Keelung and Taipei are bustling towns. Lots of good street food. Read Less

The ports of call were both very nice and the weather was great. We felt that the time allowed in Busan, South Korea was a bit short as we disembarked at 4:30pm compared to our time in Fukuoka was not until 6:30pm. Read Less

This was the most interesting stop easy to walk from boat into Kowloon walk up to the ghost museum and temple overlooking the port. Visit the market especially the food part seems like everyone of the locals eats here. Beautiful bakers and good coffee to be had. The people were very friendly Read Less

We did a private tour visiting Juifen, Yehuli Geo Park, Chiang Kai Shek memorial and the 101 building. Read Less

We have friends who met us and showed us the sights which we hadn't seen in many years. Read Less

We went to the lanterns festival, it was well worth going Read Less

Also did our own thing, by taxi. Read Less

Be prepared if you good in hot springs take old clothes as you smell of sulphur and it seeps into your clothes. Couldn’t get rid of the smell on clothes! Read Less

Fast and easy embarkation and Debarkation. Park4Cruise was cheap, friendly, and convenient. Read Less

The ship actually docks in Keelung, Taiwan, which is 45 minutes by train from Taipei. Even on (our) Sunday, the trains were often as frequent as 4 per hour, and cheap. We got small paper tickets that were to be inserted into the turnstiles (entry and also exit) and were returned to you both times. We docked at 7:00 AM; The immigration officers had rubber-stamped color copies of our (held by the ship) passports, which we carried off the ship. Our ship had the spot farthest from the Keelung rail station, about 1/4 mile around the rectangular port basin. The first station-like building you come to is the bus station, which has a long passage to the almost new South Rail station. (Returning to the ship, you may prefer to exit the train station platform at the "-> Bus Station" end.) Getting off at the Main Taipei Train Station (there are two other downtown stops), we bought one-day Metro passes. Our main interest was the Jianguo Holiday (i.e. weekend) Flower Market, under the elevated highway one block from the Daan Park (R06) Metro station. It was huge, about 500 meters long, with two aisles. We were particularly interested in their abundant and incrediby cheap orchids, even though they can't be imported individually by Americans. While scoping out the adjacent Jade Market (also very large, but hard to judge quality), we found a rather Western competitor of Starbucks (Lu.Coffee, ) where we had coffee and fresh panini for lunch. More daring diners can get NT$80 hot noodles with the additions of your choice, right inside the Flower Market. We later had tea at the lavish, theatrical Grand Hotel, because I stayed there on business in 1990. It's surrounded by a large, steeply forested park, with paved stairways and hiking, with a few shrines (and squatter's shacks.) The two subway stops nearest to the hotel (Red line) go to the main train station without needing to change. Read Less

time to look around stopping at important sites Read Less

Tour guide was horrible, an 80 year old man who spewed his political views and never waited for everyone to get off the bus at each left many of us on our own, getting lost. Several people were so frustrated with him they opted to take taxis back to pier. Read Less

Took the train $4 return, the station a few minutes walk from the ship, it was very clean, plenty of vacant seats. Hop on bus at the Taipei station exit $30, English commentary heafphones, about an hour. The tourist sights were crowded as another large cruise ship was in port. Read Less

Again great port with the option to go to Taipei but because Star does pre clear the ship 3500 plus people through immigration and several hours lost. A cash damages of 800 HK dollars if you did not come back at least a hour before sailing made it hard to do much. I was here in 2014 with RCCL and had a great port stop, this time it was bad because of the lack of preparation done by Star Cruises . Read Less

This port was very exciting. We went on the train for one hour to Taipei. Then caught the MTR to building 101. This was the highlight for us the building is a world trade centre. It’s the third highest building in the world. We paid the equivalent of eighteen pounds a ticket to go by lift to the ninety first floor to view Taipei. It was wonderful. Highly recommended. Just a tip it’s easier and get to Taipei by bus we were told afterwards. Read Less

We went on the local train to visit Tapeii ourselves.The cost of the train is extremely cheap only a few us dollars especially if you are over 65. Read Less

The train station is only a 5-10 minutes walk from the port, the train ride into central Taipei station take 30 minutes. Once we got into town we went straight for local Taiwanese breakfast at Yong He Soy Milk King. Than toured National Palace museum, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, The National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and finally up to the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, there were many local buses from the Taipei zoo up to Pingxi (USD$4?) FYI, you don't need tickets to see the Lantern festival, it's free. You can even buy lantern onsite to release for $5 USD. The expensive tickets are for inside stadium area group releases. Read Less

Take the train into Taipei. 10 minute walk from the boat and runs frequently. Read Less

Keelong-Taiwan. This is the port city for Taipei. The ship parks right in town. A simple walk and you are in downtown. A bit run down and not much to mention. Access to Taipei is very easy by bus or train but as we had been here before and done Taipei, we just went ashore, walked to Miaokou Market , local temples, department stores, then back on board. Read Less

interesting but not alot to see Read Less

Went up 101, and went to Martyrs Gate and a couple of temples Read Less

Took the highlight excursion to Taipei. Had a really lovely day. There was some character to this city unlike others we had visited. Would recommend visiting from Keelung, either by yourself or with an excursion. Read Less

This tour was done with other Cruise Critic members. It was really good. We did a temple, market, geological formation park and best of all a town that releases small kerosene paper balloons, Read Less

Enjoyed our free time just wandering around on our own. Used daily bus pass, very inexpensive, to get arounde. Read Less

This was the second visit to Taipei for my husband and I, and the first time for my parents. The ship actually docks at Keelung which is approximately 30km from Taipei City. When you walk off the pier you will be mobbed by taxi touts wanting to sell their services. Their aim is to lock you in with a driver for the day by negotiating a fixed price up front, but be warned that this is very expensive. We ignored them and walked a couple of blocks away and then flagged down a regular taxi. We did this throughout the day and ended up paying around half of the daily rate we were quoted. Just make sure that the drivers are using the metre. We headed to the National Revolutionary Martyr’s Shrine first and watched the changing of the guard ceremony, which was spectacular. We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of crowds and had a great view of the ceremony which takes around 30 minutes in total. We then flagged down a passing taxi and went to Ximending, a shopping district in central Taipei. We had a lot of fun exploring the different alleys and laneways including Little Hong Kong, Tattoo Street and American Street. At around 2:30pm we caught a taxi back to Keelung and spent some time exploring a couple of shopping malls and department stores before boarding the ship. Read Less