This is my series on our 2018 Round the Island World Schooling Trip. For more posts, you can check out the index page or subscribe to my Facebook page. You can also subscribe to my Instagram for pics.
I lose paper. Seriously. If I get any kind of paper, you can bet 5 minutes later I’m digging through all my pockets and asking Fleur if she remembers where I’d absentmindedly stuffed said paper.
For that reason, I really love to plan and live my daily life as digitally as possible. Here are some apps I have found quite useful while living and traveling in Taiwan the last 3 times, GYA13, GYA16, and WSA18.
I’ve ordered the apps by importance, the order you might want to download your apps, in case you’re like me and are downloading apps the night before you leave. You probably want to at least have items in #1-#3 installed.
Many of these apps have English setting. I will specifically mention the Chinese ones Fleur used as she much prefer English apps to Chinese.
1. Google－ Drive, Calendar, Maps
We stored all of our itinerary info online on Google Drive and Google Calendar. Google Calendar worked out super great as I could store itinerary, map directions, addresses, notes on specific attractions, URLs, even PDFs. Since I use an iPhone, I configure my iOS Calendar to pull down my Google Calendar.
I did find it easier to have one PDF for each day, stored on Google Drive, filled mostly with train tables, attraction info, etc. Both of these apps allowed me to share my itinerary with Fleur, which made trip planning easier.
Google Maps is similarly indispensable. It is usually very good about giving me the best routes either by public transportation, walking, or driving. There were only three annoying things with Maps, one is it likes to take us down roads that are less traveled. Several times it directed us to tiny one lane road that was not good for my heart, though it thrilled the kids to no end, when we could have just taken the big road right next to it.
The other annoyance is how it displays bus schedules. It cannot tell me what the best and shortest route is from point A to point B. Rather, it shows me the best route for the time I’m searching, and often fails when I specify a departure time. So most of the time I had to resort back to individual bus apps or websites for better data.
Lastly, Google Maps displays the language setting of my iPhone. I couldn’t make sense of English street names and bus stop names, so I had to switch my whole phone interface to Chinese. However, Fleur was fine with the English and made do, as many signs are bilingual.
On the road, we would look at our itinerary the night before or the morning of and could quickly pull up maps or attraction info for last minute planning. Fleur used all these apps in English.
2. Train－T-EX 行動購票 & 台鐵e訂通 train apps
Bilingual
If you’re single, you can use the TEXpress app to buy and use your HSR tickets and use your phone as an e-ticket. Just whip out the phone for the scanner to scan when going through the gate.
You can also purchase tickets for multiple people, including children, but will need to collect and pay for paper ticket via convenience stores or for train station up to 30 min before your train departs.
When you make the purchase you don’t have to specify type of ticket. You will be prompted for that info when you collect.
When we were stuck in Hualian, we used the Taiwan Rails app a lot, as it has a menu to show you available tickets. Otherwise we tended to use the apps just to check departure times as it was much easier to purchase tickets last minute at the counter than going to pick up paper tickets.
The apps have a very annoying habit of attempting to put you in the same carriage but not necessarily sequential seats if you don’t buy early enough. We didn’t want to be locked in to specific travel times so we often bought our tickets last minute. One time, we had seats split between the front and back of the carriage and since the kids wanted to sit next to the parents, we essentially gave up a purchased seat and squeezed in with each other.
You often see people swapping tickets on the train due to this issue. So one nice thing about purchasing at the counter is telling the agent how many seats you want together.
Both apps have English setting. Even Fleur used it once to buy her tix.
3. Transportation －台北捷運go, 台北好行, 台中公車, 大台南公車,台灣大車隊
Usually bilingual, except for Taxi app
台北捷運go is indispensable for me while riding the MRT in Taipei. I used it often to pull up the MRT map, find out fare info, and estimated ride time.
We use the fare info to figure out if it was worth it to buy the day pass (yes, if you’re hitting the remote stations at least 5 times). We use the estimated travel time to figure out if it’s worth it to take MRT vs the bus.
Once I got comfortable with the MRT we realized the bus is much cheaper and sometimes a better option when you consider that getting out of an MRT and transferring can take you forever with kids in tow.
For buses, you can probably find a bus app for every major city you visit. They are indispensable in letting you know bus arrival in real time. Some even can do trip planning. There are tons of apps out there when it comes to buses, you can just search in the app store and pick one. I tend to go with the official government version first but sometimes the private versions are better. Fleur and I often downloaded different apps because she wants them in English and I want them in Chinese. And both our versions gave accurate arrival time.
If you use the bus systems at all you will pull up the app multiple times a day. We used Google Maps to give us the bus number but it’s the bus apps that give you better arrival time. Google Maps just doesn’t have as nice an interface. Often when we’re on the bus, we use both at the same time just to make sure we know when to get off.
For Taipei, I used 台北好行, published by the Taipei government. The Taichung government also has an official app, 台中公車, which doesn’t have a lot of good reviews. I used 台中公車即時資訊. These apps aren’t in English. Tainan has a lovely bus app called 大台南公車 which supports Chinese, Japanese, and English.
We didn’t use buses in Taidong, Hualian, or Chiayi. The buses in Taidong and Hualian don’t run often so it’s not really worth it unless you’re taking tourist buses.
For 台灣好行, which is the tourist buses that are available all over the island, you have to go to their website in order to pull down arrival information. There is no app.
台灣大車隊 Taiwan Taxi, or any other taxi company’s app, comes particularly handy when you’re not in Taipei, when taxis aren’t as prevalent. I love using the app when I don’t know the exact address or don’t want to speak Chinese. The app uses GPS to specify your location (usually accurate or 1-2 numbers off) and will tell you how long it takes for the taxi to arrive.
To use these apps, you must tie it to your cell phone. Since the app’s only in Chinese, that can be a detractor.
4. Daily Life Organization – Easy Wallet, 雲端發票
Chinese only
You can use Easy Wallet app to check the balance and history of your 悠遊卡 Easy Card, or as I like to call it, Yoyo Card. In Taipei especially. I use this app almost daily.
I input our 3 Yoyo Cards plus the various backup cards I end up buying because Astroboy loses his quite often. This allows me, when I’m traveling, to know if I need to put more money onto my cards. It’s also come in handy when I’m back in the States and want to know if I still have balances left on the card before I leave for Taiwan.
One thing to note, it takes 1-2 days for vendors to upload card activities. If you really need to know the balance, you can always ask the clerk at any convenience store or at the Taipei MRT machine.
If you use Easy Card to pay for most things, you can even use it to store your eReceipts. But I found the 雲端發票 app more powerful.
Even though this is Chinese only, Fleur was able to input her Easy Card (you can even associate each card with a personal pic!) by guessing what the icons mean.
In Sun Moon Lake, Fleur’s card was locked because she didn’t do a complete swipe when she went on the bus. We were able to look at our transactions and kind of figure out why it had potentially happened and ask the right company to unlock it for us.
In Taiwan, to encourage business owners to give you a receipt, each receipt has a lottery number that is picked on the 25th of odd months. If you like to keep track of your expenses, or participate in the free lottery, or you don’t want to kill so many trees, you can ask for 載具 (zaiju) when you make a purchase. The clerk will then not print out those long ass receipts for you.
The app to store these receipts digitally is 雲端發票, or eCloudLife. Most major vendors (so no night market), such as 7-11, allows you to have digital receipts, instead of printing an e-receipt out with a QR Code and you manually having to scan it into the app.
Make sure to whip out your phone with the bar code and tell the clerk “我要載具” right as they’re ringing you up. They work ultra fast and if you’re too slow, often that receipt is already printed.
I have found, especially during this trip, that it very convenient to keep track of expenses this way. We go to 7-11 way too often and I cannot remember what I spend money on. Browse around the app and you can pull up expenses by day, search for specific ones, or even see what category you spent the most on. (Food for me.). Mollie, the used bookstore, supports it so it’s an easy way for me to keep track of the books I bought and their prices.
This isn’t an app one absolutely need to travel around Taiwan. You can just toss every receipt you get immediately. But if you want to keep track for any reason and hate manual labor, it is the way to go.
You can even link your cell phone and Taiwanese bank account to the app (but the application process is hairy). But you don’t need it in order to store the receipts. The bank account is so you can get your lottery money deposited directly.
Fleur was able to install the app and use it even though it’s in all Chinese. All you need to do is download the app and remember to say “我要載具” when you check out, an easy left to right swipe once you open the app will show the barcode you need to present to cashier.
5. Others － 兒童新樂園, AirVisual, Weather, Currency, Taiwan Mobile
English/Bilingual except for Children’s Amusement Park
Here are some other, none-essential apps that I can’t live without while living in Taiwan.
I love the 兒童新樂園 (Children’s Amusement Park) app, though it’s only in Chinese. We use it extensively to see when the MRT connecting bus will arrive at the 劍潭 MRT station and reserve etickets for the ball pit. The ball pit only allows a certain number of people to enter for each time period and a set number of tickets are set aside for eTicket holders. The app itself also lists remaining parking spaces and waiting time for rides.
Sadly this app isn’t in English. But Fleur has used it once to reserve the ball pit nevertheless.
We use AirVisual to see the pollution level around Taiwan. If the PM2.5 is high enough you may want to stay home or wear a mask when you go out.
The iPhone comes with a weather app. But this time around I installed the Taiwan Central Weather Bureaus app for more accurate and detailed info. You can change it to English interface. Before I left for Taiwan, I added all the cities I will visit. The app has a lot of detailed info, such as advisories, UV level, tide, etc., that you would not be able to find on the iOS Weather app or on English websites.
Lastly, the Currency app came in handy when we went to Japan and Korea last time. I didn’t use it as much this time while in Taiwan. I found it handy when I had to contemplate going to a Taiwanese bank to exchange money.
With Taiwan Mobile’s 台灣大客服, you can easily add minutes or data, or check your usage to your pay as you go plan. Saves you the trouble of going into a store every time. You can also do it from their website. I’m sure every major carrier has their own app.
The best thing is, if you really want to keep your number, you can add a little money online every 6 months while in the States!
Updated 1/2020: How could I have forgotten Line! Different countries have different messaging apps their citizens like to use. For Taiwan, it’s Line. You can sign up with Line at home with your home phone number. Many people and businesses will have Line accounts and it makes it easier to message them.
The best part is you can call the other person directly through Line. This has come in quite handy when I have a wifi connection but no phone number. I just tell people to call my Line acct and it all works.
It even has a taxi function!
Links
I don’t put in iOS or Android links if the download link is easy to find on the vendor’s website, just in case the URLs change.
Train
Transportation
- 台北捷運go Taipei MRT – iOS, Android
- 台北好行 Taipei – English iOS, English Android, Chinese iOS, Chinese Android
- 台中公車 Taichung Bus －iOS, Android
- 台中公車即時資訊 Other Taichung Bus app.
- 大台南公車 Tainan City Bus – iOS, Android
- Taxi – 台灣大車隊 – iOS, Android
Daily Life Organization
Others
Man! We so needed this a few years ago when we visited Taiwan.