It’s time to announce the release the Booze, Food, Travel Survival Guide: Taipei, which is now available on Amazon. You can pick up your Kindle or paperback copy (for those of you who don’t have ebook reader).
This travel guide was published way behind schedule, but that’s probably better because many of the places I had wanted to include in the guide closed and others opened (not quite as bad as when I published my Taiwan craft beer article for Scoot and two bars mentioned immediately closed). After almost three years I have seen plenty of businesses disappear while others have replaced them. Discovery of smaller destinations around Taipei have come slowly over time, especially as I have worked full time during much of my time here. But I was able to note a few places that some guidebooks might miss.
After missing my self-set deadlines to publish this book, I realized how important it is to follow a schedule and maintain focus. Over the last few months, I have been able to focus more on writing tasks that are important to me — and I have been able to be more productive, though there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
Of course, this Taipei travel guide comes out in time for visitors to prepare for the summer Universiade that begins in mid-August, which I won’t be around to watch. This means that many more tourists will arrive in the city soon and will search for things to do that might not be as popular among the tourist crowds.
Although it might be sweltering this summer, I have included a few hiking options other than Elephant Hill for visitors to Taipei. I also added my favorite riverside bike route, though I don’t know how many people will want to ride that far on a YouBike.
Of course, I included the basics of getting around Taipei with the MRT, buses, taxis, and YouBikes as well as some basic information about health and safety. It’s everything a traveler could need for a trip other than a hotel. And I would be remiss if I didn’t write about the beer and bars around the city and the night markets and the various foods they provide. This may be the only Taipei travel guide that doesn’t recommend Shilin Night Market — I went so far as to tell people to go elsewhere and avoid the awful crowds.
The travel guide is 125 pages in paperback and 90 pages on Kindle. It includes some photos from around the city to entice visitors to see more of Taipei. It was tempting to add more photos throughout the travel guide, but that would’ve made the ebook file too big. Also, with the paperback option from Amazon, it makes the book a little lighter to carry around.
Whether you’re planning a trip to Taipei soon or just want to dream about that trip, you can pick up a copy of the Booze, Food, Travel Survival Guide!
