Hong Kong with children

What makes it easy: short journeys, transport that is entertainment in itself, beaches, safety, tap water you can drink, medical care that is excellent, and food most children will eat. What makes it hard: hotel rooms that are small for a family, streets that are vertical, and a summer climate that is genuinely punishing for small people.

Here is what works, what does not, and the four things we change.

What Hong Kong does brilliantly for children

The transport is the attraction. The Star Ferry costs less than a dollar and crosses one of the great harbours in the world on an open deck. The trams are double-deckers where the front seat upstairs is the best seat in the city. The Ngong Ping cable car runs twenty five minutes over water and hills. The Peak Tram climbs at an angle that makes the buildings look wrong. Four separate rides that a child will remember, none of which needs to be sold as sightseeing.

Everything is close. Almost nothing in this article is more than an hour from almost anything else. That single fact removes the transfers, the car seats and the long drives that wreck family days elsewhere in Asia.

There are beaches. Repulse Bay, Shek O, Big Wave Bay and the island beaches all have sand, shark nets and lifeguards in season, from roughly May to October. A morning of sightseeing and an afternoon in the sea is a workable rhythm and the one we build most.

The food is forgiving. Dim sum is finger food that arrives in small pieces, quickly, and children generally like it. Barbecue pork buns, egg tarts, wonton noodles, rice with roast meat, French toast at a cha chaan teng. Nothing is spicy by default. Our dim sum and cha chaan teng guide covers ordering.

It is safe. Very low crime, well lit, busy at all hours, and a place where a family walking back to the hotel at ten at night is entirely ordinary.

The country parks are twenty minutes away. Three quarters of the territory is undeveloped hillside, so a morning on a real trail is a bus ride rather than an expedition.

What does not work

Hotel rooms are small. This is the single biggest family issue and it is a land problem rather than a service problem. A standard room in a good hotel is tight for two adults and one child, and genuinely difficult for two children. Family rooms and connecting rooms exist but are limited in number and priced accordingly, so they need booking early. We are explicit about this in the proposal rather than letting you find out on arrival, and our cost article covers what the alternatives cost.

Summer is hard. Around 90F (32C) and humid enough that adults struggle. For children, an afternoon walking in July is not a plan. If your dates are fixed to summer we rebuild the days around water, indoor space and early starts, and we say plainly that late October to February is a different holiday.

Central is vertical. Steps, footbridges, escalators and hills. Pushchairs are workable on the MTR and along the promenades and awkward almost everywhere else on the island. For a child who is nearly walking distances but not quite, a carrier beats a pushchair here.

Crowds are real. Mong Kok at four in the afternoon is the densest few streets on earth. It is fascinating for a ten year old and overwhelming for a four year old. We put it in the morning or leave it out.

The night markets are late. Temple Street is worth it after eight, which for a young family is a decision rather than an obvious yes.

The four things we change

One hotel, always. Hong Kong is small enough that there is no reason to move a family and its luggage. One base for the whole trip, chosen for the MTR station rather than the view.

One thing a day, and an afternoon that is free. A family trip that tries to do the Peak, Lantau and Macau in four days produces four tired days. We build one anchor per day and leave the rest open, usually with a pool or a beach in it.

A day longer than the adult version. Six days rather than five, with the extra day absorbed into slower mornings rather than more content. See Hong Kong with children in 6 days.

Outdoor material scheduled around the heat. Before ten and after five from June to September, and the beach and island days placed where they can move if the observatory raises a typhoon signal.

What we would actually do, by age

Under five

Ferries, trams, parks and the beach, and very little else. Hong Kong Park with its aviary, Kowloon Park, the promenade, and the pool at the hotel. Skip the Peak, skip Lantau, keep the days to three hours of activity and take the rest slowly. Dim sum at eleven, before the room fills, works better than lunch at one.

Five to ten

The best age for this city. The cable car and the Big Buddha, with the 268 steps as a challenge rather than a chore. Ocean Park, which is a serious aquarium and zoo built into a hillside with a cable car of its own and does a better job than the theme park comparison suggests. Hong Kong Disneyland if that is your family, and we will book it without editorialising. The Science Museum in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is hands-on and excellent and a genuinely good rainy day. A ferry to Cheung Chau for a beach, a fishing village and bicycles for hire. Lamma island end to end, which is ninety minutes of easy walking with a seafood lunch at the far end.

Eleven and up

Everything above plus the walking. The Dragon’s Back is about 5 miles (8 km) of ridge with a beach at the end and it suits an eleven year old who walks. The markets become interesting rather than boring: the goldfish street, the bird garden, the paper offering shops. Add the Museum of History, which explains the whole territory in two hours, and a night on an outlying island.

A workable six day shape

Six days, one hotel, one anchor per day, and three afternoons with nothing in them. That is the whole method.

Practical notes for families

Octopus cards work for children at a reduced fare and turn every journey into a tap.

Pushchairs on the MTR are fine. Lifts exist at every station and are signed, though sometimes at the far end of a platform.

Nappies, formula and medicine are widely available in pharmacy chains across the city. Bring what you rely on in its original packaging.

Restaurants are child-friendly in practice rather than in decor. High chairs exist in larger places, less so in noodle shops. Nobody minds noise.

Tap water is safe to drink.

Medical care is excellent and English-speaking private clinics are easy to reach. Our partner team has the list and will take you there rather than sending you an address.

Your phone works normally in Hong Kong. That changes across the mainland border, and any crossing trip gets a VPN and the payment apps set up and tested before you fly, with your travel group on WhatsApp as usual and a WeChat group alongside as a local fallback.

For the wider picture of travelling in the region with a family, see Asia with children.

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Tell us your children’s ages and your dates, and Mai will build a first outline with the pace set for your family rather than for a guidebook. Free, and with no obligation.

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Keep reading

• Hong Kong: the complete guide to planning your trip
• Hong Kong month by month
• Dim sum, cha chaan teng and what to order
• What a trip to Hong Kong really costs
• Hong Kong with children in 6 days
• All our Hong Kong trips

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