Hong Kong SAR · Hong Kong Island & Kowloon
Plan your Hong Kong trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
Central & Sheung Wan
Best for first-timers who want the harbour, the Peak and the best food density on one side of the waterThe financial core and the older trading district beside it — towers and elevated walkways giving way to dried-seafood shops, antique dealers and hillside lanes full of small restaurants. Everything is walkable or one escalator away.
iclub Sheung Wan Hotel
Sheung Wan prices meaningfully below Central for a five-minute walk difference, and puts the Macau ferry terminal and the tram line on your doorstep.
$$$The Putman
Being on the Mid-Levels Escalator route means the whole hillside of restaurants is a two-minute walk downhill. Ask for a room away from the escalator itself, which runs until midnight.
$$$Tsim Sha Tsui
Best for the classic skyline view and easy access to both sides of the harbourKowloon's waterfront district, facing the island skyline across the harbour. Museums, the promenade, high-end shopping on Canton Road and the chaotic guesthouse economy of Chungking Mansions all within a few blocks.
Kowloon Shangri-La
This is the one Hong Kong view genuinely worth paying for. Confirm the room actually faces the harbour rather than being a 'partial view' at the same price.
$$$$The Kimberley Hotel
Ten minutes' walk from the promenade at a fraction of the waterfront rate, with the Star Ferry and two MTR lines equally close.
$$Wan Chai & Causeway Bay
Best for repeat visitors, eating well without markups, and staying where people actually liveWorking island neighbourhoods east of Central — a proper wet market, old tenements, the Star Street boutiques, and then Causeway Bay's wall of department stores and late-night restaurants.
Kew Green Hotel Wanchai
Puts the tram, the MTR, the Wan Chai ferry pier and one of the island's best cooked food centres within a few minutes' walk.
$$Little Tai Hang
A quiet low-rise pocket behind Causeway Bay with good coffee and small restaurants, and Victoria Park between you and the shopping crowds.
$$Kennedy Town & Sai Ying Pun
Best for longer stays and travellers who would rather live somewhere than sightsee from itThe island's western end, connected to the MTR only since 2014 and still finding its balance between old shophouses and new waterfront bars. Sunsets over the container terminals, and almost no tourists.
Oasis Aurum 181 Hotel
Fifteen minutes on the MTR to Central, more space than the same money buys downtown, and a genuine neighbourhood at street level.
$$Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
Victoria Peak and the Lugard Road circuit
The 552-metre high point above Central, reached by the 1888 funicular Peak Tram, with the most famous view in the territory: towers stacked below,…
Tip Skip the paid Sky Terrace. Walk the flat Lugard Road loop instead — same view, better angles, one hour, free.
The Star Ferry
A green-and-white passenger ferry that has crossed Victoria Harbour between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central since 1888, still running as a working commuter…
Tip Cross at dusk on the upper deck, Kowloon-bound, and again at night in the other direction. It is the cheapest great view in Asia and takes eight minutes.
Tai Kwun, Central
The former Central Police Station, magistracy and Victoria Prison, restored into an exceptionally good arts and heritage complex — colonial-era…
Tip Free to enter. Combine it with PMQ and the Mid-Levels Escalator two minutes away, and go on a weekday when the courtyards are quiet.
Man Mo Temple, Sheung Wan
An 1847 temple to the gods of literature and war, its ceiling hung with enormous spiralling incense coils that burn for weeks and fill the interior…
Tip Go early morning when worshippers rather than photographers are inside. Hollywood Road's antique shops and the Cat Street stalls are directly outside the door.
Sham Shui Po street markets
Apliu Street's sprawling electronics and junk market, plus entire blocks devoted to fabric, buttons, beads and computer parts, in the district that…
Tip Come hungry mid-morning. The cheap noodle shops, tofu pudding stalls and cart-noodle counters here are better than anything at three times the price on the harbourfront.
Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery, Lantau
A 34-metre bronze Buddha seated on a hilltop above 268 steps, reached by the Ngong Ping 360 cable car over the mountains and coastline of Lantau…
Tip Book the cable car online for a timed slot and take the glass-floored Crystal Cabin one way.
Dragon's Back trail
A ridge walk on the island's southeast corner with sea views on both sides, ending at the beach village of Shek O — the clearest demonstration that…
Tip Two to three hours at an easy pace, well signposted, no equipment needed. Finish with a swim and a meal in Shek O, then take bus 9 back to Shau Kei Wan MTR.
A wet market and its cooked food centre
Municipal markets stack live seafood, butchery and produce on the lower floors with a canteen of independent stalls above — the everyday engine of…
Tip Bowrington Road in Wan Chai and Java Road in North Point are the easiest first visits. Cash only, no English menus at some stalls, and worth pointing at whatever the…
Day trips from Hong Kong
Macau
An hour by ferry from Sheung Wan or Tsim Sha Tsui, or by bus across the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge.
Day tripTai O, Lantau Island
A stilt-house fishing village on Lantau's western edge, built over tidal creeks and hung with drying salted fish.
Day tripSai Kung and the eastern peninsula
Hong Kong's outdoor quarter, an hour from Central by bus and minibus. A seafood-restaurant waterfront where you choose your fish from the tank,…
Day tripCheung Chau
A car-free dumbbell-shaped island 35 minutes by ferry from Central, with a tight harbour full of fishing boats, a beach, seafood grills and an easy…
Day tripEverything to do in Hong Kong
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around a city built upwards
Buy an Octopus card in the first ten minutes. It is a stored-value contactless card sold at any MTR customer service counter and at the airport, and it pays for the metro, buses, trams, ferries, minibuses, convenience stores, most cha chaan tengs, vending machines and a surprising number of market stalls.
Flights
Compare fares into Hong Kong and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from Hong Kong
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.