Arrive in Taipei and slip straight into the city in comfort – private transfers, fast-track tickets, and a brilliant local guide who’ll show you what makes Taipei tick.

Start at Dalongdong Bao’an Temple, a 200-year-old shrine dedicated to Baosheng Dadi, the god of medicine. Your guide will translate the craftsmanship up close: carved stonework, painted beams and those distinctive, upswept rooflines.

Next, head to Dihua Old Street. Step into a traditional medicine store where copper scales still weigh out dried roots and remedies.

Later, ride up Taipei 101. With fast-track tickets, you’ll spend your time on the viewing deck, not in the queue, taking in the city, river bends and mountains beyond.

Dinner is xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung – meat and vegetable packed dumplings in warm broth – it’s a Taipei classic.

The following day, escape to Pinglin in the tea-growing hills to meet a fifth-generation farmer and taste tea at the source. Continue to Sanxia, where the CAN Foundation has transformed a 100-year-old hospital into studios for local makers, and engrave your own traditional stamp. Back in the city, visit the National Palace Museum with an expert guide who has worked at the museum for many years to focus on the standout pieces and the stories behind them.

Today you’ll depart Taipei with your private guide and driver, on your way to Guguan, a small town high in the mountains. On the way you’ll stop at a pottery studio where artists crafts pieces that honour the hand formed pottery traditions, with a contemporary twist. You’ll also visit the Fuguei Art Museum, where outdoor art and architecture blend seamlessly with the woods, water and landscape. While the art and mountain scenery is some of Taiwan’s finest, where you’re staying here is a real highlight. Hoshinoya Guguan is one of only two branches of this famous hot spring hotel brand located outside of Japan. Every meticulously designed room has its own private hot spring bath, built in the Japanese rotenburo style open to the outdoors – perfect for a soak after some hiking or a spa treatment.

Sit back and relax in your own private car as your dedicated driver takes you to Sun Moon Lake. This reservoir is one of the most famous and popular mountain getaways in Taiwan. On the way you’ll stop at the Antique Assam Tea Farm, an experimental tea plantation that was founded during the Japanese Occupation. While the historic building and antique machinery call back to the past, the farm is focused on a sustainable future for tea production and consumption. This afternoon you’ll bike a few miles around the lake (a route as long or as short as you please), taking in the scenery at a slower pace. Hop on a boat and sail across the lake, stopping in on the towns of Shuishe and Ita Thao on the way. Tonight you’ll be staying at The Lalu, which began its life as Chiang Kai-shek's personal resort, often used to entertain heads of state.

Heading back down to the coastal plains and city of Tainan, you’ll stop in at a soy sauce factory. This family business still uses natural fermentation and wood fire to brew their soy sauce and you’ll taste how this impacts the flavour for yourself. Closer into town you’ll visit the Jingzaijiao Salt Fields, 300 years old and one of the last remaining salt fields in Taiwan. While you’ll learn about the salt production Taiwan’s government fought to protect, the main attraction, arguably, is seeing the sunset reflected back from the drying salt squares.

Your next morning is all about the history of Taiwan, beginning at Anping Fort, originally constructed by the Dutch East India Company. In many ways the story of Taiwan began here, and the fortress has stood through it all; the Dutch, the Ming, the Qing and the Japanese occupation, right through to modern day. Travelling deeper into the city you’ll visit the Hayashi Department store, the second department store ever opened in Taiwan, now a collection of local restaurants, shops, a small museum and a colourful cafe on the top floor.

The next stop will be the harbour city of Kaohsiung. Still a centre of ship building, shipping and the navy, it’s also an energetic city of art, architecture and renewal. Visit the Dragon Tiger Pagoda, a modern symbol of the city and some of the wildest Buddhist design you may ever see. Enter through the dragon’s mouth for good luck.

Of course, one of the top reasons to visit Taiwan is to eat the food. On a breakfast tour through one of Kaohsiung’s older neighbourhoods, you’ll uncover the lives of the people who live there through the day’s most important meal. Beginning with soy milk and fried doughnuts, you’ll stop for a hearty noodle soup and a dish of wuyuzi, a Kaohsiung specialty of salted and dried mullet roe. If that’s not to your taste, perhaps a helping of tea ice cream?

At Pier 2 Arts Center, the delightfully restored warehouse district along the harbour, you’ll meet an Insider guide who worked with the city on the art installations. They’ll reveal how a neighbourhood of abandoned warehouses and slips became an art forward centre of shopping, dining, and vibrant urban renewal. We highly recommend a visit to Liouhe Night Market for dinner, for a serving of fried eel or a plate of fresh pork and chive dumplings.

The quickest way back to Taipei is via Taiwan’s High Speed Rail (known locally as the HSR) – and the most stylish is in first class. That’s where you’ll be. Based on the Japanese Shinkansen bullet train, the HSR opened in 2007 and now serves the west coast. Once back in Taipei, you’ll transfer out to Beitou, a leafy suburb of parks and hot springs and (we think) the perfect place to relax and reflect on your time in Taiwan. You’re staying at one of the best hotels in Beitou, Villa 32, where rooms have their own hot spring baths.