The Rough Guide to Taiwan

by Rough Guides, Brice Minnigh, Stephen Keeling

Book Overview

The new-look The Rough Guide to Taiwan - now in full colour throughout - is the ultimate travel guide to one of Asia's most exciting, yet often overlooked, destinations. Uncover the contrasts between ultra-modern 24hr Taipei and the city's slower-paced traditional backstreets; seek out the best hikes in Taroko Gorge and Alishan; find a beautiful B&B on the east coast, or among the fabulous hot-spring resorts in the East Rift Valley; discover pristine...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0241186838
• ISBN13: 9780241186831
• Release Date: August 2015
• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic!

I travelled around Taiwan armed with both this book and the latest edition of Lonely Planet. Both were very good, but if I had to choose one, it would be the Rough Guide. I found it just as good for practical info, but it is much more detailed, covering activities like hiking, and in general exploring off the beaten track, in far greater detail. It also has excellent, insightful and up to date background info on various interesting subjects, such as religious life and aboriginals. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Comprehensive, Compact Information

I bought this book while researching for a trip we're planning to Taiwan later in the year. I checked out 4 or 5 different guides from the library and after reading through them all I bought this one because I felt I would like to take it with me. It's better organized than the Lonely Planet Taiwan guide, but written with the same general target audience in mind -- the independent traveler. I enjoy doing the research, and would rather get lost and find something really neat than be on a packaged tour. I was in Taiwan several years ago and this book has been helpful for me to reacquaint myself about Taipei and Taiwan -- and see how much things have changed! The book has mini glossaries in each section that gives the Chinese characters and pinyin pronunciations for places and points of interest described in that section. This is very useful, but might be more useful if they were listed in the text where these places are described rather than being listed separately. Oh, and if you're concerned about weight, at 500g (17.6 oz) this book has the lightest weight per page count (584 pgs) of all the Taiwan books I've read! The Lonely Planet Taiwan guide weighs less (360g, 12.7 oz), but also has over 100 fewer pages than this book. I'll update this review after the trip to report on its accuracy and usefulness "in the field" but so far I find it pleasant to read and easy to find things.

A Good Guide Book

When Rough Guides are good, they are arguably the best guide books on the market. The Rough Guide to Beijing is the finest travel book I have ever owned, and I have owned quite a few. The problem is: they're not always that good. However, with this sleek looking 2007 Taiwan edition, the people at Rough Guides are clearly out to make a statement: "Hey, competition! Look out!" This is a quality effort. Weighing in at a hefty 580 pages, the buyer also gets much more bang for his buck, important given the price tag on all travel guides these days. Yes, you may have to pick up additional maps on your travels (a breeze in Taiwan), but you won't have any excuse for not becoming informed. This volume makes for a great deal of jaunty, intelligent reading. And it has fantastic pictures. Taiwan is a fascinating place, and yet for various reasons (chief among them the fact that the government has no idea how to promote itself) it remains obscure and off the proverbial beaten track. What a shame, as there really is a lot to see and do. Places like Toroko Gorge, Jade Mountain, Taiwan's east coast, and the country's engaging collection of attractive islands in both the Taiwan Strait (Kinmen is a mere two kilometers off the coast of China's Fujian Province, for example) as well as the Pacific Ocean are all must-sees for anyone looking for something different in Asian travel. Living in Taipei, like I do, it is easy to forget that although half of the country is urbanized and - it must be said - quite ugly, the other half ranges from agreeable to stunning. A two to three week jaunt around Taiwan, with this Rough Guide in your hand, would make for a unique, once in a lifetime experience. Unless, of course, you were to do it twice. Troy Parfitt, author

Excellent Taiwan guidebook

The Rough Guide (RG) is divided into four main sections. The full color pages at the front of the book give a basic introduction to Taiwan followed by "30 things not to miss". The next section, "Basics", gives general information about transport, accommodation, food, festivals and outdoor activities. Next comes the main section of the guide which covers all the places in Taiwan. The final section is about history, religion, aboriginal tribes, arts and language. I like the layout and design of the book. It reads almost like a book, not just a guidebook, but it is still easy to locate specific information. I think this is typical of the style of Rough Guides which I have used in several other countries. The maps are easy to read and many of the places on the map are clearly labelled avoiding the need to constantly refer to the key. Information about accommodation is generally listed in the text for smaller places with more detailed listings for the larger cities. Rather than giving prices for each hotel or hostel Rough Guides uses numbers to indicate the price range. The authors seem to have chosen a good range of accommodation. All the places that one would expect to be covered in a guidebook are included. There are also a few smaller and less well-known places that are covered. Of course there are many places that are still not mentioned. However, I think overall the choices are well considered. One important thing that is key to the on-the-ground usability of any guidebook in Taiwan is its use of Chinese characters and romanisation. The RG includes tables through the text with place names in Chinese characters, Hanyu Pinyin with tone marks and the mix of English and romanisation that is commonly used on signs in Taiwan. I think this works well as it leaves the main text uncluttered and easy to read while all the key information is grouped together in one place for easy reference. The RG has several features that make it stand out. These include the detailed list of festivals with dates and information about all of Taiwan's major aboriginal tribes. The section on religion in Taiwan is well written noting its syncretic nature and idiosyncrasies. It includes descriptions of all the major dieties one might encounter in Taiwan. Some pictures would have been nice here though. The detailed coverage of how to climb Yushan and Xueshan is excellent. Everything you need to know from accessing the National Parks to obtaining permits and descriptions of the climbs is included. Overall I highly recommend the Rough Guide as a great practical guide for anyone visiting Taiwan. (originally posted at David on Formosa)

Finally, RG does Taiwan

Rough Guide and Lonely Planet are the two guidebook series of choice for independent travelers, though where I've compared both I've consistently preferred RG for its greater depth and better writing. The LP Taiwan is okay, but this first edition of RG is clearly better in most ways. First, it's a lot more current, published in April 2007, compared to the LP, the most recent edition of which was published in November 2004. Even in a reasonably developed place like Taiwan, things change quickly enough that a three-year guidebook is often out of date, although LP is coming out with its next edition later this year. Perhaps more importantly, the RG is substantially more detailed. The page count alone gives an indication: about 580 pages for the RG, 367 for the LP. Add to that the LP's finer print (still readable though), and you're looking at quite a bit more text for any given attraction, and quite a few that the LP does not cover at all. Quantity isn't everything of course, and the RG -- like others in the series -- is much better written than the LP. The tone is sober, without the element of camp that sometimes creeps into the LP. The RG is also better laid out, with accommodation information immediately following the introduction rather than coming at the end of the section on any given location, as LP has it. The "Highlights" section is both more extensive and better chosen than in the LP. The LP does feature quite a bit more full-color photography, but there are better books for that. Overall, a pretty clear first choice for a guidebook on Taiwan, and likely to remain so even when the next edition of the LP comes out.