Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Finding your way around Taoyuan International Airport

Just came back from a short trip to Taipei through Terminal 1 of Taoyuan International Airport. The interesting thing that I realised is that on arrival to Taipei, I hardly spotted any duty free shops within Terminal 1. That led me to believe that there are no shops within the arrival/departure area. However, that is incorrect.

The duty free shops seems to be only available at the "departure lounge". There are a number of duty free shops there at Terminal 1 so if you need some last minute shopping ranging from branded goods to perishables (e.g. Sun Biscuit, Pineapple cakes, etc), you'll still be able to get them at the airport. You can also take the sky train from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 and vice versa. You can even catch a last minute meal within the departing area of Terminal 1.

If you want to catch a cheap meal at Taoyuan International Airport before boarding, I believe the best bet would be the 7-11 (otherwise known as Seven in Taiwan) at Level 2, Terminal 2. They even have a microwave oven where the cashier will help you "cook" your food. I saw a number of air stewards and air stewardess there so I guess it should be quite okay. At least the sandwich I ate there was okay (35 TWD). Otherwise, there is always Burger King which you can find at both terminals.

If you're looking for a place to connect to the Internet, the good news is that there is free Wifi. However, for some reason there is no free Wifi available at Terminal 1 before going to the boarding area. Terminal 1 "departure lounge", and Terminal 2 however has free Wifi. To access the Wifi there, just connect to the Hinet SSID.

Taoyuan International Airport is about an hour's ride by Taxi from the main Taipei Railway station. The cost is about 1,100 TWD but I only tried taking the taxi from Zhongshan station to the airport. Not sure if the cost is the same the other way. If you're looking for the bus, you can find the King Bus (国光) at Terminal 1. Just turn left after leaving the customs at Terminal 1 and go straight. It's not that far. If I recall correctly, it's only about 125 TWD. If you're at Terminal 2, you should be able to find the bus station to get your tickets once you reach Terminal 1 through the Sky Train.

I will be posting again once I've managed to find time to sort my photos. :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is the skytrain located after clearing immigration/customs on arrival, or before?

chantc said...

Based on my recollection, it's before you have cleared immigration.

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