Here we’ve tried to brainstorm some useful tips and bits of information which we learnt from our first visit to Hong Kong, and which might help you with your trip. We’ve done a full planning vlog which I’ve linked below, but we’ve covered our key pointers here.
Arrival and Departure
Hong Kong airport is located out on Lantau island to the west of the city. Its around a 30 minute drive from here into the city itself, or if you’re staying at Disneyland this is almost right next door so is only 10 minutes away. You can pre-book transfers yourself online through a tour provider. For us, we’d booked our flights and accommodation through Kuoni so they arranged these for us in a private taxi so this all ran like clockwork.
Costs
We booked a package through Kuoni for our trip, given it was our first time visiting Hong Kong. Now we’ve visited though we’d be comfortable booking the trip independently. General costs were fairly reasonable. We found the local food to be really reasonably priced, with the western food coming at more of a premium. Taxis were pretty cheap, and tourist attractions were pretty reasonable too, so on balance a more affordable place to travel compared to the west.
Hotels
We enjoyed amazing stays at both hotels, but did have a bit of an issue with the sleeping arrangements at the Shangri-la Kowloon in that it didn’t have the 4 beds we expected. We’ve subsequently found when we’ve been planning trips in Asia that it is fairly common for hotels to assume families will share beds rather than everyone having their own bed. Therefore be careful to check the sleeping arrangements whenever you’re booking a room, particularly if you’re a family.
Cash or card
We tend to always use credit cards while we’re away to build up our airmiles and as you’d expect for a major city, basically everywhere took credit cards. The only real exception we found was taxis where the drivers generally wanted cash. We did find that a lot of places advertised American Express but then it never worked, so make sure you have a Visa or Mastercard with you as well. A lot of places also take the Octopus card, so if you’ve got money loaded on here you can use this, but you need cash to pre-load the card. For this reason its worth making sure you have a healthy amount of cash with you – we probably spent around £250 in cash in total during the week.
Octopus card
Octopus cards are similar to Oyster cards in London, in that it’s a payment card for local public transport which you use to tap in and out, but it can also be used at a lot of shops around the city. There’s a number of different ways you can buy an Octopus card. The easiest way is to download the app, but as we’re a family of 4 and we don’t all have phones we weren’t sure how this would work. We decided to buy individual cards for all of us which cost £65 for the 4 of us but came pre-loaded with a chunk of money so the actual cards themselves didn’t cost much. Family tickets weren’t available for purchase at the tourist information centre and they sent us to the Octopus booth on pier 6 on Hong Kong island to buy these. I believe you can buy them at the airport on arrival which probably would have been easier on reflection. Either way once we had them they worked really well.
Public transport
The main system is called the MTR which is an under and over ground train system and is far and away the best public transport system we’ve ever used. Again we downloaded the app which was useful for planning journeys and this was really easy to use. We found the system covered the city very well and was really affordable. The trains ran regularly, they were very clean and well kept and we always felt safe wherever we went. You can’t eat or drink on trains, and there are fines for this, but its probably why its so well kept. The stations themselves can be pretty big and spread out under the city, with numerous numbered entries and exits and this can have a big impact on where you exit into the city. As well as the MTR you’ve also got the overground trams or ‘ding dings’ and the Star Ferry – so lots of options to get around.
Food
This was one of the main things we were apprehensive about, given we were travelling with young kids, who are picky eaters at the best of times. We found it generally worked out really well. Most of the time we could find western food if we wanted it – although Disneyland was actually a little harder for this. We did try the local food sometimes and the kids were happy with the plainer chicken and rice based dishes. We didn’t try anything too out there – we’re not foodies and so just ate where and when was easiest rather than searching out anything in particular. In terms of options for vegetarians these weren’t wonderful but maybe we were just unlucky. We also found it difficult for allergies – Greg is gluten free – and the menus weren’t generally marked so this was a bit harder work with a bit of a language barrier and sometimes we had to wing it and make an educated guess. This was just about ok for us but someone with say a serious nut allergy may have struggled a bit more.
Jet Lag
Travelling east remember you’re going to lose time on the way out but gain it on the way back. For example we booked a flight out at around 11am – but didn’t arrive into Hong Kong until around 7am the next morning as Hong Kong is 8 hours ahead. However on the way back, we flew at around 1am but arrived back into Manchester later that day as we’d gained 8 hours flying back west. All of this means your departure time can have a significant impact on your arrival time and how the jet lag impacts you.
Generally we’ve found returning from east to west is much easier to adjust – you tend to find you’re getting up earlier and going to sleep earlier for a few days, although this fits nicely with getting back into the school/work routine. However arriving can be rough, unless you can sleep well on the plane you arrive in the morning, potentially having missed a night’s sleep and so that first day can be a bit of a write off. It then takes a few days of late mornings and late nights before your body can adjust to the new time zone.
Apps
We downloaded a couple before we went that we found useful. The best two were the MTR and Observatory apps for the public transport and weather. We also downloaded the Hong Kong SOS app for emergencies but thankfully never had to use it. We did download the Symphony of Lights app. This lets you listen to the music as you watch the light show in the city – we planned to use it from our hotel room as we had a harbour view but never got around to it. We downloaded a toilet buddy app to help with toilets while we were out and about but we never needed to use this as all the tourist attractions, malls, restaurants had toilets. We did read that not all of them have paper, so we ended up carrying a toilet roll around in our backpack all week but again never needed it! The Klook app was great for booking some of our activities, the Cathay Pacific app was great for checking in and storing our boarding passes, and then we also downloaded the K11 mall app to get some wifi and to find our way around a little better.
Weather
We visited in October with this being billed as one of the best times to visit with it being generally warm and dry. Hong Kong does have a typhoon season which we were at the very tail end of. We found it to be pretty hot – high 20s or low 30s. It did rain a little here and there but nothing major, so it was generally pretty comfortable and a good time to visit. There was a typhoon warning while we were there and we made sure to download the app ‘My Observatory’ and sign up for alerts before we went. We found this to be really helpful with weather forecasts and information on the typhoon. We also found there were different alert levels and the hotel we were staying at, the Shangri-la Kowloon, put a useful note under our door to warn us of the potential for bad weather but fortunately it never materialised.
Safety
Whenever we travel somewhere, and particularly with the kids, safety is a key issue for us. We were pleased to find Hong Kong to be a fantastic place, where we always felt safe and welcome. Because of the jet lag we were out and about pretty late most evenings, and even walking about on a Saturday night in the city didn’t feel unsafe. We didn’t notice many people out drinking and it was a very nice and friendly atmosphere. We did find you were watched pretty carefully in shops but didn’t notice any shoplifting or pickpocketing or anything, but of course we were careful as we usually are when travelling. One thing to note is that Eva as a young blond girl did get a lot of attention with people wanting to have their picture taken with her but this was all good natured and friendly so wasn’t an issue for us.
Entry requirements
For UK citizens on a short holiday it was really easy – we didn’t need visas or any special arrangements. Obviously check at the time you travel to check the requirements applicable to you, but it was very hassle free and easy. We did notice them doing temperature spot checks at arrivals, which we weren’t expecting, but we weren’t stopped and wizzed through.
Opening times
We were surprised to find things were only generally open 10am to 10pm. You might not think this would be a problem but for the first few days when we were jet lagged and awake late this was something we had to keep in mind.
Taxis
We did use taxis here and there and were able to flag them down when needed. They were pretty good value so were a handy option. Generally we found the drivers didn’t speak that much English and wanted paying in cash but given they’re pretty cheap this wasn’t an issue. They’re also not afraid to cram luggage in, even if the boot doesn’t close, so be prepared for that.
Language and signage
We found everything was both in English and Chinese and so we never had any issues reading anything or finding our way around. Basically everyone could speak some English, to varying degrees. Taxi drivers for example tended not to speak a great deal, enough to get by, whereas people working in say hotels and restaurants were more fluent. All in all though we never had any issues communicating.
Health
There were a few things that we thought about before we visited – mainly around vaccinations. None of what we say here is health advice – we’re just passing on our experiences and what we decided to do. You should consult with your doctor and on the NHS website to see what’s best for you personally and your circumstances. For us, we checked the NHS site which directed us to Travel Health Pro. This basically just suggests being up-to-date on the usual UK jabs, plus Tetanus, so nothing particularly onerous at least. There’s more information on the website and we always find it really helpful to read this before we travel anywhere.