What to Do During a Typhoon in Taiwan: A Traveler's Backup Plan

Last updated: August 25, 2026 Written by: Yuchen

A typhoon warning doesn't mean cancel the trip. It means you need one extra plan in your back pocket, and locals already know what that looks like.

If your Taiwan trip lands anywhere between June and October, you already know there's a chance a typhoon shows up. What almost no one tells you is what locals do about it. Nobody's cancelling anything, they're just quietly moving the day indoors, usually after a five minute look at two websites. Here's how that decision gets made, down to which night market happens to have a bar next door.

Chapter 1: The Two Minute Typhoon Check

How to Check for a Typhoon in Taiwan as a Foreign Traveler

Tool	What It Shows	When to Use It	Website (EN)
Central Weather Administration	Storm track, probability circle, official warnings by city and time	Days out, to see if a storm is even coming your way	cwa.gov.tw/engTW
TW Live	Live camera feeds from locations across Taiwan	Same day, to see real conditions at the specific place you're headed	tw.live/en

Chapter 2: Why the Trip Doesn't Stop

Should You Cancel Your Trip If There's a Typhoon in Taiwan

Taiwan's Central Mountain Range runs down the middle of the island, and it does a lot

Typhoon track map

of the work for you. A typhoon coming from the east usually gets broken up before it can do much damage. One coming from the southwest or northeast hits head on, which is when Kaohsiung or Taipei end up with real flooding. Track matters more than any rule I could give you, and if I'm honest, a lot of it just comes down to luck.

This is the part that changes what you do, though. Say a moderate to strong typhoon is coming from the southwest or southeast and you're already up north. Driving south to get away from it doesn't help, the storm usually drags a southwest monsoon flow in behind it, and the south ends up with heavy rain for days after the typhoon itself is gone. So locals don't bother moving. They stay put and turn the day into something indoors instead.

Chapter 3: What a Typhoon Actually Does to a Week in Taiwan

What to Expect Before, During, and After a Typhoon in Taiwan

When	What's Happening	What to Do
1 to 2 days before	Unusually hot, still air	Good day for the mountains, skip the beach
The day before	Warning issued, city calm but tense	Temples are a good call, quiet, mostly indoors, and cooler
Storm hits	Wind and rain, streets empty out	Movie theaters and KTV stay open, unless it's a strong typhoon, and get busier than usual
2 to 3 days after	Rivers swollen, landslide risk rises	Skip waterfalls, riverbeds, and mountain trails entirely, even once the sky clears

Chapter 4: What a Different Day Looks Like

What to Do in Taipei During a Typhoon in Taiwan

Type	Examples in Taipei	Note
Museums and static experiences	Taipei Expo Park greenhouses, National Palace Museum, science and art museums, Xpark aquarium	Best for the day or two right before a storm lands, no booking needed
Hands on workshops	Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Huashan 1914 Creative Park, Dadaocheng	Book same day or last minute, filter by north Taiwan on Accupass
Casual backup	Shrimp fishing parlors diào xiā chǎng), bowling alleys	Search Google Maps, most cities have several
If the storm hits	Movie theaters, KTV, a handful of bars	Stay open unless it's a strong typhoon

Accupass: accupass.com/?area=north

This is a Taipei list specifically, other cities have their own version of these, easy

Accompanied by plush toys at KTV

enough to find on Google Maps. For where to stay, Ximending, Xinyi Anhe, or near Longshan Temple are solid picks, not just because they're walkable, but because the restaurant density gives you a decent shot at finding one still open on a typhoon day.

I've had this play out myself. One October, I was in Taipei with a full day at Yangmingshan planned for the next morning. The typhoon warning had just been lifted, so the trail was technically open, but right after a storm like that, I dropped it without a second thought. We went to the National Palace Museum instead, then walked over to Shilin Night Market that evening, part of indoors market, with enough izakayas and bars nearby that it felt more like an upgrade than a backup plan.

Chapter 5: The East Coast Plays by Different Rules

How a Typhoon in Taiwan Hits Taitung and Hualien Differently

The east coast, especially Taitung, usually takes the more direct hit, but the storm tends to move through faster too. What catches people off guard is what comes after: a foehn wind (fén fēng) can turn the air hot and dry almost overnight, and the ocean often turns murky instead of the clear blue everyone came for.

The bigger issue is inland. Rivers swell and landslide risk rises for two to three days after a storm passes, so waterfalls, riverbeds, and mountain trails are off limits even once the sky looks perfectly fine.

I won't pretend to have a clean formula for any of this. Every typhoon behaves a little differently. What I can tell you is what tends to happen on the ground once the warning goes up, and that's usually worth more than a probability percentage.

Closing

A typhoon in Taiwan isn't a verdict on your whole trip, it just means one day needs a different plan. A temple instead of a trail, a workshop in Dadaocheng instead of a hike,

A street sign blown down by a past typhoon

Ximending over a room near the coast, these small changes are basically how people here get through storm season. Traveling to Taiwan during typhoon season just takes a backup plan. If a typhoon lands anywhere near your dates, get in touch and BraveOn will help you build one before you need it.

Want to know if your itinerary can actually hold up during typhoon season?

Run it through my [free itinerary checker].

Still not sure how to build the backup plan, or want someone to just handle it? [Email me] or [check out Full Planning].