Hong Kong > Reviews > Tips and Ideas for a great Hong Kong stay

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Good
Shopping	Excellent
Nightlife	Excellent
Ease of getting around	Excellent
Family Friendly	Good

Advantages:	Exciting, vibrant, loads to do, islands to visit, tons of shopping
Disadvantages:	Often smoggy, baking hot and lots of rain in the summer !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

After an 11 night stay in the wonderfully exciting Hong Kong, which took a year to research and plan, I'd like to share some tips and ideas with others who are thinking about a visit to this vibrant place.

- Langham Place Hotel. If you're looking for a top-quality hotel that won't break the bank then do consider staying at this stunning hotel. We loved the exciting, vibrant Mong Kok location. It's cheaper than other 5 star properties simply because it's away from the tourist trap area of TST, but it's right on the MTR line.

- InterContinental Hotel. If, however, you want the most stunning harbour views, then this hotel has the very best because it's right on the waterfront in TST. It's a top-class hotel but it comes at a very high price. There's really no point staying here in a room that doesn't directly face the harbour.

- November is a great time to go to Hong Kong. We had 11 days and not a drop of rain! It was t-shirt and shorts each day, although we tended to change into long sleeved shirt/top and long trousers in the evening.

- If you're thinking of visiting any of the outlying islands (we visited Lantau, Lamma, Cheung Chau and Ma Wan) ask at the Tourist Board Office at the Star Ferry (TST side) for a book called 'Discover Hong Kong Nature'. It's a lovely A5 sized book, with over 80 pages, that describes some great walks (it also includes Hong Kong Island and New Territories). It also makes a nice, free, momento to keep.

- Have a look on the HK Tourism Board web site before you go, since they have e-coupons on there that may be beneficial. We found a couple of vouchers that gave us some nice souvenirs for booking the Land Between tour. We were also given a couple of nice pins (badges) when we booked our Come Racing tour at the office.

- Frommers guide to Hong Kong has a couple of self-guided walks that we really enjoyed following. We first did the Western Central district - including various markets, streets selling birds nest and many other amazing things, Hollywood Road, Ladder Street (exhausting!), and the Museum of Medical Sciences (we found somewhat disappointing). On another day we did the Central district tour which included Statue Square, the Bank of China Tower, the Zoological Gardens and Pacific Place.

- If you're buying anything from the Jade Market, you really must haggle even if it's a bit embarrassing for you. Start at half the asking price, and be firm. The vendors will take all this in their stride.

- For those who like soda drinks (fizzy, soft drinks) all I could find in nearly every shop was Coke, Cream Soda, bottled water or the occasional Sprite. I got the impression that the Coca-Cola company had Hong Kong sewn up! Other brands and varieties didn't seem to get a look in. For people like me who don't drink hot drinks, and don't drink anything with sugar (most of the 'local' soft drinks seemed to have sugar in them, so not very good if you're on a diet) I soon felt limited in choice.

- Seafood is extremely popular everywhere. We went to two different Chinese restaurants and each time only found about four items on the whole menu that we would eat. This is no criticism of anybody but ourselves, because we don't like seafood or fish and are not very adventurous in our tastes, so we did find this a bit limiting.

- On Lantau Island we followed the path all the way down from the Big Buddha to Tung Chung. It was a lovely walk, but even though it was downhill and paved all the way, it was sometimes very steep and tough on the knees. It was a long walk, too, and once we'd arrived down in the Tung Chung Fort vicinity, we still had quite a long way to go to catch the MTR. Recommended, if you've got the time, however, since it was peaceful, interesting and offered some great views.

- We had a very lively and interesting journey by bus over the island to Stanley. That, combined with the market there, made for a great trip. Highly recommended.

- Even though we were standing on the waterfront by the Star Ferry and clock tower, we could hardly hear the music/commentary for the Symphony of Lights. We were left feeling a little disappointed due to this, so recommend finding somewhere nearer the speakers (wherever they are) so you can hear the music properly.

- We really enjoyed The Land Between Tour, organised by Gray Line, which was a coach tour round parts of the New Territories. It was great to see the more rural parts of HK. The tour was quite varied, and very interesting. They do a half-day and full-day tour, although the only difference is that at the end of the tour, the full-day people go on to have a Chinese lunch. We opted for the half day, which still took around 5 hours to complete. Recommended.

- Loved the Hong Kong Museum of History. It was astonishingly cheap to enter (HK$10), has superb exhibits, and we could easily have spent longer than three hours there (but it was closing time).

- If you are going to Macau, even on a weekday, you might want to consider booking your outgoing journey in advance. We didn't do this, and arrived at the Ferry Terminal at approximately 9.50am on a Monday morning, only to find the next available crossing was at 11.35am. We didn't want to waste that much time, since it was only a day trip, so we had to pay extra to upgrade to deluxe class just to get on an earlier crossing.

- On arriving at Macau, we picked up a map from the tourist information office that showed all the bus routes and places of interest, etc. However, it was too difficult to see which bus routes went where, so we were left trying to figure this out on our own.

- On coming back from Macau, don't underestimate the length of time it may take to get through immigration before you get through to departure. Everybody, including us, was missing their scheduled departure times due to this - although the ferry companies must be used to it, since they just allowed us onto the next crossing, but this may not be guaranteed.

- The Venetian in Macau is amazing. So much like the one in Vegas (at which we've stayed) and the Grand Canal Shoppes and the Casino looked even bigger than Vegas. I don't think I've ever seen a busier casino - it looked packed, and it was only mid-afternoon! There's free shuttles between The Venetian and the ferry terminal and other places in Macau.

- The YMCA Salisbury in TST has an excellent buffet dinner in its restaurant (on the third or fourth floor, can't quite remember which). You have to go looking for it, but we recommended it since it had a good variety of food, a great view across the harbour, and was very reasonably priced compared to most other hotels in the area.

- There is a wonderful, large supermarket on the third floor of the New World Centre in TST, on the waterfront by the InterContinental and Avenue of Stars. It is much bigger than it first looks (I got lost in it the first time!), and has everything from drinks, groceries to magazines, gifts and souvenirs.

- The Come Racing Tour, to Happy Valley, on the Wednesday evening of our stay was excellent. It costs HK$620 (approx £40/$80) and includes transport, entrance to the members' enclosure, an international buffet spread, free drinks, a free bet, a guided tour to the parade ring and winning line, etc. It was such an exciting experience, and one of the highlights of our holiday.

- Loved Hong Kong Disneyland. Smaller, certainly, than the other Disney parks around the world, but excellent value throughout.

- Finally, transportation throughout Hong Kong is superb. Quick, efficient, clean and cheap. Whether it's MTR, taxi, tram or ferry, it all ran smoothly. The MTR in particular is a joy to behold, and puts London's Underground to shame (I'm a Brit, so I'm allowed to say this!).

I think that's it. I could probably find a lot more to say, but I'll shut up now. I just wanted to share my suggestions, in the hope that they'll help anybody else plan their trip to Hong Kong.