New Taipei wraps around the capital with cliff trails, tunnel bikeways and Atayal food streets that ask almost nothing of your wallet. Free coastal paths, NT$70 railway lunchboxes and open-air riverside hot springs make three days here cost less than one in Taipei.
A free 3.5 km cliff-top trail above Ruifang's fishing harbour, looping past a white lighthouse and wind-eroded sandstone platforms. There is no gate and no ticket, open dawn to dusk. Bus 856 from Ruifang Station costs NT$30 to the trailhead.
Fulong's paper-boxed railway lunches have been sold at the station lane since the 1960s — braised pork belly, a soy egg and pickled greens over rice for NT$70. Two rival shops face each other on Fulong Street, open 09:00 to 19:00.
A decommissioned 1924 rail tunnel running 2.17 km through the headland to Shicheng, cool at 20°C inside and completely free to walk. Open 08:30 to 17:00 daily, with a projected steam-train animation on the far wall halfway through.
Striped sandstone weathered into candy-swirl ridges, sitting right at the Provincial Highway 2 roadside between Ruifang and Bitou. No fence, no ticket, no closing time — late light makes the ochre and grey banding strongest.
A 200 m row of restored red-brick Baroque shophouses from the 1910s, free to wander any day of the week. The local horn-shaped croissant sells for about NT$35 at the bakeries along Minquan Street, best eaten warm from the tray.
A free-admission museum beside the Sanxia River, open Tuesday to Sunday 09:00 to 17:00. Three floors cover Hakka migration routes, tea farming tools and indigo blue-dye textiles, with a courtyard used for weekend folk-song sessions.
Yingge Ceramics Museum charges NT$80 and opens 09:30 to 17:00, free for New Taipei residents. The adjoining Ceramics Old Street costs nothing to browse — factory-seconds bowls start near NT$50 and short wheel-throwing sessions from NT$250.
Yonghe's night market runs nightly from about 17:00 along Yonghe Road Section 1, three minutes on foot from Dingxi MRT. Stinky tofu runs NT$50, oyster vermicelli NT$45 and a sausage-in-rice-bun NT$60 — dinner well under NT$150.
An 80 m waterfall dropping straight off the ridge opposite a free riverside viewing deck, reached on foot in about 25 minutes along the old logging track from Wulai Old Street. The parallel trolley costs NT$50 each way if legs are tired.
An Atayal food street above the Nanshi River: bamboo-tube sticky rice around NT$50, grilled mountain boar sausage NT$40 and millet mochi rolled in peanut powder NT$30. Stalls open roughly 09:00 to 19:00, busiest on Sundays.
Below Lansheng Bridge, locals bank river stones into shallow pools where clear carbonate spring water meets the cold Nanshi River. Access is down a concrete ramp from the road, use is free and unsupervised, and swimwear is expected.
A 1937 suspension bridge crossing the green Bitan gorge, two minutes from Xindian MRT terminus, free to cross and lit after dark. Riverside benches and buskers fill the west bank, and pedal boats rent for about NT$100 an hour.