Taiwan has many cute coffee shops. They give a lot of attention to interior design and decoration to creating charming spaces. They almost always have WiFi, excellent drinks, and friendly service.
If you’d like to work from coffee shops this website listing coffee shops and their features will be a great resource:
https://cafeandcowork.com/taipei/
The link above is for Taipei only. For Taiwan overall use this link:
https://cafeandcowork.com/taiwan/
You can sort the table by area and then look for the criteria that matters to you. You can find out if they have power outlets, restrooms, how good their WiFi is, whether they offer food, their price range, whether or not they play background music, cash only or not, etc. Of course you can also check the opening hours and whether the place enforces a time limit.
In addition, there is an Instagram page so you can see exactly what these places look like:
https://www.instagram.com/cafeandcowork/
This is a very helpful resource, especially since many of these coffee shops are kind of hidden and hard to notice if you’re just walking by.
The first time I met a friend at a coffee shop to work together I got lost. I walked by it twice and didn’t even notice.
After that, I started paying more attention and realized that the area around Yongkang Street (永康街) actually has tons of really cute coffee shops where I can enjoy a few hours of productive focus.
There is only one coffee shop that I regret going to. It looked amazing. It had outdoor and indoor seating. However, the indoor section was connected to the outdoor section, meaning there was no wall or window. That means the mosquitoes were roaming the place and after getting a dozen bites I just had to get up and find another coffee shop.
If that happens to you, go to the nearest pharmacy, such as Watsons, and get Tiger Balm. I got the small version, which cost me $75 NT (about $2.50 USD). There are two variations. I got the yellow one – the rightmost one in the picture. Applying Tiger Balm to mosquito bites will provide significant relief. In fact you should always keep Tiger Balm in your bag when traveling across Taiwan.
I met my friend Carolyn a couple of times at coffee shops to do work sessions together. The staff provided menus in both English and Chinese. After ordering and paying we sat down. The drinks were brought to our table. This is the view from where I was sitting at Foregood Cafe:
If you happen to be around Yongkang St and are interested in trying this coffee shop in here is a link to Google Maps: Forgood Cafe.
If you just want to grab a coffee on the go and don’t need a place to sit down, you can get excellent drinks for very good prices at Two Shots Coffee. I’m a big fan of the vanilla latte, which costs the equivalent of $2.50 USD. Here is the menu at the entrance:
