I would like to travel to Taiwan in late September-late October. June to October seems to be the typhoon season. I plan to stay around Taipei City and will mostly be a food tourist—so no windsurfing or climbing mountains.
Is the typhoon season very bad during this time? Would October be a lot better in terms of less rain and wind, or is late September still OK?
Typhoons are the Pacific equivalent of hurricanes, great big storms that only hit occasionally, almost always in the August-October typhoon season, and Taiwan gets an average of 3-4 per year. If a typhoon hits squarely where you happen to be staying, you can expect to be washed out for a couple of days, possibly even briefly stranded if you're out in the countryside if there are landslides that take out roads and railways.
However, between the typhoons (which is 95% of the time), you'll be absolutely fine, with clear fall skies and the occasional random sprinkle. Here's a rainfall chart:
As you can see, outside the sparsely populated east coast (=Hualien), it rains a lot more in the summer than it does in either of Sep or Oct.
In all probability you'll be fine. Unless you are getting a direct hit from the eye of the typhoon, you'll only experience a day or two of heavy rain and some wind. If your in a big city and shopping/dinning, you wont notice much. If you do find yourself on course for a hit, Taiwan is big enough that you could move to another city and keep out of the way. Just keep an eye on the weather forecasts.
