Hong Kong with children: 6 days, one hotel, short legs
Hong Kong is one of the easiest cities in Asia to travel with children and one of the hardest to book a room in. Both of those facts shape this itinerary.
- Duration
- 6 days
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Best months
- Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb
- From
- $1,680 per person
The easy part: nothing is far, the transport is clean and frequent, ferries and trams and cable cars are entertainment in themselves rather than things to be endured, the beaches are twenty minutes from the city, and the food is the kind most children will eat. Journeys are measured in minutes here, not hours, which removes the single biggest source of friction in family travel.
The hard part is accommodation. Hong Kong rooms are small and a room that genuinely fits four is expensive. We solve this by booking connecting rooms or a suite rather than pretending a standard double with a rollaway is comfortable, and by staying in one hotel for all six nights so nobody packs a bag twice.
Who it suits: families with children roughly five and up, and a first trip to Asia.
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. Private transfer with the right car seats, booked in advance. One hotel for the whole trip, on the Kowloon waterfront, with a pool and a room that actually fits everyone.
Nothing scheduled beyond the Star Ferry at dusk. It costs a few Hong Kong dollars, it takes eight minutes, and it is the best introduction the city gives anyone of any age.
Day 2: Trams, the Peak and the pool. Morning on the island. The double-decker tram from Central, upper deck, front seat, is a genuinely good half hour for children who like watching things. Then the Peak Tram, which climbs at an angle steep enough that the buildings outside the window appear to lean, and the Lugard Road loop at the top, which is flat, pushchair-friendly and takes about 45 minutes.
Back down by early afternoon and the pool for the rest of it. This is deliberate. Six days of full days does not work with children and we do not schedule it.
Day 3: One theme park, and only one. Hong Kong has two and we will help you choose rather than sending you to both.
Ocean Park is the one we recommend more often. It is a proper day out, it combines a cable car ride over the sea with an aquarium, pandas and rides, and it feels like Hong Kong. Hong Kong Disneyland is smaller than the American and Japanese parks, which cuts both ways: less walking and shorter queues, but also less in it. If your children are under seven, Disneyland. If they are over nine, Ocean Park.
Doing both is a waste of two days in a six day trip and we will say so.
Day 4: Lantau, the cable car and the Buddha. The Ngong Ping cable car is 25 minutes each way over the hills and the water, with glass-floor cabins available, and it is the single most popular thing on this itinerary with children. Go early to beat the queue.
At the top, the Tian Tan Buddha sits at the head of 268 steps, which older children treat as a challenge and younger ones do not need to attempt. Vegetarian lunch at the monastery. Afternoon at Tai O, the stilt village, with a short boat ride through the creek.
Day 5: Beach day. Hong Kong’s beaches surprise people. From November to April the water is cool but the days are good for sand and rock pools. From May to September the swimming is genuinely warm.
We use either Shek O on the south-east corner, which has a village, a beach and a good lunch, or the ferry to Cheung Chau, which is car-free, has a beach and bike hire, and lets children run in a way the city does not. A slow day, home by five.
Day 6: Markets, then departure. Depending on your flight: the goldfish and flower markets in Mong Kok, which are a strange and completely genuine hour, or the Science Museum in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is hands-on and good for a rainy morning.
Transfer to the airport, about 45 minutes.
What is included
Six nights in one hotel with connecting rooms or a family suite and breakfast, private transfers with correct car seats, Octopus cards for everyone, entry to your chosen theme park with the queue timings we would actually use, the Ngong Ping cable car, the Peak Tram, all ferry crossings, a half day guide on the Lantau day, a beach day with transfers, a day-by-day document with realistic timings and a note on where the nearest toilet and the nearest snack are at every stop, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Hong Kong partner team.
What we would change, and when
- Children under five? Cut the Peak morning and the market morning, add a second pool afternoon, and take the pushchair everywhere. The MTR is fully accessible and the buses are not.
- Travelling in July or August? We would gently suggest another month. Around 90F (32C) with heavy humidity is hard on small children, and it is typhoon season. If your dates are fixed, everything outdoors happens before ten, the theme park day moves to the coolest forecast day, and the pool earns its keep.
- Teenagers? Swap the theme park for a hiking day on the Dragon’s Back and the beach day for sea kayaking in Sai Kung.
- Eight days rather than six? Add two nights on Cheung Chau or Lamma. The change of pace from a car-free island is worth more than another city day.
Honest notes
The rooms are small. We will show you exactly what you are getting, in square metres, before you book, because a family of four in a standard Hong Kong double is a bad six nights.
Distances are short but the city is vertical, and the walk from an MTR exit to a hotel lobby can involve three escalators and a footbridge. We plan around that with young children and prams.
Summer heat is a real constraint rather than a caveat. From June to September, plan two hours of outdoor activity a day, in the morning, and mean it.
Nobody needs a guide for most of this trip. We put one on the Lantau day, where the context helps, and give you a good document for the rest.
Built by Asaf Zamshtein, who runs our China desk, and checked with our Hong Kong partner team before it goes out.
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