Hong Kong Private Tours - Taxis Beat a Private Car Tour on Price
Taxis Are Cheaper, More Flexible and How I Actually Run a Tour
The J3 Group - Premium Quality Private Tours | Experiences and Insider Chats since 2010
Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong since January 2nd 1972 - I know the place.
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Hong Kong Private Tours - Taxis Beat a Private Car Tour on Price
Foreword by Jamie
Why I Do Not Do Private Car Tours of Hong Kong - Taxis Are Cheaper, More Flexible and How I Actually Run a Private Tour
I have been running private tours of Hong Kong since 2010. In that time I have completed over 2,500 tours. One policy has stayed the same from the first year: I do not do private car tours. The website has said it, the FAQ has said it, and I have written about it more than once. The enquiries still arrive.
Most of the time the person is not asking for a particular vehicle or a particular company. They want the comfort and the door-to-door feeling they associate with a private driver. Once the practical difference is clear, a good number of them realise that ordinary taxis cover the same ground for a lot less money and with more flexibility. The ones who still want an Alphard (or similar) for the whole day are better passed to colleagues who actually run that product. I have been referring those enquiries for years.
In a nutshell a Taxi is a car and I do use them when on one of my private tours and I have always had the belief that to really experience Hong Kong you need to use public transport and that includes taxis, they are part of the Hong Kong culture.
The decision goes back to the start. Before I took the first tour in April 2011 I spent two years looking at how visitors actually move around Hong Kong. The conclusion was the same then as it is now. Hong Kong works at street level. Markets, buildings, dai pai dongs, neighbourhoods, the upper deck of a bus, the MTR (Subway), the Street Tram and the ferries are how the city moves. A car puts glass between you and that. It is comfortable, but it is a filter. You do not get the place from the back seat of a people-carrier. I have never owned a car here and I do not drive. That has never stopped me taking guests where they need to go.
Cultural immersion and the practical limits of a car
Cultural immersion is the whole point of the day. Hong Kong is vertical, compressed and human. You feel it on the pavement and on the public transport that residents use. A private car sanitises a lot of that. Guiding is also half watching faces. In the middle of an Alphard I cannot see who is flagging, who wants to stop, or who is ready to move on. The seating does not help. There is a driver, a front passenger seat, two captain’s seats in the middle and a tight third row. Five guests plus a guide plus a driver is already a squeeze for Western frames and bags. I have tried the arrangement a couple of times over the years. Drivers interrupted or disagreed with what I was saying. That dynamic does not work with the way I talk, this is rarely an issue in a taxi..
Traffic is not a footnote. Hong Kong has 600,000+. private cars, over 120,000 goods vehicles, 18,163 taxis and thousands of buses. Congestion on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon is frequent and unpredictable. Time spent sitting in a vehicle is time not spent looking at the city. A car tour also still involves a fair amount of walking once you reach the attractions an sites. The marketing rarely mentions that part.
What a private car day actually costs
These figures are for the vehicle and the driver only. They do not include a tour guide or the tour fee itself.
An eight hour Alphard with a driver commonly sits in the HK$2,400 to HK$3,500 range on a weekday (about US$308 to US$449). That is before tunnels, parking, overtime or any holiday loading. Premium English speaking services charged by the hour can land higher again. Extra hours are often HK$300 to HK$350 (about US$38 to US$45). Holiday surcharges and night loadings sit on top. The car-and-driver cost alone is already substantial. Once a separate guide and tour fee is added, the total for a couple or a small group moves well above the cost of the same hours done on public transport plus taxis.
A red taxi flag-fall is currently HK$29 for the first two kilometres (about US$3.70). Most ordinary urban hops on a normal day land between roughly HK$40 and HK$120 (about US$5 to US$15), including a tunnel when one is needed. Four or five such rides typically come to a few hundred Hong Kong dollars (roughly US$40 to US$80), not several thousand. The gap is large enough that most people who see the numbers stop asking for the private car. You are not comparing like with like. My day is my time plus public transport fares that are either covered or modest. A car day is a vehicle-and-driver contract plus a guide and tour Island fee plus tickets plus the extras the brochure left in a footnote.
What I cover and what I do not
I use all forms of public transport. On most tours the most efficient way to move is the MTR (Subway). It is not subject to road traffic and it is how the city actually runs. The decision to use a taxi is always mine and always at my discretion. Circumstances are different on every tour. On most days a taxi comes into it once or twice at most, and only when it is the practical choice for a short hop. I do not default to taxis. I choose them when they make sense.
I cover ordinary public transport on the day: the MTR (Subway), buses, minibuses, ferries and the Street Tram. I pay my own fares. Red and green taxis are covered for short hops at my discretion, normally up to about HK$70 per ride (about US$9). Very long runs in a red taxi are not covered. Central to Stanley is a typical example. Those are yours. Blue taxis on Lantau Island are never covered. A run to the Big Buddha or the Tai O Fishing Village is yours. A proper Lantau Island day is an 8-hour day in any case.
There is very little a licensed taxi cannot reach that a private car can reach. Red taxis cover almost the whole territory except the restricted roads on south Lantau. Green taxis cover the New Territories zones at a slightly lower rate. You hail them when you need them, you pay the meter, and you are not locked into a minimum number of hours or overtime rates. When the walking part of the tour is finished, the taxi is finished. There is no driver waiting in a lay by while you are inside a site. A taxi is also Hong Kong in a way a hired people-carrier is not. You watch the meter. You watch the tunnels. Then you are back on the pavement where the day actually lives.
Hong Kong still has 18,163 taxis: 15,250 urban red, 2,838 New Territories green and only 75 Lantau blue. Premium six seater taxis exist, but I do not rely on finding them or on booking them through apps. The ordinary red and green taxis are what I use when I decide a taxi is the right call.
Group size and practical limits
The practical maximum is 3 guests plus me (4 people total). That fits a standard red or green taxi. I cannot rely on finding an older five seate taxi, and it is not roomy enough for five Westerners in any case. I do not use apps to book six seater taxis. Keeping the group at 4 removes that variable and matches how most days already run. Larger groups can be discussed, but the day is planned around 4 people including me.
South Lantau is a separate case. Most private cars cannot simply roll up to the Big Buddha and the Tai O Fishing Village without a special permit. Only the 75 blue taxis can do it freely. Friends who hold the permit and run car days on those roads handle that product. I do not.
When a private car is the right choice
Some people will still want the Toyota Alphard. Mobility issues, heavy luggage, a preference for staying in one vehicle for the whole tour, or simply the feeling of a private driver are all valid reasons. Those enquiries go to friends who run the product cleanly. I do not try to talk them out of it. I only need to make sure the people who would actually prefer the cheaper and more flexible taxi option understand the difference before they book elsewhere.
I have taken guests with mobility needs, and I have referred them. I have also taken groups who simply preferred to walk and use the systems residents use. One 8 hour day with a Princess and her family was done entirely on public transport and on foot, including a public bus. She did not announce who she was until the end. That is the version of Hong Kong I prefer to show.
The policy has been the same since 2010. The information has been on the site for years. The short version is this: I do not do private car tours. The day uses public transport, with the MTR (Subway) as the backbone. The choice to use a taxi is always mine. Taxis go to the same places a private car goes, for a fraction of the cost of an 8 hour Toyota Alphard and driver. If that suits you, contact me. If you specifically want a private car for the whole day, I will pass the enquiry on.
So there you go.
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