosphere, and the quiet, tucked-away Lazy Day Café that we stumbled upon away from the crowds.

I'm glad we did both. The larger tea house, Red Wood House, felt more like what I had pictured when researching Maokong, complete with beautiful views and giant waffles that were a huge hit with our son. But Lazy Day was the place we kept talking about afterward. We had beers and snacks, exchanged a small conversation with the older couple running it through Google Translate, and sat surrounded by greenery with nowhere we needed to be. It wasn't the famous experience. It was just ours.

Traveling with a young child has also made us much better at recognizing when a day is over. By the time we returned to the hotel, we'd spent hours walking in the August heat and everyone was done. We cooled off and took advantage of the complimentary evening drinks we received at the W through my Marriott status. There is rarely anything to gain from forcing one more attraction when everyone is hot, tired, and starting to turn on each other.

This was also where we discovered scallion pancakes, and I remain annoyed that we waited until our last night to find them. We went back for seconds. And thirds.

If I could change one thing about our trip, I would have made more time for the night markets. I wish we'd visited Linjiang earlier and then worked our way up to one of Taipei's larger markets - particularly Raohe Street Night Market. Taiwan has such an incredible food culture, and we only scratched the surface.

We went knowing relatively little about Taiwan and left talking about the food, the kindness of the people, and all the small moments we hadn't planned. It wasn't a trip where every day went exactly as expected. We cut the zoo short. We skipped the famous tea house meal because the wait was too long. We underestimated the heat and the crowds in Jiufen. We discovered one of our favorite foods on the final night. And I think that's part of why I remember it so fondly.

Taiwan was easy to explore without feeling predictable, and traveling there with our son didn't mean giving up the things Adam and I wanted to experience. We adjusted when we needed to, found places that worked for all three of us, and left wishing we'd given ourselves just a little more time.