Arriving at Hong Kong International Airport immigration and customs is a smooth process although the immigration can be slow. There is a fantastic Airport Express train which in 20 minutes gets you to Kowloon and slightly more to Hong Kong Island. From either station there is then a series of free buses which drop you at the main hotels. This system works in reverse to the Airport.
Travel in Hong Kong is easy and cheap, get an Octopus card from any MTR (metro) station, there is a minimum amount and a deposit but it covers the ferries, MTR, trams, Peak Tram, and most buses. It is incredibly cheap, you get a discount with the card and your own entrance onto the ferries and peak tram.
The MTR stations are all huge and have dozens of exits some a long way apart, good Guide Books like Time Out will reference places to see and eat with the correct exit number – follow the instructions.
The Salisbury Hotel run by the YMCA is on Salisbury Road in Kowloon and is next door to the Peninsula Hotel, probably the most famous and expensive hotel in Hong Kong. Don’t be put of by YMCA, this is a modern well appointed hotel and you can have a well appointed Harbour View room for around £80. Hotels in Hong Kong seem to fall into very expensive or not where you would really want to stay, so the Salisbury is a fantastic alternative. The K2 Airport Express shuttle bus stops outside the door at the side of the Peninisula.
This is probably best dealt with in two sections Kowloon & Hong Kong Island and there is no shortage of all types of places in both places, so wherever you are staying make sure you eat and drinks on both sides of the harbour.
Most places do Happy Hours some lasting many hours, take advantage of these as drinks are not cheap in this city.
There are loads of places all over Kowloon, cheap Chinese street food should be tried at Temple Street night market, pick somewhere you like the look of that’s busy and order loads of dishes. The main area for more upmarket dining is Knutsford Terrace just up from Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station.
Heaven on Earth, 6 Knutsford Terrace has great Chinese food, with slightly different regional dishes, worth booking at weekend.
Minden Avenue near Tsim Sha Tsui has some very upmarket trendy drinking places but also in the area a few pub style places, one the Roadside Bar, Hart Avenue is a tiny bar always packed, good music and nice staff.
Mes Amis, 15 Ashley Road is a lovely local bar that does good food and stays open late, there are loads of other places in this street some pub type and stacks of places to eat, it is 5 minutes from the Salisbury.
Felix Cocktail Bar on top of the Peninsula Hotel is worth a visit, to see the hotel and to see the views, not cheap. I preferred Acqua, at 1 Peking Road, a shopping centre nearby, the views are as good and the service better, worth every Hong Kong dollar.
Lan Kwaii Fong (LKF) is one of the main bar and restaurants areas centred around D’Aguilar Street. There are all sorts of places one or two are::-
Good Luck Thai Café, Wing Wah Lane, also known as Rat Alley, there are loads of places with outdoor seating, all incredibly cheap.
Indochine, California Tower, D’Aguilar Street is Vietnamese cooking and reckoned to be among the best in HK, lovely setting not too expensive but worth booking at the weekend.
Central area has possibly one of the best places to eat Dim Sum at lunchtime, it’s called Maxim’s City Place in the low block at City Hall, Connaught Road. Not easy to find but once you get to City Hall ask, it is a huge place where you will probably have to queue but it is worth it, trolleys of all sorts loaded with different types of Dim Sum, very reasonable and a great HK experience.
Wan Chai is the slightly sleazy part of the island with some more basic bars but it is worth wandering around and has some great eating places.
Chilli Club, 88 Lockhart Road, does excellent Thai food the whole baked fish is fantastic.
Soho or the Mid Levels, go up the longest escalators anywhere from Queens Road and this takes you up to a great area for eating and drinking, as you go up the escalators you can look down and see where you want to eat or drink.
Cru in Staunton Street does very good European food if you fancy a change, it’s not as expensive as it looks however it is moving premises into a larger place in the same street possibly to be called the Long Room.
Nearby the Staunton Street Wine Bar, is worth a visit, as is the Hidden Vine at no 11, and Peak Café Bar round the corner in Shelley Street, and down the hill in Peel Street a bar called Joyce Is Not Here is a lovely tiny place doing live music.
The Star Ferry – one of the best journeys in the world, always use the top deck, worth the extra cents.
Sheung Wan district on HKI is great to wander around, wander along Hollywood Road and the alleys around there and visit the Mon Mo Chinese temple.
Get the Bus across the Island to Stanley, the views on the journey are great and Stanley has a very good market, much less frenetic than the ones in Kowloon and loads of waterside place to eat and drink. Murray House the lovely building at the end of the promenade has a number of places to eat Wildfire does a great value lunch/brunch menu.
It is very easy to then get a bus to Aberdeen and come back from there.
The Peak, you have to do the Peak Tram and see the amazing views, a coffee in the Pacific Coffee Company buys you ones of the greatest views anywhere. There are loads of places to eat up here.
The Aviary in Hong Kong Park is well worth a visit, it is just 5 minutes from the Peak Tram Terminus and entrance is free. You walk into the top of a jungle canopy in which dozens of exotic birds fly around, it is absolutely fabulous.
Take a ferry to one of the other islands, Lamma island is small and it is possible to get a ferry to one side and walk across in about an hour and a half, finish up at Sok Kwu Wan where there is a dozen or so seafood restaurants, they can seem a bit pushy but the set meals are incredible value, we went to the Tahi Yuen Seafood Restaurant run by a very nice lady called Karen, very good and very cheap.
The Ladies Market & Temple Street Night Market in Kowloon can be done in one evening use the MTR to go first to the Ladies Market then hop on it back along to Temple Street and eat the Chinese street food.
On Hong Kong Island get on board one of the old trams and go from one end of the North Side of the island from Kennedy Town down to Happy Valley or Causeway Bay.
Shop – there are too many places to list both on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.
