The Best Hong Kong Itineraries - 1 day, 2 days and 3 days

Morning — start at the water

Start at the Star Ferry Terminal. Eight minutes across the harbour in the morning light, with the Hong Kong Island skyline ahead of you and Kowloon receding behind.

Walk from Central Pier into Central itself. Stop for breakfast at a cha chaan teng (a Hong Kong-style café): Tsui Wah on Wellington Street is reliable, cheap, and open 24 hours.

Mid-morning, take a taxi or the Peak Tram from Garden Road up to Victoria Peak. Walk the Lugard Road circuit if time allows — a flat, paved 3.5 km loop around the Peak’s contour, with views across the harbour to the north and the South China Sea to the south. Allow an hour.

Fares · Star Ferry HK$3 · Peak Tram HK$82 single

Lunch — come down the hill slowly

Return to Central for lunch. You can descend by Peak Tram, by bus 15, by green minibus 1, or by taxi — though there may be queues for all of them.

Better: walk down. Around 45 minutes via Old Peak Road and the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Gardens, and further still to the top of the Mid-Levels Escalators — another way of descending into Central.

Eat in SoHo, the neighbourhood stacked up the hillside between Central and the Mid-Levels Escalator — or cheaply in Central’s side streets.

Fares · Bus 15 HK$9.80 single · walking down costs nothing and is the better half-hour

Afternoon — the tram east, then back under the harbour

Take the tram east along the northern shore of Hong Kong Island. Sit at the front of the upper deck for the best view.

Ride through Wan Chai and get off at Causeway Bay for a walk through Victoria Park, Hong Kong’s largest urban park.

Cross to Kowloon by MTR or Star Ferry and spend the late afternoon in Jordan and Yau Ma Tei — the streets around the Temple Street Night Market, where stalls begin setting up from around 4pm. Full details in our street markets guide.

Fares · Tram HK$3 flat, Octopus · MTR or Star Ferry to Kowloon

Evening — eat in Jordan, finish at the waterfront

Eat dinner in the streets around Jordan Road and Temple Street — the most concentrated Cantonese cooking in Kowloon. A bowl of wonton noodle soup at one of the small, bright-lit restaurants still operating here is the meal Hong Kong does better than anywhere else. Budget HK$50–100, order confidently, eat well.

At 8pm, walk or take the MTR to the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront promenade for the Symphony of Lights — the nightly laser and light show projected across the skyline from both shores. It lasts 13 minutes. The music is somewhat grand; the view is amazing.

Getting there · On foot, or MTR Jordan → Tsim Sha Tsui, one stop

Morning — dim sum, then three markets

Begin with dim sum, and don’t rush it. Three good options depending on where you are staying: Tim Ho Wan in Sham Shui Po, Jade Garden at Star House beside the Star Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, or One Dim Sum in Prince Edward. Budget HK$100–150 a head.

Then to Mong Kok — the most densely populated district on earth, and one of the most vivid. Start at the Flower Market, which opens at 7am: orchids and bird of paradise spilling out across the pavement.

Five minutes away is the Bird Garden, where old men bring their songbirds in bamboo cages for a morning outing. Then walk south to the Goldfish Market, its shopfronts hung with water-filled bags of colour.

Getting there · MTR to Prince Edward, then walk south. Weekday mornings are better

Lunch — congee, in a queue

Walk south towards Argyle Street and find a congee shop between Bute Street and Argyle Street. Many are tiny, with open kitchens and customers packed around the tables. A queue out of the door is a good sign.

Congee is Asian comfort food — a boiled rice base, spiked with pork, beef or fish. Order a bowl and some greens alongside it: tung choi, choi sum or baak choi.

Try Good Hope Noodle at 123 Sai Yee Street, or Mui Kee Congee in the Fa Yuen Street Municipal Services Building.

Getting there · On foot, five minutes from the goldfish shops

Afternoon — one more market, then the harbour

Continue south to the Ladies Market on Tung Choi Street — a kilometre of stalls, a wall of colour and noise, and bargaining expected. It is unapologetically tourist-facing, and no less vivid for it.

Then cross back to Tsim Sha Tsui for the Museum of Art: a strong permanent collection of Chinese ceramics, and air-conditioned, which matters in summer.

Out of the museum and down to the promenade. The Avenue of Stars is a pleasant, undemanding half-hour, and the harbour is the reason you are there.

Getting there · MTR Mong Kok → Tsim Sha Tsui, ten minutes

Evening — height, then dinner off the tourist map

End the day up high. Ozone, at the Ritz-Carlton on the 118th floor of the ICC, is the highest bar in Hong Kong; the prices reflect it, but the view at sunset is worth it once. For much the same sky at a fraction of the cost, try the rooftop terrace at iSQUARE.

For dinner, two good directions: Kowloon City for Thai, about fifteen minutes by taxi to Nga Tsin Wai Road; or a Mongolian hot pot on Hillwood Road.

Getting there · On foot to the ICC · taxi to Kowloon City, about 15 minutes

Morning — start early, on the old streets

Take the tram to Western Market, Hong Kong’s oldest surviving market building: Edwardian red brick, a granite archway, cast-iron columns.

Walk up Hollywood Road past the serious antique galleries, then along Cat Street for vintage curios — Mao badges, old coins, jade.

Finish at the Man Mo Temple: Qing dynasty artefacts, incense coils hanging overhead, and still very much an active place of worship rather than a monument.

Getting there · Star Ferry or MTR to Central, then the tram west to Western Market

Lunch — on an island

Be at Central Pier 4 by 10:30 for the ferry to Lamma Island — thirty minutes, car-free, and a different world.

Walk the trail from Yung Shue Wan across to Sok Kwu Wan: well-marked, gentle, with big views out over the South China Sea.

Lunch at a waterfront seafood restaurant at the far end — prawns, steamed fish, clams in black bean sauce, cold beer — then the ferry back mid-afternoon. If Lamma does not appeal, Cheung Chau from Pier 5 is a different character altogether: a working fishing harbour and lanes navigated by bicycle.

Getting there · Ferry, Central Pier 4 → Lamma, about 30 minutes. Budget HK$200–300 for lunch with a beer

Afternoon — pick one of three

Sham Shui Po. The Apliu Street electronics flea market and the fabric streets. One of the least-visited corners of the tourist circuit, and one of the most genuinely interesting.

Stanley. Bus 6 over the hill to the south side, about forty minutes. The market, the waterfront, the old Tin Hau Temple, a late drink by the water. Best on a weekday.

Or just the harbour. Go back to the waterfront and be there as the light changes — the neon coming on, the ferries still running, the hills going dark behind the towers. One of those views that justifies the whole trip.

Getting there · MTR to Sham Shui Po · Bus 6 to Stanley, about 40 minutes

Evening — find your own dinner

By now you know the city well enough to choose. Wan Chai for live music and late dai pai dong; SoHo if you need a night off Cantonese; Jordan for a final bowl of wonton noodles somewhere small, bright-lit and entirely unconcerned with being a destination.

Still short of souvenirs? Yue Hwa in Jordan is a grand old emporium of Chinese goods — in the last colonial years it was the place to buy them. The quality is good; the prices may not suit.

Getting there · Star Ferry, bus or MTR, whichever is nearest