Need help in critiquing my itinerary

Hi fellow travelers,

I will be traveling alone to Honk Kong later this month (yay!) and would love to have some input regarding my itinerary. I hope someone could critique it and maybe give me some additional hints and tips.

My problem is that I only have one afternoon/evening and one full day to explore Hong Kong. I can probably squeeze another couple of hours in the morning of the third day before I have to leave to catch my 3pm flight back to Canada. I probably won鈥檛 be back to HK in the near future so I want to maximize my time there rather than wander around aimlessly!

So here鈥檚 the plan鈥?please tweak!)

I鈥檒l (hopefully) be arriving in HK from Kaiping at the Prince Edward MTR sometime between 1:30 and 2:30pm. From there, I plan to catch a taxi to my hotel on Prat Avenue. After checking in, I鈥檇 like to go to:

Day 1:

a) The Peak

b) Stanley Market

c) Cross back to TST

d) Explore around the waterfront to the Ave of the Stars.

e) Watch the Symphony of Lights

f) Temple Street Night Market

g) Back to hotel

Day 2: Early rise 7AM

a) Lantau Island/Ngong Ping 360/Big Buddha/Po Lin Monastery

b) Maybe Citygate Mall

c) Mid Level Escalators

d) Man Mo Temple

e) Ladies Market?

Day 3: (morning only 鈥?probably leave around 11:30 or 12 to go to airport for check-in etc) ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Is this too much?

-Along with this, if there鈥檚 any way to include somewhere: afternoon or high tea at the Peninsula, Nathan Road exploration, Fish Market/Jade Market

-Which temple would you recommend? Man Mo or Wong Tai Sin?

-Would it be worth it to purchase an Octopus card for these few days?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Need help in critiquing my itinerary

To me, it makes more sense to do things that are close together at the same time. You seem to be crossing over from the island to Kowloon a bit. Day two looks quite crowded. It might be better if you put together the peak, the mid-level escalators which is quite close, the temple and Stanley if you particularly have to go there it was apart from the view from the bus there%26#39;s not a lot really IMHO. Day three is going to be problematic because most places in Hong Kong open late so it%26#39;s going to be a bit difficult to find places that are open. Kowloon seems to open earlier so you might get in a bit of shopping. Or you could get up early and go to the peak early thereby avoiding all the tourist trap shops and the crowds around the Peak Tram.

Need help in critiquing my itinerary

Agree with guerrilla surgeon that you should put the stuff in HK island on one day, Kowloon on the other.

You can go check in @ airport very early on day 3 and then spend some time @ Ngong Ping 360/Buddha coz it%26#39;s closer to go there (Tung Chung MTR is just 15min away from airport).

Man Mo temple is a century-old temple (I think that%26#39;s one of the oldest in HK) so to me it%26#39;s quite worth a visit. It isn%26#39;t that crowded neither interestingly.

Wong Tai Sin is a very popular and huge temple around. More modern, it%26#39;s a different feeling. So if you are into temples then go to both! Otherwise Man Mo temple seems more traditional in my opinion.

Octopus card is very convenient in HK. Unless you want to carry a bag of coins (which isn%26#39;t a bad thing) the card will save you time to find the changes / buy tickets.

Thanks for the quick replies! Thought I had done my homework, but obviously not! :( I must have my areas confused.

Guerilla Surgeon, are you saying that I can do the Peak/Tram, Mid level elevators, Man Mo Temple and Stanley Market on Day 1? That%26#39;s my half day/night. Or should I do that on Day 2 (full day)?

Mikkol, I didn%26#39;t think of checking in early at the airport on the day of departure. That%26#39;s much better. I%26#39;ll plan to go to Lantau Island then. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, because if not, I won%26#39;t be able to see it at all and that was #1 on my list. I will have to check the extended forecast for those three days in HK.

Day 2 suggestions then? Please include tea at the Peninsula, Ladies Market, and anything else that I should not miss.

Your help is much appreciated!

What kinda stuff would interest you more - the historic/sightseeing stuff (HK side to me) or the local/shopping/crowded stuff (Kowloon side). Weight where you want to see more and put that on your 2nd day? Either place can take you a whole day to explore, but try to put Stanley during day time otherwise there%26#39;s not much to see. An alternate option to Stanley would be islands like Lamma where you could spend 1/2 day relaxing a bit. To me as a local I find it more interesting but of coz it%26#39;s up to u.

Around these days HK is rather cloudy / rainy but hope when you come by you see little sunshine!

Hi Mikkol,

I would rather do more sightseeing than shopping as I will probably be all shopped out (or is that possible??? lol) by the time I get there! I%26#39;ll be leaving on Friday for 12 days in Beijing/Guangzhou.

I do want to experience the markets, not necessarily to buy, as they all have different characteristics. Would also like to see the Goldfish and Bird markets as well, but I realize my time is limited! Is the Tai Yuen Market just junk for kids?

I%26#39;m looking at my scribbled notes now (argghhh) and will have to try again to put them in some order and propose another itinerary tonight.(our night, your day!)Also, thinking about what you said about Stanley, I may cut that one out. Would love to get to experience everything I put in the question!

If I do decide to do Lantau on Day 2, would that take me the whole day? Maybe tea at the Pen that day as well?

Thanks on the advice about Octopus card as well!

Hope you can give me more suggestions!

Oh, will stick to Man Mo, as it is more traditional. Thanks for that too!

It will be tight if not impossible. I wouldn%26#39;t bother with Stanley but that%26#39;s just me.

Hi GanderGirl,

If you are really keen on Lantau Island on 2nd day AND if you really can make it to start your day @ 7am, you can get a good trip till about 1-2pm after having a nice seafood / vegetarian lunch, then back to city by 3pm or so. Then you can explore Mong Kok on your bird%26#39;s street (close around 6pm), goldfish street (not sure when shops close but shouldn%26#39;t be late), Ladies%26#39; market (close around 10pm), then Temple Street Night Market (up till midnight but best to go around-/after-dinner time). If you can finish ALL in 4-5 hrs, head back to TST by 8pm to watch the symphony of lights (tho in my opinion not much of an exciting thing as it shows everyday!). Enjoy your night there but prob. you have to miss the peninsula high tea in order to check out those markets/streets (but I thought some Canadian cities have similar stuff? Which city u r from?)

So it leaves the HK side for you to decide what to do!

Hey Mikkol,

Day 2 sounds very good to me! I really don%26#39;t want to miss Lantau and that would give me a ';plan B'; for Wed morning if the weather does not cooperate. I guess I%26#39;ll have to miss tea at the Peninsula, but I%26#39;m sure the rest of the food will more than make up for it!

BTW, I%26#39;m from a very small town on an island off the east coast of Canada. We have a population about

10 000, and we have nothing close to what is in HK! All very exciting to me!

Thanks to you and Guerrila Surgeon for all your time and help! I leave tomorrow morning for Beijing!

Cool hope you enjoy your trip to the Orient! I happen to go to Beijing this weekend too hope the weather will be fairly warm and sunny!