Hong Kong Holiday Guide: Things to Do, Lantau, Islands, Macau and the Best Time to Visit

Hong Kong sits on the south coast of China, at the mouth of the Pearl River, about 60 km east of Macau and right next to the mainland city of Shenzhen. It was a British territory until 1997 and is now a Special Administrative Region of China, with its own currency, laws, border controls and entry rules.

It falls into four parts. Hong Kong Island is the old financial heart, with Central, the Peak and the south-side beaches. Kowloon faces it across Victoria Harbour, denser and more local. The New Territories stretch north to the border, with country parks, walled villages and the Sai Kung peninsula. And there are the outlying islands, the largest of which, Lantau, is bigger than Hong Kong Island and home to the airport and the Big Buddha.

English and Cantonese are both official languages, and signs on public transport are in both.

Victoria Peak. The classic view: the towers of Central and the whole harbour from about 400 m up. Take the Peak Tram, a funicular running since 1888, and walk the flat circuit of Lugard Road and Harlech Road (about an hour) for the best views away from the viewing terraces. Go at dusk to see the city light up.

The trams. Hong Kong’s double-decker trams (“ding dings”) have run along the north shore of the island since 1904. Sit upstairs at the front and ride from Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan for the cheapest sightseeing tour in Asia.

Central and Sheung Wan. Ride the Central to Mid-Levels escalators, the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world, then wander down through the antique shops of Hollywood Road to Man Mo Temple, with giant incense coils hanging from its ceiling, and the dried seafood and herbal medicine shops of Sheung Wan.

The south side. Buses wind over the hills to the beaches of Repulse Bay and Shek O and the waterfront market town of Stanley. They feel a world away from Central, 30 minutes from it.

The Star Ferry. The ten-minute crossing from Central to Tsim Sha Tsui is one of the world’s great short journeys, and still costs very little. Walk the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade afterwards for the view back across the water; every evening at 8pm the skyline joins in a light and music show.

Museums. The West Kowloon Cultural District, a short walk from the ferry, has M+, Asia’s big museum of modern visual culture, and the Hong Kong Palace Museum, with treasures on loan from the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Markets. Mong Kok is said to be one of the most crowded places on earth, and its street markets are the reason to go: the Ladies’ Market for clothes and souvenirs, the goldfish market, the flower market and the bird garden. Temple Street night market in Yau Ma Tei comes alive after dark with stalls, fortune tellers and open-air food.

Wong Tai Sin Temple is Hong Kong’s busiest temple, where people shake bamboo fortune sticks and burn incense. Chi Lin Nunnery nearby is a calm wooden Tang-style complex built without nails, with a classical garden alongside. Sham Shui Po is the place for street food, fabric shops and old-style Hong Kong life.

The Big Buddha. The Tian Tan Buddha, a seated bronze Buddha about 34 m high, sits on a hilltop at Ngong Ping, up 268 steps from Po Lin Monastery. The best way up is the Ngong Ping cable car from Tung Chung, about 25 minutes across the bay and the mountains, with glass-floored cabins if you want them. Queues are long at weekends and on holidays, so go early on a weekday.

The Wisdom Path, a short walk from the Buddha, is a figure-of-eight of tall wooden columns carved with the Heart Sutra. Fit walkers can climb Lantau Peak (934 m), Hong Kong’s second-highest summit, from here.

Tai O is a fishing village on the west coast, with houses on stilts over the tidal creeks, shrimp paste and dried fish for sale and boat trips out to look for the rare pink (Chinese white) dolphins. Buses link it with Ngong Ping in about 20 minutes, so you can do both in a day.

Hong Kong has some of the best city hiking in the world, with well-marked trails, a public transport stop at almost every trailhead and views that switch between skyscrapers and open sea.

Dragon’s Back (about 8.5 km, 3 to 4 hours) follows an undulating ridge on the south-east of Hong Kong Island and drops down to the beach at Big Wave Bay. It’s the easiest great walk to reach from the city.

The MacLehose Trail runs 100 km across the New Territories in ten stages; stage 2, through Sai Kung to the beaches of Tai Long Wan, is the most beautiful. The Lantau Trail (70 km) crosses the island’s peaks, and sunrise on Lantau Peak or Sunset Peak is a Hong Kong classic. Lion Rock gives a famous view over Kowloon.

Walk between October and April if you can. In summer, start early, carry plenty of water and check the Hong Kong Observatory for heat, rainstorm and typhoon warnings. The FCDO advises staying on marked trails in the country parks.

Dim sum is the defining meal, eaten from morning to mid-afternoon with pots of tea: har gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai, char siu buns, rice rolls and custard tarts. You’ll find everything from noisy old tea houses to elegant hotel dining rooms, and some of the best is very cheap.

Cantonese roast meats hang in shop windows: char siu (barbecued pork), crispy pork belly and roast goose over rice. Wonton noodles in a clear broth are the classic quick lunch.

Cha chaan teng, the local diners, serve Hong Kong-style milk tea, pineapple buns with a slab of butter, French toast and macaroni soup. Look out too for egg waffles and curry fish balls on the street, and fresh seafood picked from tanks on Lamma, in Sai Kung and at Lei Yue Mun.

Hong Kong has hundreds of acclaimed restaurants. Tell us what you like to eat and we’ll suggest places by area, or arrange a food walk with a local guide.

Macau, a Portuguese territory until 1999 and now, like Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, is about an hour away by fast ferry or by bus across the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. British citizens can visit for up to six months without a visa, but you do pass through immigration both ways, so take your passport.

The Historic Centre of Macau is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: walk from the wave-patterned paving of Senado Square, lined with pastel colonial buildings, up to the Ruins of St Paul’s, the 17th-century stone facade of a church that burned down in 1835, and the Monte Fort above it. Then head to A-Ma Temple, which may have given Macau its name.

Across the bridges on Taipa, the old village has narrow lanes of Portuguese houses and food shops. Try Portuguese egg tarts, pork chop buns and Macanese cooking, a blend of Portuguese, Chinese, African and Indian flavours. Stay a night if you can: the old town is calmer once day visitors have left.