Reddit mentions of Sea Breeze Japan Deo & Water splash Marine scent 160ml

Hey! My parents are expats in Taiwan so I've become somewhat of an expert lol. Do you know what month you'll be visiting? Taiwan gets typhoons yearly so it can be pretty rainy in the summer and some areas may get floods. Another thing to plan for would be the high humidity- tight, restrictive clothing as well as polyester/non-breathable fabrics are not suggested to say the least. I find myself wearing a lot of breezy cotton dresses in the summer. A product that's really popular in that area of the world is Shiseido Sea Breeze which is a powder deodorant and antiperspirant with slightly cooling properties. You can apply it anywhere on your body other than your face and believe me when I say you'll need it! You can find it on Amazon. I would also buy or plan on buying mosquito repellent especially if you're planning on doing any outdoor activities, as the mosquitos there can be particularly ruthless. I've had trouble finding proper American bug spray there so now I always pack my own in my checked luggage.

As for activities, I would DEFINITELY plan on hitting a few (at the very least!) night markets while you're there! Most every neighborhood and city has one and they're usually open from 7/8ish to very late at night and it seems like all of Taiwan goes out at night. The nightlife is awesome to say the least! Street food is fantastic as well and I'm a huge fan of stinky tofu, shaved ice, boba milk tea, papaya milk, the list goes on. I'm not sure if you have any dietary restrictions but there are plenty of vegetarians in Taiwan because of Buddhism, but if you request anything vegetarian, be sure to say that you'd still like garlic, chives, and onions in the dish because Buddhists cannot have those and they'll assume you're Buddhist if you're vegetarian! If you're not a very adventurous eater, there is still a lot of Western style food (it's really popular among the younger generation) and as well as Western/American restaurants. I always love trying out the special Taiwanese dishes from McDonald's as I do in every country I visit :) Honestly I find the wide variety of food to be one of my favorite things about the country and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

As far as places go, there are a million awesome places to visit. One such place is Tamsui, pronounced DanSway, there's a promenade by the water that couples like to stroll down during the sunset and a short ferry you can take that goes pretty fast. Two other must see places are Jiufen and Houtong Cat Village. Jiufen is an old town set in the mountains with narrow alleyways and tons of tea houses and it kind of resembles somewhere out of a Miyazaki film! It's beautiful and mysterious but if you plan on going, go during the weekday as the weekends are more packed than Disneyland so it takes all of the magic out. Houtong Cat Village is a few miles down the road from Jiufen and like the name suggests, is a village full of cats. It's one of my favorite memories but I think others in my group who aren't cat lovers didn't really love it as much lol. One thing to note is the way proper names are written and pronounced in Taiwan can be vastly different. I believe there are a few different romanization systems in place, and this also depends on the area of the country.

Taiwan is a super safe country and there's not one road that I wouldn't walk by myself at 3 AM. The people are incredibly friendly and always willing to help you out. The subway is really efficient and clean and most public transportation within Taipei will be in English as well. Taxis are really inexpensive and I will frequently take them when going within cities. If you're exploring more of the country outside of Taipei, the regular and high speed trains are awesome! You can get from one end of the country to the other (say, Taipei to Kaohsiung) in less than 90 minutes. The last time I went, I took the train from Taipei to Taitung (the east coast is absolutely gorgeous, highly recommend!) and from there hopped on a ferry to Green Island and rented scooters! Fun fact: Green Island has one of the few saltwater hot springs in the world! You literally sit in a hot spring in the ocean!

I have to stop myself now because I've literally written an entire novel, but as you can see, I love Taiwan! I hope this helped and if you have any questions or would like more tips and recs, feel free to message me!