What a trip to Hong Kong really costs
The cost of a trip to Hong Kong is a strange number to explain, because the city is simultaneously one of the most expensive places in Asia to sleep and one of the cheapest to eat well. Most budgets people find online average those two facts into something meaningless. This article separates them.
Everything below is land only, per person, based on two people sharing a room. It excludes international flights, because those depend entirely on where you fly from. It includes accommodation, food, local transport, entries and the guiding we would normally build in.
The four anchors we price against
These are the same figures used in our complete Hong Kong guide, because a guide and a magazine article that disagree are worse than useless.
| Style | What it looks like | Per person, per day |
|---|---|---|
| Careful | Small rooms in good locations, mostly independent days, MTR and ferries, eating where locals eat | $180 |
| Comfortable | Good four star hotels, one or two guided days, a harbour view on at least one night | $280 |
| Boutique | Design hotels, a harbour room, a private junk afternoon, restaurants booked in advance | $450 |
| Luxury | Top-tier harbour-facing hotels, private guiding and cars throughout | $750 |
Applied to the lengths that actually work:
| Style | 4 days | 5 days | 7 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Careful | $720 | $900 | $1,260 |
| Comfortable | $1,120 | $1,400 | $1,960 |
| Boutique | $1,800 | $2,250 | $3,150 |
| Luxury | $3,000 | $3,750 | $5,250 |
Notice what is missing: a fourteen day column. Hong Kong is a short trip done properly rather than a two-week destination, and a two week budget for the city alone would be a budget for repeating yourself at premium rates. Longer trips are combinations, with Macau, the outlying islands or southern China. We cover the reasoning in how many days you actually need.
Hotels, and the thing nobody says
Here is the honest framing. Accommodation is where Hong Kong money goes, and you get less physical room for it than almost anywhere else in Asia. A room that would be considered ordinary in Bangkok is a premium rate here.
That is a land problem rather than a service problem. Hong Kong is around 7.5 million people on 427 square miles (1,106 sq km), most of which is country park and hillside that will never be built on. Nobody is overcharging you. The floor area simply does not exist.
Planning ranges, per room per night for two sharing:
| Type | What you get | Per room, per night |
|---|---|---|
| Guesthouse or budget room | Very small, clean, often in a commercial building | $60 to $100 |
| Solid three star | A functional room in a good MTR district | $110 to $170 |
| Good four star | Space to open a suitcase, a decent breakfast, a lobby worth sitting in | $190 to $300 |
| Four star with a harbour view | The same room, angled at the water, priced accordingly | $280 to $420 |
| Design or boutique hotel | Small, particular, usually in Sheung Wan, Wan Chai or Tsim Sha Tsui | $300 to $500 |
| Luxury harbour-facing | The rooms people book Hong Kong for | $600 and up |
Two pieces of advice that save real money. Spend on the district rather than the square footage, because in a city this vertical the walk from your door to the MTR matters more than the size of your bathroom. And accept a city-facing room on at least some nights, because the harbour angle is frequently a third of the rate for a view you will spend forty minutes a day looking at.
Rates move with the season, with the convention calendar and with the day of the week, so every figure here is planning guidance and we confirm the live rate for your exact dates before anything is booked.
Food, which is the good news
Hong Kong is one of the few cities in the world where the best eating and the cheapest eating overlap almost completely.
- Wonton noodles at a proper shop: $4 to $7
- A cha chaan teng breakfast set, milk tea included: $4 to $6
- Roast goose or char siu over rice from a shop with the birds in the window: $6 to $10
- Dim sum lunch for two, ordered well, at a serious local house: $28 to $45
- Dim sum at one of the famous rooms with a queue: $40 to $70 for two
- A bowl of congee and a fried dough stick: $4 to $6
- Dai pai dong or cooked food centre dinner with beer: $15 to $25 a head
- Seafood at Sai Kung or Lamma, priced by weight: $35 to $70 a head
- A serious Cantonese dinner in a hotel dining room: $80 to $200 a head
A realistic daily food budget for someone eating widely and eating well is $45 to $65. You can eat superbly at $35 if you stay in the noodle shops, the roast meat counters and the cooked food centres. Above $150 a day you are eating in dining rooms that need booking weeks ahead, which is a legitimate trip and a very good one, but it is a decision rather than a default.
A ten per cent service charge is usually added at sit-down restaurants and tipping beyond that is not expected. What to order, and where, is in our dim sum and cha chaan teng guide.
Transport, which is close to free
This is the line that surprises people who have priced a European city.
| Journey | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| MTR, most journeys | $0.60 to $2.50 |
| Star Ferry across the harbour | Under $0.50 |
| Tram on Hong Kong Island, any distance | About $0.40 |
| Ferry to Lamma, Cheung Chau or Peng Chau | $2 to $5 each way |
| Airport Express to Hong Kong station | About $14 |
| Private car from the airport, two people with luggage | $70 to $95 |
| Typical taxi across Kowloon | $6 to $12 |
| Cross-harbour taxi with tunnel fee | $12 to $20 |
An Octopus card, which we have waiting for you, covers the MTR, the ferries, the trams, the buses and a great many shop counters. Budget $8 to $12 a day for all local transport unless you are taking taxis late at night, and a hire car is a mistake at any budget.
Entries and the things you pay for
Most of the good material in Hong Kong is free. Temples, markets, the promenade, the ridge walks, the ferries as sightseeing. What costs money:
- Peak Tram and the paid viewing terrace: about $10 to $20 depending on the ticket
- Ngong Ping cable car to the Big Buddha, return: $30 to $45
- Museums: mostly $1 to $4, several free
- A private junk for an afternoon, four to eight people: $700 to $1,500 for the boat
- A half day private guide: $180 to $260 for the guide, shared between your party
- Macau ferry, return: $50 to $75
Ticket prices are set by operators and move year to year, so we confirm the current number rather than asking you to trust a table written in advance.
Three complete trips, priced
The careful five days, about $900
A small room in a good Sheung Wan or Jordan location, no guiding, MTR and ferries throughout, one island day, one ridge walk, and eating at noodle shops, roast meat counters and one proper dim sum lunch.
| Line | Total |
|---|---|
| Accommodation, 4 nights | $440 |
| Food | $250 |
| Transport including airport | $85 |
| Entries and incidentals | $125 |
| Total | $900 |
Nothing is missing from this trip except space in the bedroom.
The comfortable five days, about $1,400
A good four star hotel with a harbour angle on two nights, one half day guided through the markets and temples, a Lantau day, an island lunch and dinners booked where booking is possible.
| Line | Total |
|---|---|
| Accommodation, 4 nights | $780 |
| Food | $330 |
| Transport including a private airport car | $115 |
| Guiding, half a day | $110 |
| Entries and incidentals | $65 |
| Total | $1,400 |
This is the shape of trip we build most often. It maps onto classic Hong Kong in 5 days.
The boutique five days, about $2,250
A design hotel or a harbour room, a private junk afternoon, a full day with a guide who gets you into wet markets and back streets you would not find, and dinners our partner team books by phone.
| Line | Total |
|---|---|
| Accommodation, 4 nights | $1,340 |
| Food | $460 |
| Private junk, share of boat | $190 |
| Private car and transfers | $130 |
| Guiding, one full day | $130 |
| Total | $2,250 |
Boutique Hong Kong in 5 slow days shows what that looks like hour by hour.
What actually moves the number
- The hotel, and only the hotel. Between careful and comfortable, almost the entire gap is the room. Food and transport barely move.
- The month. Late October to February is the good season and it is priced as such. Summer is cheaper because summer is hot, humid and inside typhoon season. Our month by month article has the detail.
- The harbour view. A real premium for a real thing, and worth buying on some nights rather than all of them.
- How many guided days. One changes the week. Four is money spent on a city that is easy to travel independently.
The Hong Kong dollar has been pegged to the US dollar within a narrow band for decades, which makes this the most predictable budget in Asia to plan against.
Plan this trip
Tell us your dates and the shape of trip you have in mind, and Asaf will build you a first outline with real hotels and real numbers. Free, and with no obligation.
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
- How many days do you need in Hong Kong?
- What we would skip in Hong Kong
- All our Hong Kong trips
Frequently asked questions
Is Hong Kong more expensive than Tokyo or Singapore?
Do these figures include international flights?
Can we do Hong Kong on less than $180 a day?
How much cash should we carry?
When do you confirm the actual prices?
Plan a trip to Hong Kong is a short trip done properly, not a two-week destination All Hong Kong is a short trip done properly, not a two-week destination trips
