I did a similar post for my Seoul trip about a year ago here, and this time it's for Taichung and Taipei! I personally find
apps really useful because we live in an era whereby we just can't live without
our smartphones, plus it's way easier to have everything in your smartphone
than to carry travel books and maps.
I'm sure you can find a bunch of apps easily from Google Play Store / Apple App Store, but I'm just going to share some of the apps that I have actually tried during my trip.
#1 Google Map
I wouldn't have made it this far without Google Map, my eternal
lifesaver. Using Google Map is pretty straightforward and I believe most people
have used it before, so I'm not going to be long-winded.
Basically, I used it to check the distance between where I was and
where I wanted to go in order to determine if I should walk or opt for bus /
train. Google Map can show you which bus to take, where to take it and etc.
Finding your destination by walking is also made easier with
Google Map because you literally just need to follow the arrow and the path
highlighted on the map. It is so simple to the extent that I didn't even bother
to check the names of the streets when I was in Taiwan.
I am hopeless when it comes to taking buses. For me, I would
always go for train instead of bus if I can, bus is never in the picture unless
I really have no other viable options. Unfortunately, I had to rely on buses
because there was / is no subway system in Taichung. Some places are simply too
far away to walk to.
With this app, you can see real time information (e.g. how many
minutes until the bus arrives at this particular station) once you key in the
bus route number. It even shows you the bus number plate. If you can understand
Mandarin, you might want to download this.
I always download an app that allows me to navigate faster in a city with train system. I mean, why would you want to spend time to look at this (see below) when you can have an app to do it for you in less than 10 seconds?
I encountered some problems in deciding which metro app to use
while in Taiwan because in my opinion, these apps are not as good as the one I
used in Seoul. For example, I have to click on the departure and destination
station in order for the app to calculate the fare and travel time. However,
this means that I have to know where exactly are the stations on the map since the
app does not allow me to search for the station by typing the name.
Unfortunately, I have downloaded and tried a few metro apps and
none has the function that I want, so this is probably the best that I could
find. Anyway all metro apps are more or less the same, so it really depends on
which interface you prefer.
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