Anyone with good tips on Hong Kong would be much appreciated! Going there in July. We plan to stay at the W Hong Kong. Thanks in advance!!
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Anyone with good tips on Hong Kong would be much appreciated! Going there in July. We plan to stay at the W Hong Kong. Thanks in advance!!
I'll get to this one soon... tell me more about who you are going there with... wife? family? Do you like shopping or sightseeing?Quote:
Originally Posted by B737Capt
It will be my wife and I and our 17 yr old daughter, we love sightseeing, great dining, exploring, new adventures and just getting to know another culture and country. We have travelled and lived overseas extensively but Hong Kong is one of those places we have yet to visit. Thanks in advance for your help! BTW, we are planning on getting there on UA from SFO.
OK here we go!
Firstly your hotel looks very nice and is a good location near the temple st night market.
Sightseeing:
- The Peak - take the tram car up and a bus back down (the line to get down can take an hour!!). Only go on a day with clear (ish) sky, as you won't see much otherwise! Some shops, but nothing special... the view is what to go up for.
- Ngong Ping 360 cable car to big buddha - follow the cathay expats and take the train to Tung Chung station and walk across to the cable car. Goods views of the airport on the way up then a long walk to the buddha up steps.
- Horse racing - most wednesday nights. Google the hong kong jockey club for places/dates - they race at happy valley (near causeway bay station) or sha tin (haven't been to that one). Costs about USD$1.5 to get in, and is a good night to have food and some drinks and soak up the atmosphere
- For nightlife check out lan kwai fong (near hong kong station), lots of bars with cover bands. Official drinking age is 18 but no one checks and I know lots of people who have gone there with their 16/17 yo children. Your choice though, not my business!
- Nathan road - main drag with all the neon lights and shopping etc.
- Ocean park - hong kong island, with rides, pandas and nature stuff
- Hong Kong Disneyland - at Sunny Bay station
- Symphony of lights across the harbor each night... google for schedule. Can take the star ferry with octopus card across the bay if you want to watch from water. The ferry is a more fun way than train to get from Kowloon to Hong Kong island
Dining
- My first piece of advise is eat at the markets! There are plenty of people doing it and i've never got sick. It might look messy/dirty/smell or whatever... but the food is great and is dirt cheap. Try the pork with salad sauce.
- Midlevels - near hong kong station from memory. A neat place that is so hilly they have escalators to take you up the streets. Pricey food but neat atmosphere.
- Knutsford terrace - plenty of restaurant choices
- Go somewhere... anywhere... and try dim sum. There is even a place selling dishes at around $5 that has a michelin star! See Holy dim sum! Michelin Guide 2010 goes cheap and cheerful? | CNNGo.com
- Yung Kee restaurant helped us create our "best chinese food in the air" menu. I haven't been, but it's on my list to check out
- Spaghetti house if you must... I try and steer clear of all chain places
Shopping
- Markets - good place for souvenirs/knicknacks etc. Bargain! Temple st night market (near your hotel), and mong kok ladies market
- Citygate outlets - semi cheap outlet mall at Tung Chung station (could do at same day as Ngong Ping 360). Word of warning - don't bother if you are tall or large sized, hard to find anything of value there if so. I'm not that big but I struggle... Also, the clothes in USA are so cheap, I don't know if i'd bother buying any here.
- Check out places like IFC mall for cool shops like Muji etc.
- If you want electronics, go into a Fortress store (all over the place)
- Shenzhen (see day trips section)
Transport
All buses/trains use the Octopus ticketing card. Go to a MTR station and get one, it will cost HK$50 with I think around $30 of credit. This way you can just tap on to get to trains, and buses. Tap out of trains, no need to tap out of busses.
- Suggest you take the airport express from the airport to your hotel. More expensive, but a quick and easy ride, and they have buses from downtown that will ferry you to hotel at no additional cost. Ticket most likely cheaper if the plane sells them inflight duty free. Otherwise you can take S64 bus to Tung Chung station, then MTR to nearest stop at hotel. Taxis will not be cheap for that ride.... (your hotel may offer a shuttle from airport for a fee.. check it out)
- Taxis are reliable and cheap, however best get your hotel to write locations in Cantonese
- MTR train is great, very easy to navigate
- Bus is frequent, much easier to catch along Nathan road than walking! Unless you want to take in the sights that is
- Walk... it's safe
Day trips
There are 2 great day trips that I have done... please look up visa info though as it was easy and cheap for me, no idea for US citizens
- Shenzhen is a special administrative region of China. It can be reached from HKG on the east rail line, then you can pay for a visa and cross the border. Lots of fakes shopping here, a huge mall with everything you can imagine. Bargain hard, travel as a group... do NOT walk off from each other, this isn't as safe a place as HKG but plenty of people travel here with no problem so don't be too frightened
- Macau - a former portugese colony can be accessed from HKG by ferry. It is great for a day trip! You can only take airport ferry if you are off a flight, otherwise it leaves from downtown (can't quite remember where you can google.) Buy your tickets online early rather than later. The city has lots of casinos like Vegas, but also has a lot of history and portugese food. I'd suggest you google a bit about it to find the good food, as with Casinos etc comes bad imitations!
Anything else ask!
Nick, we can't thank you enough for all the wonderful information! We have printed your message and it will definitely travel with us! It's great to go to a new destination with some real hands-on advice and information, we don't rely at all on travel books and such. For this reason, we too like to go to 'off the beaten path' places and explore new adventures. When you mentioned 'dining at the markets' that is exactly what we were planning to do. Certainly we will do a few more elegant nights, but we want to have a real taste of Cantonese and everything else that they offer, so we will be hitting lots of those market spots. We are not big on shopping (my wife and daughter already do enough of that here), we may pick up some piece of art or something of significance for our home, but we are not into the knick knacs. We would rather spend out time visiting temples, taking tours, exploring the sights and learning all that we can about the culture and the region. We are looking forward to this new destination in our travel log. Thanks again, and, if you ever need anything from WN (loads and such), just drop me a line. Have a good weekend.
J. Melian
By the way, just noticed you are in SIN...that will be in our future travel plans not too far down the road...in fact, I wanted to go there instead of Hong Kong, but my girls insisted on it so SIN will be next time!
J. Melian
Star Ferry!! Escalators!! I think I walked from Robinson Road (my hotel was Bsihop Lei) and there are several nice restaurants on that end near the escalators. There is a nice zoo in midlevels, too.
HKG will be good because it is so different... SIN has the great parts of the east but with a lot of the west. Hong Kong has more of the east, with a little of the west. That's how I see it anyways!Quote:
Originally Posted by B737Capt
Hey J did you end up making it to HKG? Have a good time?
Update with any interesting things you found so we can add to the HKG list...
Thanks a ton, Nick! Its feels great to see so much Enthusiasm.
No worries rutvij, hope it proved useful. I've been hearing rumours your airline is going to start flying to my home town of MEL.... time will tell if the rumours are correct!