Hong Kong and Macau travel recommendations needed

Hong Kong is great and I love visiting there. Since I've got family there its been at least 17 years since I stayed in a hotel there but last time I did it was near Tsim Sha Tsui on Nathan road, I think it was the Pan Pacific but don't remember specifically. It was a great location though.

For shopping I recommend goign to Mongkok and the Lady Street where they have a large open air market with lots of great deals. That's where I got a genuine Rockets' jersey for $10 in January. As far as food there's great food everywhere. One place I would recommend visiting is Sai Kung which is one of the outlying towns on the Kowloon pennisula for seafood.

Also in addition to checking out the city there's some great scenery and hiking around Hong Kong. If you go to visit the Giant Buddha at Lantau island you can also hike a great nature trail too and from it.

There's lots of places for nightlife and in addition to Lan Kwai Fong there are some good bars around Tsim Sha Tsui. There is an area south of Central up the hill which has a lot of antique stores and interesting bars and clubs. Its a very artsy scene sort of like SoHo in NYC if you are interested in that sort of scene.

As for Macau the old city is very interesting and you can see most of the sites walking it within a day. I would definately recommend visiting Senado Square and walking from there to the ruins of St. Paul.

Have a great trip!

 

Dim Sum is usually pretty good everywhere in HK's restaurants. I would go to bigger regular restaurants, like the ones over 2000 square feet to have dim sum. It's not expensive and quality is good there. You just stroll in, take a seat, tell the waitress what kind of tea you like, then wait for the dim sum carts to arrive. Pick a dish from the cart and get your bill marked. As for some smaller restaurants often decorated in plain and old fashion style, they are "tea cafes", so to speak, offering the locals fast food style Chinese dishes, pretty much like the Boston Market or Luby's. The milk tea is a must order. Eating a sandwich, drinking a cup of milk tea while reading a newspaper in a tea cafe in the morning are what some locals like to do.

You can go to the victoria peak at night. The night view of the Victoria harbor and its surroundings is pretty good.

There's a Disneyland in HK, but I don't know how different it is from the USA's Disneyland. Just a piece of info to pass around.

 

Question for those who have traveled to mainland China:

Is it possible to figure your way through China without knowing any of the local language? Can you get yourself on trains, order food at restaurants, etc.. if you don't speak Cantonese/Mandarin?

Or does someone usually book a trip through China with some sort of tour group, where the tour guide speaks English and you go everywhere in a bus?

Just wondering since I've always wanted to travel there, but didn't want to really tag along on a bus tour with some retired folks for 2 weeks at a time.

I've been to HK many years ago, and there were signs in English, so it was ok. But this was during the British rule still. Also been to South East Asia, and didn't have much problems there either. Didn't know if mainland China was any different.

 

I went last summer and it was very easy to get around. I found that more people spoke English there than many places in Europe. Hong Kong's official language is still English (at least that is what I was told while I was there). Mainland china knows english for the most part, especially in Beijing. Guangzhou, less people spoke English, but it still wasnt too hard (I wouldnt recommend going there anyway).

 

Wynn's in Macau



Venetian "Grand Open" in Macau



The Sand in Macau




Girls in Macau


if you want to find girls to bath you and fine girls all over the place ... serving you and walking around behind glass window while you eat. Look for 18's on 11th floor of a local casino

 

It depends on which part of China are you planning to visit. If you go to big city like Shanghai, you may be able to get around fine with only English. Hong Kong, you can definitely get around knowing only English.

 

A piece of advice, DON'T go to Disneyland, I went there around a year and a half ago, honestly yhte worst amusement park I've ever been to. Prices are sky high, lines were hours long and it was the smallest disneyland in the world. If you want to go to an amusement park, go to Ocean Park, it's got 4 pandas, the longest outdoor cable car (I think), and a lot of rides.

As for hotels, dish out the lot and stay at the Four Seasons or Grand Hyatt For some electronics, there are shopping malls exclusively for computers, I got an 80GB hard drive for around 70 US dollars, not a bad deal at all. And of course, they've got loads of fake Xbox dvds selling for 3 dollars per. Have fun shopping Tinman, and it would be nicer if you get hold of freemaniam and have him show you around.

 

Agreed. I hear Disneyland on Lantau has been a huge failure. The Ocean Park on the backside of HK is gorgeous. Never been, but if you take a boat tour around the harbor, you can swing by it and see the massive cable car and all the cool rides.

What about the Jumbo Floating Restaurant? I've always wanted to try that place out.

 

I feel you. That's what's really sad about Hong Kong. The whole city has become just a glass jungle with all those sky-high buildings. With all the ancient and historical monuments gone, Hong Kong will lose it's identity. Do you know that they have just demolished the Star Ferry Pier which has over 100 years of history?

 

It's just because they are offering a promotional period now since they just opened recently. The Venetian in fact is located in a place a bit far away from the pier but we are talking about less than 15 minutes of cab drive. But I heard their booking was already full until end of this year, not sure about it though. Orlando Magic and Cavaliers will play a preseason game in Venetian resort on Oct 20 (Sat) so if you get lucky, you may be able to meet LeBron James and Dwight Howard in the resort casino. Their services are bit off due to the overwhelming tourists but I guess it should be improved now.

Macao is really a small place, unless you like to spend some serious hours in one casino only, you may instead visit a number of casinos (Sands, Wynn, lisboa, Galaxy etc.) in a night, an hour here and there. Perhaps I am not too fond of gambling (I have had some really bad first impression in Lisboa more than a decade ago), I visit Macao probably once or twice a year and mostly because of their food there.

Like Branton said, let me know if I am needed.

 

I've seen an advert for the Venetian on TV, and it looks absolutely amazing, with canals and huge casinos, it's like a mini city in itself. I have no idea what it really is like, but it's been promoted for a really long time, and I guess if the company can afford to have advirtisements for so long then the hotel can't be too shabby. When you're in Macau, have a look around the famous places, like the huge standing face of a church (I think), a few of the ancient harbours, etc.