General Info for tourist to Hong Kong

For Tourist Whom are visiting Hong Kong

Transportation & Hotels....

Going to have a few batches of friends visiting Hong Kong soon and they were checking with me for a recommended itinerary for them to enjoy when they are here.

Basically Hong Kong is a heaven of many things as long as you bring enough cash to come, before i start putting up my recommendation of itinerary, i would like to share some shrt note here so that you guys can consider to mix & match on your own against my suggested itinerary.

Before i start anything, there is a very important tool that every tourist who plans to visit Hong Kong for more than 3 days must have. It is the OCTOPUS CARD!!

The Octopus Card
This is a wonderful tool to give us a cashless transaction at all public transportation, purchases at all convenient stores, even cinema tickets, and many shopping complexes.

The important thing is it gives aboout 10% discount on MTR ticket when you are travelling with the card, and also provide free MTR transit when you travel from airport by airport express

The only thing you have to pay attention is, there is a deposit of HKD50 in the card, and you can get it refund back when you return the card, a HKD7  will be retained as handling fees if your card is less than 3 months. If you will come back again within a year, i would suggest you keep your card till next trip.

You can purchase the card from the customer service counter at airport, or all MTR station, reload is available at same place above plus all convenient stores like 7-11, K-Kiosk, etc.


For Transporation to & fro airport
The are several ways for you to travel from airport to your hotels or vice versa.

• Airport Express (The express Train)

          It stopped at 3 stations only, Ching Yi, Kowloon & Hong Kong.
          Most of the major hotels especially around Hongham provide shuttle bus to their
          hotels,  but this transportation cost HKD100 per way (include free line transfer of MTR
          to your next destination)

          I personally do not favor this as the station usually is far from the hotel areas, i mean 
         those mid range hotels unless you need shorter time of travelling and it is costly,   
         walking from MTR station to the Airport express station is far even though we are
         walking underground, so it will be troublesome for those travellers with few luggages.

• City Flyer (Airport Express Bus)
• This is under City Bus company and there a a number of different rouute that they served to go different part of Hong Kong & Kowloon.
• This is the most convenient and economical way to transfer from airport to the town centre.
• It cost around HKD30 to HKD40 depending on your destinations. 
• Taxis
• Most convenient but most expensive means of transport.
• I had never try on this before, I think it cost easily HKD200 or over from airport to nearest spot in town.

Where to Stay
Hotels in Hong Kong is consider as one of the most expensive hotels in Asia. You may get cheap ones but you have to bear with the narrow space or the cleanliness of the environment. 

I had ever experience to stay in one hotel that i can't open the room door after i had my big luggage open on the floor. We have to adjust the space with our luggages whenever we move around the room.   

One of the most factor before you decide a hotel, it is betterr located near MTR station, this will help you save a lot of time & money when you are here.

• Average Budget to spend for hotel rooms on a normal season should be :
• 3 stars (about 2 to 3 stars in Malaysia) = HKD300 to HKD700 (depending on location)
• 4 stars (about 3 to 4 stars in Malaysia) = HKD600 to HKD1800 (depending on location)
• 5 stars (about 4 to 5 stars in Malaysia) = HKD1500 to HKD3000 (depending on location)
• I may be wrong on the above details but i should not be too far from it.
• Which location is best?
• For Mid Range and for shoppers :
• Kowloon area : Mongkok, Yaumatei, Prince Edward, Jordon
• Hong Kong Area : North Point, Tin Hao
• For High Range :
• Kowloon : Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok
• Hong Kong : WanChai, Causeway Bay, Admirty
• For Disneyland Tourist
• You may consider to purchase a 2D1N package with the hotelier in Disneyland before or after you finished your shopping in town, it will maximise your fun in disneyland then.

Travelling around the City
There are many kind of transportation that you can take when you move around the city.

• MTR (around HKD2.7 to HKD11?)
• Tram (HKD2.50. Hong Kong Island only, and every tourist should try at least once)
• Bus (about HKD3.7 to HKD8)
• Mini Bus (about HKD2.5 to HKD4)
• Taxis (They charge minimum from HKD16? or HKD20 cannot remember as i dont take taxi so often)

There are many books for local street map that are sold in the book shop, cost around HKD60 to HKD90, if you like to walk around on your own, you should get one for you to explore...many of it comes with MTR & bus route booklet too.


To be continue...............