(intro music)
Enjoy the Easter Eggs :)
...Just take note of that if you find yourself travelling through this Airport.
Hey folks, welcome to another video. Today I'm in Taipei, I'm heading back to Tokyo today and when we flying out of Taoyuan
International Airport just outside Taipei. This Airport has two
terminals, terminal 1 & terminal 2 and I think terminal 3 isn't under construction right now.
I'm just at an airport hotel actually, not the Airport Hotel, but at the City Gates
Hotel, it's just - two stops away. Outside you can see
the airport just behind me over there. So it's really, really close
And today I'm going to be flying with EVA Air and they file at Terminal two. It's six o clock. in the morning,
I just had a coffee... so let's go ahead and
Check out Taoyuan Airport - terminal 2!
(Start instrumental)
TPE is located 40 kilometers west Taipei. Opened in 1979, it handles most of the international flights to Taipei.
It's the hub for EVA Air and Chinese Airlines.
Songshan was the initial airport serving Taipei and is located very conveniently in the middle of the city.
But like many urban airports, they are limited by their size and so a new airport was constructed to meet growing demand.
The MRT is a convenient way to get to and from the airport.
The cost is a very reasonable NT$160 from Taipei Main Station to the airport.
The airport currently has two terminals. terminal 3 was scheduled to be open in 2020,
however, the date has been pushed back and is now set to open in 2023.
The initial portion of terminal 2 was opened in 2000 and the terminal was fully completed in 2005.
Now, let's meet up with myself on the floor of terminal 2!
So this is a layout of the departures concourse. There's about 20
check-in columns there for if you have to check your bags in or something.
We see EVA Air down at number 14 over there and United as is behind me at number number 9.
and then everything kind of funnels through to this is where you go for the security and
so everything kind of funnels right to the middle...It's nice very open and spacious
departures area which is always good to see with all this nice natural light.
The third floor is the departures. And then right now I'm actually on the fourth floor
which if you want to get a Starbucks or something like that.
there's the coffee and some restaurants, a burger shop on this fourth floor which is just one step up and overlooks the
entire concourse.
On the bottom level - there's also a
Family Mart convenience store.
One thing to point out is that the Starbucks behind me is the only one that's in the terminal. I asked if there's one after
Security they said no.
So I guess if you're if you're a coffee lover and you want to coffee for your flight and
want to be Starbucks you have to do it before you jump through security.
So just take note of that if you find yourself traveling through the airport.
Easter Egg 1: Eva's Hello Kitty plane flies to Chicago, Singapore, Seoul, HK, Sapporo, Bali to name a few!
Here by number 16 is the Hello Kitty Eva check - in area. :)
Easter Egg 2: Visit evakitty.com (after watching the video) for info on Eva's Hello Kitty products, flights & schedules.
So I just got through security and immigration and which is pretty straightforward. We are at gate C1 today ( or so I thought -_- )
So now it's time to see what's on this side of the terminal!
Terminal 2 is kind of set like the letter H
There are 10 gates on either side of the centre console area we are of course at (our gate)
the farthest point... that's normally how it goes.
So this is what one of the corridors looks like... Gucci of course!
All the way down there so it looks pretty long for
a corridor that has 10 gates.
So I just made it to the end of the corridor and there's nothing too much over here. It's pretty quiet.
One thing I did notice though throughout this corridor is this isn't too many of those seats with the USB ports or outlets. So I
see some throughout the corridor on the sides but
there's nothing really where you can sit down and plug-in it and relax for a bit, which is something that is missing
and usually expected in an airport.
So one thing I just found out about terminal 2 is actually it's directly connected to terminal 1.
So if you have time you can jump over into terminal 1 for a bit and check that out.
You need to take a train between the two stations or you can walk through the corridors
Like I am now.
Easter Egg 3: This was my shortest time in a terminal to film an episode. I was only here for 2 hours.
The terminal has a wide variety of shopping. More than just duty-free boutiques,
there's also video games and electronic shops as well as athletic apparel stores
and of course Hello Kitty merchants! A perfect place to pick up all your Hello Kitty essentials.
I really did enjoy the browsing variety at this airport.
As per food, a couple of noodle shots can be found throughout the terminal along with some coffee and beer vendors
One thing I always enjoy seeing is a water dispenser that has a hot water option -great for cup noodles, teas, soups or coffee.
What I didn't notice during my time in the airport was that right after the passport control
there's a second floor which houses the food court and airport lounges and I walked past it completely clueless.
To be fair though, after the passport control
it's a loud, congested area where travellers are more focused on orientating themselves and finding their flight on the large overheads as I was.
I think that the second floor can be easily missed as it's not part of the intuitive path from security to the gate
If you have visited the second floor, please leave a comment and let us know the highlights :)
When walking through the terminal you'll pass by many of these themed lounges.
Initially, I thought they were the gates themselves. But as it turns out, the gates are below these lounges down a flight of stairs.
The gates below are pretty bare and not an ideal place to be before your flight.
With the gates below it does create a noticeably quieter and more enjoyable
atmosphere in the terminal and you don't have to worry about passing through long boarding queues with your carry-on.
However, it does add another flight of stairs to contend with.
Overall TPE is a nice airport. It's very spacious and efficient.
It certainly doesn't feel like an airport that handles 40-plus million passengers a year.
And with that I'll end it there. Thanks for watching. Let us know what you thought about Taiwan International Airport.
Don't forget to give it a thumbs up and to subscribe and I'll see you guys around next time! Bye Bye!
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