After a couple of days I became resigned to deprioritizing food. Probably a mistake but we spent and extra $15/pp per night to stay on the concierge floor of a hotel with a Michelin starred restaurant thinking the food in the concierge lounge might be great.
The problem turned out to be that we were right, with dim sum and congee from their kitchen, a couple of chef’s preparing western dishes and at night free wine, beer and tapas (including Peking duck). Additionally the concierge stopped at every table, ready to provide a locals knowledge about restaurants and exploring the city.
So breakfast in the hotel every day, we don’t eat lunch and then dinner somewhere good amounted to about 7 meals.
Sigh, Maybe in the next life…but looking forward to living vicariously through your posts!
Yeah, included a room upgrade, problem was that for $30pp per day we could have eaten breakfast well at more interesting places. I recall we spent $20/pp for the best dim sum we’d ever had. In the end, I probably outsmarted myself.
We went to HK so long ago that I had to look back at my emails to figure it out (2006! Where the hell does the time go?). We loved our time there—similar with Tokyo, we didn’t plan/research much beforehand which was liberating. And we didn’t have a single bad meal, although some were more memorable than others. Every experience was interesting, some were downright comical in places where we were the only tourists and B, as the only white guy, stuck out like a sore clueless thumb. But we managed to fumble through and get delicious food. Looking forward to your trip report.
Unless one has a connection, The Chairman is one of the toughest tables to secure in town!
If unsuccessful, IMO, Tasting Court in Happy Valley offers a similar approach/menu choice. The reason being, some of their management staff were former members of the Chairman team. As such, one could find dishes like the iconic dish ’ Steamed Flower Crab with Vintage Xiao-Shing wine and chicken fat on flat rice noodles ’ being offered!
In Happy Valley, you’ll also find a delightful hidden gem ’ Hong Kong Cuisine 1983 ’ ( www.1983hkc.com ). Small, cozy and quaint place with excellent food. One of my favorite and special ’ secret '! Love their lunchtime Dim Sum Tasting Menu!
Your itinerary looks good! For a first timer lol… You’ll get the people watching at Mott 32, family style dim sum with a push cart at Maxime’s, sichuan in what seems to be a great restaurant (haven’t been), a proper local roast meat experience and so on.
The weather should be okay. What could be an issue to me, would be your location Chung Hom Kok, which means you can’t quickly go back to your place to rest or freshen up. Means you’ll be hanging out in the city a lot. This website can help with things to do, and also things like good rooftop bars to spend some lazy hours overlooking one of the most beautiful city vistas in the world (imho).
if you want to spend an afternoon lounging by an outdoor pool, with a nice bar and a view of Victoria Harbour, you could get a day pass for the Grand Hyatt hotel spa in Wan Chai (around 65 euro).
Lantau is nice (haven’t been to Macau myself), but you’ll spend some time traveling, which I’d have used instead for walking around HK neighbourhoods. Nice places I like to walk around in are 1) Wan Chai, 2) Central to Sheung Wan (around Hollywood Rd, both up and down from the street), and 3) from Kowloon Park north to Mongkok past Yau Ma Tei fruit market.
Seeing the old ladies singing classic Cantonese songs around Temple Str night market is also a fun experience!
And of course you should copy the locals and make a complete mess of your dim sum table, immediately when you sit down, pouring tea in eating bowls cleaning already clean stuff!
Location will be fine bec my visit is centered around friends and events related to them, but I have over a week to explore, so it’s not going to be rushed. (There’s a beach right down from their place, and a pool at their club, so even though I doubt I’ll take time out for water activity, I’m carrying my gear!)
They’ve organized many things to give us a sense of the place (and food!) so the rest will be me filling in gaps that appeal more to me than others (there are friends from different places converging, so while I’m focused on food and the place, some of them want museums and galleries, which I get plenty of elsewhere).
Turns out the Lantau cable car will be shut for maintenance the tail end of my trip, so I’m considering it on one of the earlier event days now — my main interest is actually Tai O fishing village, but of course I would also see the Buddha and the monastery.
I have enough time for a Macau day towards the end, but will play by ear and figure out if that appeals more or hanging out with the stragglers and covering more ground on HKI and Kowloon.
Very excited and counting down! Just figured out cellular data and downloaded a few of apps.
Oh - does anyone like or use any offline map or tourist apps?
Both are worth seeing if you have the time. As others have mentioned Macau will be a full day. It’s about an hour on the ferry. I believe you also need to go through immigration checkpoints both ways which will add to the time. Aside from the casinos there are other things worth checking out there - e.g. the ruins of St. Paul’s church, Lou Kao Mansion which is the house of a former merchant, the Sun Yat Sen House, the Portuguese inspired architecture. And also food, like po tat / Portuguese style dan tat, pork chop sandwich, etc. Bak kwa, which is kind of a sweet jerky, and almond cookies are popular items to try or take back.
Seeing the big Buddha is a nice activity on Lantau Island - be aware that there are a lot of steps to the top!
Ah, by the way, I did not mean to be negative about your location, I actually think it’s also wonderful that you get to experience a part of HK not many of us have! Beach and swimming sounds wonderful…
Anyway, off line maps… In HK as well as in many other parts of Asia, you can just buy a local sim card for tourists and have fast internet wherever you are, for maybe 10-15 euro for a week depending on internet speed. I really can’t go without internet there… Registration is a bit more complex than say in Thailand, so you may want to have it done for you at the airport, for example at the China Mobile shop. See also this clip.
I bought one already - it should activate when I land. New to me, and quite liberating! Now off to get a physical guidebook, because sometimes you need the real thing!
We’ve used Airalo in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, worked well at 4g speeds at reasonable prices. Download and setup the app before your trip. You’re set to go online as soon as you land, just a couple of simple tweaks on your phone’s settings to hook up with HKmobile.
For Hong Kong (as of today):
10GB $19/30 days
5GB $12/30 days
3 GB $8.50/30 days
2GB $7/15 days
1GB $4.50/7 days
On business trips, I use T-mobile international plan as phone calls are included in the data plan. $50 for 15GB, 30 days. Unlimited phone calls (domestic and international) and texting.
As already suggested upthread, an Octopus card comes in very handy. For most of your transportation needs, and for ez payment at 7-11’s and restaurants and stores.
ETA. I just noticed you already got the sim. Airalo is a very good method also, for future reference.
Thank you. Wondering if it makes sense to find a day tour for Macau. But I’ll wait and see till it gets closer as I may be all touristed out by then and just happy to hang out and wander and eat new things with the remaining folks still in town.
Bought my first Airalo eSIM for my upcoming trip to Spain . $16 CAD for 5gb for 15 days and top up looks easy enough if needed. My last trip to Europe cost me over $100 in roaming fees alone
Here’s an idea. Book your last night at a Macau hotel.
Take the ferry direct from Macau to HKIA the next day for your flight. You can check in for your flight at the Macau Ferry Terminal and check your luggage all the way through back to the States. This is a seamless way to get to HKIA without having to sweat lugging your luggage to the airport.
All (most?) of the casinos are in the Cotai area. Macau takes in more gambling money than all of Vegas.
Macau has many pleasant non-casino areas to walk and soak in the Portugese Asian atmosphere. Love that much of the signage is in both Portugese and Chinese. Oh yeah, great food also!!!
Better regional Chinese options? Nah.
For that, I’d recommend a hop to its mainland neighbor, Shenzhen. Now, if you have a U.S. passport, that’s an expensive visa for a day trip, but Shenzhen is the place to visit for regional Chinese.
In Hong Kong, things just cost that much more, for inferior – and often sweeter – versions of the real McCoy.
O.K. … I’m not a fan of HK. Yes, yes, there’s some hiking in the New Territories, and I wax nostalgic for Sundays in Causeway Bay (that’s the Indonesian center of town). But for food, I’m either at Chungking Mansion (for West African/South Asian bites), the aforementioned Indonesian area, or on a train to/from Shenzhen.
Traveling to the mainland has become easier it seems. The HK train system is now linked to the mainland through fast bullet trains departing from West Kowloon train station. Going to Guangzhou takes less than 60 minutes and costs around 30 USD. Then you can sample foods like this.
Same goes for Jieyan/Chaoshan (3 hours from West Kowloon, also 30 USD).
Never been outside of HK myself, only Shanghai on the mainland. But apparently the Chinese government has granted my country free visa until the end of 2025 (despite the current European tariffs on electric cars from China!), so who knows maybe next year I could be doing this!
You’ll get the people watching at Mott 32, family style dim sum with a push cart at Maxime’s, sichuan in what seems to be a great restaurant (haven’t been), a proper local roast meat experience and so on.
In HK as well as in many other parts of Asia, you can just buy a local sim card for tourists and have fast internet wherever you are, for maybe 10-15 euro for a week depending on internet speed. I really can’t go without internet there… Registration is a bit more complex than say in Thailand, so you may want to have it done for you at the airport, for example at the China Mobile shop. See also 
. $16 CAD for 5gb for 15 days and top up looks easy enough if needed. My last trip to Europe cost me over $100 in roaming fees alone 
