Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant suggestions and etiquette for foreign traveller!!
Review: I've looked for a book like this for ages, and finally found it! I'm a Taiwanese living abroad and I wanted to read more before I visit my country, I recognize a lot and it also features the things I didn't know, but was really interested in. I highly recommend it if you're going to Taiwan!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Guide!
Review: I've read and used many Lonely Planet Guides and this one ranks as one of the best. My mother happens to be Taiwanese and I've been to Taiwan twice. The book's cultural insights are very true and very helpful. Definitely recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Has Robert Storey ever been to Taiwan?
Review: It's a serious question. The book is so filled with incorrect information and so lacking in any worthwhile information that I honestly believe Robert Storey is still fixing slot machines in Nevada and has never really gone to Taiwan. He wasn't able to save up the money for his trip and this is his novel, set in Taiwan.I left my copy in Taiwan -- where I've lived twice, for a total of more than two and half years -- so I can't remember it in great detail. But with 400 plus pages, he could have told us something more than a few major spots. He would say something is open to the public and I'd go there and find it wasn't and upon asking someone who works there (in Chinese) they would tell me, "No, that's never been open." Worse than that, he misses A LOT of what there is to see and do in Taiwan, or at least gives you almost no information about it. If you want to know about the major museums in Taipei, this is a fine waste of your money. But you can get that information form the tourism office or your hotel or a friend or business associate. One thing I can remember specifically is to stay away from Mrs. Chen's hostel (hostile?) in Kaohsiung. You don't want to stay there. As another reviewer said, there are other guides available once you get to Taiwan. Go to Caves Bookstore. It's really unfortunate that this is the only guidebook (Insight Guides are beautiful, but not giudebooks per se) on Taiwan availabe in the US. Taiwan is a country with plenty to see and do. Their tourism office brochures are better than Lonely Planet.
Rating: 
Summary: A step up...from some others
Review: Lonely Planet does a fairly good job from a western perspective when it discusses pop music artists of Taiwan. As far as discussing people, it fails to acknowledge the dual ancestry of the Taiwanese Hoklo (Hokkien) and Hakka peoples of Taiwan. The author probably has been sold on the myth taught by the Nationalist Chinese and KMT that the Taiwanese are just ethnic "Chinese" from Fujian and Guangdong. It fails to discuss that it was predominantly Hoklo and Hakka men from Fujian and Guangdong who intermarried with the current lowland Taiwanese aboriginal women at the time. It also does not discuss the many lowland Taiwanese aboriginal households who were forcefully assimilated into the Hoklo culture...and to adapt chinese surnames such as Chen, Tsai, Huang, etc. (the aboriginal tribes discussed are usually the highland and mountain tribes that survived but are small in number) No one would be able to tell because the current Taiwanese population speaks predominantly both Mandarin and Taiwanese, although Hakka too is making a comeback. Speaking of this...Mandarin and Taiwanese pronunciations should be BOTH listed in this guidebook as BOTH languages are widespread in Taiwan. Visitors to night markets and who take taxi cabs will probably want to know some Taiwanese. Television programming is in Mandarin, Taiwanese (Hoklo), and Hakka.
Rating:
Summary: best guide by default only
Review: LP Taiwan is the best guidebook available for Taiwan but this reflects the lack of books published about Taiwan rather than this guide being particularly brilliant. If you don't read or speak Chinese then this book is essential for travelling in Taiwan. It includes place names in Chinese characters. This is important as most people in Taiwan cannot read Chinese in romanised form. However, if you know Chinese you can quite easily get around without it. One annoying thing about the book is that the author is often critical of places because they lack "Western style" amenities or food. Surely the reason for travelling is to experience another culture. If you want to eat Western food stay in the West!!! Taiwan offers an extraordinary array of Chinese and Taiwanese food to satisfy anyone. Taiwan is a wonderful place and off the radar of many travellers (as a result of the great shadow cast by its belligerent and much larger neighbour). If you can see through the crowded cities and pollution you will discover some amazingly friendly people who cannot do enough to help you. Some of the coastal and mountain scenery is the equal of anywhere in the world.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Taiwan Travel Guide - How boo how?
Review: Spent an afternoon browsing travel guides to Taiwan and found this to be the most thorough. Like all Lonely Planet guides, it does a good job covering the history and culture of the country. The maps and descriptions of the areas around Taipei were pretty thorough, but the map and descriptions of Ken Ting (Southern Tip) seemed to bear no relation to reality. How hard is it to find a beach on a peninsula of an island nation? Almost impossible if you're using the Lonely Planet guide! Still, the guide makes up for its shortcomings with the shear volume of facts and activities it offers. I found things to do in Taipei that even the local ex-pats didn't know about. Highly Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Lacks even the most essential practical information
Review: Taiwan being one of the few Asian countries I have not yet been to, I bought this book for advance planning.
It has already failed even before leaving home!
When trying to estimate travel costs by looking for long-distance bus fares, I could hardly believe they were not given! In the "Getting There & Away" section after each town/destination, it was merely mentioned that buses do run there (surprise, surprise!), but no information on how long they take and how much they cost.
That is exactly the kind of practical information people usually buy Lonely Planet guides for, and I don't think I have ever seen another LP guide that didn't have them...
The 2 stars were given as it does give information about major sights, but given how poorly-researched the practical information is, I would be surprised if the rest was accurate.
This may just be the worst LP guide of all.
Rating:
Summary: Very unbalanced
Review: The LP guide to Taiwan is great if you want to hit tourist traps. However, those choosing a more flexible approach to travel may be disappointed. This particular guide is particularly short on some vital information that makes it almost worthless as a reference for trip planning. For example: Mr. Storey lists exactly two bus stops in the Taroko Gorge area, leading one to believe that you can only use public bus transport two these places only. He doesn't mention that the bus also makes intermittent stops along the way, even to trails he listed in the guide. According to the locals, these stops were established years ago, and this information would have been easily obtainable by the author. The guide is almost worthless when it comes to Kinmen, which has far more interesting sights and places then those listed. Having just visited Kinmen this week, a little exploration revealed all sorts of bike trails one could follow to some spectacular vistas. Again, this is all public knowledge - why wasn't this included? On the other hand, Mr. Storey's information on expat hangouts has proven pretty accurate so far, and when he does list hiking trails, he has been correct in the four locations I've visted. His hotel information has also proven quite invaluable. It is hoped that the author will spend more time and effort in investigating things a little more off the beaten track and provide us with some better information to work with.
Rating:
Summary: Very unbalanced
Review: The LP guide to Taiwan is great if you want to hit tourist traps. However, those choosing a more flexible approach to travel may be disappointed. This particular guide is particularly short on some vital information that makes it almost worthless as a reference for trip planning. For example: Mr. Storey lists exactly two bus stops in the Taroko Gorge area, leading one to believe that you can only use public bus transport two these places only. He doesn't mention that the bus also makes intermittent stops along the way, even to trails he listed in the guide. According to the locals, these stops were established years ago, and this information would have been easily obtainable by the author. The guide is almost worthless when it comes to Kinmen, which has far more interesting sights and places then those listed. Having just visited Kinmen this week, a little exploration revealed all sorts of bike trails one could follow to some spectacular vistas. Again, this is all public knowledge - why wasn't this included? On the other hand, Mr. Storey's information on expat hangouts has proven pretty accurate so far, and when he does list hiking trails, he has been correct in the four locations I've visted. His hotel information has also proven quite invaluable. It is hoped that the author will spend more time and effort in investigating things a little more off the beaten track and provide us with some better information to work with.
Rating:
Summary: read the book, but don't pack it for the trip.
Review: this text offers some informative insights for a greater understanding of formosa, taiwan r.o.c.. i recommend reading this book to become acquinted with urban and rural customs. read the book but don't pack it for the trip - if you follow this book (or any other) you'll miss the wonders of detail, suprise, and enlightment. i suggest flying to the international airport in kaohsiung, spending a few days, take a slow train north along the eastern coast and visit taipei. taichung city (west coast, central) is much more comfortable, and less foreigners are found.
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