Hong Kong is known more for it's business or for being a stop-over destination, I must say I was skeptical of what to expect.
But here's why you shouldn't be so quick to skim over these destinations.
I started my trip leaving Gold Coast with my brother and meeting the rest of the family in Sydney before we left for Hong Kong. The flight was comfortable enough, with enough movies and family banter to get us there in one piece without killing each other yet.
Both my mum and I have the same style in travelling, we like to jam pack as many activities and attractions in the first half of the trip, then spend the other half relaxing pool side. So, it was no surprise that as soon as we settled into our accomodation the next day we were straight into it, starting at Ngong Ping.
NGONG PING, LANTAU ISLAND - HONG KONG
This was definitely one of the trip highlights as we were able to see so much in one day. First starting at the 360 Cable cars, which is a 25 minute ride to the top where you overlook the Lantau Island, the airport, the seascape and Ngong Ping Village.
Once you reach the top there is a main food strip (weirdly enough there was even subway up there), and since we were there over Easter there were easter activities and things for the children to participate in. With of course lots of touristy photo spots that of course we had to take advantage of:
TIAN TAN BUDDHA
Probably the main attraction once you get to the top is making the journey of walking up all those stairs (268 to be exact) to the Tian Tan Buddha, the worlds largest seated bronze Buddha statue. Once you finally get to the top you can marvel at the buddha and the amazing 360 views all around it.
TAI O
A traditional fishing village that is like taking a step back in time. From the buddha you can catch a bus that locals catch and ride it all the way down to the village, here you can take a boat trip around the island and go through the canals to fully get a feel for how people live there in the small little houses built on stilts.
LADIES MARKET
Next stop, bargain hunting! If not purchasing my advice is that it's still good to just walk around and take it all in. The street stretches on for quite awhile with stalls jam packed right next to each other, we definitely had a good time trying to get ourself a bargain. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the actual markets themselves, but did get some just next to them in the street.
DISNEYLAND
If anyone knows me know that I'm obsessed with all things Disney, fairytales, superhero's, and everything in between, so it's no surprise that I was very excited for Disneyland. I think because I have already been to the one in Paris when I was twelve I had a strong memory of the parade, the castle at night with the fireworks, and the excitement of it all that I had high hopes for the Hong Kong one. Don't get me wrong I had an amazing time I was just disappointed that the HK one was still mostly under works, with the castle covered by scaffolding and other places getting work done on it. But apart from the shitty weather cancelling the parade, it was nice to get to experience it with my little sisters and visit all my favourite Disney movie rides and meet all the characters. I think just being there with my whole family made this Disneyland a lot more special for me. Hightlight: the live action Moana, the girl who played her was a spitting image from the movie- voice and all!
DAY TRIP: CENTRAL, THE PEAK TOWER, GOLDEN BAUHINIA SQUARE, REPULSE BAY BEACH & STANLEY.
This day we tried to fit as many things as possible by booking ourselves a shuttle of sort where we would spend a few hours at each place jumping back on again to the next place. This was a good and affordable way to get to every place, as you always had a driver waiting there to take you to the next place and we got the comfort of travelling by ourselves without the cramming of public transport. First stop was to walk through central to the Peak Tower tram, this gave us another great skyline view of HongKong and takes you right to the top or the peak where you can then go inside and look at the amazing views. We were lucky that first time around as we just managed to see the views before the fog covered everything, the second time we came back with the shuttle no one could see anything, you'd go to the top floor and all you would see is just white.
Continuing our trip we stopped off at the Golden Bauhinia Square which has the Monument of a golden flower which is in Commemoration of the Return of Hong Kong to China. After there we tripped to Repulse Bay (of course has nothing on Australian beaches) to see a different side of Hong Kong- it was nice to see more of the coast and the seaside in comparison to the city, it was almost like it was a complete different place. Our last stop before heading back to the peak again (to spend more time looking at the shops and activities), was the Stanley markets. My family does love a good market and getting a good bargain so this was fun if not just to see my brother bartering. Highlight: Weird but it would have to be running around in the rain as it made for some funny moments.
HONG KONG FERRY TRIP- LIGHT SHOW
I'd definitely recommended going to see Hong Kong by night on the water, every night the city lights up the water with crazy bright lights and lasers. The ferry we were on boasted a 40 min trip with a drink package, so you can be sure our mum made good use of that!
OCEAN PARK MARINE WORLD
Now I had some reservations about going to a marine park, any marine park really as I don't really agree with them unless the marine animals are in full need of help and rehabilitation (which I was happy to see they do have a rehabilitation hospital there), so I was hesitant to go but I wanted to enjoy the rides with my family.
It was quite amazing to see some of these mammals up close, but I read very carefully to see if they were rescues or what the story was with some of them, at the end of the day they are a theme park and zoo so it's not a natural habitat to see them in.
Surprisingly I didn't realise how big the place was, at the bottom was the Aqua city and the asian animals and then to get to the other side of the park you literally had to catch a train or a cable car that goes over the ocean. One the other side is Marine world (which I do have to admit was amazing), and the part I enjoyed the most....all the rides.
I'm just putting it out there, but I think I may have enjoyed Ocean Park more than Disney world just because it felt like a carnival near the ocean with side games to win prizes, giant rollercoasters, rides you could go on with the family and then in between it all was the marine animals.
Highlight: There were storm warnings in the afternoon and they sent everyone inside to hide from the storms, the rides were closed, and people were starting to head home. An hour or so later the Storm alert passed and they slowly started to open up the rides again, but by that time not many people were left so we pretty much had the best time having the theme park to ourselves, running from ride to ride with no lines and making fun of each other by how ridiculous we looked in our soaked ponchos.
MACAU: GALAXY HOTEL
After our first week in Hong Kong we spent the remaining 5 days in Macau staying at the amazing Galaxy Hotel. This hotel was like staying in your own little world, it had everything in there that sometimes there was no need to leave the hotel, from shopping, to restaurants, to casinos, and numerous pools and gyms. This was really the first part of the trip we got to relax, sleep in, watch late night (strange) television shows, and pretend we had stacks of money by trying on numerous bags and clothes in the high end shops. Highlight: the Ferrero Rocher's they would leave us every morning and afternoon on our bed, and the fact that everything in our bathroom was made by Hermês.
MACAU TOWER
On that first night all the kids wanted to do was swim and then head to bed so my mum, brother and I quickly made the trip to the Macau Tower where we could get a 360 view of Macau and I think by now you can tell we're a family of posers.
EXPLORING MACAU- NIGHT LIFE
On the second night my brother and I thought we'd go searching for some clubs or nightlife in Macau, unfortunately for us the clubbing scene is more in Hong Kong (which we didn't get to see), but we were still able to find a club- although quiet- we definitely had fun. On our journey to find drinks, we came across many tourist hotspots- like Macau's version of the Eiffel Tour, and the many shopping centres, casinos, and expensive hotels. On our quest to get to the Cubic Club we managed to find ourselves in the lobbies of the many exclusive hotels just by walking in like we were guests (don't try this at home kids), this was probably the most interesting of the night because it was so late that we got to just wander around and explore the many hotels.
RUINS OF ST. PAUL'S, SENADO SQUARE, MONTE FORT, ST DOMINICS CHURCH, MACAU MUSEUM
I didn't realise until this day that the stormy weather had been covering the worst of the heat, because as soon as the sun came out she was definitely there in full humid force, it most definitely didn't help that my brother and I were hungover as hell but we powered on! We got pretty much of the sight seeing done in one day visiting the ruins of St Paul's past Senado square which was full of vendors selling jerky every second store and the others being Adidas, Nike and Fila stores (they love street wear over here).
FISHERMAN'S WHARF
This was really our last day of exploring before we spent the last few days relaxing and shopping. I wouldn't really say Fisherman's Wharf was somewhere you have to go, as it's a very quick destination spot, but my family and I always make the most of anywhere and create our own fun. We enjoyed running around the wharf and purposely trying to spot as many cheesy valentine photo op spots as possible, then take photos together in these spots. Another thing I have forgotten to mentioned throughout the Macau destinations is that Macau is a fairly new place in terms of money and wealth, so everything is carved around trying to be the China's version of Las Vegas, and every hotel and spot is recreated to look like a certain part of the world, whether that be Paris, Rome, New York, or Las Vegas.
So finally if you've managed to read the complete thing this concludes my write up on all the activities and sights that we saw in Hong Kong and Macau. Every trip with my family is special purely because we're all together experiencing a new culture together but trying to please what everyone wants to do on a holiday can be hard, sometimes you just want to throw a shoe at your siblings face (this did indeed happen).
Of course I couldn't include every photo and video from the trip, and I probably missed some activities from this post but if you want any specific details on prices, transport and any of the small details feel free to contact me on here or my instagram.
Until the next post, thanks for reading,
T x
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