Data for Taipei, Tainan and the mountains in between, installed before you fly. Taiwan is on the Asia plan, so the same eSIM carries on to Japan, South Korea or Hong Kong. The rubbish trucks play Beethoven; the phone just has to keep up.
The Taiwan plan covers Taiwan only.
The same 10 GB in a package that keeps working past Taiwan.
20 other countries share the package with Taiwan. A few of them:
What's included, when it starts, and how to get connected.
Taiwan’s High Speed Rail runs down the west coast from Taipei to Kaohsiung in under two hours, and a first trip hangs a lake, a mountain railway and the island’s oldest city off it. The line below is an illustration, not a map.
1Night markets, the MRT and the 89th-floor view from Taipei 101, then a day out to Jiufen, a former gold-mining town in the hills whose lantern-lit teahouses became famous for looking like Spirited Away. Buses run up from Ruifang station, 15 minutes away. Go on a weekday if you can.
2Taiwan’s largest body of water, 748 metres up and home of the Thao people, is a bus ride from Taichung’s High Speed Rail station. Cross by boat between its three piers or ride the ropeway over the hills. Swimming is not allowed, except on one day a year: the 3 km Swimming Carnival around the Mid-Autumn Festival.
3From Chiayi, the forest railway climbs from 30 to 2,216 metres through switchbacks and a spiral; the full line reopened in July 2024, 15 years after Typhoon Morakot cut it. Only one train a day runs all the way up, so book ahead. Stay the night for sunrise over the sea of clouds and a walk among the giant cypresses.
4Taiwan’s oldest city grew up around a Dutch fort in the 1620s, and its cooking runs sweeter than the rest of the island’s, a legacy of its sugar-producing days. Eat danzai noodles and milkfish, walk Anping and Chihkan Tower, and count the temples. The High Speed Rail takes you back north for the flight home.
How the plan fits this route
Taiwan is on the Asia plan, so one package covers the whole route, from the MRT to the forest railway. Coverage is strong in the cities and along the High Speed Rail and thins on mountain roads and trails around Alishan, as it does for everyone, so download maps before the climb. If the trip carries on to Japan or Hong Kong, the same package comes too.
In January 2026 the Free Solo climber went up the outside of Taipei 101 without ropes, live on Netflix, in about 91 minutes. Visitors take the lifts, which run from the 5th floor to the 89th in 37 seconds. Inside hangs a 660-tonne steel ball that damps the tower’s sway in strong winds, and it has its own cartoon mascot, the Damper Baby.
Taiwan’s rubbish trucks announce themselves with music, usually Beethoven’s Für Elise or A Maiden’s Prayer, and residents carry their bags out to the truck at the appointed time. In Taipei, ordinary rubbish has to go in official bags sold at convenience stores. Hotels handle all of it for you; rent a flat and the tune becomes your cue.
Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan says its owner dropped white tapioca balls into tea in 1986; Chun Shui Tang in Taichung says its product manager tipped hers in during a staff meeting in 1988. They fought it out in court for about a decade, until a ruling in 2019 that the drink could not be patented. Order one in either city and you are drinking the original, depending on who you ask.
File the TWAC on the National Immigration Agency’s website in the three days before you arrive, and check whether your passport needs a visa on the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ list. Typhoon season peaks from July to September, when flights, trains and mountain roads can close at short notice, so leave slack in the plan. Most 7-Eleven ATMs take foreign cards.
Elsewhere the festival means mooncakes and lanterns. In Taiwan it is also a public holiday for barbecuing: families and friends grill outdoors, and children wear hats cut from pomelo rind. It falls in September or early October, moving with the lunar calendar, and the smell of charcoal on the evening air is the giveaway.
Answers about data, coverage and setup for Taiwan.
Mostly. Coverage follows the local network: strong in the cities and along the High Speed Rail, usually fine in the villages at Sun Moon Lake and Alishan, and patchy on mountain roads and high trails, as it is for everyone. Download maps before a mountain day. Hiking into Taiwan’s restricted high-mountain areas also needs an entry permit, arranged before you go.
Only if it supports 4G calling there. Taiwan switched off its 3G networks on 30 June 2024, and Taiwan’s tourism administration warns that a phone or SIM without 4G voice (VoLTE) cannot make calls, emergency calls included. Check with your home operator before you fly. The onesim line is data-only and unaffected: messaging and app calls run over the package, as they do anywhere.
Yes. Taiwan is on the Asia plan with Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Vietnam and the rest of the list on this page, so one package and one allowance cover the whole trip, and the phone picks up a partner network a minute or two after you land. Choose a length that covers every leg: the package starts with its first connection, wherever that is.
