Hong Kong. Its identify conjures up visions of a chaotic, jam-packed town with hovering skyscrapers, thick smog, unending noodle stands, giant finance, and wild nights out.
It’s certainly one of my favourite towns on this planet. The short tempo creates a way of everlasting exchange, and the crowds, multiculturalism, and meals stay me frequently coming again. Oh, the meals! I may sit down bent over a noodle bowl all day lengthy.
Hong Kong is a hectic town of seven.5 million population with some of the largest hub airports on this planet. It may be overwhelming for lots of guests, particularly the ones no longer used to crowded puts.
And, with such a lot to do in Hong Kong, many vacationers scratch their head about the place to start out in an effort to get probably the most out of the day out.
Whilst you’ll be able to discuss with town inside of one or two days, it’s highest to spend no less than 3 days in Hong Kong. In case you’re going to discuss with Macau, I’d upload some other day, so that you’d want 4–5 days to truly see where.
This four-day Hong Kong itinerary will can help you arrange your day out, steer you off the crushed trail, and display you why Hong Kong is among the maximum on-the-go towns on this planet.
Hong Kong Itinerary: Day 1
The Hong Kong Museum of Historical past
In an effort to perceive a spot, you will have to first perceive its previous. This museum permits you to do exactly that. It supplies a very good assessment of Hong Kong’s lengthy and complicated previous. There are reveals on the subject of the archaeology, social historical past, ethnography, and herbal historical past of the area. It’s giant, so permit about 2–4 hours in your discuss with.
100 Chatham Highway South, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, +852 2724 9042, hk.historical past.museum/en/internet/mh/index.html. Open Wednesday-Monday 10am-6pm (7pm on weekends). Admission is unfastened however some particular exhibitions would possibly require a charge.
Kowloon Park
Head to Kowloon Island’s gigantic park that includes a swimming pool, a gymnasium, little ponds the place you’ll be able to watch geese and different swimming birds, a Chinese language lawn, an aviary, and the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre (to not be at a loss for words with the Hong Kong Heritage Museum; extra on that museum underneath). There also are numerous leisure spaces right here the place you’ll be able to loosen up to flee the oppressive Hong Kong warmth. Spanning 13 hectares (33 acres), it’s some of the highest puts to people-watch within the town.
22 Austin Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, +852 2724 3344, lcsd.gov.hk. Open day by day 5am-12am and admission is unfastened.
Side road Markets in Mong Kok
This space of Hong Kong has the most important and busiest markets during which to absorb the frenetic surroundings, attractions, and sounds of Hong Kong. The crowds and dealers truly exemplify Hong Kong’s on-the-move essence.
The 2 highest markets for affordable souvenirs are the Girls Marketplace (discount clothes, equipment, and souvenirs) and the Temple Side road Night time Marketplace (flea marketplace). The markets of Mong Kok are highest reached by means of the Hong Kong MTR subway device, stations Yau Ma Tei, Mong Kok, and Prince Edward at the Tsuen Wan (purple) line.
The markets are open each day, beginning round 11am–midday and shutting within the past due night time (instances range).
Tsim Sha Tsui Prom
Walk alongside the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront and take within the breathtaking skyline view of Hong Kong Island. Whilst you’re right here, be sure you discuss with the Street of Stars, Hong Kong’s resolution to the Hollywood “Stroll of Status,” the place you’ll be able to see the celebs of Chinese language and Western movie alike. There are stores, eating places, and, at evening, a big out of doors marketplace serving normal Cantonese meals along knockoffs and souvenirs. Come in a position to haggle.
Salisbury Highway, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon (subsequent to the Superstar Ferry pier). Open 24/7.
The Superstar Ferry
One of the best ways to get around the harbor from Kowloon Island to Hong Kong Island is by means of the Superstar Ferry, which showcases an implausible view of town skyline for best 4–6 HKD. Driving the ferry is a amusing factor to do even though you aren’t the use of it for transportation! It’s certainly one of my favourite actions.
Superstar Ferry Pier, Kowloon Level, Tsim Sha Tsui, +852 2367 7065, starferry.com.hk/en/carrier. The ferry runs 6:30am-11:30pm each day, even though they happen much less regularly on weekends and vacations. Tickets get started at 4 HKD all the way through the week and 5.6 HKD at the weekends, whilst a 4–day go prices 50 HKD.
Hong Kong Itinerary: Day 2
Ngong Ping 360
This cable automobile stretches over 5.7 kilometers (3.5 miles) from Tung Chung around the bay towards the airport after which onward to Lantau Island. The cable automobile will give you a wide ranging view of the airport, harbor, and full town earlier than it travels throughout the surrounding mountains. The trip lasts about 25 mins.
While you get to the highest, don’t leave out the within reach Po Lin Monastery (a Buddhist monastery based in 1906) and Tian Tan, a 34-meter (111-foot) bronze Buddha statue that sits at the best of the island’s height. Whilst Lantau Island is somewhat touristy, the trip, perspectives, and monastery make it definitely worth the day out.
11 Tat Tung Highway, Tung Chung, Lantau Island, +852 3666 0606, np360.com.hk/en. Open 10am–6pm on weekdays and 9am–6:30pm on weekends/vacations. A round-trip grownup price ticket for the cable automobile is 270 HKD for the standard cabin and 350 HKD for a crystal cabin (a cable automobile with a pitcher backside ground). You’ll be able to reserve tickets on-line prematurely right here.
Take a Meals Excursion
After the morning at the cable automobile and playing a killer view of Hong Kong, spend your afternoon taking a meals excursion. Hong Kong is a food-filled town (there are over 12,000 eating places right here!) and also you’ll discover a various vary of cuisines from world wide. However with out assist, you’ll by no means in finding the entire hidden native favorites. The next firms be offering the most efficient price excursions:
Be expecting to spend 770–900 HKD in step with particular person for a meals excursion.
Hire a Junk Boat
Junk boats — the ones vintage boats with the huge sail you notice in any film about Hong Kong — are a amusing technique to sail across the harbor on full-day and half-day journeys. There is just one normal junk boat left: the Dukling. It typically sails simply on Saturdays and Sundays best, with tickets beginning at 220 HKD.
Another choice is crusing on The Aqua Luna, a ship that was once constructed within the normal genre in 2006. It sails a lot more regularly and gives plenty of cruises, from a dim sum cruise to a day tea cruise. Tickets get started at 270 HKD.
Along with those traditional-style junks or in case you’re searching for extra of a birthday celebration boat vibe, you’ll be able to additionally hire a ship with a big team of buddies (15 or so humans) or sign up for a gaggle cruise across the harbor. There are a ton of various choices to make a choice from, from all-you-can-eat-and-drink boats with add-on water sports activities, massages, and DJ applications, to firms that help you simply hire the boat and convey the whole lot else your self.
Listed below are some really helpful firms that supply inexpensive boat excursions:
- Island Junks – They’ve a few cruise choices and you’ll be able to additionally constitution your personal in case you’ve were given the cash!
- Saffron Cruises – It is a nice choice if you’ll be able to put in combination a big team of 20–30 humans.
Hong Kong Itinerary: Day 3
Ping Shan Heritage Path
Positioned within the New Territories (town’s much less visited northern district), this path will lead you previous one of the most maximum vital historic attractions of the Tang extended family. There are 14 historical structures at the path, together with: Hung Shing Temple, The Tang Ancestral Corridor, Yeung Hau Temple, Shrine of the Earth God, and the Fifteenth-century Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda (Hong Kong’s best historic pagoda). Simply remember that no longer all the historical structures at the path are open to the general public.
Another choice is the Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Path. It starts on the Taoist temple advanced of Fung Ying Noticed Koon and passes the walled villages of Ma Wat Wai and Lo Wai earlier than finishing on the 18th-century Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Corridor.
This a part of Hong Kong is ceaselessly skipped by means of vacationers, and the paths, meandering throughout the town’s extra rural area, are quiet and a welcome smash from the enormous city of the downtown space.
Ping Shan Path: Sheung Cheung Wai, Yuen Lengthy District, +852 2617 1959, lcsd.gov.hk. Lung Yeuk Tau Path: 66 Pak Wo Rd, Fanling, Hong Kong, +852 2669 9186.
Hong Kong Heritage Museum
This museum showcases town’s historical past and love of artwork. There’s a big showcase concerning the New Territories and an opera space for performances. It fills in one of the most blanks left from the Hong Kong Historical past Museum and will give you a have a look at the inventive tradition of town. It’s additionally situated close to the gorgeous Sha Tin Park and Shing Mun River, making the encircling space simply as fascinating because the museum!
1 Guy Lam Rd, Sha Tin, New Territories, +852 2180 8188, hk.heritage.museum/en/internet/hm/highlights.html. Open each day however Tuesday 10am-6pm (7pm on weekends). Admission is unfastened.
Che Kung Temple
Simply around the river from the Heritage Museum, this temple is devoted to Che Kung, a basic all the way through the Southern Tune Dynasty (1127–1279) in historic China who was once recognized for preventing each uprisings and epidemics. This temple was once inbuilt his identify all the way through a virulent disease within the Seventeenth-century, and it’s stated that the epidemic ceased the day after its respectable determination.
The temple advanced is at all times full of humans, so be ready for crowds. The normal structure and complicated sculptures, together with the huge golden sculpture of Che Kung himself, make this value visiting after you notice the Heritage Museum.
Che Kung Miu Highway, ctc.org.hk. Open day by day 8am-6pm.
Hong Kong Itinerary: Day 4
The Top Tram
This tram, which has been in operation since 1888 (with a number of renovations since then) takes you to the highest of the Top, Hong Kong Island’s biggest mountain, at 518 meters (1,700 toes). Upon exiting on the best, you’ll revel in impressive 180-degree perspectives of the skyscrapers of Victoria Harbor, Kowloon, and the encircling hills. It’s the most efficient view of town.
Additionally on the best is the massive, wok-shaped Top Tower with its viewing platform Sky Terrace 428, Madame Tussauds, and plenty of eating places. Head clear of this space and also you’ll in finding many various trails to get into nature and spot town skyline from a number of various vantage issues. While you’re performed on the best, you’ll be able to both take the tram or stroll backpedal alongside the paths.
No.1 Lugard Highway, +852 2849 7654, thepeak.com.hk. Open day by day 7:30am-11pm, with trams operating each and every 15-20 mins. A go back day out is 108 HKD, whilst the similar with access to the sky terrace viewing platform is 168 HKD in step with particular person.
Hong Kong Museum of Artwork
This museum at the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront is an interesting and intriguing position. Established in 1962, it was once the primary public artwork museum within the town. There are each rotating transient exhibitions in addition to an everlasting assortment the place you’ll in finding the whole lot from Chinese language ceramics, terra cotta, rhinoceros horns, normal calligraphy, and Chinese language artwork, to fresh artwork produced by means of Hong Kong artists.
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, +852 2721 0116. Open Monday–Wednesday and Fridays 10am–6pm, weekends 10am–9pm. Admission is unfastened (some particular exhibitions have a charge).
Lan Kwai Fong Nightlife
LKF is the principle nightlife and birthday celebration space in Hong Kong and is full of lots of bars, golf equipment, shisha (water pipes), and inexpensive beverages. Nights out listed here are wild — the road is at all times crowded, humans get very inebriated, and photographs get passed out like sweet. It’s rowdy, however if you wish to see Hong Kong’s wilder aspect, that is where to do it.
Different Issues to See and Do in Hong Kong
Take a cooking elegance — Hong Kong is stuffed with meals. Why no longer discover ways to prepare dinner a few of it? This Hong Kong expat web page has a checklist of nineteen faculties providing categories! Costs range however be expecting to spend round 600–925 HKD in step with particular person.
Pass mountaineering — Hong Kong could also be a densely packed town, however there could also be scenic mountaineering within the outer mountains and islands. There are a large number of trails (particularly within the undeveloped portions of the New Territories). The Hong Kong tourism board lists the entire trails right here.
Discuss with Disneyland — In case you’re on a circle of relatives day out, or in case you’re a backpacker in contact along with your inside kid, head to Disneyland. Hang around with Mickey Mouse and shake palms with sea creatures. (Tickets get started at 668 HKD.)
Day day out to Macau — The playing mecca of Macau is a brief boat trip away. For as low as 175 HKD, the 60-75–minute boat trip from Hong Kong’s ferry terminal will take you to this former Portuguese colony, the place you’ll be able to wander gigantic trendy casinos, walk historical streets covered with Portuguese-inspired homes, and dine on egg tarts, a well-known native distinctiveness.
For extra, listed here are my suggestions for the 23 highest issues to do in Hong Kong.
In a town of virtually 8 million humans, there are numerous issues to peer and do. One may fill weeks exploring Hong Kong’s many islands, markets, eating places, attractions, and nightlife and nonetheless no longer see all of it. Regardless that inconceivable to condense a town so huge into 4 days, this Hong Kong itinerary will can help you revel in probably the most Hong Kong has to provide in a brief time frame!
Guide Your Go back and forth to Hong Kong: Logistical Guidelines and Methods
Guide Your Flight
Use Skyscanner to discover a reasonable flight. It’s my favourite seek engine as it searches internet sites and airways world wide so that you at all times know no stone is left unturned.
Guide Your Lodging
You’ll be able to e-book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have got the most important stock and highest offers. If you wish to keep someplace instead of a hostel, use Reserving.com as they constantly go back the most cost effective charges for guesthouses and inexpensive inns. Two of my favourite position to stick is:
For extra puts to stick in Hong Kong, this checklist has my favourite hostels in Hong Kong.
Don’t Put out of your mind Shuttle Insurance coverage
Shuttle insurance coverage will offer protection to you in opposition to sickness, harm, robbery, and cancellations. It’s complete coverage in case anything else is going flawed. I by no means move on a day out with out it as I’ve had to make use of it repeatedly prior to now. My favourite firms that supply the most efficient carrier and worth are:
On the lookout for the Absolute best Corporations to Save Cash With?
Take a look at my useful resource web page for the most efficient firms to make use of while you go back and forth. I checklist the entire ones I take advantage of to economize after I’m at the street. They’ll prevent cash while you go back and forth too.
Need Extra Knowledge on Hong Kong?
Remember to discuss with my tough vacation spot information on Hong Kong for much more making plans guidelines!