Hi everyone,
I have a long stopover in Hong Kong coming up (arrive 7am, next flight at 4pm), and would like some tips on what I can do to kill a few hours? I will need to leave my luggage at the airport (different airlines and different bookings).
I'd love to go into the city, and am there on the 6th of February (day after Lunar New Year).
Any suggestions welcome!
Thanks!
Basically you only left for 4 max 5 hours.
4 or 5 hours is being generous. In reality the time available to spend in the city will be a lot less.
Yeah not worth it, especially considering OP is booked on different airlines and they need to collect check-in baggage and stow it somewhere, then collect and check-in again.
I realise the time won't be excessive, but I'd still rather head into the city and spend the time there, than just in the airport where the time will certainly drag on.
Agreed.
HKG has heaps of interesting things to do without leaving the airport.
It's half an hour travel on the train each way, and the train takes you to the middle of the city. The Hong Kong and Kowloon stations also allow check-in so you can probably (depending on which airline you are using) take your luggage on the train from the airport to the city then immediately check in to your next flight and not have to worry about luggage (or boarding passes) until later. Hong Kong makes this all super easy - do it! :)
http://www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/services/complom_checkin.h…
Tips on what you might do:
- eat delicious dumplings
- ride the ding ding tram on the island
- ride the star ferry across the harbour
- visit Victoria Peak. I like to take the bus up and the tram back down (saves queuing to go up and the bus has great views). Allow lots of time to do this - might be a bit tight on time.
- observation wheel
- explore the area around the mid level escalators
- shopping galore
Thanks for the tips!
This is a good answer.
My family and I recently had a very similar stop-over and wanted to try something similar.
We have already visited HK, so had a few ideas of our own.
There were two problems with this scenario:
1. HK is one of those places (like lots of Asia) which tends to open late and close late. So we got in to Central around 8am - and NOTHING was open. So we got breakfast at Maccas, then went on the Star Ferry across the harbour. But again nothing open in Kowloon at that time of day.
2. We were on our way back from the USA and were already feeling pretty crap so didn't really want to schlep around town.
One other issue, it cost something like $4 per bag per hour to leave our carry-on luggage and we didn't really want to carry it with us around town.
So, between the nothing open, the tiredness and having to drag our carry-ons around, we just gave up and went back to the airport.
Factor in that many Hong Kong street markets and shops are pretty dull or closed in the morning and don't really get active until evening to late night. 8am to midday in Hong Kong feels a bit like 6-7 am elsewhere.
I would train it to Central, walk around Wan Chai, HK botanical gardens and Hennessy road, ferry to Kowloon and walk to Mong Kok and train back from there to the airport.
where is japan's kabukicho version in HK?
There is a shopping center close to the airport, from memory it was about 20 minutes by bus, we spent some time there when we were transiting through HK on the way to Japan.
I am from Hong Kong, during that holiday, most of the sight -seeing places are no longer as good as usual. Please let me suggest the time saving route of taking the airport metro to the final stop namely Hong Kong, where is also the heart of Hong Kong say as Central.
There is a London-eye alike playground just nearby, and it can take the bus there to the Hong Kong the Peak-Tram station and sight-seeing there in the Peak which is a very common sight-seeing place in Hong Kong representable.
After that, please down-hill and take the same metro train back to the airport!
Since you can't check your bags through, you'll have to clear immigration and custom anyway. Have you checked how far in advance you can check in to your second flight? You might be able to check in before leaving the airport.
Besides what others have suggested, what about visiting the big Buddha which is located on the same island as the airport?
I caught the cable car up and walked back. Only saw 3 people. It was great.
(OP you will not have the time to walk back).
Not worth it, you need to spend at least 2 hours travel to and from the airport.
Then you need to clear custom again.
Basically you only left for 4 max 5 hours.