Taipei Pub Crawl by TourMeAway
TourMeAway offers high quality English language walking tours of Taipei. Find out more information and check out some of their other tours here.
The first time we ever heard of a Taipei pub crawl was way back when we first moved to Taipei when a colleague of ours attended and gave rave reviews. It briefly piqued our interest at the time, since it came so highly recommended, but we never followed up. We had all but forgotten about it when local tour company TourMeAway invited us last month to check it out. At first, we weren’t sure if it would be a good fit — we’re no tourists, and we have been here long enough to have our own favourite spots and our own social circle. We didn’t immediately see the appeal of traipsing around town to unknown bars with a group of strangers. Still, since we had enjoyed ourselves on TourMeAway’s free walking tour in the past, we decided to give it a chance — and boy were we glad we did.
The Taipei Pub Crawl costs $800 ($700 if you pre-book on their website) and starts at exit 10 of Minquan West Road MRT Station, every Thursday and Saturday at 8:30 PM, rain or shine. We arrived on time and were surprised to see that there was already a sizeable crowd waiting. Two tour guides were happily chatting and cracking jokes with the group, welcoming newcomers, taking money, and giving out wristbands.
The tour started after a few minutes. Our male tour guide, Jake, immediately made a great impression on us: he was knowledgable, relatable, and downright hilarious. He gave a brief introduction of the tour, explaining that in addition to being a pub crawl, we would be guided through certain historical and cultural aspects of drinking in Taiwan.
To illustrate his point, he whipped out a bottle of Kaoliang, the quintessential Taiwanese liquor. He introduced it and passed it around, urging us all to introduce ourselves and take a shot (completely optional — be warned, it stings). He explained that there would be welcome drinks at each bar we went to and that our wristbands would give us discounts for any additional drinks we wanted to buy. Our wristband also included free entry into a club at the last stop. Anyone who wanted to save money or didn’t feel like they were getting drunk enough was welcome to take shots from the bottle(s) of Kaoliang.
After the introduction, we were off. We chatted to the guides — the female guide, Asia, was also very friendly and welcoming — while walking, swapping stories of Taipei life and our travels. They were easy to talk to, and within minutes our group included multiple other visitors. The atmosphere was fun and lively, and we were all slightly buzzing from our shot of Kaoliang.
Our first stop was at the entrance to an alley on Shuangcheng Street. Our guide introduced the area and its history, explaining how this entire street of bars had been shaped first by the presence of the Japanese military, then the KMT, then finally the American military. We won’t go into details — we don’t want to spoil it for you in case you do go — but we found it fascinating, as we were learning it for the first time. We were led down the alley of rather seedy looking bars that we had never heard of until finally arriving at a sports bar called MY PLACE.
Half the bar had been reserved for the tour, and we were welcomed with a taxi shot, a bubblegum flavoured whiskey shot (that was way less potent than the Kaoliang we had previously) that used to be sold in pharmacies. Drinks at My Place with our wristbands were phenomenally cheap — just $100 for certain beers and mixers like Gin & Tonic or Jack & Coke. Our hostess was charismatic and friendly, and we immediately warmed to the bar, eyeing the pool table and electronic darts machines.
We snagged a happy hour menu for future reference, making a mental note to return (which we did).
After drinking a few rounds, during which we chatted and laughed with our guides and fellow tour members, we headed to the next spot, a craft beer bar called Voyage Bistro Bar. By this time, we had become fast friends with our fellow attendees, whose number had risen from 30-something to a whopping 43. There was a massive crowd, and everyone was intermingling and laughing and joking with each other. Our guide explained the history of Taiwan’s craft beer scene, from an era where all alcohol was a government monopoly (fun fact: that’s how Taiwan Beer started) til today. We were given our welcome drinks (Oolong tea cocktail shots) and told that our wristbands would entitle us to 10% off our first drink, 20% off our second drink, and 30% off our third drink. Voyage Bistro Bar had some great Taiwanese craft beers, including some by Taihu and Redpoint — their food also looked great, and we wished we had enough time to order some. Prices were not comparable to My Place (though we didn’t expect them to be) and there was a long line of people trying to order, but we enjoyed our time and the beer.
Our next stop was Maji Square, an open-air market of sorts that we are quite familiar with. As we walked, our tour guide checked in with our group, making sure everyone was having fun and answering any questions that we had. We chatted about Maji Square, and she gave tips on when to visit during the day and what to look out for.
We regrouped at Maji Square after the walk. There were only two stops left: 23 Music Bar and Triangle, the club of the night. We were ushered to 23 Music Bar, which had a much more upbeat vibe than the last two places we had been. Unlike the other two bars, this was already packed with people partying on their Saturday night. It was crowded but fun, with nice bar staff and a DJ who was absolutely loving life. After ordering some drinks, we squeezed our way back outside so we could enjoy our welcome drink and chat some more with our crew.
The bar had a great mix of foreigners and locals.
The last destination was Triangle, an expat-friendly club that we were quite familiar with. We were reassured when we found out this was the final destination since we were enjoying hanging out with our new group of friends and we were growing increasingly concerned that we would all lose each other at a massive club. We knew for a fact that this would not happen here. The other advantage of Triangle is that you can easily save money by buying drinks from 7-Eleven and sitting outside with them before going in.
Our tour guides said one last goodbye to the group before lining us up to get our free entry, and in we went. The tour was over, but most people, us included, stayed at Triangle to make the most of their club entry. We went on to have a great night!
All in all, we had way more fun than expected. We had very little idea of what to expect before starting out, even having some misgivings about whether or not it would be worth the time and the cost. To our great surprise, we found that it was: we had lots of fun, and since welcome drinks and club entry are included in the price, $800 isn’t unreasonable. We liked that there was the option to take as much Kaoliang as you needed, too, which in theory (if you’re brave) means that you wouldn’t have to spend any more than the original $800 to get pretty lit.
Knowing what we know now, we would highly recommend this tour to anyone who is newly arrived in Taipei — tourists and expats both — who want to go out drinking in Taipei, but don’t necessarily want to do it alone. We should have taken our colleague’s advice and done it way back when we first arrived, instead of awkwardly turning up at expat bars and hoping someone talks to us. For seasoned expats who already have their list of favourite bars and a reliable social circle, this tour may be slightly less appealing, but hey — we’ve lived here for years, and we enjoyed ourselves. Maybe you would too!
What’s the vibe?
Fun & relaxed pub crawl with a cultural twist. There was a very friendly atmosphere, and we never felt awkward talking to people. Apart from us, everyone was a tourist, and it was kind of nice to meet so many people from different backgrounds all at once.
Worth it?
We thought so! We would specifically recommend it to newcomers, but there’s no reason why you can’t go if you’ve lived here for a while.
Would you do it again?
We actually met a member of the group who had done it multiple times before, but we aren’t the type to repeat tours. That being said, we would definitely go back to some of the bars (we hit My Place the weekend after for darts) and would hang out with lots of the people we met.
Tour date: March 2019
| Taipei Pub Crawl |
| Hours: every Thursday & Saturday at 8:30PM |
| Email: service@tourmeaway.com |
| Facebook: TourMeAway |
| Instagram: TourMeAway |
| STARTING POINT English Address: Minquan West Road MRT Station Exit 10 |
| STARTING POINT Chinese Address: 民權西路10號出口 |
