Shangri La Far Eastern Plaza Hotel→Taoyuan Airport (TPE)

Travelers usually do not choose to rent or drive to Taoyuan Airport (TPE). After all, leaving a car parked for multiple days means that parking fees and rental costs become a substantial expense.

To take the High Speed Rail (HSR) from Shangri La Far Eastern Plaza Hotel to Taoyuan Airport (TPE), HSR is comfortable and quick but pricey and has difficult taxi access. From the earliest departure at 06:03 to the latest at 22:11, there are up to 58 high-speed rail from Tainan to Taoyuan each day. Assuming you depart from Shangri La Far Eastern Plaza Hotel (East District, Tainan City) and head to the nearest Tainan HSR station, a taxi ride would cost about NT$300 and take approximately 24 minutes. After arriving at the HSR station, the time to walk in, purchase tickets, and wait on the platform is about 15 minutes. Then, take a 81-99-minute (87 min on average) HSR ride from Tainan Station to Taoyuan HSR Station. The ticket price is NT$1,190 per person, followed by a 5-minute walk to exit the station, wait for a ride at the taxi stand, and after a trip of about 20 minutes with a fare of NT$400, you will arrive at your destination at Taoyuan Airport (TPE) (Dayuan District, Taoyuan City). The entire journey, including transfers, takes a total of 2 hours and 31 minutes. Assuming 4 people traveling together, the average cost per person for the HSR and transfers is NT$1,370. However, in Tainan City, there are only just over 4,100 licensed taxis. The taxi density is 4.6% of that in the Taipei/New Taipei metro area. In other words, hailing a taxi on the spot is 20 times more difficult than in a major city like Taipei. Even if you are lucky enough to hail a cab, a minority of taxi drivers in Tainan City may not use the meter, and might overcharge or take detours, especially with passengers who appear to be from out of town. In contrast, if you use Tripool for a door-to-door private car service, the average cost per person is about NT$1,350, and the journey takes 3 hours and 40 minutes. For long-distance travel, the HSR is indeed faster, but it comes with an extra transportation cost of about NT$80. Therefore, for those who are not in a major hurry, you may consider a cheaper and door-to-door private transfer option, like Tripool. If you are traveling in a group of three or less, you can also consider Tripool's carpooling service to save up to an additional 50% on transportation costs.

If you choose to take a taxi directly, in the Tainan City area, you can use apps to hail a cab from 55688 Taiwan Taxi, Uber, Line Go, Yoxi, etc., and if you cannot hail a cab on the street, you can also consider calling taxi fleets near Shangri La Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, such as 台南計程車 Taxi中華衛星大車隊, 港龍大車隊, 鳳凰城無線 to try to book a ride. Based on the meter, the estimated fare is between NT$5,795 and 7,000, but you could save up to NT$1,600 by booking with Tripool instead. But if you cannot book in advance or prefer to hail a cab on the spot, be aware that in the whole Tainan City, there are only about 4,140 licensed taxis. The taxi density is just 4.6% of that in the Taipei/New Taipei metro area, meaning it is 20 times more difficult to hail a cab on the spot compared to Taipei or New Taipei. Furthermore, some taxi drivers in Tainan City flat-out refuse to use the meter. Nearly 17% of them will try to negotiate the fare on the spot—often asking far above the standard rate. If you’re not familiar with local pricing, you are an easy target. To avoid getting ripped off, it is strongly advised to book online in advance. Considering all factors, Tripool is your best choice for traveling from Shangri La Far Eastern Plaza Hotel to Taoyuan Airport (TPE) in terms of both price and service quality.

Tripool will send a receipt through the third-party system one week after the ride. If passengers need to claim reimbursement for travel expenses, there is a blank to fill with the company's title and tax ID. It's legal, and there is no extra 5% for the receipt. Once the receipt is received via email, it can be printed out for reimbursement or saved as a PDF.

According to the latest Taiwan government announcement, all international inbound travelers cannot take public transportations but only wait for quarantine taxis. If you go to a quarantine hotel near Taipei, it takes around 5 to 10 minutes to leave the airport. Bad news for passengers who will travel down to Taichung or Kaohsiung, it may take up to one hour to wait for a quarantine taxi at the airport. There is no timeline for when the government will loose the regulation. Our suggestion is staying a hotel near Taipei. It is not only the waiting time at the airport for a taxi is shorter, but always it is easier to find an available room in Taipei. After 14-day quarantine, you are welcome to reserve a ride from the hotel to your home or dormitory. Tripool guarantees to provide private car service from anywhere to everywhere in Taiwan.

Generally, international travelers have to reach the airport to check-in at least 2 hours before departure. However, we highly recommend having another 30 minutes buffer time. Taking a ride from Taichung City to Taoyuan Airport, for example, takes 1.5 hours to travel on a regular day. If your flight is 10 AM, it's better to schedule a taxi before 6 AM. After a plane landing, Taiwan citizens may take 30~40 minutes to collect their luggage but 60~90 minutes for foreigners. To avoid extra cost, reserving a taxi one hour later the arrival is ideal.

If your flight is delayed, you can contact our online customer service. We will try our best to reschedule a car for your new time. But if we don't get a notification from you before landing and the driver has already reached the airport, we cannot guarantee that the rescheduled driver will be on time. You can contact our driver for an early pick-up for early arrival if our driver is available or already waiting at the airport.

Fewer travelers book hotels through traditional travel agents, and most go through OTAs (online travel agents). It is easy to filter areas, prices, types of rooms, special needs on OTAs' websites. Still, customers can also get a 20~40% discount compared to hotels' official websites. The most popular OTAs in Taiwan are Booking.com, Agoda.com, Hotels.com, Expedia.com, and Trip.com. In general, travelers can make reservations on websites or apps. Once finishing the online payment, everything is set, and there is not necessary to double-check the reservation by phone. However, some hotels may oversell their rooms on multiple platforms. To avoid being rejected by hotels once you arrive, choose high-rated hotels with more reviews online or make a phone call to hotels to confirm again. For B&Bs (also called minsus), locals prefer to book rooms through B&Bs' websites or contact the hosts directly. Sometimes, the price is better than OTAs. The downside is that their websites don't accept foreign credit cards or guests have to do wire transfers. If you want to save all these troubles and find decent B&Bs, Airbnb and AsiaYo (a local brand) are the best alternatives.