Let’s face it: most kids can only do so much sightseeing.
If you’re visiting Taipei with kids, you may want to include some fun activities just for them. Fortunately, DIY activities are super popular in Taipei and there are tons to choose from.
Below I’ll introduce some of the best DIY activities my kids have enjoyed in Taipei, including a few that can be done as day trips.
You may also be interested in reading my kids’ favorite places in Taiwan or my guides to Leofoo Village theme park, cat cafés, meerkat cafés, and capybara cafes in Taipei!
The Best DIY Activities in Taipei
The following activities are in Taipei city – see my Taipei city guide for planning your visit.
Pineapple Cake Making
Probably our single favorite DIY activity experience in Taipei was pineapple cake making (read our full experience of this class here). We booked the activity here on Klook (it’s also here on KKday). There’s a morning and afternoon option, each taking about 2 hours.
This activity takes place at Kuo Yuan Ye Museum of Cake & Pastry (located here, see official site). Kuo Yuan Ye (郭元益) is one of the most famous pineapple cake bakeries in Taipei.
It is in Shilin district, not far from Shilin Night Market (which has the best section of children’s games of any night market in Taipei) and Modern Toilet Shilin branch.
In this activity, my kids got to learn all the steps to making the most famous of all Taiwanese snacks. They really enjoyed the whole process.
The instructors were able to speak in Mandarin, English, Korean, and Japanese.
While the cakes were baking, we got a small tour of some cultural displays, then some free time to try on traditional Taiwanese hanfu and qipaos. My daughter especially loved this! Here’s my list of other places you can try on traditional clothing in Taiwan.
At the end, each kid got their own box of pineapple cakes to take home. They were surprisingly delicious!
Traditional Paper Making
Another DIY activity that my kids really enjoyed was making traditional paper. Again we booked this on Klook. There are two times slots per day on weekdays and three on weekends.
This activity takes place at Suhuo Paper Memorial Museum (here, see official site). This four-story museum commemorates Chen Su Huo, who started a paper factory in Puli in Central Taiwan’s Nantou county, but died in an airplane hijacking incident in China.
For this activity, the first half included watching a paper making demonstration on the first floor. Since this activity is aimed more at locals, the demonstration was all in Mandarin.
One cool thing is that we could look down on it from the second floor, giving is a birds-eye view of the equipment.
Next, everyone proceeded to the rooftop, where we got to actually make the paper. Even though it was all in Mandarin (which my kids can understand), the instructor gave a very clear demonstration of the steps, so don’t worry if you can’t understand Chinese.
Again my kids really enjoyed this one, since it involved getting their hands wet and patting (or smacking, as my kids said) the paper to dry it.
At the end, we had to wait some time for the paper to dry, which gave us a chance to explore the museum. The museum is fairly small but does have a few hands-on exhibits about different materials and ways to make paper.
The end product, the paper my kids got to take home, made for a cool souvenir from Taiwan!
Slime Making
If your kids are into slime (my daughter is crazy about it), then you can try the slime making activity at Unique Slime Lab (here).
I only have to warn you that it is very expensive for what it is – we paid TWD 1200 (!!) for just my daughter and it lasted for less than one hour. But this is no major surprise given the location in a high-end mall near Taipei 101.
This experience takes place at a kiosk inside this huge toy store (see store site for all their products) in Shinkong Mitsukoshi department store (building A8, 5F).
The same toy store also has a small indoor playground for toddlers and a Totoro store called Donguri Republic (one floor below the toy store). Also note that the Pokemon center is in building A11 nearby.
You don’t need to book this one. We just showed up and did it on the spot.
My daughter got to dress up in some cute scientist clothing. Then she got to choose the slime type, color, and sparkles to add to it.
The lady showed her how to make a huge bubble by slapping it on the table, which was the best part.
She got to take the slime home after, and it was very good quality (as far as slime goes…) She was supposed to keep it refrigerated to make it last longer.
Cell Phone Case Decorating
If your modern child cares more about their cell phone than paper or slime, you can let them design their own cell phone case!
This activity is again focused on local kids – I can thank my wife for finding it and taking my kids to this one.
The activity is run by Uni (here, see on Instagram), which is conveniently located in Ximending pedestrian shopping area. You don’t need to book this one either – just walk in and the staff will assist you, though it can get busy at times.
Besides the cell phone case (TWD 799), kids can also do a night light (999), compact mirror (299), hairbrush (399), or several other options.
Inside, my kids got to select from many shelves of little accessories, decorations, and colored glues. They were free to design as they pleased, but staff was on hand to help with the glue or any other assistance needed.
My kids were very proud of their cell phone case after. Note that it takes a few days to fully dry, so be careful with it until then.
Wooderful Life
Our favorite indoor playcenter in Taipei, Wooderful Life, also has a DIY craft included. The excellent playcenter is only at the Xindian location of Wooderful Life (here), which does take a little time to reach from the city center. The one at Huashan Creative Park no longer has a playcenter.
Wooderful Life is a wood-themed shop selling all kinds of cute decorations and moving models made of wood.
The playcenter is awesome – it has all kinds of rides, games, puzzles, and more. My kids (age 8 and 10 at the time) spent hours in there and could have stayed longer.
Entrance to Wooderful Life includes a DIY activity, but it’s quite a small one. My kids got to make a small craft with wood components, but they finished it in less than 15 minutes. I think this is aimed more at toddlers.
Booking a spot to enter Wooderful Life is recommended on weekends, when the place gets packed with locals. They only let a certain number of people in per hour.
But the only way to book is here on their mostly Mandarin site, which requires signing up with a local phone number and paying with credit card.
When we went, I did book it on the website, but when we arrived (on a weekday!), we found the place was almost totally empty. So if you go on a weekday, I would say it’s fine to just show up.
There are other Wooderful Life locations across Taiwan, but not all have playcenters inside. The Kaohsiung location does.
There’s even a Wooderful Life themed gate at Taoyuan International Airport (departure gate C1 in Terminal 2), just past the Hello Kitty Gate.
DIY Activities on Day Trips from Taipei
The following DIY activities can be included on day trips from Taipei.
Cooking and Vegetable Picking
My kids and I had a great day visiting Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm in Yilan county. We booked this activity here on Klook, making sure to select the “cooking class + dessert” option. It’s also available here on KKday.
Zhang Mei Ama’s farm is basically a petting zoo with a variety of exotic animals, including Valais blacknose sheep, capybaras, alpacas, grass mud horses, lowland pacas, giant tortoises, sloths, and parrots. It is one of the most popular of many such farms in Taiwan.
With the DIY packaged, besides seeing and feeding all these cute animals, we got three more things. First, we got to do a cooking class, in which my kids made sweet potato balls. Then we went to see the animals while they cooked the balls for us.
After that, we came back to the DIY room, ate the balls we’d made, and enjoyed another free snack, which we got to choose from a menu (this is included in the DIY package).
At the end, we got to do a vegetable harvesting experience. For this, they took us outside and guided us to put on farmer’s boots and hats.
Then they told us to walk down the street, turn left, around the corner, and proceed to a field directly behind the animal center.
At the field, there was a farmer waiting at a truck with some shears. He instructed us how to pick some peppers in the field. We got to take home a whole bag of them – my kids’ Taiwanese a-gong (grandpa) was very happy with the gift!
According to the staff on site, which food you cook and which plant you harvest varies throughout the year.
To get to the farm, take a train or bus from Taipei Main Station to Luodong (about 90 minutes). From there, take a taxi or Uber to the farm.
Scallion Picking and Cake Making
Scallions (green onions) are a specialty of Yilan county. You can see fields of them everywhere and taste green onion cakes at Luodong night market or street vendors everywhere.
Sanxing township (三星鄉), where Zhang Mei Ama’s farm is located, is especially famous for its green onions and green onion cakes.
There are several farms in Sanxing where kids can harvest green onions and then learn how to make green onion cakes with them.
This popular one (here) is about 30 minutes’ walking distance from Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm. Here’s another one (here), but it’s a little further away.
If you’re driving to Taipingshan that day, you could potentially visit Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm or one of these scallion farms on the way back to Yilan, as you’ll be driving right past them. Just start your day very early so you have enough time!
Noodle Pulling Experience
For this activity, kids get to try pulling (making) noodles by hand at a traditional noodle shop in the hills outside Taipei. It can be booked here on Klook or here on KKday.
There’s also the option to add “running water noodles” – this is a dining experience where the noodles float to your table inside a bamboo tube of water. As they pass by, kids can use their chopsticks to catch the noodles and eat them.
Kids can also try scallion pancake making here instead of noodle making.
We haven’t personally tried these activities here, but we did visit Hsu’s Noodle once with our kids just to see the picturesque racks of noodles hanging in the courtyard (see my photo above).
The only challenge to Hsu’s Noodle is getting there. It’s not possible to reach by bus. You can do an organized day trip like this or book a private driver and make your own schedule.
Other DIY Experiences We Haven’t Tried
We haven’t tried every DIY experience in Taipei – far from it! Here some others on our radar which we will hopefully try soon, before my kids are too old for them.
- Glass Blowing: Here on the 2F of Eslite Department Store in Songshan Cultural & Creative Park. You’ll need to come back to pick it up the next day. See their Facebook page.
- Carpet Making: Here across from Xinsheng Park (which also has an excellent playground). This one takes 3-4 hours and is better for older kids or teens. See their official site and book via Instagram DM.
- Soap Making: This shop in Dadaocheng area of Taipei has classes for soap making, candle making, succulents, and more. See their official site.
- Silver Ring or Bracelet Making: See here, with locations in New Taipei City (Banqiao train station), Hsinchu, and Tainan
- National Center for Traditional Arts: This traditional art center in Yilan county has all kinds of DIY activities (book them here), including indigo dying, brown sugar cake making, and more. You can even stay overnight in the kid-friendly hotel next door, called The Moment (see on Booking / Agoda).
- Tofu Making: At this dessert shop in Sanxia district, which can be done as a day trip from Taipei. Read about it here or see this list of tours that include it and other DIY experiences in Sanxia.
- Pottery Making: There are small shops with DIY pottery sessions for kids on Yingge Ceramics Street, which is not far from Sanxia. Read bout them in my Yingge guide.