retired_superpenners

Stupid question really.

Anyone live or travel or have been to Hong Kong on the forum?

I want to go there next September for 7 maybe 10 days.

Couple of questions as always!

Best area to stay? Kowloon or Hong Kong Island?

Is it expensive to eat out - generally how much UK sterling would I need for 10 days?

Can you perhaps give me the most accurate cost of say a 2 course meal and a couple of beers at a decent restaraunt (in HK dollars / sterling if possible?)

I know next September is a long time away, but will need to book it and start saving in the next couple of weeks really, hence me asking.

Cheers folks.

retired_superpenners

Sorry in addition to the costs of eating out, a rough how much you think I'll need in total for transport / spending / sightseeing etc.

£500 / $1000 sterling converted into HK Dollars for instance?

retired_superpenners

^ £1000 sterling.

retired_ehoff15

HK island is probably better for Westerners. Things are a tad more expensive in HK island than kowloon but it's a small difference.

Food are vary. if you eat in hotel it will cost you a bomb. otherwise it's cheap.

£100 a day should be enough for food transport etc. it will a good idea to set a seperate budget for shopping if you are planning to buy things.

Hotel is depends on how much you want to spend. If you want to stay in HK island then MetroPark Causeway Bay is pretty good (roughly £50 a night). If you want something more luxury then there is Langham Place in Kowloon (from about £80 a night, 5 stars). Asiarooms.com is pretty good at booking room. The best booking time for September is probably July. I remember i've found many good deals on hotel two months ago.

retired_Fit

I lived there for 5 years but in the mid-90s. Great great city. Nothing wrong with staying Kowloon side but Tsim sha Tsui (TST) can be a bit busy. Transport is pretty cheap and fast and easy to use so wont take up much money at all.

Depends where you want to eat. Noodle shops and the like are only a few quid. Beer in bars around Lan Kwai Fong and decent places to drink can get pricey but there is always a Happy Hour somewhere in Hong Kong so not a problem.

Depends how much shopping you're going to do and whether you are pre-booking a hotel as that will no doubt eat up most of your daily dosh.

Causeway Bay is a nice area to stay or even in Wanchai. Girlie bars down there but it's cool to stay, plenty of decent hotels and pubs/bars, not like Patpong or Nana in Bangkok.

retired_hvporter

£100 a day! :eek: Give over!

I just wrote a long reply and accidentally deleted it, so I will start again.

September is a good month to go as the hotels are coming off the summer season and have good deals. Be prepared to leave this until the last minute as the prices will invariably be better. Hotels.com and hotelclub.net are other alternatives for late deals.

Nobody eats in hotels, except for breakfasts that come in the price of the room or businessmen. When we lived in Macau, we used to spend 2/3 nights at a time in HK every fortnight and would usually get by on £50-70 per day including all meals, transport and hotel. That's two people. Obviosuly if you are on your own, there wouldn't be to much difference on the hotels as you would be in a single room supplement.

As for hotels, Kowloon has a cheaper range, although a lot of the affordable ones are not well served by transport links. HK Island has more near good transport links. I can recommend the YMCA by Causeway Bay, which you can normally get a room in September for £30-40 per night, sometimes less if you are lucky. It is comfy, clean, friendly and caters more for businessmen rather than grotty students. There are others - look on the websites and give us an idea of what you like the look of and I will let you know what I know. Steer clear of most places in Wan Chai, unless you like being dead close to the pubs and the prossies.

Eating out - we used to pay £25 on average for a meal for two with drinks and dessert. So do the maths, maybe add a little bit for being a year in advance - say £16 per meal per person. There are a massive range of eateries from Italian, Pizza, pub grub (irish bars too), local and so on. What we used to do is eat at the hotel in the morning, go to the supermarket or bakery for picnic bits for lunch and eat out in the evening.

Transport - get an Octopus card (I think that's what they're called!) If you are travelling to Lantau, New Territories, Stanley, tube and bus a lot, it really saves you money - even if you are there for a week.

Not sure what you want to spend money on so maybe think of that on a different budget.

For day-to-day spending, you can get by on £50-70 max per day for hotel, food, meal, drinks, transport, etc. So over ten days you would be looking at £700 tops.

Days out and things - stick to transport (use your Octopus card!) and visit places, walk around gardens and the bustling areas of the cities, there is so much to do free and/or on the cheap. I could give you a long list of places should you wish.

Let me know if you want other info. We are planning on going back out there next summer for a fortnight and I can't wait. It is my favourite place in the world.

retired_autumn

The last time I was over there was in 2004, but back then the cost of a decent two course meal at a good (not posh) restaurant was around 200-250 HK$, not including beers. It's easy to eat cheaper than this, and if I had to guess, I'd say the Western style restaurants were more expensive than the Chinese options, but that's what I was paying for good Italian food.

I don't remember how much typical beer/drinks cost.

No recs on where to stay, as I was stuck well out in the New Territories, but the subway/train system stops running at midnight, so if you're going to be hanging out in Lan Kwai Fong all the time, then better stick to somewhere nearby on HK Island. There are buses that run all night from HK Island to places in Kowloon and the New Territories, but they don't have clearly designated pick up spots, so I wouldn't recommend relying on them unless you have someone who can help you find the right bus.

And invest in a good guide book. It will help you plan, and the info is likely to be more comprehensive than what you could get here.

retired_Fit

If out late in Lan Kwai Fong just walk down D'Aguilar street to near the main road and the (closed) MTR and there are mini buses passing by. Fixed fare IIRC and go all over the place. If in LKF could easily walk to Wanchai or Causeway Bay if you wanted, not a big deal.

I find Kowloon alot better connected than HK side. The main areas you are likely to be, TST, Jordan, Mong Kok, etc, only place a little away is Whampoa, has ferries but not late at night. I doubt you'll stay in New Terroties or Gold Coast anyway

HK side it only gets messy if you're down Repulse Bay, Stanley or other direction towards Kennedy Town where connections are off the MTR but stll plenty of buses.

As the guys said, food isnt all that much at all. Pub food available for not much, plenty of street side places as well if you like that kind of thing. All depends on the kind of place you'll be kipping.

Long time since i was there so no idea on prices of that

retired_hvporter

Don't know about you Razzler, but all this talk of HK is making me pine to get out there again.

retired_Fit

Not a day goes by that i dont pine, mate

I'm not sure it'd have the same 'buzz' that it had back then though tbh. I left in 1999 and not been back since. A few people i know have and obviously it's changed a bit. Great city though, superb place.