Visitor centre first, then split
From Jiantan or Beitou, the park bus. Start at the visitor centre and read the day's trails and buses. No metro reaches Gezhi Road. Flower-season weekends start early; weekday buses are infrequent. Do not estimate the return with city last-train habits. Check Inn Select is on Gezhi Road — only if you sleep there does the return start from the hotel. Otherwise keep a bus down. At the visitor centre, read the bus times, then choose the order of Zhuzihu or Xiaoyoukeng. Stop the day here. Leave the other district for tomorrow. Do not add a stop before the last train, and trust the station board over this guide.
Stay long at Zhuzihu or Xiaoyoukeng
Zhuzihu is seasonal flowers, not a reason to linger every day; if there is no bloom, shorten it. Xiaoyoukeng stays on the boardwalk for the sulfur. Stay long at one of them. The other is a short stop only if the bus is already going that way. Eat on the mountain. Do not go down for a meal and come back up. Give the long stop forty minutes. Get off at the other only if the same bus stops there. Keep this stretch inside two hours. Note the metro exit before you start, leave as soon as you have seen or eaten, and do not queue a second door.
Do not force Qingtiangang or Beitou
If the park notice closes Qingtiangang, or warns about the buffalo, do not enter. Do not step onto a closed meadow to fill the itinerary. The Beitou public bath and hot-spring museum are another day's walking loop — do not soak after the bus down. The Palace and Xinyi do not belong on the same date. A bus day ends on a bus you can still catch down. The bus down matters more than the sight. If you cannot make it, do not enter the Qingtiangang area. Stop once in the middle. When you have eaten or looked, walk on. Do not turn passing shops into a list, and go back by the station you came in on.