If you have a spare day in Macau, you can easily do a day trip to Hong Kong. Most information online is for people staying in Hong Kong and wanting to do a day trip to Macau – but we did it the other way! 🙂
We took the Cotai Water Jet from Cotai in Macau, to Sheung Wan, HK. This takes around an hour but the boat is comfortable so you can quite easily be lulled to sleep. And when you wake, you are in the hub-bub of Hong Kong! It was quite surreal for us, especially as this was a last minute decision so we weren’t planning to be visiting HK! We have visited Hong Kong before so we had no need to rush around trying to see everything.
We started off with lunch at our favourite Asian fast-food place, Yoshinoya. We first found this in Japan and it has been a firm favourite ever since.
We then took the famous Star Ferry to Kowloon – this was my fave part of our last trip as it is inexpensive (about 25p) and really fun as you get to see the famous Hong Kong skyline from the water. The crossing only takes about 5 – 10 minutes.
We made a beeline for the skyline of Hong Kong to see it in the daylight, and then wondered around Kowloon, visiting the Ocean centre shopping mall, the illuminated streets to the east, and finally paying a visit to the Peninsular hotel.
The side-streets were fine, but the main roads were so packed we could barely move. I tend to feel claustrophobic in a packed crowd, so we decided to make our way back to admire the skyline at night.
It was several years since we were in HK, but it felt just like we were there yesterday! We crossed back to Hong Kong island and paused to watch the laser show from the Hong Kong side. We had seen the show before several times and i didn’t want to get caught by the crowds. Plus the online reviews said it was not impressive. I must say it was a lot less impressive than I remember it. Granted, we didn’t see it from Kowloon so it is bound to be less impressive from Hong Kong island!
We then visited a Japanese festival we knew was taking place that night in Lan Kwai Fong area in Central Hong Kong. But again this was very crowded and full of westerners (either tourists or expats) so it didn’t feel like a very authentic HK experience. We didn’t stay long. And before long it was time to get the Cotai Water jet back to Macau.
Travel Tips:
- If you go to Hong Kong on the ferry, remember to take your passport and don’t take or bring back any plant / animal food stuffs etc – it is easy to forget that it is an international border crossing!
- In the same vein, when you are planning to travel on a ferry, allow time for queues at immigration, as you never know how long this will take – it was fine when we went and was around 5 mins, but you never know.
- If you are travelling on the Cotai Water Jet (from Macau/Hong Kong) on or near your birthday, let the ticket man know as there may be a discount – you will have to show your passport to check your date of birth.
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