You will probably spend only a few days in Hong Kong so allocating your time wisely is of paramount importance to fully enjoy this vibrant city. While here are the major attractions, the city’s offerings go beyond the usual activities with hiking at deserted beach, staying overnight in an island, getting to know more local heritage and more!
Article by: Michael Tsang, the founder of Hong Kong Free Tours
This has to be number one because this is every bit of Hong Kong you would expect from a picture frame. Most people visit the place with Peak Tram as it is the historic transportation since 1888, you should expect to wait up to two hours before you get up to the peak. We recommend going there before 2pm as there is a scenic road called The Peak Circle Walk. This is a 3.5 kilometres paved walk that gives you changing view of Victoria Harbour as you walk around the Victoria Peak. This walk is free versus an HKD 50 charge to access the Sky Terrace 428!
“It’s complicated” is probably the best phrase to describe the love/hate emotions the locals feel towards the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery. We recommend visiting Big Buddha first thing in the morning as it can easily make into a full day trip if you also plan to combine Tai O fishing village as part of your visit. Bus 21 will get you to Tai O in 15 minutes (from Ngong Ping) but their service interval could be more than one hour. You should not miss the historic stilt house and the sunset at Fu Shan panoramic view while you are there. Bus 11 from Tai O will get you back into the city so you should only purchase one way ticket for your Ngong Ping 360 cable car.
Here is where you can see the famous Symphony of Light faithfully displayed every day at 8pm and the spectacular Victoria Harbour. The best location to view the light show is the terrace right next to the Star Ferry pier where they will also play music to synchronize with the laser show. There have been many water/laser/light/drones shows developed around South East Asia since the Symphony of Light first developed in 2004, hence the show no longer impresses as much tourists as in the early days. Best time to visit is before sunset time to see the both the day/night view.
We don’t quite understand why but ladies market is clearly a popular destination for tourists around the world. Simply put, ladies market is nothing more than a place to get knock off, cheap T-shirts, souvenir etc. and you can spend less than 30 minutes there if you are not a shopaholic. However, there are places in Hong Kong you can go if you are looking for specific items like electronics, suits, fake watches, fashion, jade, food; just that it is not in ladies market. Make sure you don’t visit there until after lunch as the shops won’t open this early in Hong Kong. Check out our advice on how to bargain should you decide to purchase a few things in ladies market.
We don’t think anyone would contest if one puts an equal sign between “Hong Kong Nightlife” and “Lan Kwai Fong”. Other than the countless bars in LKF, there are a few things you should not miss while visiting there. Hong Kong Pub Crawl runs a weekly pub crawl in Lan Kwai Fong which allows you to buy HKD 20 beers or HKD 30 cocktail even after happy hour ends (beer costs upward of HKD 80 there). Soho is an area west of Lan Kwai Fong which is equally lively at night but it is a bit more for friends gathering rather than clubbing.
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