Riviera - Whispers of the Far East

Where this cruise calls, day by day

10 ports and 2 sea days over 11 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Hong Kong

   Hong KongDepart

   Hong Kong is one of the great arrivals in cruising if your ship berths at Ocean Terminal, which sits at the tip of Tsim Sha Tsui with the whole Victoria Harbour skyline in front of it. The alternative, Kai Tak, was built on the runway of the old airport and is stranded on a peninsula with no rail link, so the day starts with a shuttle. Either way you get a dense, vertical, fast-moving city where the ferries and the metro do most of the work.

   • The Star Ferry across to Central, then the Peak Tram up Victoria Peak
   • The Tian Tan Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery on Lantau, via the Ngong Ping cable car - a full-day commitment
   • Man Mo Temple and the antique shops of Hollywood Road
   • Wong Tai Sin Temple, or the street stalls of Temple Street after dark

   Getting ashore

   Docked. Ocean Terminal puts you directly in Tsim Sha Tsui on foot; from Kai Tak it is a 10-minute walk (or free shuttle bus) to Kai Tak MTR station, with free ship-day shuttles to the Star Ferry pier and the Peak Tram, and 15-20 minutes by taxi into town.

   Best months

   Oct-Dec (dry, clear); Mar-May is humid and hazy

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3

   Keelung (Taipei)

   TaiwanPort

   Keelung is unusual among Asian gateway ports in that the ship ties up in the middle of town - the terminal is at the head of the harbour with the city wrapped around it. Keelung is a rainy working port with one of Taiwan's best night markets a few minutes' walk away. Taipei is under an hour inland, and the old gold-mining hill town of Jiufen is about the same in the other direction.

   • Miaokou Night Market, a short walk from the berth
   • Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum's Chinese imperial collection
   • Jiufen's tea houses and stepped lanes above the coast
   • Yehliu Geopark and its wind-eroded rock formations

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the East or West Pier terminals in central Keelung - downtown and the railway station are a 10-minute walk; Taipei is about 45 minutes by train, Jiufen around 50 minutes by bus.

   Best months

   Oct-Dec and Mar-Apr; Keelung is genuinely the wettest city in Taiwan

4. Day 4 · At sea

5. Day 5

   Busan

   South KoreaPort
   Busan port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
6. Day 6

   Nagasaki

   JapanPort

   Nagasaki is built up the sides of a narrow harbour, and the cruise terminal at Matsugae sits at the bottom of the hillside that holds most of what you came to see. This was Japan's only window on the outside world for two centuries, so there is a Dutch trading post, a Chinatown and a hillside of Western merchant houses - and then, at the north end of the city, the ground zero of the second atomic bomb.

   • Glover Garden and Oura Church, both a short walk uphill from the terminal
   • Dejima, the reconstructed Dutch trading island
   • The Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Museum in Urakami
   • A boat out to Hashima (Gunkanjima), the abandoned coal-mining island

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Matsugae International Terminal; Glover Garden and Oura Church are a 10-15 minute walk, and the tram from nearby reaches the Peace Park in roughly 20 minutes.

   Best months

   Mar-May and Oct-Nov; Jun is the rainy season

7. Day 7

   Beppu

   JapanPort

   Beppu produces more hot-spring water than anywhere else in Japan and does not let you forget it - steam rises out of drains and hillsides all over town. The tourist version of this is the jigoku, a set of coloured, boiling pools you look at rather than bathe in. The bathing happens elsewhere, in public onsen scattered across the town, some of them very plain and very cheap.

   • The Kannawa 'hells' - Umi Jigoku's cobalt pool and the blood-red Chinoike Jigoku
   • A soak at a municipal onsen, or a sand bath at Beppu Beach
   • The Beppu Ropeway up Mount Tsurumi for the view over the bay
   • Takasakiyama monkey park, or the thatched village and hot springs of Yufuin inland

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Beppu International Tourist Port; the hells at Kannawa are about 20 minutes inland by bus or taxi, and central Beppu is closer still.

   Best months

   Mar-May and Oct-Nov; steam is most dramatic in cold weather

8. Day 8

   Osaka

   JapanPort

   Osaka docks at Tempozan Pier in the western harbour, five minutes' walk from a subway station, which makes it one of the more self-sufficient ports in Japan. The city is the blunt, food-obsessed counterweight to Kyoto - neon, street snacks and a rebuilt castle rather than temples and moss. It also works as the gateway to Kyoto and Nara, both about an hour away, which is what many passengers use the day for.

   • Osaka Castle and its park
   • Dotonbori and Kuromon Ichiba market for takoyaki and kushikatsu
   • Fushimi Inari's torii gates or Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto
   • Todai-ji and the free-roaming deer of Nara Park

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Tempozan Pier; Osakako subway station is a five-minute walk, central Osaka about 20 minutes, and Kyoto roughly an hour by train.

   Best months

   Late Mar-Apr (blossom), Oct-Nov; Aug is punishingly humid

9. Day 9

   Osaka

   JapanPort

   Osaka docks at Tempozan Pier in the western harbour, five minutes' walk from a subway station, which makes it one of the more self-sufficient ports in Japan. The city is the blunt, food-obsessed counterweight to Kyoto - neon, street snacks and a rebuilt castle rather than temples and moss. It also works as the gateway to Kyoto and Nara, both about an hour away, which is what many passengers use the day for.

   • Osaka Castle and its park
   • Dotonbori and Kuromon Ichiba market for takoyaki and kushikatsu
   • Fushimi Inari's torii gates or Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto
   • Todai-ji and the free-roaming deer of Nara Park

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Tempozan Pier; Osakako subway station is a five-minute walk, central Osaka about 20 minutes, and Kyoto roughly an hour by train.

   Best months

   Late Mar-Apr (blossom), Oct-Nov; Aug is punishingly humid

10. Day 10

    Nagoya

    JapanPort

    Nagoya is Japan's industrial heartland - Toyota country - and it makes no particular effort to charm visitors, which some people find refreshing. The cruise berth is at Kinjo Pier in the port district, about half an hour from the centre. The castle is a postwar reconstruction, but Atsuta Shrine is genuinely ancient, and the manufacturing museums are better than that description sounds.

    • Nagoya Castle and its restored Honmaru Palace interiors
    • Atsuta Shrine, one of the most important Shinto sites in Japan
    • The Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology
    • Hitsumabushi - grilled eel over rice, the local dish worth planning lunch around

    Getting ashore

    Docked at Kinjo Pier in Nagoya Port; central Nagoya is about 30 minutes by road or on the Aonami Line.

    Best months

    Late Mar-Apr and Oct-Nov

11. Day 11

    Tokyo

    JapanPort
    Tokyo port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
12. Day 12

    Tokyo

    JapanArrive
    Tokyo port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore