Open-jaw Taipei–Kaohsiung flights from Europe: the €42 train saving

Quick summary

Taiwan High Speed Rail’s standard Taipei–Kaohsiung one-way fare is TWD 1,490–1,530, about €42–43, a level in force since 2 February 2026. An open-jaw ticket into Taipei and out of Kaohsiung removes one HSR leg, worth about €42–43, and one 1h54m train journey. ATC’s 14 October fare scan found London–TPE round-trip economy from €408 for 19 November–3 December 2026.

The catch is the airfare: whether the multi-city ticket matches a plain round trip is not guaranteed, so the saving only holds if you price both. This covers the current Europe–Taipei fare baseline, HSR fares and advance discounts, and entry rules for EU passports.

Taiwan High Speed Rail raised its standard one-way Taipei–Kaohsiung fare on 2 February 2026. That change puts the saving from an open-jaw ticket into Taipei and out of Kaohsiung close to the €45 quoted in the previous version of this guide.

The case for open-jaw Taipei/Kaohsiung flights from Europe rests on one small saving: the train ticket you don’t buy. The old guide paired that saving with two hours less backtracking. Both are still roughly right. But the old article got the reason backwards.

The open-jaw saves one train leg, not a round trip.

For travelers from European hubs, the saving is real but modest. Whether it holds depends on how the multi-city airfare compares with a plain round trip on the same dates.

The real roundtrip fare baseline from Europe to Taipei right now

As of 14 October 2026, ATC’s fare scan lists seven London–Taipei round-trip economy date pairs. The cheapest seat costs €408, with one stop each way. It departs on 19 November and returns on 3 December. Three more November pairs fall between €419 and €490.

The scan’s dearest pair runs from 24 December to 3 January and costs €1,091. It has four stops rather than one.

China Airlines and EVA Air both serve Taipei and Kaohsiung from European hubs including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris and Vienna. China Airlines’ own Europe–Taipei fare pages, such as its Frankfurt–Taipei listing, show round-trip economy at €846–1,100+ as of October 2026, compared with the €650–950 quoted in the previous version of this guide.

The scan prices specific date pairs; the airline pages show published listings across the season. On the scan’s figures, the €683 gap between the cheapest and dearest pair is more than fifteen times the HSR fare an open-jaw removes.

Taipei–Kaohsiung HSR: time, fare, and discount timing

Taiwan High Speed Rail’s express services cover Taipei–Kaohsiung in 1 hour 54 minutes. The standard one-way fare is TWD 1,490–1,530, about €42–43.

Advance purchase changes the price. Booking 28 or more days ahead unlocks discounts of 15–22% through EVA Air’s Taiwan High Speed Rail partner service. That brings a standard fare down to roughly €33–37. The saving is about €6–9 per journey.

Taiwan High Speed Rail’s official timetable and fare search shows the exact train and price for a given date. The discount terms are on EVA Air’s HSR partner page.

What the open-jaw actually saves

The skipped train journey also removes the transfers between the HSR stations and the two airports.

The airfare decides whether that saving survives. Travelers often assume the multi-city ticket will match a round trip rather than check the difference.

The break-even is simple. A multi-city fare more than about €42–43 above the round trip makes the open-jaw cost more overall. Below that threshold, it saves money. The train saving is fixed; the airfare difference is not.

The same structure is used elsewhere in Asia, including on Japan’s Tokyo–Osaka corridor and on Vietnam’s Hanoi–Ho Chi Minh City route, where the point is the same: skip the return leg of the ground transport.

Entry and trip-length basics for EU travelers

EU passport holders can enter Taiwan visa-free for tourism for stays of up to 90 days. There is no advance application and no fee, and the allowance covers any normal open-jaw trip.

The routing only pays off if you actually travel the island’s west coast. A north-to-south itinerary runs through Taipei, then Taichung or Tainan, then Kaohsiung, without doubling back to the capital for the flight home.

The entry window leaves trip length to your budget and flight dates, not immigration. Even a long winter trip leaves room to add Tainan and Kenting before flying home from the south.

How the new HSR fare changes the decision

The open-jaw decision turns on a fare difference of a few dozen euros.

Flexible dates. The scan places the four November pairs below the Christmas pair. Moving your trip a fortnight can be worth more than any routing trick, so check Google Flights for the November window first. Less suited: travelers tied to the 24 December–3 January week, where the scan’s cheapest pair had four stops.

Southern itineraries. If the trip ends in Kaohsiung, price the same dates twice before booking: once as a multi-city search on Google Flights with Taipei as the arrival and Kaohsiung as the departure, and once as a plain round trip to Taipei. Book the high-speed rail leg 28 or more days ahead through EVA Air’s HSR partner service. Less suited: travelers whose trip never leaves Taipei and the north, where the open-jaw adds a connection without removing a train.

European departures. The open-jaw can be built from any of those five hubs. Less suited: travelers who book after the November window closes, since the scan’s next cheapest pair, 15 March 2027 at €676, is already 66% above the €408 November fare.

Questions? Answers.