TAIWAN

I have been there many times on biz trips with side vacations and I actually didn't see lot of packaged tours myself for people from the US. Tons of Japanese tours but you don't want to join that - most of them don't speak any English. I usually figure out the place I want to go, and train/bus there myself and then ask the hotel front desk to book a local tour for me. the local tours are pretty good, they take you on a full day drive around with lunch and shopping not expensive. you might be able to book them in Taipei, but it may be just as easy to get to the place first. bus/train/subway are very easy to use, a lot of young people speak English, very safe place you shouldn't have any problem navigating.

Exactly what David said, in spades.

Thanks.
This is what I have done in the past. I will probably end up doing the same. The trains are great there, and it has been many years since last there. I just have not been able to figure out why U. S. tourism is not interested in Taiwan. The National Palace Museum and Taipei 101 should be a great draw for tourist, let alone any of the other great places to visit. Thanks for the input. And I will keep searching too.

the national museum is actually not as big as the one in Beijing, they rotate exhibits and it takes like 60-70 yrs or so to go through all the treasures. it probably will take you about 1/2 day to cover that. I personally don't care too much about 101 - it's fun to check out the earthquake balls and ride the elevator but it's very westernized stuff, and restaurants in/around are expensive. I like to see the old temples and eat street food - you definitely want to see at least one or two night markets, take the train to JiouFen (gold mining place up the mountain. train first, then bus up, once you're up good hikes around the mountain top), DanShiu fisherman's whalf for some good seafood, go to Hualian to see taroko national park, and kenting.