03
Keelung excursions, from the free walk-off to the far coast
Ordered by how each one answers the question this port actually asks. What does this buy that a NT$41 train ticket doesn't?
If Keelung is one stop on a longer East Asia run, our Asia cruises guide maps where it sits among the other calls — and which of them need paperwork this one doesn't.
Most Asian cruise berths put you in an industrial estate. This one doesn't.
Taiwan International Ports Corporation publishes its own distance list for the Port of Keelung, and it's short in the best way.
E-Square sits 0.2 km from the port. The YM Oceanic Culture and Art Museum is 0.3 km, inside a 1915 bank building on the waterfront.
Miaokou Night Market's street is 0.4 km. Zhongzheng Park and its white Guanyin statue are 0.8 km, and the last stretch climbs.
Which terminal you're at decides your first turn. TIPC puts the West (W2) terminal a 4-minute walk from Keelung Station's North Exit, and the East (E2) terminal an 8-minute walk from the South Exit.
They sit on opposite sides of the harbour, so check the berth on your daily programme before you set off.
None of this costs anything — and none of it needs a guide.
It's a walk, not an excursion.
- Time commitment
- Flexible. No cruise line publishes a duration for a self-guided Keelung walk, and we're not going to invent one.
- Getting there
- On foot from the terminal door. Flat along the waterfront, uphill for Zhongzheng Park.
- Suits
- Short calls, first mornings, and anyone who'd rather spend the money on food than a coach seat.
- Ship or independent
- Independent, without argument. Nothing in this radius needs a guide to unlock it.
Why it's worth considering
Keelung gets treated as a car park for Taipei, and that undersells it badly.
The harbour, the hillside KEELUNG sign and the temple-market street all sit inside a walkable ring — which is rare on this circuit.
The catch
It's a working port city, not a resort, and it rains here a lot.
Zhongzheng Park is 0.8 km on the map and a real climb on the ground — a taxi up and a walk down is the sensible version.
Verify before you book
- Which terminal you're assigned, E2 or W2 — they're on opposite sides of the harbour
- Your actual all-aboard time, not the brochure's
- Whether anything you want indoors closes on your day of the week
This is the fact that reshapes the whole tour menu here.
Trip.com prices the TRA local service from Keelung Station to Taipei Main Station at NT$41, about 45 minutes, with EasyCard accepted — roughly US$1.30 at September 2026 rates.
Kuo-Kuang bus 1813 runs the same trip for NT$55, about an hour, from a stop by the station.
A taxi is quoted at NT$800 to NT$1,200, somewhere around US$25 to US$38, and the times published for it look optimistic against Taipei traffic.
The station is a 4-minute walk from the West terminal on the port authority's own figure. So the cheap option is also the convenient one, which is not how this usually goes.
Budget the hour each way and you'll never be caught short. Plan on traffic, not on a timetable — the published times run from 35 minutes to a flat hour, and the section below sets out why that spread decides your tour length.
Once you're at Taipei Main Station the MRT reaches almost everything — Taipei 101, Longshan Temple, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the Shilin night market.
The National Palace Museum is the exception, and it needs a bus or a taxi off the MRT.
- Time commitment
- Budget an hour each way and you have the rest. No line publishes a duration for a DIY train day.
- Getting there
- 4-minute walk to Keelung Station from W2, 8 minutes from E2. Trains run frequently; buy at the counter or tap an EasyCard.
- Suits
- Anyone comfortable on a commuter train, on a call of eight hours or more.
- Ship or independent
- Independent, comfortably — unless your call is short or your mobility makes a station transfer hard.
Why it's worth considering
A ship's Taipei city tour is a coach seat to a city a NT$41 ticket already reaches.
Two people save well over US$300 against Norwegian's own 8-hour listing by doing the same landmarks on the MRT.
The catch
You carry the all-aboard risk yourself, and there's an hour of rail between you and the ship.
Taipei Main Station is genuinely large. Budget real minutes to find your platform on the way back, not two.
Verify before you book
- The last practical train back to Keelung against your all-aboard time
- Whether your ship's berth is E2 or W2, so you walk to the right station exit
- Whether you want an EasyCard at all — single tickets work fine for one return trip
This is the honest booking in Keelung, and it's the one the ship's menu undersells.
Yehliu Geopark, the Shifen lantern railway and Jiufen's hillside lanes all sit east and north of the port — away from Taipei, not on the way to it.
Each is reachable alone by public transport. Linking all three in a port day by bus is not realistic, and that's the gap a vehicle fills.
Operator durations cluster tightly. Japan Shore Excursions lists a Yehliu and Jiufen day at 7 hours; Shore Excursions Asia lists the same pairing at 8; its Keelung Highlights tour, adding Shifen, runs 9 hours from US$135.
JustaiwanTour publishes the clearest version. Eight hours, 9:00 pickup at Keelung Port Terminal to 17:00 drop-off, from US$90 adult and US$60 child, with Yehliu admission, a private vehicle and an English-speaking driver-guide included.
Klook prices a comparable 8-hour private Jiufen, Yehliu and Shifen run at US$124.60.
Read those against your call hours before anything else.
A 9-hour tour needs a 10-hour day — and plenty of Keelung calls aren't.
That's a scheduling problem, not a pricing one.
- Time commitment
- 7 to 9 hours across published operator listings. JustaiwanTour's own schedule is 9:00 to 17:00.
- Getting there
- Pickup at the terminal. Operators ask which terminal — JustaiwanTour says plainly that Keelung Port has two terminals on opposite sides.
- Suits
- Long calls and overnights. First-timers who want the north coast without three separate bus rides.
- Ship or independent
- Either works here. The ship buys the all-aboard guarantee; an independent private car buys about US$80 a head and a flexible order of stops.
Why it's worth considering
It's the only thing on this menu that a train ticket can't replicate.
Yehliu is 9.8 km from the berth and Jiufen is roughly 50 minutes the other way — one vehicle turns two half-days into one.
The catch
Length is the risk, not price. Nine hours against a call that ends at five is a tour you shouldn't book.
Independent operators publish a back-to-ship policy rather than a guarantee. Japan Shore Excursions says it returns passengers 90 to 120 minutes before departure — get that in writing.
Verify before you book
- Your ship's actual arrival and all-aboard times against the tour's stated 7 to 9 hours
- Which terminal you're at, and that the operator has it in writing
- Whether Yehliu admission is included or extra — it varies by operator
- The operator's written back-to-ship policy if you book independently
The National Palace Museum is the big Taipei draw, and the one most ship tours are built around.
Norwegian publishes two versions on its own site. Highlights Of Taipei runs an estimated 5 hours at $169.99 adult and $129.00 child, pairing the museum with the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
The Best Of Taipei runs 8 hours at the same price, adding the Martyrs' Shrine, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, a Taipei 101 photo stop and lunch.
Both are rated activity level 2, which Norwegian defines as substantial walking and extended standing.
Both listings also carry the warning that matters most here. The museum closes on Mondays, and Norwegian substitutes Longshan Temple and Dadaocheng when it does.
Independently, the museum charges NT$350 general admission on its own page — about US$11 — with under-18s free and a NT$320 group rate.
That's the gap. Two adults pay roughly US$22 at the door against $339.98 for Norwegian's coach, plus a train fare of about US$2.60 between them.
The coach buys the transfer, the commentary and the ship waiting for you.
Whether that's worth US$315 is genuinely your call — and it turns on your call hours, not on the museum.
- Time commitment
- 5 hours or 8, both on Norwegian's own listings. Independently, budget an hour each way plus two to three hours at the museum.
- Getting there
- Coach from the pier on a ship tour. On your own, the train to Taipei Main Station then a bus or taxi — the museum is not on the MRT.
- Suits
- Anyone who came for the collection rather than the city. It holds roughly 650,000 items on Norwegian's own description.
- Ship or independent
- Independent if your call is long and you're mobile. Ship if it's short, wet, or you'd rather not chain a train to a bus.
Why it's worth considering
It's the single strongest indoor sight within reach of this port — and the weather here makes indoors a real category.
A Monday substitution is a swap, not a downgrade — Longshan Temple and Dadaocheng are both worth the afternoon.
The catch
Monday. Read your itinerary's day of the week before you book anything museum-shaped.
It's also the one Taipei landmark the MRT doesn't reach directly, which blunts the DIY saving a little.
Verify before you book
- What day of the week your call falls on — the museum is normally closed Mondays
- Whether your line's listing publishes a substitution for a Monday call, as Norwegian's does
- Current admission at the museum's own site before you assume NT$350
Yehliu is the closest big-ticket sight to this berth, and a lot of people don't realise it.
The port authority's own distance list puts it 9.8 km away — closer than Taipei by a wide margin, and in the opposite direction.
It's a cape of wind-carved sandstone — and the Queen's Head formation is the one on every poster.
Taiwan's Tourism Administration publishes hours of 08:00 to 17:00 and the bus route: Keelung Bus 790 from Keelung Station to the Yehliu stop. KKday says the park extends to 18:00 in summer.
Admission is where the sourcing thins. JustaiwanTour lists NT$120 for adults and NT$60 concession, roughly US$3.80 and US$1.90.
The park's own site returned a 403 error to us, so treat that figure as secondary and expect it to have moved.
KKday suggests 1.5 to 2 hours to walk all three zones, which is about right.
- Time commitment
- 1.5 to 2 hours in the park on KKday's own suggestion, plus the bus each way. No line publishes a Yehliu-only duration.
- Getting there
- Keelung Bus 790 from Keelung Station, per Taiwan's Tourism Administration. Or a taxi, or as the first stop on a north-coast tour.
- Suits
- Shorter calls that still want out of the city, and anyone who'd rather see rock than a museum.
- Ship or independent
- Independent is workable by bus. A tour makes sense only if you're bundling it with Jiufen or Shifen.
Why it's worth considering
Nine and a half kilometres is nothing, and it's the one landscape sight in easy reach of this port.
It's also outdoors and cheap — roughly US$4 against US$11 for the National Palace Museum.
The catch
It's fully exposed. A wet or windy Keelung day makes this a worse choice than a museum, and Keelung gets plenty of both.
The park closes at 17:00 outside summer — so a late-morning arrival leaves less slack than it looks.
Verify before you book
- Current admission at the park's own site — our NT$120 figure is secondary, not official
- Whether summer hours to 18:00 are still running on your date
- Bus 790's return timings from Yehliu against your all-aboard
Jiufen is a former gold-mining town on a hillside, all red lanterns and stepped lanes, and it's sold hard from this port.
It's also nowhere near Taipei, which people consistently get wrong.
From Keelung there's a direct option. Nick Kembel's transport guide puts bus 788 from Keelung Station to Jiufen Old Street at about 50 minutes.
The alternative is a train to Ruifang and then a 10- to 15-minute bus for NT$15 to NT$20 on the same guide's figures.
Getting there is not the problem. Getting back is the problem — and it's a timing problem, not a distance one.
The same guide warns that there is usually a very long line of people waiting for buses out of Jiufen in the late afternoon and evening — which is exactly when a cruise passenger wants to leave.
That single fact is why most people here end up in a vehicle, and why it's worth paying for.
If you go independently, leave Jiufen far earlier than feels necessary.
- Time commitment
- About 50 minutes each way by bus 788, plus however long the return queue runs. No operator publishes a Jiufen-only duration from Keelung.
- Getting there
- Bus 788 from Keelung Station, a train-and-bus combination via Ruifang, a taxi, or bundled into a north-coast tour.
- Suits
- Long calls and overnights. People who want atmosphere over sights.
- Ship or independent
- Lean vehicle. The bus in is fine; the bus out, at the hour you need it, is the gamble.
Why it's worth considering
It's the most photographed place in northern Taiwan and it earns that, especially as the lanterns come on.
Bundled with Yehliu, it fills a port day properly — and that's how almost every operator sells it.
The catch
The return queue, and it's not a small thing on a day with an all-aboard.
Jiufen is also steep, narrow and crowded. It is a poor fit for anyone with mobility limits.
Verify before you book
- Bus 788's current timetable and last practical return — we found no transit-authority timetable to confirm the 50-minute figure
- Whether your tour includes Jiufen in daylight or at lantern-lighting, because they're different visits
- Your ship's all-aboard, with real slack built in for the queue out
Keelung's night market is genuinely famous, and on a daytime call it may be a non-event. Saying so is the service.
TIPC's own list puts it 0.4 km from the port, so distance was never the issue. Timing is.
Sources disagree, and the disagreement is the practical point. Klook lists it Monday to Saturday 12:00 to 24:00 and Sunday from 08:00.
Taiwanderers says the market proper doesn't open until around 5pm and is not open at lunchtime, with the streets closing to traffic about then. TravelKing says it stays busy until around 3am.
Set those three against each other and one answer survives. Permanent shops and a few stalls trade in daylight — the lantern-lit market people photograph doesn't exist until after dark.
So a day call that sails at five buys you the street, not the market. That is the whole finding, and it decides whether Keelung is your evening or just your morning.
On an overnight call it's the best thing in Keelung — and it costs almost nothing.
Taiwanderers publishes real stall prices: a nutritious sandwich at NT$60, crab soup at NT$80, shacha squid at NT$100, candied fruit from NT$30. Call that US$1 to US$3 a plate.
- Time commitment
- An hour or two, whenever it's actually open. Nobody publishes a duration for a night market and nobody should.
- Getting there
- On foot, 0.4 km from the port on the port authority's own figure. Klook notes the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle T99 also stops there.
- Suits
- Overnight calls, late departures, and anyone whose port day is really about the food.
- Ship or independent
- Independent. There's nothing here a guide unlocks that a wallet doesn't.
Why it's worth considering
It's the rare walkable night attraction in this region — and it's four hundred metres from the ship.
Prices are low enough that a proper dinner runs a few dollars a head.
The catch
Hours. Check your departure time before you plan an evening here, because most day calls don't reach it.
Stalls are cash, full stop. Draw New Taiwan dollars at the terminal or in town first.
Verify before you book
- Your ship's actual departure time — this is the whole decision
- Whether your call is an overnight, which changes the answer completely
- Current stall hours locally, since published ones genuinely conflict
This is the one on the Keelung menu that's easiest to talk yourself into and hardest to justify.
Japan Shore Excursions lists a Taipei Tea Plantation Experience at 6 to 7 hours from US$135. Shore Excursions Asia lists the same shape at 7 hours and US$135.
It pairs the Maokong gondola with the tea-growing district above Taipei and the Taipei Tea Promotion Center.
The gondola itself is a genuine ride — out over the hills on the southern edge of the city.
The problem is arithmetic. Maokong sits beyond Taipei, so you spend roughly two hours of a seven-hour tour in a vehicle before anything happens.
For a first visit, the north coast or the museum buys more.
For a second or third Keelung call this is the one that isn't a repeat — a different day, not a better one.
- Time commitment
- 6 to 7 hours on Japan Shore Excursions' listing, 7 on Shore Excursions Asia's. Both include the drive each way.
- Getting there
- Vehicle from the port. Independently it's the train to Taipei, the MRT to Taipei Zoo, then the gondola — doable, but a long chain.
- Suits
- Repeat visitors, tea drinkers, and anyone who's already done Taipei's landmarks.
- Ship or independent
- Either. The DIY version costs almost nothing beyond fares, but it's three connections deep on a port day.
Why it's worth considering
It's the one thing here that isn't a temple, a museum or a rock — and it's a real view.
Two published operators agree on roughly the same price and length, which is more consistency than most listings on this page offer.
The catch
Drive time. Maokong is past Taipei, so a seven-hour day is closer to five hours of actual visit.
The gondola also suspends in high wind, and no operator we read publishes a weather policy for it.
Verify before you book
- Whether the gondola is running on your date, since wind suspends it
- Which of the two published durations, 6 to 7 hours or 7, applies to the tour you're actually buying
- Whether lunch and the gondola fare are included in the quoted price
04
Ship tour or on your own, in a port with a train
Keelung gives you three ways to spend a port day, and the tour menu only really sells one of them.
Taipei, the north coast, or Keelung itself. Ride time decides which of the three your call can hold — and it's the lowest-dependence port on this circuit, which the menu doesn't reflect.
The train deletes half the menu
Keelung Station is a 4-minute walk from the West terminal on the port authority's own figure, and NT$41 buys a seat to Taipei Main Station.
So a ship's Taipei city loop is a coach to a city the train already reaches — at $169.99 a head on Norwegian's own 8-hour listing.
One direction genuinely needs a vehicle
The north coast. Yehliu, Shifen and Jiufen sit away from Taipei, and no single public route strings them together from the port.
Everything else is a question about your knees, the weather and the clock, not about access.
The arithmetic, for two people
Norwegian's 8-hour Best Of Taipei is $169.99 adult, so $339.98 for a couple.
The same landmarks independently run about US$2.60 in train fares and NT$700 for two museum tickets — call it US$25 all in.
That gap is real. So is the all-aboard risk you take on with it — and there's an hour of rail in between.
Where the ship's version earns it
On a short call, on a wet day, and on anything past Taipei. A 9-hour north-coast run is exactly the trip where you want the ship waiting.
Also on accessibility. Lines publish access notes on the listing — Norwegian rates both its Taipei tours activity level 2 — and independent operators mostly don't.
How each option compares in Keelung
| Excursion | Lean ship excursion when… | Independent works when… |
|---|
| Keelung on foot | Almost never — no line sells the walk itself | Always. It starts at the terminal door and costs nothing |
|---|
| Taipei landmarks and Taipei 101 | Short call, bad weather, or mobility makes a station transfer hard | Nearly always. NT$41 each way, then the MRT |
|---|
| National Palace Museum | You want the transfer and commentary handled end to end | Your call is long — NT$350 at the door against $169.99 a seat |
|---|
| Yehliu Geopark alone | Rarely — it's usually sold bundled, not solo | Bus 790 runs from Keelung Station and admission is about NT$120 |
|---|
| Jiufen alone | You want a guaranteed ride back at the hour you need it | Your call is long and you'll leave Jiufen earlier than feels right |
|---|
| Yehliu, Shifen and Jiufen together | Your call is short enough that a missed return would be fatal | You'd rather pay one private operator from US$90 a head |
|---|
| Miaokou Night Market | Never — no tour is needed for a market 0.4 km away | Always, if your call actually runs past dusk |
|---|
| Maokong gondola and tea | You'd rather not chain a train, an MRT ride and a cable car | You've done Taipei before and have a full day to spend |
|---|
Short answer
Take the train and spend nothing until the north coast pulls you into a vehicle. Yehliu, Shifen and Jiufen are the honest booking in Keelung — the Taipei city loops are a coach seat to a place a NT$41 ticket already reaches.
06
Keelung port logistics: trains, buses and the clock
Where you dock
At one of two passenger terminals inside central Keelung, East (E2) or West (W2), both run by Taiwan International Ports Corporation. No tendering.
Which of the two you get decides your pickup, not just your walk. TIPC puts W2 a 4-minute walk from Keelung Station's North Exit and E2 8 minutes from the South Exit, and they sit on opposite sides of the harbour.
Terminal detail, shuttle question and entry paperwork are all handled on our Keelung cruise port guide.
What's within walking distance
- E-Square — 0.2 km from the port on TIPC's own list
- YM Oceanic Culture and Art Museum — 0.3 km
- Miaokou Night Market — 0.4 km
- Zhongzheng Park and the Guanyin statue — 0.8 km, and it climbs
- Zhengbin Fishing Harbor — 3.5 km, so a taxi
- Heping Island Park — 3.8 km
- Yehliu Geopark — 9.8 km, by bus 790 or vehicle
Getting to Taipei
- TRA local train, Keelung Station to Taipei Main Station — NT$41, about 45 minutes, EasyCard accepted, per Trip.com
- Kuo-Kuang bus 1813 — NT$55, about an hour
- Taxi — quoted at NT$800 to NT$1,200, roughly US$25 to US$38
- Ship's coach — bundled into tours rather than sold as a plain transfer on the listings we read
How much of the day the ride costs you
Treat this as the input to every booking on this page. Shore Excursions Asia says 35 to 50 minutes, Japan Shore Excursions 40 to 50 by car over 25 to 30 km, and Norwegian's own listing calls it a flat one-hour drive.
Celebrity's Taipei port page is the outlier at roughly 20 minutes, with nothing behind it that we could find. A tour length built on that figure is a tour length built on nothing.
So price two hours of vehicle into any Taipei day, and rather more into a north-coast one. What's left over is the tour you can actually buy.
Currency and payment
New Taiwan dollars. Cards work in Taipei and in chain stores; night-market stalls are cash, full stop.
Cruise-line and operator prices on this page are in US dollars exactly as published. The NT$ figures we converted ourselves, at roughly 31.6 to the dollar — the Federal Reserve H.10 rate for September 11, 2026.
The season, and the hours
Keelung runs year-round rather than in a window. StarCruises' Star Navigator is based here across a season announced as February 17 to December 11, 2026 — a base, not a call list.
Those are turnarounds, not calls — TIPC's live board on September 18, 2026 showed her alongside W03 from 15:00 to 21:00.
Western-line calls are less frequent and harder to pattern. CruiseMapper's September 2026 listing shows one, Diamond Princess, arriving the 25th at 11:00 and leaving the 26th at 18:00.
That's an overnight, and overnights change what's possible here completely. One month is a small sample though, so check your own itinerary rather than assuming one.
Weather risk
Keelung is one of the wettest cities in Taiwan, and the outdoor sights here suffer for it.
Typhoon season runs roughly June through October — a weather risk, not a scheduling one, on the evidence we found.
We found no documented pattern of Keelung calls being cancelled for weather, and we won't imply one. Treat a wet day as likely and a dropped call as unquantified.
