Taipei City is more than just a mecca for food lovers and temple enthusiasts, in recent years, the city has been working tirelessly to provide more family oriented activities. Whether its upgrading old public parks or modernizing amenities at historical venues and museums, places to visit in Taipei for families with young children has really expanded throughout the greater Taipei area.
There has also been a boom in indoor playgrounds that are tailored for young children, as business owners also see the need for parents to find a place to release their young children’s unbelievable amount of energy, a struggle most parents can surely relate to.
Exploring the top things to do in Taipei with your young ones is a great adventure, so we’ve compiled a list of all sorts of fun activities, from indoor to outdoor, free entrance to paid admissions. An ultimate kid-focused Taipei tour guide for an unforgettable Taipei visit.
Make sure you clear enough storage space in your smartphone before you visit, because you will definitely be taking way more photos and videos of your child than you have actually planned to do.
1) Taipei Zoo (木柵動物園)
Considered as one of the best zoos in Asia, Taipei Zoo is a must visit for families traveling with children, or if you are an animal lover who wants to see Taiwan’s ingenious animals, this is the place to go.
Being the largest and most varied zoo in Taiwan, Taipei Zoo is home to more than 377 different animals that are all situated in enclosures that mimics their natural habitats, you can find exhibitions of animals from Australia, Africa, tropical rainforest, the deserts, and the temperate zones, as well as an aviary hall, amphibian and reptile house, and a nocturnal animals display.
Among these are the star of the show, where the Taiwanese public knows them by their first names, the panda family Tuan Tuan, Yuan Yuan and Yuan Zai, attracting more than 19,000 daily visitors on any given weekend and holiday.
Transportation is also very convenient, the MRT Taipei Zoo Station is right outside of the zoo entrance, which also leads to the Maokong Gondola, with Maokong being a popular place to experience Taiwan tea culture with a beautiful night view of Taipei City.
Adult Admissions: $60 NTD
Child Admissions (6 years and under): $30 NTD
Business hours: 9AM–5PM (4PM last entry)
2) Taipei Water Park (自來水園區)
Taipei Water Park is one of the facilities provided by the Taipei Water Department. What makes the Taipei Water Park a great place for families to spend an afternoon at other than being a water themed playground, is that there is also an educational facility (and historical, the building itself is a certified tier-three historic site) inside the park called Museum of Drinking Water, which offers information and knowledge on the importance of water being a valuable resource.
Taipei Water Park consists of an outdoor area where most of the water attractions are located, and an indoor area with a lounging space, a cafeteria and a swimming goods shop.
Located in near the Gongguan commercial district, there are countless bus lines and the MRT Gonguan station being just a 5-minute walk away, and don’t forget to visit the surrounding Gongguan area that offers all kinds of shopping, leisure activities, and the popular Gongguan night market.
Adult Admissions: $80 NTD between 7/1 to 8/31, otherwise it’s $50 NTD
Child Admissions (under 12 years old): $40 NTD between 7/1 to 8/31, otherwise it’s $25 NTD
Business hours: 9AM–10PM between 7/1 to 8/31, otherwise it’s 9AM–6PM
3) National Taiwan Science Education Center (台灣科學教育館)
The National Taiwan Science Education Center is a multi-story science museum located near the Children’s Amusement Park and the Taipei Astronomical Museum in the Shilin District, which you can actually purchase an admissions combo for all three attractions as they are in walking distance of each other, but we will focus on the NTSEC for this guide.
With over 600 on-going exhibits at any given time, the NTSEC is a great place to learn about science through play and storytelling. The building can be broken down into few main sections, with the upper levels holding the main attractions.
On the 3rd and 4th floor holds the Life Science Exhibition Hall, which focuses on four life science related topics: “Mystery of Life”, “Mystery of the Body”, “Biodiversity” and “People and Environment”.
On the 5th and 6th floor is the Material Science Hall, which houses the more interactive exhibitions, including “exploring the World of Physics”, “Exploring the World of Chemistry”, and the Science Playground, where there are many installations that demonstrates many different scientific theories, this is usually where your kids will go wild with all the fun activities to play with.
Lastly is the 7th and 8th floor, where it is usually reserved for special exhibitions from around the world, which the exhibitions changes periodically.
There best way to get here is to take the MRT to Shilin Station or Jiantan Station, and there will be several bus lines that stop at the NTSEC.
Adult Admissions: $100 NTD
Child Admissions (6 years old and above): $70 NTD Business hours: 9AM–5PM, not open on Mondays.
4) Kids Awesome (奧森兒童博物館)
Although Kids Awesome is a privately owned indoor playground, they’ve really put in a lot of effort to make the space an adventurous and entertaining place for children to enjoy.
When you enter the ground floor, you will find a café and a toddlers play space with basic amenities, a scarf suction tube, rocking horses and some books, not too much action.
The true gems of Kids Awesome lies in their B1 level with all types of activities, there’s a 2 story tall climbing tower mimicking the Taipei 101, provided with helmets and instant video cameras for parents to track their child’s safety. There’s also a zip wire, a rocket launcher where you make your own paper rockets, a Rube Goldberg machine with plastic balls, and a farmers market where children can role play in.
On the 2nd floor is the arts and craft area, where you can do graffiti on the glass or a large bear sculpture, as well as painting on easels or calligraphy class. Another fun thing to do on the 2nd floor is the bubble area, with multiple bubble machines that creates huge bubbles the size of a basketball.
Kids Awesome is located right outside of the Da’an MRT station, with about a 30 second walk from the closest exit.
Adult Admissions: $200 NTD (over 16 years old)
Child Admissions: $800 NTD (3-16 years old)
Toddler Admission: $300 NTD (6 months-3 years old)
Business hours: 10AM–5PM, not open on Tuesday & Wednesday
5) Xiangshan Park (象山公園)
What makes Xiangshan Park a popular destination isn’t just because it received a complete makeover just a few years ago, but also because of it being the entrance to the popular Xiangshan Hiking Trail, where you can find the best view of Taipei City, as well as just being one MRT stop away from Taipei 101 and the Xinyi Shopping District.
Xiangshan Park is themed around the Taipei Tree Frog, which the park is a part of the conservation program of this species. You can find a large grass field which is perfect for picnicking, and a playground that is covered in Polyurethane rubber flooring to soften the inevitable fall when the children are climbing up and down the slides.
Another added bonus to this park is that there are solar USB outlets under some of their benches, making the parent’s idle time a lot more entertaining when you can charge your phone while waiting.
6) Jiancheng Park (建成公園)
When you talk about historical parks, Jiancheng Park takes the crown, as this park was actually the first ever children’s park built back in 1937. Jiancheng park went through a complete renovation in 2017, reopening its gates after 2 years of construction with brand new playing structures and designs, instantly gaining popularity again among Taipei locals near and far.
The newly designed park is themed around “Ironwork”, as the nearby Chifeng Street was once considered as the main ironwork community of Taipei. The park now includes seven playground facilities, a 2-story high iron tower slide, roller slides, swing sets, spinners, gear-style seesaws, and castanets. There is also a grass field where other active sports like soccer, Frisbees and kiting are often played here.
Jiancheng Park is about a 3 minute walk away from the MRT Zhongshan Station, which happens to be the shopping and restaurant district of the Zhongshan area, so you will have many places to go before and after your park visit.
7) Huashan Central Art Park (華山大草原遊戲場)
Before going through the complete transformation, Huashan Central Art Park was once the Huashan Train Station and the Huashan Distillery, which are also the themes to the playground design.
You will find a chimney shaped long slide that leads to a wood chip ground, a sandbox, some swings, and the popular zip line, which to be honest, we do not recommend coming during the weekend or holidays, as the wait to the zip lines are quite long.
When you’re finished with the playground, take a visit to the main Huashan 1914 art park, where there are restaurants, bars, an art cinema, and often multiple exhibitions happening on their campus.
Or pay a visit to the nearby Guanhua Commercial Zone, the largest electronics marketplace in Taiwan, you’ll be able to find almost anything tech here, from the latest iPhone to old computer parts that has been discontinued decades ago.
The Huashan Central Art Park sits between 2 MRT stations, the ZhongXiao Xinsheng Station and the Shandao Temple Station, both being a 3 to 5 minutes walk away.
8) Da’an Forest Park (大安森林公園)
Da’an Forest Park is Taipei’s version of New York City’s Central Park, the park occupies 26 hectares (roughly 3 baseball parks) of greenery, including 2 ponds, an amphitheater, a jogging loop, a skating ring, and of course a children’s playground.
Although the playground structure here is quite basic, but it has everything you need in a playground, slides, swings, seesaws, jungle gyms, and of course a sandbox, but what lacks in design is made up of space, the grass fields here are so wide, you really need to keep an eye on your child in case they run too deep into the woods and get lost in the crowd.
After your park activities, just one MRT stop away is Yongkang street, which many consider as the center of Taipei’s food scene. Other than the original store of the world famous Ding Tai Feng, there are also the beef noodle institution Yongkang Beef Noodles, as well as multiple tea houses and mango shaved ice stores, a foodie paradise you surely wont want to miss.
Da’an Forest Park has it’s own MRT Station on the red line, with many bus stops on each of its 4 sides, so transportation will definitely not be a problem.
Taipei is a wonderful city to visit if you have young children, and we hope this guide will give you an insider view of what places to visit in Taipei for a memorable family vacation. After all the running around and you’re looking for something to eat, check out our Must Eats in Taipei list. If you have any questions or have any comments, please leave a message in the comment section, we would love to help.
