Welcome to Hong Kong!

Sailing on the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour towards the bright lights of central Hong Kong, this bustling and buzzy Asian city takes the breath away. But what is the reality of visiting such a hectic, high-rise metropolis with two young children? What are 4 days in Hong Kong with kids really like?

After two months in Thailand (South Islands, Chanthaburi and Pattaya) and Vietnam, arriving in Hong Kong initially felt incredibly refreshing. Our very first day was cold and drizzly. Just like home back in the UK! Everything from the street signs to the plug sockets – legacies of the colonial era – reminded us of Britain. Ex-pats in suits walked briskly along the paved sidewalks and there was an air of efficiency and cleanliness. 4 days in Hong Kong with kids will be a breeze, I thought.

Fast forward until the end of our short trip to Hong Kong and I’m happy to eat my own words. With two young children in the centre of an incredibly crowded city, our stay wasn’t a breeze but it was still great fun, rewarding and I can’t wait to go back without a stroller!

Hong Kong with kids can be challenging due to:

People, people, people…

There are crowds everywhere. You don’t really just walk down the street but you are forced to dodge and weave. Getting from one end of a city street to the other is like an obstacle course: weaving around slow walking elderly people, hitting a ‘red man’ at every crossing and veering around stationary groups of Chinese tourists. It’s frustrating enough but add a toddler laden stroller plus a dawdling four-year-old into the mix and the crowds were painful at times during our 4 days in Hong Kong with kids.

Lack of Insider knowledge

Many Brits seem to travel to Hong Kong to visit friends or relatives. Or travel there for work. This time (Rhino and I had both been before) the only person we knew was out-of-town. We got lost several times in the maze of underground subway tunnels and walkways. Despite having a Lonely Planet, we struggled to find good, cheap eating places. Like London or Paris, Hong Kong definitely feels like the kind of place where a little bit of local knowledge goes a lot further than anything a guidebook can tell you.

Indifferent (unfriendly?) attitude towards children

Previously in South-East Asia, our children have been lavished by attention from passers-by and waiting staff. To be honest, it was a little bit too much at times but generally, people in Thailand and Vietnam were very family-orientated and would go out of their way to entertain and accommodate our children.

Conversely, Hong Kong is a big city which is crowded and the residents are continuously in a rush. To put it simply, the vibe we got was that our tourist children were an inconvenience to everyone else. People ignored them (fine), glared at them (less fine…), told them off (rude!!) and generally looked annoyed that we were bringing children into their personal space.

That said, the government seems to be setting up the city to be very child-friendly. Every bathroom had child-size sinks and toilets, every park a great play area.  There are lots of great child-friendly activities (see below), it’s just that we weren’t made to feel that welcome during our 4 days in Hong Kong with kids.

Expensive food

We were surprised the first time we looked at a menu (in an ordinary mid-range restaurant) and realised that each main course was going to set us back at least £25. Yep, a simple lunch for four continuously came in at about £70. Not really good value when meal-times are a constant battle to keep the little ones entertained. And hard to take on top of the expensive accommodation costs for a family.

So we learnt to share, to eat takeaway meals in our hobbit box (sorry, multi-roomed, spacious apartment) and resort to fast food to save a bit of money. There were some fantastic local options like the popular café opposite our apartment where we ate three times (HK-style English breakfast for £3 a head).  Unfortunately, the staff looked less and less happy to see us each time we went in. However, it was open nearly all the time and with the same staff, so I’m not sure they had time to sleep let alone smile!

Tiny spaces

Hong Kong has an incredibly high population density and is therefore super-crowded (I think I might have mentioned that already…). We were lucky in that after hours and hours of internet searching we found a two bedroom flat in Wan Chai that we booked through AirBnB.com. It cost around £100 a night which was actually a bargain, but there wasn’t room to swing the proverbial cat. It had five rooms (kitchen, bathroom, living room and 2 bedrooms) all squeezed into the space of a large double bedroom. It gave us an authentic taste of home-life in Hong Kong. Clothes hanging from windows, box rooms and kitchens so close to one another that you can almost taste your neighbours’ cooking in the air. A bit poky and noisy with two little ones in there though…

That said our little apartment was a peaceful haven from the busyness down on the streets below. Everywhere in Hong Kong was tiny – every café MINUTE, every shop CRAMPED, every elevator FULL TO CAPACITY – you were permanently squeezed into small, sweaty spaces with strangers. No wonder people struggled to smile at our boisterous, noisy children during our 4 days in Hong Kong with kids.

Finding this interesting? Need a guidebook? We used this guidebook throughout our 4 days in Hong Kong with kids, which included the Hong Kong highlights below.  If you are thinking about a Hong Kong holiday then CLICK HERE to purchase (note – I am an Amazon affiliate member and will receive a small commission if you do buy, but it won’t cost you any extra. Thanks!)

But enough of Hong Kong’s limitations, let’s talk about the good stuff!

Our Great Family Hong Kong Highlights

Hong Kong Highlight #1: The parks in Hong Kong are absolutely superb. Beautifully designed and landscaped with gorgeous flower beds and trees, free public toilets with water fountains, great children’s play equipment and a whole range of activities from sculptures to table tennis. Hong Kong Park, Kowloon Park, Middle Road Children’s Play Area (next to Garden of the Stars) are all centrally located and fabulous, if a bit hilly. You definitely get some exercise pushing a stroller around them!

Our favourite park was Hong Kong’s Zoological and Botanical Gardens. This green oasis is home to such a great collection of mammals that it would make most zoos that charge entrance fees blush. For no cost at all, you can spend hours watching playful gibbons run around their cages, sleepy sloths snoozing, huge orangutans lounging as well as birds, turtles and a whole array of exotic birds. Well worth visiting with kids, especially since it’s next-door to the large playground in Hong Kong Park.

Hong Kong Highlight #2: Efficiency and cleanliness!  Even by London’s standards, Hong Kong is hyper-efficient and organised. There are lines painted on the pavement showing you where to queue for which bus, rules and regulations everywhere about everything from how to dispose of your used tissues to signs commanding you not to eat on public transport.

All of this means a general thoughtfulness when it comes to public conveniences like toilets, ticket machines and paying (you can use a pay-as-you-go Octopus card to pay for everything from bus fares to a Starbucks coffee). It made our 4 days in Hong Kong with kids much more pleasant. Best of all for short-term visitors is the free Wifi that is provided almost everywhere from trains to the ferry port – no need to buy a local SIM card at the airport.

Hong Kong Highlight #3:  It feels a bit bizarre recommending getting out of Hong Kong in a 4 days in Hong Kong with kids itinerary. However, mixing things up in and out of the city made our Hong Kong trip more enjoyable and memorable. Hong Kong is renowned for its high-rise cityscapes.  But this is only a portion of the island.  Plus there are gorgeous surrounding islands too.  Our favourite day out was visiting the beautiful Lamma island, but more on that below.  A day spent at Ocean Park was also a welcome change to the claustrophobic city.

Our 4 Days in Hong Kong with Kids Itinerary

4 days in Hong Kong with kids was the perfect amount of time for us. This is the itinerary we went for and it worked really well. Use it as a base from which to build your own family’s itinerary for Hong Kong with kids, taking in your unique interests.  For example, we didn’t go up the Peak because we’d done that before but you might want to go up there to enjoy the sumptuous views. With two young children, it can get hot and sweaty so we alternated our days in the city with days outside the city.

Day 1: Kowloon

We were staying in the bustling Wan Chai district so the first morning, we hopped on a Star Ferry to Kowloon. The ferry trip is an experience in itself watching the skyscrapers and the river traffic from the boat. We meandered along the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade to the Garden of Stars (spot the statue of Anita Mui, a famous female Hongkongese actor and singer) and of course, posed for pictures next to the Bruce Lee statue.

Right next door is the Middle Road Children’s Playground where we endured a half an hour in the drizzle! After a run-around, we wandered up to the Hong Kong Museum of History where we visited the fantastic, multi-level FREE exhibition Story of Hong Kong. I highly recommend the Story of Hong Kong exhibit to give a great overview of the city’s history, culture and people.  The exhibits are compelling, huge and often colourful. But if science is more your thing, the Hong Kong Science Museum is right next door.

After lunch, we strolled over to Chung King Mansions, where Rhino stayed 10 years ago as a backpacker.  He was surprised at how upmarket Kowloon has become in the last decade! Then we reaching the lovely grounds of Kowloon Park. There are a couple of playgrounds here, a discovery centre and an outdoor swimming pool.

Afterwards, we watched a 3D movie at the Hong Kong Space Museum to relax. Unfortunately, tickets to the exhibition were sold out but we had read good things about the museum so it’s probably worth checking out.

Day 2: Ocean Park Theme Park

Visiting Hong Kong with kids, it’s hard to avoid the allure of the two major theme parks: Ocean Park and Disneyland. Having visited Disneyland in California with the kids previously, we took our local friends’ recommendation and tried Ocean Park park instead.

Ocean Park is also ridiculously easy to get to from central Hong Kong – a 15-minute drive or 6-minute subway journey.  Once there, we found the park to be spacious and with a variety of things to do.  Unfortunately, our kids were too small to go on most of the rides but were still entertained with the shows, aquariums and playgrounds.  Plus the cable-car there is superb with views that really demonstrate that Hong Kong is a tropical island that happens to have a world-class city on it.

Day 3: Hong Kong

After a couple of busy days, we had a slightly quieter on our penultimate day.  After the kids had a long play in the playground at Hong Kong Park, we visited Hong Kong’s Zoological and Botanical Gardens. I was pleasantly surprised by what was on offer.  As well as the perfectly manicured gardens, there were loads of animals for the kids to watch.  We spent a long time watching the gibbons swing around their cages before going to see the orangutans, sloths, turtles and aviary.

In the evening I went by myself to see the famous Hong Kong light show from the promenade back in Kowloon. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s where the buildings co-ordinate their lights to the sound of music.  Rhino went 10 years ago and said that it was a bit underwhelming.  Well, I can report that it’s gone downhill from there! These days you need to download an App and listen to the music yourself and, to be honest, the ‘show’ doesn’t really offer an upgrade on what you can see at night anyway.  Many of the skyscrapers already have flashing lights at night and don’t change much for the show.  I’m glad I didn’t drag the kids out and that they got an early night instead.

Day 4: Lamma Island

Looking back at our trip to Hong Kong, the final day of our 4 day in Hong Kong with kids itinerary really sticks in the mind.  Lamma island can be reached from Central Pier 4 by boat in around 20 minutes. I highly recommend the Lamma Island Family Walk between the two island ports of Yung Shue Wan (town of 6,000 residents) and Sok Kwu Wan (seafood restaurants).  You can get boats to/from either port which makes the walk from one port to the other really easy.

Along the Family Walk there are beaches, temples, fresh air and amazing views.  I’ll let my pictures do the talking plus there’s loads more information in this blog which we used for our fantastic day out with the kids.  The walk is even stroller friendly too!

Our Hong Kong Family Travel Tips

• Unless you’re on a large blow-out budget, plan your meals. Feeding four or five hungry family members in restaurants two or three times a day will break the bank. We found a combination of self-catering (there are supermarkets everywhere) and researching cheap eats/cafes helped us save money which we spent on more enjoyable activities.
• The harbour-front nightly lightshow is famous but I have to admit I found it underwhelming. Yep, the lasers do look cool but there is no music (unless you download it on your phone) and most of the buildings are lit up throughout the evening/night anyhow. I’d recommend that you don’t go out of your way to see it but instead append it to other activities in the Kowloon area or even time a ride on the Star Ferry to coincide with the show. If little ones can stay up that late, they should enjoy the lasers and lights.

• The website Klook.com is a good resource for finding discounts for days out in the big theme parks: Ocean Park and Disneyland. When Rhino booked Ocean Park through there, they asked for a lot of personal data afterwards.  He refused and they granted the tickets anyway – you might want to try that too.
• Hong Kong has so many fantastic playgrounds dotted around. Use tourist maps and local knowledge to find them. The central ones in the city and Kowloon give your children a much-needed run around between sightseeing.
• As one of the most densely populated places on Earth, Hong Kong urban areas are pretty claustrophobic. As highlighted above, I highly recommend taking the opportunity to get out of the city. There are dozens of small islands worth a visit, walking trails and beaches. We adored our day out hiking on Lamma Island.
• We didn’t have time to visit Shek-O beach but if you’re looking for an easily accessible beach on Hong Kong Island this one comes highly recommended from our local friend.

Comments Welcome! Help other families have a great time in Hong Kong

Welcome to the World for a Girl community. Please share your own ideas and thoughts about Hong Kong family travel. Do you agree with our Hong Kong highlights or do you have others to add? What changes might you recommend to our 4 days in Hong Kong with kids itinerary? Have you done a similar Hong Kong itinerary?