Get Around Like a Local with These Top Free Travel Apps for Taiwan
If you’ve ever been to Taiwan, you can easily see why Portuguese explorers named it Ilha Formosa (Beautiful Island).
Taiwan has lush mountains for hiking, tropical beaches with inviting blue waters and cities that bustle with life 24/7.
Taiwan is small enough to traverse in a day, yet it has so much to explore that it would take you years to see, do and taste everything. Best of all, the locals will welcome you with open arms!
Before you visit Taiwan, it’s essential to download some travel apps to make your journey easier and more fulfilling. These apps will help you find your way around the island and see Taiwan like the locals do.
Best of all, they’re all free!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Get Around Like a Local with These Top Free Travel Apps for Taiwan
The Best Taiwan Travel Apps for Communicating
Google Translate
Google Translate’s best feature is its optical character recognition, better known as OCR. You can just point your phone’s camera over Chinese characters and it will translate the words on the spot.
Pros: Google Translate can translate languages in multiple ways. You can use voice dictation, conversation mode (this translates two different spoken languages), handwriting recognition or character recognition.
Cons: It’s definitely not perfect. Many words are literally translated, which doesn’t always come out accurately. But it’ll help you get the gist of what a sign or menu item means.
Pleco Chinese Dictionary
Pleco is arguably the best and most practical Chinese-to-English dictionary. And it’s extremely simple to use!
Pros: Pleco shows both simplified and traditional characters, which is useful if you’re traveling around Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China.
Cons: Handwriting recognition, OCR, and stroke order guides are free… but some of the app’s other add-ons cost money.
LINE
This is the must-have app when you’re in Taiwan and want to chat with the locals. Practically everyone in Taiwan uses LINE, which is similar to WhatsApp.
Pros: LINE offers free instant messaging, free audio/video calls to other LINE users and lots of fun extras, like stickers and merchandise.
Cons: None!
The Best Taiwan Travel Apps for Navigating
Google Maps
Is there any place in the world where Google Maps isn’t useful? If you don’t already have this on your phone, download it to figure out which of the many lanes and alleyways you should take to get to your destination in Taiwan!
Pros: The app is generally reliable (even for obscure back alleys) and provides walking directions.
Cons: None!
Bus+
This indispensable app will help you navigate your way around Taiwan’s cities’ seemingly convoluted bus systems. It also provides information about the different cities’ bike rental systems, such as how many bikes are available at the closest station.
Pros: Bus+ contains information for Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taoyuan. It provides multiple public transportation routes and travel times to go anywhere in these three cities.
Cons: The free version contains ads.
Uber
After much controversy, Uber is alive and well in Taiwan. Uber is easy to use and will pick you up and take you where you need to go.
Pros: You can use the same Uber app from your home country, and you don’t have to pay with cash.
Cons: Depending on where you are in Taiwan, Uber may not be as ubiquitous as it is in your home country.
台灣高鐵 (T Express)
This is the official Taiwan High Speed Rail app. It provides schedules, routes and price information. Users can instantly book tickets from 28 days to just five minutes before your departure.
Pros: You can purchase mobile tickets. It also allows tickets to be downloaded to multiple phones for passengers traveling together.
Cons: T Express only allows a maximum of 10 one-way tickets per booking.
Go! Taipei Metro
This app is a must-have for travelers in Taipei. It provides all the information you need for traveling Taipei’s excellent subway routes.
Pros: Go! Tapei Metro includes information about individual stations, including restroom locations and accessible exits. It also provides pricing information, travel times, transfer information (including wait times) and sightseeing information for each station.
Cons: All the information is only in English. You’ll need to download its Chinese counterpart (台北捷運Go) to see the station names in Chinese.
YouBike
YouBike is a bike sharing system. There are bikes available at many stations around a city. You pay a fee to rent a bike, then just return it to whichever bike station is most convenient for you.
By downloading YouBike, you can find out how many bikes are available to rent and how many spots are open for you to park your bike.
Pros: YouBike eliminates the need to guess where you can borrow or drop off your bike.
Cons: The app is only available in traditional Chinese. Even the search function requires Chinese character input!
The Best Taiwan Travel Apps for Daily Life
OANDA Currency Converter
OANDA is one of the best apps for figuring out currency exchange rates. It’s very user-friendly and provides up-to-date rates.
Pros: It has a simple interface, and you can even add frequently-used currencies to “favorites” so they’re easy to find. Go ahead and add the New Taiwan dollar to your favorites list!
Cons: OANDA’s free version includes ad banners.
Taiwan Weather
This weather app is provided by Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. It probably provides way more information about the weather than you’ll ever need, like precipitation and surface temperature maps.
Pros: The app is visually pleasing with tons of information, including earthquake alerts, hourly forecasts and seven-day forecasts.
Cons: None!
AirVisual Air Quality
Air quality isn’t always the greatest in Taiwan, so it’s handy to have this app to let you know what times of day are best to be outdoors.
Pros: AirVisual Air Quality provides a seven-day forecast and hourly air quality indexes.
Cons: None! Unless having the knowledge that you’re breathing in a ton of pollutants freaks you out.
So there you have it—the best (free!) apps for your trip to Taiwan.
Is there anything better than free apps?
Actually… Yes, there is! There’s free Wi-Fi access all around Taiwan, and it’s called iTaiwan. It does take a little work: You’ll have to register with iTaiwan before you go to Taiwan. When you arrive, you’ll need to go to a tourist service center with your passport to get your application for an iTaiwan account. But if you’ll be in Taiwan for a while or think you’ll use the internet a lot, the free Wi-Fi will be worth the hassle.
There’s so much to do and see in Taiwan that you’ll want to come back again and again! With free Wi-Fi and free apps, you’ll have a much easier and more pleasant time on the Ilha Formosa.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
