【 Travel 】9 Essential Apps for travelling in Taiwan

Author Intro. : Eugene Yeh was born in Russia and arrived to Taipei for studying diplomacy at NCCU as a PhD student. Eugene enjoys travelling around Taiwan and tasting local cuisine. He can’t live without sport activities such as hiking, cycling, jogging and finds Taiwan a perfect place for going in for sport.

When you get your staff packed for travelling abroad it’s good to download some apps that might be helpful during your trip and make it pleasant.

Just for this case I’ve prepared an article with 9 most essential apps for travelling in Taiwan everyone must have on its smartphone.

Travel Taipei 現在玩臺北

IOS / Android

Multilingual app where you can find I guess all main sightseeing spots in Taipei, new and upcoming events, lots of popular restaurants, stores, accommodations, etc. What I like about this app is that it is constantly updating so you won’t miss a single event. 

Google Maps

IOS / Android

Living in Taiwan for quite a period of time I tried to use a few maps apps like Maps.me, OruxMaps, but there is nothing better than Google maps for traveling in Taiwan I believe. Yes, that app isn’t perfect, yes it lags when trying to locate you by GPS, and you’ll probably get lost if you try going hiking with Google maps because it often shows wrong paths or does not show any on the map, but what I really like about it is that it shows you many different routes to get from one place to another. Simply add it to your favorite and find it quickly when you need it. You can also leave your comments and rate the place you have visited getting a higher rank in the app and getting some bonuses from Google later.

Bus Tracker Taipei

IOS / Android

A must have app for everyone who stays in Taipei longer than one or two weeks. It allows you to track every bus route in Taipei precisely. One thing I’ve got to mention though, it does make mistakes sometimes. I tried to check bus schedule and a few times got notifications that the route “X” is out of service for today, yet just in a couple of seconds the bus with this route appeared on the bus stop in front of me.

Go! Taipei Metro

IOS / Android

Throw away all your paper maps and delete JPG format maps pics because now you have “Go! Taipei metro”. It is so convenient to use! You can check all the metro lines and stations you need and how to get there. Plan your own journey and calculate the price for a one way single ticket. Check the approximate time from A station to B station, the bus routes you can transfer to when you get out of metro station and even figure out which station allows you to get on and off with a bike.

Uber

IOS / Android

For those who like comfortable travelling without crowds of people Uber taxi might be the best choice always at your service. Taxi drivers working in Uber usually can speak English and if you are lucky some of them may even speak your native language. Once my friends (Japanese guy, Korean and Russian girls) and I, we went to a night market. It was too late when we decided on returning back home so we called up for the Uber. The driver really surprised all of us, because he was speaking Japanese and Korean in addition to English. He didn’t speak Russian, but he was fluent in those three languages I mentioned.

Taiwan Weather

IOS / Android

It happens that the weather in Taiwan changes dramatically in few hours so you better have a weather forecast app on your smartphone as well. The reason I prefer this Taiwan Weather app is because it provides with information not only in the whole city but it also divides the city into districts and provide with the weather in each one. It notifies about upcoming heavy rains or strong winds. Sometimes I get notified about earthquakes, but usually I get informed about it right after the earthquake has happened. Now I’d highly recommend having any other weather app in addition to this one, just to double check the weather conditions as I’ve never downloaded any app that shows the weather conditions precisely!

LINE

IOS / Android

I guess you might be interested how do locals get in touch with each other? Do they use WhatsApp, Viber, Kakao talk or any other messenger? In general people use LINE for chatting and phone calls. It is as simple as any other messenger, though it might be blocked in some countries. So be sure to add your new Taiwanese friends on FB as well, locals use it on a regular basis.

Google translate

IOS / Android

Yes, yes! Right you are! I do recommend having Google translate on your device no matter how funny and weird its translation might be. There are two main reasons for that. First of all, it seems like its Chinese to English translation is the only thing that really improves (DON’T EVEN TRY TRANSLATING INTO OTHER LANGUAGES, it’s a waste of time!)  over time. Secondly, it has a “translate images” function which is really helpful if terms of deciphering food on a menu in a restaurant and what ingredients it consist of.  I use it every day in Taiwan.

Pleco dict.

IOS / Android

Another pretty useful app is Pleco dictionary. If Google can’t identify words on a photo, use Pleco handwriting recognition. Of course it can’t translate whole sentences as Google translate does, but if you type in a phrase or a sentence the dictionary identifies each word and in case the Google translate missed something or translated incorrectly the Pleco dict allows you to double check it. 

Author Intro. : Eugene Yeh was born in Russia and arrived to Taipei for studying diplomacy at NCCU as a PhD student. Eugene enjoys travelling around Taiwan and tasting local cuisine. He can’t live without sport activities such as hiking, cycling, jogging and finds Taiwan a perfect place for going in for sport.

Spread the love
« »