Hong Kong

This is my 1st travel post (hopefully there'll be more to come). Whenever we go travelling, I spend quite a lot of time planning cos there're so many considerations when travelling with kids. I hope these posts will be a help to whoever's reading and also a source of reference for myself.

When to visit
My family has visited Hong Kong twice in the last 2 years - once in Sep and another late Dec. Dec is definitely a better time to visit cos it's cooler. Sep was terrible with temp going up to 35 degrees.

Where to stay
This was quite a challenge cos there're 4 of us - 2 adults 2 kids. I wanted only 1 room and a lot of hotels only take a max of 3. Finally found through Wotif, that shows bed configuration, Royal Plaza Hotel in Mongkok East, that has 2 double beds accommodating 4. The hotel also has family rooms that have 1 king/queen and 1 double with a pantry and couch area. We took this on our 2nd visit to Hong Kong. It was very comfortable. The kitchen/dining area gave us room to have our breakfast.

Another plus point about the hotel is that it's connected to a shopping mall via its lobby with many food options. It's also linked to the rail which you can take and change to the MTR. Alternatively, you can take a 10mins walk on a sheltered overhead walkway that leads to the Mongkok MTR station. This walkway is connected to the mall. Along the walkway, there're staircases going down to various streets, the famous one being Ladies Street.


Where to eat
Breakfast is easy. In the shopping mall, there's Macs and beside it, a nice cafe called Cafe Balencia with all kinds of bread. Our favourite is a shop that sells porridge, fried dough and soy bean, and another that sells all kinds of mantou. We have to go onto the walkway and take the 1st staircase down to the streets. We usually buy back to the room to eat.

For lunch and dinner, the following places are quite good:

1. Hang Heung Kitchen at New World Centre, East Tsim Sha Tsui
- set dinner was good and cost HK$900 for 10 of us.
- right beside Avenue of Stars so after dinner can take a stroll along the harbour and catch the Symphony of Lights show at 8pm.
- the restaurant sells the famous Hang Heung wife biscuits.

2. Tai Hing Roast near the hotel, along the street that has a lot of pet shops
- we da bao roasted meat rice, duck, roast pork, char siew. Very big portions.

3. Yuen Kee along Kimberly Road
- a typical HK cafe setting that serves pretty good beef noodles.

4. Fook Lam Moon along Kimberly Road
- if you want to splurge, this is high class Cantonese restaurant with a lift that brings you to the second floor. Water is served from mineral water bottles. The sweet and sour pork and roast chicken are fantastic. 4 dishes cost us HK$1,200.

5. Royal Banquet Hall at Fantasyland, HK Disney
- decent food at ok prices. Their roasted chicken thigh and burgers are ok.

6. La Scala at Royal Plaza Hotel
- our room package came with F&B vouchers. We saved up everything for a buffet dinner on the last nite. The spread was very impressive. They have a cheese & cracker counter, waygu beef, sashimi and a great variety of desserts.


Where to go
1. Disneyland - definitely a must with kids. Preferably stay a nite there so there's more time. The most enjoyable rides were - Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear, Small World, Jungle Cruise. The Golden Mickey Show and the 3D Mickey's PhilharMagic were good. The hotel that we stayed - Hollywood was very good. The double beds comfortably sleeps 4. The buffet breakfast was pretty good, esp. the dim sum. We got a very good package - hotel, breakfast and park pass from AsiaTravelCare. Hotel food is rather ex so we settled our meals in the park. The Royal Banquet has rather decent stuff at reasonable prices.

2. Ocean Park - more for older kids and adults cos the rides are more scary. The dolphin show was lousy, as boring as the one at Sentosa.

3. The Peak - the tram ride up the Peak was very steep. We visited Mdm Tussauds. Most of the wax figures weren't realistic. Only a few were good like Madonna, Beatles, MJ. The kids were bored. They were happier playing at the playground at The Peak Galleria.

4. Ngong Ping 360 - the cable car ride was very cool. It's abt 25mins long and take you right up into the mountains. At times, our cable car disappeared into the clouds. We didn't bother to walk to the Buddha. Just stayed around the village and took some phots.

5. Avenue of Stars - unless you are a movie buff, if not, all the famous handprints mean nothing.


Where to shop
There are endless shopping options. I only managed to a few. With kids, shopping is almost impossible.

1. Grand Century Place - this was connected to the hotel so it's the most convenient. There's Esprit, Popular and supermarket.

2. New World Centre - this mall is quite pathetic. Nothing much except for the nice Pacific Coffe Co. where you can use the free internet ( we used it to confirm our flight back) and watch the Symphony of Lights.

3. Citygate Outlet - this is quite good. I like the Esprit, Quicksilver, Bodyshop outlets.

4. Shopping mall in Shatin that has Snoopy World - it's an outdoor area connected to the mall, like in IMM, where there's a playground, Snoopy figures and a life size american school bus that you can go into. The boat ride was not working which was a disappointment.

5. Ladies Market - we bought a lot of stuff on our first trip but on the second, the stalls were miserable. Mayb cos it was summer in Sep so they were selling a lot of T-shirts. In Dec, nothing much.

6. Tsim Sha Tsui - we walked quite a bit along the streets in Tsim Sha Tsui. Jus the usual Bossini, Giordano, Baleno shops. We couldn't find the outlet shops.