Trip: October 2017
Below is our Top 5 Things To Do in Hong Kong, part of the Just Carrying On – Top 5 Things To Do series. These lists are favorite activities, eats, and drinks from our travels around the world—in no particular order.
We visited Hong Kong, the third densest city on the planet, for 5 days in mid-October 2017 and stayed in the Mong Kok neighborhood.
1. Sky Terrace at Peak Tower
The good thing about a place like this is you know it will be packed with tourists, selfie-sticks and long lines, unlike famous temples that are advertised as empty, even though they are also filled with these things. And the views of Hong Kong are worth it. We arrived around 5pm and stayed through the 6pm sunset as the bright neon lights of the city turned on. We took the Peak Tram up, which was ok, but if we could do it over we would have skipped the lines and opted for the cheaper city bus instead.
2. Dragon’s back hike
We love big cities but staying in the bustling Mong Kok neighborhood challenged how cut out we actually were to hang with the intense crowds that come along with dense city life. This all contributed to our love of the Dragon’s Back hike. We took the city bus for the hour long ride to get to the trailhead which provided a tour in itself (Google Maps transit works well for major bus lines). The hike itself was low effort-high reward, traversing the top of the (small) mountain and providing beautiful 360 views of the bays of Hong Kong. We finished the hike at Big Waves Beach, a fabulous end to a humid hike.
3. Little Bao
We debated for a solid 15 minutes if we should continue with our plan to have our final dinner at Little Bao because we knew the two small vegetarians Baos we wanted to order would break the budget for the day. Could it really be that great? Yes, it was. The vegetarian ‘sloppy chan’ was flavorful, creative, delicious, not as small as we had read, and completely worth it. But we understand why anyone would complain when it’s over, because it’s so good who wouldn’t be sad?
4. One Dim Sum
Without knowing all of the historical and cultural background, we knew Dim Sum in Hong Kong was a must. After searching for ‘cheap Dim Sum’ we came upon this place and it was a delight (it turns out to be #19/8000 restaurants in HK on TripAdvisor). The menu was in Chinese and English—we only accidentally ordered meat once. The food was delicious, inexpensive, and led to a minor case of over-eating. Served with hot tea, alongside a mix of travelers, expats and local Hong Kongers, the experience was all around excellent.
5. Temple Street Night Market
Sit down on a plastic stool, flip through the picture menu, order a cold local beer and enjoy the scene. There was some delicious looking and expensive whole crabs passing us by but instead we opted to fill up on as much of the various Chinese steamed and sautéed greens as we could, alongside Singapore style noodles. It did not meet our expectations of being cheap street food (we spent ~$20-25 each night) but it did meet them for being tasty and filling.
Honorable mentions
We sought out a couple third wave coffee shops while in Hong Kong to try and get some work done. What turned out to be our favorite, Black Sugar Coffee, was chosen mostly out of convenience for time and proximity. The coffee was delicious, the place small and charming, and they didn’t seem to mind that we hung out for over two hours enjoying the fast wi-fi and a second cappuccino.
Top 5 Things To Do in Hong Kong is part of Just Carrying On – Top 5 Things To Do series, which offers our best travel recommendations from around the world.