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BookedEast Asia

Hong Kong

A vertical city with a ferry timetable

The first stop of the run, and the one I have wanted to write about properly for years. Hong Kong is dense enough that a single street can hold a wet market, a private members club and a hiking trailhead, and the whole thing is stitched together by a transport network that genuinely works.

Trip length
10 days
Language
Cantonese and English
Getting around
MTR, trams, ferries
Pairs with
Macau, one hour away

Six that earn the time

Things to see and do

  1. Ride the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour

    It costs almost nothing, takes under ten minutes, and remains the single best introduction to the shape of the city. Take it from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central at dusk, sit on the lower deck where the windows are open, and watch the towers switch on behind Kowloon. Then take it straight back the other way so you have seen both approaches.

  2. Walk the Dragon’s Back to Big Wave Bay

    A ridge trail on the eastern end of Hong Kong Island that turns a skyline city into a coastal one in about half an hour of climbing. The path is well marked, mostly shaded, and ends on a beach you can swim from. It is the clearest demonstration that this is a territory of hills and islands with a financial district attached.

  3. Eat breakfast in a cha chaan teng

    The neighbourhood diners are where the city actually eats. Milk tea strong enough to lean on, macaroni soup, scrambled egg on a bun, all served at a shared table with no ceremony at all. Order by pointing if you need to, expect to be seated with strangers, and do not linger once your cup is empty.

  4. Take the tram along the north shore end to end

    The double-decker trams have run along the same corridor for well over a century. Ride the full length upstairs at the front, from Kennedy Town out towards Shau Kei Wan, and you get a slow, street-level cross-section of the island that no photograph of the skyline will give you.

  5. Spend an evening in a street market

    Temple Street and the Mong Kok markets change character entirely after dark. Stalls fold out into the road, the food stops being incidental, and the crowd shifts from shoppers to people eating. Go hungry, go late, and treat the first pass as reconnaissance rather than shopping.

  6. Cross to an outlying island for a day

    Lamma, Cheung Chau and Peng Chau are all short ferry rides from Central and all substantially slower than the mainland districts. No cars, seafood restaurants along the waterfront, and footpaths instead of roads. One of these is the correct answer to a day when the city feels like too much.

Air and rail

How to get there

General guidance rather than specific fares, because fares change and this page does not. Check the current position before you book anything.

By air

Hong Kong International is one of the best-connected airports in Asia, with direct long-haul services from most major European, North American and Australian hubs, and short-haul links across the whole region. The Airport Express train reaches the city centre in around a quarter of an hour and runs frequently from early morning until late; airport buses are slower but cheaper and cover far more districts. Immigration is efficient, and the arrivals hall has clearly signed transport desks before you reach the exit.

By rail

High-speed rail connects Hong Kong to the mainland Chinese network from a terminus in West Kowloon, with services running north into Guangdong and onward to the long-distance network. Border formalities are handled inside the station rather than at the frontier, so allow extra time before departure and carry whatever permits your nationality requires for entering mainland China. Conventional cross-border trains and through-services also run from Hung Hom.

Once you arrive

Buy a stored-value transport card at the airport and use it for the metro, trams, buses, ferries and most convenience stores. The metro is signed in English throughout, the ferries run to a published timetable, and taxis are metered and plentiful but colour-coded by the area they serve. Almost nothing on a normal itinerary requires a car.

Planned for November 2026

When to go

October to December

Dry, mild, reliably clear

The consensus best window, and the one I have booked. Humidity finally drops, the haze clears enough that the hills are worth climbing, and evenings are comfortable outdoors. It is also the busiest stretch for hotels, so book earlier than feels necessary.

January to March

Cool, sometimes grey

Genuinely cold by subtropical standards and often overcast, but quiet and cheap. Good for museums, markets and long eating days; less good for the ridge walks, which can sit inside low cloud for days at a time.

May to September

Hot, humid, storm season

Heat and humidity are relentless and this is the typhoon window, when signals can close transport and shut the airport at a few hours’ notice. Avoid unless the dates are fixed for you, and if you do go, build slack into every connection.

Learned the hard way

Erica's tips for Hong Kong

Plan the day around the vertical, not the map

Two points can sit two hundred metres apart and still be separated by a hill, an escalator system and a footbridge network. Distances here are measured in levels as much as in blocks, so read the elevation before you assume something is walkable.

Let the ferry timetable set the pace

The most memorable parts of my itinerary are all water crossings, and they run to a schedule rather than on demand. I build each day outward from one crossing and let the rest fall around it, which stops the trip becoming a forced march between restaurants.

Carry a layer for the indoors

Air conditioning is set aggressively in malls, trains and restaurants, and the gap between a humid street and a cooled interior is large enough to be uncomfortable. A light long sleeve lives in my bag from the moment I land.