Treasure Hill Artist Village (寶藏巖國際藝術村)

The experience

A hillside settlement above the Xindian River behind the Qing-era Treasure Hill Guanyin temple, built up informally after 1968 by veterans and migrants on land the military had held, and slated for demolition until it was preserved as a listed cluster of buildings. Since 2010 it has run as an international artist village — studios, small galleries, a screening space and a hostel for resident artists — threaded by staircases and alleys barely a metre wide.

A whole village of alley staircases and open studios that Taipei very nearly bulldozed.

What a membership adds.

Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.