Best time to visit Kaohsiung
Taiwan · East Asia
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Kaohsiung
Tap a month for its page
- JanJKaohsiung in January: sweet spot
- FebFKaohsiung in February: sweet spot
- MarMKaohsiung in March: sweet spot
- AprAKaohsiung in April: sweet spot
- MayMKaohsiung in May: ok
- JunJKaohsiung in June: avoid
- JulJKaohsiung in July: avoid
- AugAKaohsiung in August: avoid
- SepSKaohsiung in September: ok
- OctOKaohsiung in October: ok, busy
- NovNKaohsiung in November: good, busy
- DecDKaohsiung in December: good, busy
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Dry season: Oct–Apr, 6 or fewer rainy days a month.
Plan this trip
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Things to do
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Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
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Things to do in Kaohsiung
- Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum and Memorial Building One of Taiwan's largest and most impressive Buddhist monasteries, founded in 1967.
- Lotus Lake Take a walk or bike around Lotus Lake.
- Dream Mall A large mall that is a bit out of the way, but worth it to visit the Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel on the roof.
- Shoushan Mountain in Taiwan
- Pier 2 Art Center This former warehouse district has been converted into a series of contemporary art galleries.
- Chihou Fort Chihou Fort is a battery which was designed by an English engineer.
- Kaohsiung Mosque The 2nd mosque to be built in Taiwan.
Tours and tickets in Kaohsiung
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Kaohsiung), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 23° | 2d | 71% | 8.9h | sweet spot | 23C max, 2 rainy days |
| Feb | 24° | 2d | 71% | 9.6h | sweet spot | 24C max, 2 rainy days |
| Mar | 26° | 2d | 72% | 10.3h | sweet spot | 26C max, 2 rainy days |
| Apr | 28° | 3d | 74% | 10.7h | sweet spot | 28C max, 3 rainy days |
| May | 30° | 8d | 79% | 10.1h | ok | 30C max, 8 rainy days |
| Jun | 31° | 11d | 83% | 9.9h | avoid | 31C max, 11 rainy days |
| Jul | 31° | 13d | 83% | 9.9h | avoid | 31C max, 13 rainy days |
| Aug | 30° | 17d | 85% | 8.8h | avoid | monsoon: 17 rainy days, 539mm |
| Sep | 31° | 8d | 82% | 10.3h | ok | 31C max, 8 rainy days |
| Oct | 29° | 5d | 80% | 9.8h | okbusy | holidays: TW: National Day (observed); TW: Taiwan Restoration and… |
| Nov | 27° | 3d | 78% | 9.4h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
| Dec | 25° | 2d | 71% | 8.6h | goodbusy | holidays: GB: Christmas Day; GB: New Year's Day |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at the centre (Love River), 7 km from the airport (KHH): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Kaohsiung's December days now average 24.8°C, 2.6°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 10 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | 21.6° | 22.9° | 25.3° | 27.7° | 28.9° | 29.4° | 30.4° | 29.7° | 29.3° | 28.3° | 25.6° | 22.2° |
| 2017–26 | 23.4° | 24.4° | 26.2° | 28.3° | 30.0° | 30.6° | 31.1° | 30.2° | 30.5° | 29.2° | 27.4° | 24.8° |
| Change | +1.7° | +1.5° | +1.0° | +0.6° | +1.1° | +1.2° | +0.7° | +0.5° | +1.2° | +0.9° | +1.7° | +2.6° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
How far Kaohsiung is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Taipei
- from Hong Kong
- from Manila
- from Seoul
- from Ho Chi Minh City
- from Bangkok
- from Tokyo
- from Kuala Lumpur
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Kaohsiung, flying or not.
Before you go
Type A and B plugs at 110 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the New taiwan dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise normal security precautions. US State Department: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions. Everything for Taiwan: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Carry cash: many restaurants and most small shops take no cards, and some convenience stores refuse foreign cards. EasyCard also pays in convenience stores; local QR wallets mostly need residency.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Not expected, and taxi drivers return exact change; full-service restaurants usually add a 10% service charge.
Getting around Kaohsiung
- Apps — Rides: 55688 Taiwan Taxi, Bolt, LINE GO, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: LINE.
As the sidewalks double as scooter parking areas, caution and awareness are a must when walking through unfamiliar areas off of main streets. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Kaohsiung, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — police 110 · ambulance and fire 119.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 3 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (15)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/taiwan/getting-help
- english.metro.taipei/News_Content.aspx?n=034BD8E0AB821D47&s=19CEC09373C12170&sms=5B794C46F3CDE718
- english.metro.taipei/cp.aspx?n=BECC2E7AC426F659&s=74E62C405BBE3069
- taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2026/06/30/2003860007
- uber.com/global/en/cities/taipei
- bolt.eu/en/cities/taipei
- apps.apple.com/us/app/55688-taiwan-taxi/id579255069
- zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_GO
- taipeitourism.org/taipei-taxi-guide
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Taiwan
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Taipei
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- nipl.com/uploads/NPCI_International_Press_Release_LIQUID_GROUP_TO_POWER_UPI_QR_ACCEPTANCE_IN_10_ASIAN_MARKETS_bcb05ffeee.pdf
Kaohsiung in pictures
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CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
i
CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Kaohsiung is like
Kaohsiung (高雄; Ko-hiông in Taiwanese, Gāoxióng in Mandarin), with 2.73 million inhabitants in October 2023, is the third most populated city in Taiwan after New Taipei and Taichung. It is located in the south of the island on the west coast. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- The Cijin District (旗津; Qijin) is a slender island in front of Kaohsiung which serves as a natural breakwater for the harbor. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Pier Art Center (駁二藝術特區), between Hamasen Metro Station and Yanchengpu Metro Station. This former warehouse district has been converted into a series of contemporary art galleries. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Kaohsiung International Airport (KHH IATA) (About 20 min to the south of the city center.) International flights from Asia arrive daily. More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- Kaohsiung has a reputation among the Taiwanese for being crime-ridden, but its crime rate is still much lower than any Western city of comparable size, so tourists need not be too worried. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Kaohsiung, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Kaohsiung
Also in Taiwan
- Kinmen best Feb, Oct, Nov
- Taichung best Jan, Feb, Nov
- Tainan best Feb, Mar, Apr
- Taipei best Apr, Oct, Nov
Nearby
Kind of place
Kaohsiung is in Taiwan, East Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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