Private Tours & Cultural Tours of amazing Hong Kong

**Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years - I know the place.**

**I have personally completed 2,340+ Private Tours and Experiences (over 6,000+ guests) since April 2011 and I am considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.**

**A blog post with a difference**
**Please do visit Hong Kong in 2025 | Travel, Tourism, Tours, Tips, Daily Life and my personal thoughts on Hong Kong.**
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I am NOT an old fart but I am an EXPERT private tour guide

Private Tours & Cultural Tours of amazing Hong Kong

The art of being a Private Tour Guide in Hong Kong

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We have 3 adult son’s and to them I am an old fart.

That got me thinking about how an older private tour guide is perceived by potential guests and this is also a follow up on my recent blog post about age (click on the yellow button below) with some new information.

I have my own theories and to me anyway, tour guides get better with age, I have lived a lifetime, I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years and above all I know how to tell the Hong Kong story and in quite a few blog posts I have mentioned that you should always go with a guide who is at least in their mid 30’s, in other words someone with a bit of life experience.

I mentioned in a previous blog post recently on how I felt about the Hong Kong Tourism Board hiring “Ambassadors” to answer questions from tourists in the HKTB retail outlets, they hire a diverse number of people who are volunteers in which case the Government pays them precisely nothing, but even worse they have been hiring 18 year old kids which is a huge mistake, an 18 year old might be able to memorise a script but they lack the conversation skills and life experience of say a 40 year old.

I remember when I was 18 I was full of p**s and vinegar and set up my own company and struggled for a couple of years because people felt I was too young, they were right of course.

I have a lot of friends in the private tour business in Hong Kong, we are a very tight knit group of people the majority of whom are between 30 - 50 with just a couple of us old geezers

Learn more | my recent blog post on "does the age of the guide matter"

What is the average age of an International Tour Guide?

I found this little nugget from a recruiting companies website

“The average age of an International Tour Guide typically ranges from their mid-20s to early 40s. Many individuals in this profession start their careers in their mid-20s after gaining relevant education and experience in tourism or hospitality. They often continue guiding tours into their 30s and early 40s, accumulating expertise and a deep knowledge of various destinations. However, there are exceptions, with some guides continuing well into their 50s or 60s if they maintain physical fitness and a passion for travel.”

….. and yes, I like the Google AI search review results on this subject of age of a tour guide.

See below

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I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to describe what I do in Hong Kong when it comes to offering my Private Tours. I came across this tour blurb by a company called Context Travel, I like what they say and I am always mystified as to why they never did well in Hong Kong and in fact they have paused their Hong Kong operation and are not currently offering tours.

I should make it perfectly clear now that I am not a professor or scholar or someone of that ilk, I am a regular guy who has spent 40+ years in the Consulting business and became a Private Tour Guide in 2010.

It came about as on most days I would pop out of my office for a bite to eat or just to simply get some fresh air and for some reason or nother people would stop me in the street and ask me how to get to such and such place and more often than not I would simply take them there and have a chat on the way.

After a few months of this the light bulb went off in my head and I had no idea if there was a market in Hong Kong for Private Tours, there wasn’t as far as I could tell as most people used guide books or simply took a coach tour which picked them up and dropped them off at their hotel

I stuck up a basic website in mid 2010 and got a valuable insight on what I needed to do by handing out leaflets to potential clients at the Peak Tram Station in Central, Hong Kong - the most important thing learnt was I had to get potential guests interested before they came to Hong Kong and that meant a revamped website which had an instant impact.

I had an advantage as I have lived in Hong Kong since January 2nd 1972 and I dealt with a lot of people in my consultancy business, I just had to re package myself as a Hong Kong expert!

Even then I figured that I was still viable as a person even with advancing years and I tell a good story.

The Context Travel Blurb is shown below.

Becoming a Private Guide was my only goal, I went on a couple of bus tours which simply told me what not to do but back in 2011 there was no free tours, no group tours as such, just the coach tours and one company doing hiking tours (since 2003) so what was wrong with the coach tours? the price was very reasonable and an air conditioned coach sounded wonderful

well here are some of the issues

you where on a bus with 20 - 25 strangers
you had a tour guide with very poor English yapping through a microphone using a memorised script (including cheesy jokes)
a fixed itinerary that had not (and I am not kidding) changed in 50 years
a stop at a jewellery factory under the guise of it being a cultural experience, in reality it was a hard sell to make you buy overpriced jewellery and you would be in there for almost an hour!
taking photographs of you to glaze onto a plate ( I kid you not ) or put into a keychain
and at a couple of places, off the bus and meet the guide back at the bus 30 minutes later, you were left to explore on your own
and at the end of the tour you would be harassed for a sizeable tip for both the guide and bus driver

i simply felt there had to be a better way and yes, even the bus tour guides had flags to wave.

**Flag Waving Tour Guides**

**Not in this lifetime or the next**

My worst nightmare | Group Tours on the Streets of Hong Kong

You simply cannot replicate the fabulous experience of being on a private tour when you are in a group of 20 - 100 people with a flag waving, microphone wielding bored Tour Guide working from memorised script and aggressively upselling additional paid tours

A good friend of mine does free tours and he is a lovely person and takes his tours very seriously and has a team of mainly young guides, I am NOT a fan of free tours because they are NOT free as you are expected to give the guide a tip but my friend over the years has diversified and he now does paid tours and off beat tours and does a great job.

I figure he still does free tours because most people (and especially young people) that come to Hong Kong do NOT do a tour of Hong Kong and frankly a smart phone, google maps and apps are useless when compared to a great human tour guide. so he offers a fixed itinerary tour with a duration of 2 - 3 hours to those who would not normally do a tour, so he is of course providing a valuable service and unlike other free tour companies his crew never misses a tour, they always turn up.

In Hong Kong, there are few companies that have popped up which do hybrid coach tours and large group tours, it is quite common to see reviews on Tripadvisor saying that there was more than 40 people in the group, well even in a smaller group of 25 you are NOT going to get any personal attention from the tour guide.

When you see their listings on Viator, Tripadvisor and such you will see that 99 people in the limit on a group tour… this sounds just awful

This was a shot (below) I took of a group tour on Hollywood Road in Central, Hong Kong, it was over 25 people and I actually crossed the street to listen to the guide, he was struggling to make himself understood as that road is quite noisy (and yes he had a microphone) it is way too many people, I imagine most of the guests heard very little.

Who exactly do I do private tours of Hong Kong with?

I have done 2,340+ Private Tours of Hong Kong and i have had well over 6,000 guests, see below for a list of occupations of my guests, I guess my gift is my ability to get along with pretty much everyone, no two tours are ever the same, every single one is customised.

.......and I have done tours with people who have the following diverse occupations:- A REAL Princess, Very close relatives of a US President!, One Star Admiral of the US 7th Fleet, Nuclear Missile Operations Officer (Missileer) for the USAF, Plumbers, Postman, Supplier of ALL frozen burger pattie’s to McDonalds, Nuclear Sub Commanders, Farmers, Chip Shop Owner, Teachers, Pulitzer Prize Award Winning Journalists, Photocopier Repair Guys, Lawyers, Rocket Scientists, Movie Producers, Consul Generals, Police Officers, Homicide Detectives, Travel Agents, House Keepers, Linguists, Retired and Serving CIA Officers, Fighter Pilots, Army and Navy Guys, Socialites, Students, Judges, Journalists, Software Geeks, Nuclear Power Plant Inspectors, Surgeons, Doctors, Forensic Pathologists, Nurses, Coroners, Venture Capitalists, Hospice Directors, Town Planners, Accountants, Psychiatrists, Nuclear Physicists, Professional Athletes, Ferry Captains, Commercial Pilots, Airline Crew, Social Workers, Veterinarians, Musicians, Theme Park Executives, Professional Photographers, College Professors, Gaming Geeks, Inland Revenue Tax Officials, American Airforce B 52 Bomber Pilot, Senior Engineer / Ballistic Missiles, Bodyguards, Beer Salesmen, Park Rangers, Scuba Diving Instructors, Popcorn Machines Makers, Coastguard Officers, Firemen, Structural Geologists, Veterinarians, Architects, Surveyors, Hooters Waitress, Dentists, Ski Instructors, Civil Engineers, Air Traffic Controllers, Electricians, Top Law Professor's at major US Universities, Librarians, Steel Guys, Economists, Homemakers, Novelists, Book Publishers, Currency Traders, Carpenters, a Rabbi, Boiler Maker, Strawberry Farmers, Food Bloggers, Morticians, Financial Advisers, Corporate Video Makers, Private Investigators, Bounty Hunters, Chiropractors, Air Traffic Controllers, Builders, Stonemasons, Botanists, Dog Sitters, Spy, Geneticists, Interpol Agents, Prison Food Suppliers, Radio Announcers, Military Cryptologists, Forklift Drivers, Locksmiths, Icecream maker, Pastry Chef, Baker, Zoo Keepers, Explosives Experts, DEA Agents, Coffee Traders, Diamond Buyers, Wedding Photographers, Google Guru's, Geologists, Professor of Medieval History, Navy Chef's, Camp Site Operators, Animal Embalmers, Telecomms Engineers, Helicopter Pilots, Oil Industry Divers, Navy Seals, Editor for USA Today, Landscape Gardeners, Mary Kay Super Agents, Hotel Owners, TV Actors, Optometrists, Gourmet Chef's, Acclaimed Plastic Surgeons, Barristers, Travel Bloggers, Politicians, Funeral Home Directors, Former Gang Member, Anthropologist, Children's Book Author, Geophysicist, Chicken Artist, Priest, Movie Makeup Artist, Expert Witness, Bail Bondsman, Opera Singer, Master Brewer, Child Prodigy, Debt Collector, Victoria Secrets Store Manager, Head of a major Charity, Celebrity TV Talking Heads (!), Fortune 500 CEO's, Corporate Trainer, Futures Trader, Waitress (quite a few) General Manager of a Worm Bait Company, Owner of a RV Dealership, Convenience Store Owner, Owner of an Amusement Game Manufacturer, Elephant Conservationists, Chemist, High School Students, Crematorium Operator, Concert Pianist, Vet from Honduras, Hair Stylist for a Funeral Home, Calendar Maker, Pedicab Operator, Poets, F16 Fighter Pilot USAF, Steve Jobs Doctor, Major US Democratic Politician, Big cheese Executives from HBO and CBS, Famous journalist and a Journalism Professor, former Secret Service Agent, Famous Rare Coin and Stamp Collector, Major Charitable Foundation Owner ... and some really, really senior people from J. P. Morgan, Starbucks, United Airlines, Boeing, Google and Microsoft.

13 reasons to book a Private Tour of Hong Kong

The size of the group is limited to 1 - 6 people
Itineraries customised to your personal specifications with unrivalled flexibility
Go at your own pace based on your personal dynamics and circumstances
You can choose the date and starting time and it can cost a lot less than you think!
Beat the crowds! you will absolutely maximise the time for actual sightseeing
You get a local resident | expert with an insiders knowledge of Hong Kong - the ultimate benefit
Flexibility on changing the itinerary during the tour if required
An opportunity to make amazing memories with family and friends
An in-depth learning and participation experience
You will get a great value for money experience and you will get the best guides
The undivided attention of your Private Tour Guide
Going from attractions A to B to C to D to E seamlessly and hassle free with an expert
You will absolutely have a lot more fun! (p.s. and someone to take your picture!)

The quality of your Hong Kong Tour | Experience is absolutely dependent on the quality of the guide you choose to book, please choose wisely.

My insider tip

Please note that in general if you book a tour on Viator or Tripadvisor you generally have NO control over what guide will lead your Private Tour of Hong Kong and this is the most important component of the tour. I urge you to check the actual company website and book via their website and do not forget to read Tripadvisor reviews as well.