Hong Kong Travel Tips

Hi, there… I’ll be writing the tips based on my own experiences. I myself have visited Hong Kong many times and this year I’d been to Hong Kong for 2 times and will travel again next month. Although I travelled there many times already, I sometimes can still get lost in the MTR many color-coded lines and get confused on which exit to get out to from the MTR station.
So, here are the useful tips for all you folks planning to go there:

1. Once you get your luggage, you need to decide how you want to get to your hotel. You can go either by taxi or train. You take taxi with one of these conditions:
   1. you bring lots of suitcases and may be a golf bag too, 2. you are travelling 4 people or more. Recent trip that I took from Airport to Tsim Sha Tsui Hotel cost me about HKD 450, it’s actually cheaper than taking train. My group consisted of 4 adults, 3 small suitcases, 1 medium suitcase and 1 golf bag. Please note that if you take train, you still need to take taxi to your hotel from the airport express station. In the end, you could pay the same amount as taking taxi, wasting more time and more energy to drag your suitcases. But, if you don’t meet all the above conditions and would like to experience taking the train, find a nearby customer service counter. You could find the nearby counter once you exit the baggage reclaim hall. You could also buy it online here in advance if you wish http://www.mtr.com.hk/ adults and children tickets are priced equally. Good tip: Any purchase of 4 tickets is discounted at the counter, but you pay regular fares from the ticket machine. I also would recommend that while you are at the counter, you buy an octopus card at HKD 150 for easy travel.
2. Pick up the Hong Kong maps in the airport; it’s available for free at the customer service counter.
3. You must be careful when getting a taxi, make sure you Q in the right lane. Sometimes they separate the Q lines for Hong Kong island destination and Kowloon. But if they don’t, make sure before you get in, you tell the taxi driver which island you want to go to and if they don’t mind driving you there. Taxi can be easily hailed in Hong Kong. But it can be hard to get one during peak hours and it also depends on where you are at that moment.
   
   
   
4. For those who stay in Tsim Sha TSui (TST) or Kowloon area, you must be careful with your belonging and ignore unknown people that come to approach and talk to you. Just don’t even look at them, and they’ll stop pestering you. I encountered with many of them during my stay at the TST area. I have no idea what they are offering and don’t even want to know. There are plenty of Chinese stores in TST. If you need to buy gifts to bring back home from there, such as Chinese medicines or oil, make sure you negotiate. Please, note also that TST small mom and pop restaurants are quite pricey. They sometimes don’t even put prices on their menu. So if you don’t speak and read Chinese like me, you better avoid it and choose a bigger, well known and proper restaurant to avoid being scammed.
5. For those commuting with MTR, having Octopus card will save your time. You can refund the card at the end of your trip and get the stored value money. Hong Kong has many MTR lines, make sure you remember the color of the lines you want to go to, in that way, your lost time can at least be minimized - Don’t hesitate to ask, but not all residents in Hong Kong are able to speak English.
   My tip: look for a young professionally looking kind of person, their chance to be able to speak English is higher than approaching an old lady or man. There are many expatriates that are working in Hong Kong for years, they should be able to help you and English should be their most fluent language in that country.
   
   
   
6. There are many places to go in Hong Kong. It all depends on your stay duration. But I usually go mainly for shopping and good food. The places I like to go for shopping are Causeway Bay area, IFC mall, Pacific Place and Elements in Kowloon.
7. For good food, there is tons of it in Hong Kong. But for easy access, go to the hotel concierge and ask them for recommendation. They are usually good at pointing a nice and proper one. Another tip is to look for restaurants with long queue; usually they are either good or cheap.
8. If you bring children, you definitely must visit Disneyland and the Peak Tram. The latter brings you all the way to the Peak and from there you can view the whole Hong Kong Island. The viewing is under the condition if the weather is clear. I went there during winter and it was quite foggy, so I can’t see any view at all. So, I ended up at the Madame Tussauds museum and had some snacks in one of the cafes. Both places are famous for its long queue, so wear your most comfortable shoes.
9. Few days before you leave your country, I’d recommend that you check the weather forecast. You can prepare your clothing or gears beforehand for the weather. The website I recommend is http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm . Hong Kong is basically good to visit at any times of days.
10. Last tip, if you or your children happen to get sick during the trip, just go to any hospital nearby and go to its emergency unit. The cost is reasonable and affordable. Please be warned that private clinics are very expensive, unless you have insurance to cover it. 

Hope my tips are useful. Happy Holiday!

Tweet