Classic Hong Kong in 5 days: the city, the water and one hill
Five days is the length we build most often, and it is the length Hong Kong deserves. Four would work. Six would be comfortable. Twelve would be a mistake, and we would tell you so before you booked.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 1
- Best months
- Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb
- From
- $1,400 per person
What five days buys you is the ability to do things at the hour they are good at rather than the hour your schedule reached them. That is the whole trick here. The Peak at four in the afternoon is a different place from the Peak at eleven in the morning. The Star Ferry at dusk is a different crossing from the Star Ferry at noon. Sham Shui Po before nine is a working market and after two is a shopping street.
Two hotels, one on each side of the harbour, so you get both cities. One full day on the water, one full day on Lantau, and two afternoons with nothing in them.
Who it suits: first visits, couples, and anyone using Hong Kong as a stopover they would rather do well than fast.
Your specialist: Asaf Zamshtein, who runs our China desk, with our Hong Kong partner team on the ground.
A note on who is on the ground. Our own offices are in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. Hong Kong is not one of them. We run this route through a Hong Kong partner team we have worked with for years, and we would rather name them than imply an office we do not have.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive, Kowloon side. Private transfer or the Airport Express, depending on your landing hour and your luggage. Nothing scheduled. We put you within ten minutes of the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront for the first two nights, because the view of the island belongs to this side of the water.
Late afternoon, walk the promenade. Cross on the Star Ferry as the light goes, on the open lower deck, and come back the same way. It costs a few Hong Kong dollars and it is the best introduction the city has.
Day 2: Hong Kong Island, and the Peak at the right hour. A guided morning through Sheung Wan and Central on foot: the dried seafood and herbal medicine streets on Des Voeux Road West, Man Mo Temple in the first hour after it opens while the incense coils are still the loudest thing in the room, the ladder streets, and the Mid-Levels escalator, which is genuinely public transport rather than a novelty.
Lunch, then the afternoon is yours. The tram east from Central, upper deck, front seat, is a slow hour and worth it.
Late afternoon, up to the Peak. We time this so you arrive with roughly an hour of daylight left. Walk the Lugard Road loop first, which is flat, free, quiet and has better views than the paid terrace, then take the terrace or a bar for the switch-on. If your day is hazy or the hill is in cloud, our team tells you in the morning and we move this to another evening. A grey Peak is a queue with nothing at the end of it.
Day 3: Lantau, the Buddha and Tai O. Out early, because this is the one day where the queue is real. The Ngong Ping cable car takes about 25 minutes over the hills and the water, and the plateau at the top holds the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin monastery. The monastery serves a good vegetarian lunch.
Afternoon at Tai O, the stilt village on the western tip of the island, where the houses stand on poles over a tidal creek and the shops sell dried fish in quantities that suggest a different century. Slow, weathered, and the part of the day people remember.
Back across, and the second hotel: we move you to the island side, Sheung Wan or Wan Chai, for the last three nights.
Day 4: A day on the water. The reason this is a five day itinerary rather than a four day one. A private boat out through the eastern waters to Sai Kung, with swimming stops at the beaches around Tai Long Wan and a look at the hexagonal rock columns in the geopark, then lunch at a Sai Kung seafood restaurant where you pick the fish from the tank.
If your dates are cool or the sea is unfriendly, the alternative is Cheung Chau by public ferry: a fishing island with no cars, a good two hour walk around its edges, and the best seafood lunch of the trip.
Day 5: Kowloon markets, then departure. Depending on your flight, either a slow morning or a real one. Sham Shui Po before nine is the last genuinely unpolished part of urban Hong Kong, a working market district of fabric, electronics, dried goods and some of the best cheap eating in the territory. Wong Tai Sin temple and the Chi Lin Nunnery and its garden are ten minutes apart on the same MTR line and are both better early.
Transfer to the airport, about 45 minutes.
What is included
Accommodation with breakfast throughout in two hotels chosen by district, private airport transfers both ways, Octopus cards ready on arrival, a licensed English-speaking guide for the Sheung Wan and Central morning and for the Lantau day, the Ngong Ping cable car, the private boat day in Sai Kung with lunch, all ferry crossings, a day-by-day document written around the hours with everything in written Chinese for taxi drivers, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Hong Kong partner team for the whole trip.
What we would change, and when
- Travelling June to September? We flip the days. Outdoor mornings start at seven, the middle of the day goes indoors, and the boat day moves to the end of the trip so it can be shifted if a typhoon signal goes up. We also tell you honestly that it is not the season we would choose.
- March or April? Fog. We keep the Peak flexible, put more weight on the markets, the museums and the food, and accept that Lantau may be in cloud.
- Only four days? Cut the water day and keep everything else. Do not cut Lantau.
- Seven days? Add Macau for two nights, or a hiking day. See Hong Kong hiking and islands in 7 days.
- Chinese New Year in your dates? We plan it deliberately. The city is at its most itself and many family-run restaurants close for several days. We will tell you which effect you are getting.
Honest notes
Your hotel room will be smaller than the price suggests. That is a land problem rather than a service problem, and it is why we spend your money on the district instead of the square footage.
The Symphony of Lights at 8pm is modest. The harbour at 8pm is not. Watch the harbour and treat the show as a bonus.
Temple Street night market is smaller and more ordinary than the guidebooks imply. Go for the food stalls after eight rather than for shopping, or skip it.
Hong Kong is one of the easiest cities in Asia to travel independently, so we give you a guide on two days and a good document for the other three. We would rather do that than sell you five days of guiding you do not need.
Built by Asaf Zamshtein, who runs our China desk, and checked with our Hong Kong partner team before it goes out.
Related
Shape this trip around us All Hong Kong is a short trip done properly, not a two-week destination trips
