By Blaise Jaeger · Updated October 21, 2026

Hong Kong in Five Days: Our Itinerary at a Glance

This is the Hong Kong itinerary my friend Roy and I followed from October 15 to 20, 2026, from a single hotel base in Central. Five full days, one of them spent in Macau, with a mix of what everyone comes for — Victoria Peak, the Star Ferry, the Big Buddha — and what surprised us: how quickly you are on a jungle ridge above the sea, and how much of the city still feels like the one I first saw in 1989.

Every time and price on this page comes from our photos and receipts. Where something went wrong, I say so, because those are usually the most useful lines in a travel guide.

Day	Plan	Highlights
Day 1 — Thursday, October 15	Arrival and Central	Taxi from the airport, dinner at Tsui Wah, harbor view from a rooftop
Day 2 — Friday, October 16	Day trip to Macau	TurboJET ferry, Ruins of St. Paul’s, Taipa Village, the Venetian
Day 3 — Saturday, October 17	Dragon’s Back and Quarry Bay	Ridge walk above Shek O, the Monster Building, Thai lunch
Day 4 — Sunday, October 18	Lantau, then Kowloon	Ngong Ping 360, Big Buddha, Tai O, sunset on the Avenue of Stars, Temple Street, Star Ferry
Day 5 — Monday, October 19	Old Town Central and Victoria Peak	Mid-Levels escalators, Tai Kwun, the Peak by day, at sunset and at night
Day 6 — Tuesday, October 20	Departure	M+ museum, then the Airport Express

Hong Kong in 1989, 2011 and Today

I first came to Hong Kong in January 1989. I was between two jobs, traveling for seven weeks through Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka with two friends, and Hong Kong was still a British colony. What struck me then was the contrast between rich and poor, side by side: Rolls-Royces lined up outside the Peninsula hotel, and a few steps away a man pulling a wooden handcart through the traffic.

I came back in 2010 and 2011 for work, including one trip I still remember for its absurdity: a flight to Hong Kong, dinner with a British client at the Hong Kong Club, the city’s oldest private club, and a flight straight back — two consecutive nights on a plane, for a contract I never managed to win.

This time it was a holiday, five days with Roy. The Peninsula is still there, and so is the harbor. What has changed is the height of everything around them. In 1989 the tallest building in Hong Kong was the Hopewell Centre, at 222 meters, and only a handful of towers passed 150 meters; the Bank of China Tower was still under construction. Today Hong Kong has around 567 buildings above 150 meters, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat — more than any city in the world.

And yet the city is less built-up than it looks from the harbor. According to the Planning Department, only about a quarter of Hong Kong’s land is built-up; the rest is country parks, wetlands, reservoirs and hills. That is the real surprise of this itinerary: on Day 3 you walk a jungle ridge above the sea, on Day 4 you ride a cable car over green mountains, and both are less than an hour from Central.

Where We Stayed: Upper House, Above Pacific Place

We stayed at Upper House, above Pacific Place in Admiralty, one MTR stop from Central. It is expensive, and it is also incredible: our room on the 47th floor was huge by Hong Kong standards, with a bathtub facing the harbor. Admiralty turned out to be a perfect base — Central and its ferries on one side, the Peak Tram on the other, buses to Lantau and the airport from right below the hotel.

One evening we had dinner at Salisterra, the hotel’s top-floor restaurant, with the set menu and the city lights below. If Upper House is beyond your budget, the same logic applies: stay on the island, between Central and Admiralty, close to an MTR station.

Day 1: Arrival, Central and a Rooftop at Night

We flew from Bali with Singapore Airlines, via Singapore, and landed in Hong Kong in the evening. At 6:40 PM the immigration hall was full, but the lines move fast and there was no fingerprinting: we were through in 15 minutes, and our bags came out 15 minutes later.

The Taxi Line: Cash Is Faster

At the taxi rank there are two lines: one for passengers who want to pay by credit card, which was longer, and one for cash. We joined the cash line at 7:20 PM and did not wait. With no traffic, the ride to Admiralty took 40 minutes and cost HK$390. A sign at the rank explains the three colors of Hong Kong taxis: red for the urban areas, green for the New Territories, and blue for Lantau.

Dinner at Tsui Wah

For a quick first dinner we went to Tsui Wah, a Hong Kong chain of cha chaan teng — the local diner that serves Cantonese and Western-style comfort food — founded in 1967. Their signature dish is barbecued pork, char siu, on scrambled eggs and rice, for HK$90. Simple, and exactly right after a day of flying.

Cocktails at Terrace Boulud

We finished the evening at Terrace Boulud, Daniel Boulud’s French brasserie on the roof of the Mandarin Oriental in Central. A cocktail costs around HK$128 plus 10% service, and the view over the harbor at night is worth it.

Day 2: A Day Trip to Macau

We took Macau on our second day, a Friday, on purpose: the following weekend was a three-day holiday weekend in Hong Kong, and we wanted to avoid the crowds on the ferries. We left Sheung Wan on the 9:30 AM TurboJET and sailed back at 4:30 PM, after the historic center, lunch in Taipa Village and the canals of the Venetian.

The full day, with real times, ferry prices and what we paid for lunch, is in our guide to one day in Macau from Hong Kong.

Day 3: Dragon’s Back and the Monster Building

Dragon’s Back: Our Mistake, and What to Do Instead

Dragon’s Back is the easiest of Hong Kong’s famous hikes: a ridge path in Shek O Country Park, on the southeast of Hong Kong Island, with the sea on both sides. We took the MTR to Chai Wan, then waited 35 minutes for a taxi, which dropped us a kilometer short of the trailhead. Do not copy us. Take the MTR to Shau Kei Wan instead, then bus 9 to the To Tei Wan stop, right at the start of the trail.

It was a Saturday on a holiday weekend, and the trail was busy. We started walking at 11:37 AM, reached the viewpoint above Shek O around 12:30 PM, and walked back down the same way. That short version took us about an hour and twenty minutes. The full walk continues along the ridge to Big Wave Bay. All the details, with the bus and the trail step by step, are in our Dragon’s Back hike guide.

We came back down by public minibus to Shau Kei Wan station, HK$13 each, then took the MTR to Tai Koo. Around the station, the old double-decker trams of Hong Kong Island — the “ding dings” — rattle past the residential towers.

The Monster Building in Quarry Bay

From Tai Koo it is a short walk to the Yick Cheong Building complex in Quarry Bay, better known as the Monster Building: five interconnected residential blocks around a narrow courtyard, with thousands of windows, air conditioners and laundry poles stacked up to the sky. It is one of the most photographed places in Hong Kong, and people live there, so keep your voice down. When we were there, just after 1:30 PM, there were only a few other visitors.

In the alley right next to it, we had lunch at Thai Nyom, a small Thai restaurant we would happily go back to, then rode the MTR back to Admiralty.

Day 4: Lantau Island, Then Kowloon by Night

Ngong Ping 360: Book Ahead, and Consider the Crystal Cabin

From Admiralty, the Citybus E11 runs to Tung Chung in about an hour and twenty minutes, along the bridges over the container port. Tung Chung is the start of the Ngong Ping 360 cable car, which climbs for about 25 minutes over the bay and the mountains to the Big Buddha. The view of the airport from the cabin is spectacular.

This is where we lost the most time of the trip: a 90-minute wait for the cable car, on a Sunday. We bought Ngong Ping 360 tickets on Klook while standing in the line, which moved us to a faster line and saved about 30 minutes. In hindsight, we should also have taken Crystal cabin tickets (the cabins with a glass floor), whose line is shorter: that would have saved another 30 minutes. Book before the day, and go on a weekday if you can.

The Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery

The Tian Tan Buddha, the Big Buddha, sits at the top of 268 steps, which we climbed. Below it, Po Lin Monastery is worth the short walk for its painted halls and the incense in the courtyard.

Tai O, the Fishing Village on Stilts

From Ngong Ping we took a taxi down to Tai O, the old fishing village of stilt houses on the west coast of Lantau. We took a small boat trip, HK$50 each for about 20 minutes. We saw no pink dolphins — you have to be very lucky, the lady on the boat told us — but seeing the village from the water was worth it. We had lunch at Fook Moon Lam, a simple local restaurant.

To get back, the line for bus 11 to Tung Chung was very long; the bus takes as long as a taxi, but we would have had to wait for two or three of them. We took one of Lantau’s blue taxis for HK$230, then the MTR to Kowloon. Our full day on the island, hour by hour, is in our Lantau Island day trip guide.

Sunset on the Avenue of Stars

We walked past the Peninsula — the same facade I saw in 1989 — to the Avenue of Stars on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, had a drink at Ink, next to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and watched the sun go down behind the towers of Hong Kong Island. This is the classic postcard view of Hong Kong, and at sunset it lives up to it.

Temple Street, the Symphony of Lights and the Star Ferry

For dinner we went to Temple Street Night Market, under its strings of lanterns. We ate at Temple Spice Crab: goose with rice and another classic dish, HK$324 for two. Honestly, it was not very good — go for the atmosphere of the street rather than the food.

At 8:00 PM we watched the Symphony of Lights, the nightly light show on the buildings of the harbor. We found it disappointing; the harbor at night is impressive enough on its own, with the red sails of the old junk that takes tourists out on the water.

Then we took the Star Ferry back to Central — HK$6.50 on a holiday weekend, and still the best value ride in Hong Kong — and walked back to the hotel along the waterfront.

Day 5: Old Town Central and Victoria Peak

The Mid-Levels Escalators and Tai Kwun

We spent the morning in Old Town Central. The Central–Mid-Levels Escalator is a chain of covered outdoor escalators and walkways that climbs the hill above Central for about 800 meters, and the easiest way to explore SoHo and the streets around it.

Halfway up, Tai Kwun is the former Central Police Station compound, including the old Victoria Prison, restored and opened as a heritage and arts center. Entry is free. Walk around the parade ground and into the old prison block, where you can still step inside the cells.

For lunch we went to Sing Kee Seafood Restaurant, a Chinese restaurant listed in the Michelin guide, in the streets of SoHo, before a break at the hotel.

Victoria Peak by Day, at Sunset and at Night

At 3:00 PM we took a taxi to the lower Peak Tram station on Garden Road, HK$30 from Admiralty. The line for the tram was long — it was a public holiday — but with a fast-track ticket we went straight to the boarding line and only waited for the next tram, about 20 minutes, which put us at the front with the best seats. Klook sells a Peak Tram fast-track ticket: take the round-trip Peak Tram and Sky Terrace 428 package. There is also an option with Madame Tussauds, which we skipped — we had visited the one in Singapore, where most of the figures were regional celebrities we did not recognize.

The trick at the Peak is to stay: arrive in mid-afternoon for the view by daylight, wait for the sunset, and stay until the city lights come on. We filled the time with cocktails at Bubba Gump in the Peak Tower, then went up to the Sky Terrace around 5:00 PM.

We came down at 7:00 PM, again without a long wait. The full afternoon, hour by hour, is in our Victoria Peak at sunset guide.

Departure Day: M+ and the Airport Express

On our last morning we went to M+, the museum of visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District. It is interesting if you like contemporary art, and the building itself, on the water, has one of the best views of Hong Kong Island.

Then we took the Airport Express to the airport, HK$120: the fastest way there from Central or Kowloon.

What We Would Do Differently

• Go to Dragon’s Back by bus 9 from Shau Kei Wan, not by taxi from Chai Wan.
• Buy Ngong Ping 360 tickets before the day, and consider the Crystal cabin for its shorter line.
• Check the public holidays. Our Sunday at Ngong Ping and our holiday Monday at the Peak were the busiest moments of the trip.
• Skip the Symphony of Lights if you are short of time.
• Choose the taxi line for cash at the airport if you have Hong Kong dollars.

Getting Around Hong Kong: What We Used

Transport	What we paid	How we paid
Taxi, airport to Admiralty	HK$390	Cash
MTR	HK$5 for short rides to HK$20 for the longest	Single journey tickets
Tram on Hong Kong Island	HK$3.50, any distance	Contactless card
Public minibus, Dragon’s Back to Shau Kei Wan	HK$13 each	Cash
Blue Lantau taxi, Tai O to Tung Chung	HK$230	Cash
Taxi, Admiralty to the Peak Tram	HK$30	Cash
Star Ferry, Tsim Sha Tsui to Central	HK$6.50	Contactless card
Airport Express	HK$120	Contactless card

On the MTR we bought single journey tickets, priced according to distance, from HK$5 for a stop or two to HK$20 for the longest rides. On buses, trams, the Star Ferry and the Airport Express, we simply tapped a contactless credit card. Fares, taxis, minibuses and the airport options are all in our guide to getting around Hong Kong.

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Frequently Asked Questions About a Hong Kong Itinerary

Is five days enough for Hong Kong?

Yes. Five days is enough for Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, Lantau and Victoria Peak, plus a day trip to Macau, if you use a central base and plan each day around one area.

Where is the best area to stay in Hong Kong?

Central or Admiralty, on Hong Kong Island. Both are on the MTR, close to the Star Ferry, the Peak Tram and the ferries to Macau, and buses to Lantau and the airport leave from Admiralty.

How much is a taxi from Hong Kong airport to Central?

We paid HK$390 from the airport to Admiralty for a 40-minute ride with no traffic. At the rank, the line for cash payment was faster than the line for card payment.

How do you get to Dragon’s Back?

Take the MTR to Shau Kei Wan, then bus 9 to the To Tei Wan stop at the trailhead. Avoid taking a taxi from Chai Wan: we waited 35 minutes for one, and it dropped us a kilometer from the start.

How long is the wait for the Ngong Ping 360 cable car?

On a Sunday in October, we waited 90 minutes. Buy tickets in advance, go on a weekday, and consider the Crystal cabin, whose line is usually shorter.

Is it worth seeing Victoria Peak at sunset?

Yes. Go up in mid-afternoon, stay through the sunset, and wait for the city lights to come on: you get three different views for the price of one trip.

How do you skip the line for the Peak Tram?

Buy a fast-track ticket in advance. On a public holiday, the regular line was very long, while with ours we only waited for the next tram going up, and hardly at all coming down.

Is the Symphony of Lights worth it?

We found it disappointing. The harbor at night is spectacular on its own, with or without the show.

How much is the Star Ferry?

We paid HK$6.50 from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central on a holiday weekend, by contactless card. It is the cheapest ride in Hong Kong and one of the best.

Can you use a credit card on Hong Kong public transport?

Yes, on buses, trams, the Star Ferry and the Airport Express we tapped a contactless credit card. On the MTR we bought single journey tickets, from HK$5 to HK$20 depending on distance.

Is a day trip to Macau worth it from Hong Kong?

Yes. The TurboJET takes about an hour, and one day is enough for the historic center, Taipa Village and the Venetian; go on a weekday to avoid the crowds.