Insider tip - Destination Hong Kong | Sample Itineraries
Why in general I do not offer sample tour itineraries
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 2,300+ Private Tours and Experiences (over 6,000+ guests) since April 2011 and I am considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.
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Insider tip - Destination Hong Kong | Sample Itineraries
Why in general I do not offer sample tour itineraries
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A very rare image I took from a spot on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong looking down on Aberdeen, this location was a special request from a guest that came up as we discussed what was on the agenda in the Hotel lobby, this is a very rare view from Victoria Peak that no one really knows about.
I cannot fault the Hong Kong Tourism Board for trying to help with itineraries but these ideas have been put together by people who do NOT do tours for a living and do not understand how time is critical when planning a tour itinerary.
“Hong Kong - Sample Itineraries | 3 Days in Hong Kong:
The Hong Kong Itinerary You’ll Want to Copy”
“Visiting the area and looking for the best 3 day Hong Kong itinerary? Keep on reading, because I’m sharing not only the perfect 3 days in Hong Kong, but where to stay, when to go, how to get around, and oh so much more! Including all my personal recommendations and top tips! You don’t wanna miss this Hong Kong blog.
Pull up a chair, because despite only covering 3 days, this Hong Kong itinerary is filled with so much information for your first visit to the country. Hong Kong is home to not only delectable dim sum (truuuust me on that one ), but serene floating islands, an impressive skyline, traditional Chinese architecture, and a vibrant and densely populated urban center.”
The blurb above is courtesy of a fairly typical travel blogger using the moniker of “ A Passion and a Passport” and I always enjoy reading these sort of articles mainly because they can be quite inaccurate and in general fail miserably at taking into account TIME - the most important factor when it comes to exploring in Hong Kong.
Here is a specific thing that she suggests you do
The 2 Fishing Junks you will see in Victoria Harbour Hong Kong
The Aqua Luna on the left and the Dukling on the right, the Aqua Luna is NOT ancient, it is a replica and you certainly do not seem them all over Victoria Harbour!
“Ride a sampan or ‘junk boat’ on Victoria Harbor: The best way to get those famous views of the city skyline? Aboard an ancient Chinese junk boat of course! These are the flashy red wooden boats you’ll see all over Victoria Harbor.”
Here is my view on this sample itinerary inclusion
The 2 companies that offer the junk boat rides are the Aqua Luna (2 boats) and the Dukling (1 boat) they are just fine but it is not the best way to get the views of the city skyline, that would be from the Ocean Terminal Deck which is next to the Star Ferry and has elevation and the views are the best there and it costs you nothing ($0) both the fishing junks are quite costly and by the way there are 3 in total which hardly counts as seeing them all over Victoria Harbour, at best you will 2 of them only and the sails are red NOT the actual boats and in fact the Dukling sails are more of a muddy brown than red! oh and a junk is NOT in any shape or form a sampan, a fishing junk is much, much larger
I would be very cautious about taking the advice of a one time visitor | blogger to Hong Kong when it comes to thinking about your itinerary, they simply do not have the knowledge of Hong Kong that a long term resident has.
The other problem is that these bloggers in general are NOT Hong Kong residents, they have written an article after one brief visit (hence the inaccuracies) whereas I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years and have completed 2,330+ Private Tours of Hong Kong. I am part of a tight knit group of Private Tour Guides, all long term residents and all veterans of a shed load of tours, some of our group where born in Hong Kong as well.
With this travel blogger the mistake in her blurb is she clearly states “serene floating islands” - Hong Kong has 263 Islands and all of them are, as you can imagine SOLID ROCK and they do not float, I can only surmise that she is talking about Aberdeen Harbour on Hong Kong Island which back in the 1970’s when I was a kid was home to thousands of boats with people living on them, pretty much all the boats have gone and the residents live in normal housing on land, a thousand boats in a harbour does not make it an Island!
So here is an important point
I have done 2,330+ Private Tours of Hong Kong since 2011 and I have NEVER and I mean never done the same tour itinerary twice.
That’s right and I should know as I always do an after tour report with itinerary details.
A lot of travel bloggers seem to think that the vast majority of visitors come to Hong Kong for 5 - 7 days or more, this is not realistic, in my experience since 2011, pretty much all of my guests are in Hong Kong for 1 - 3 days and if they have come a long way then they need time to recover and adjust to Hong Kong time, basically it is up to me to ensure that they get the best possible tour in one day (which is why my most popular tour is 8 hours) if they are here for a few days they can then do other stuff that was not covered in the tour, ie shopping, visiting friends or family, eating and drinking, going to places I might recommend to them or just chilling out in the Hotel!
Because I do Private Tours my guests are given the option to suggest anything that they want to do | visit and are given an option of booking a 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | hour tour (on rare occasions I have done 10 hour tours), with experience you acquire knowledge and this means my modus operandi is to meet with the guest on the day of the tour and hash out a plan for the tour based on what they want to do and my suggestions.
There are so many variables to take into account such as :
the length of the tour anywhere from 3 - 8 hours is normal
the weather, which can have a major impact on the tour itinerary
physical condition of the guests as my tours involve walking and using public transport
how many sites | places they want to visit
Hong Kong is 430sq miles or 1,114sq km, a lot of interesting places take a lot of time to get to
does the guest (s) want to stop for lunch or snacks which can also impact on timing
… and this would be a good time to talk briefly about social media and the impact it has had on tour itineraries in Hong Kong, travel bloggers and so called “influencers” have caused no end of trouble for tour companies, influencers will post heavily edited images of locations (with the filters giving a dream like quality to the image) but do not take into account that it might take 2 hours to get there, 2 hours to get back and 2 minutes at the location to take a selfie and then the person realises that what they are seeing does not match a filtered image on social media!
… and this is why I have a problem with the term hidden gems and secret spots, there are NONE left in Hong Kong and worse many of them tend to totally screw up the itinerary time wise.
I mean lets face it, many people that come to Hong Kong are first time visitors which means other than reading social media posts and such they have very little knowledge of Hong Kong and so a natural reaction is to request a sample itinerary and basically that is all but impossible there are simply too many things to see and so many variables.
It is NOT about the price of the tour either, my price grid offers pricing based on the number of people on the tour and the number of hours and myself and the guest figure out the best itinerary when we meet on the day of the tour
I had one young single female potential guest a few years back who had cut and pasted literally 30 interesting sites into an itinerary which was for one day, my estimate was she would have needed 7+ days to fit them all in!
If you book a tour with the major Online Travel Agencies such as Viator, Tripadvisor, Klook, Get your Guide etc you will get your sample itineraries, for some dumb reason the OTA’s require that the tour company gives an itinerary showing the exact timing for each stage of the tour, this is utterly ridiculous as there are so many small factors that can affect timing on a tour, as an example, on one tour I spent 6 hours talking with 2 guests at the Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak, this was their wish | request and was only mentioned when we got to the spot….. the best laid plans of mice and men and yes, I really enjoyed myself for the 6 hours, I have often said that I could do an 8 hour tour of Hong Kong sat talking in the lobby of a hotel!
The closest thing I do to a sample itinerary is the Lantau Island Tour in Hong Kong and virtually every one I have done (and I have done it hundreds of times) is with guests who booked this tour on day 2 of their Hong Kong adventure, it is a pretty simple itinerary that takes in 2 sites (The Tai O Fishing Village and the Big Buddha) if done properly it takes at least 7 hours with about 4 hours of travel time.
My gift is simple, I could make a random rock on the side of a road in Hong Kong seem interesting and at the end of the day this is what you need to remember, see below
I should point out that a lot of my friends offer a form of “sample itineraries” by way of offering specific “themed” tours, one of the reasons for this is that they have multiple guides and therefore the guides are trained to learn specific tours and stick to the itinerary, naturally the best guides think on their feet and can adapt and change the itinerary at a moments notice.
The tours I do always have custom items, even my Jewish Heritage tours are basically just part of a tour, things can be added and things can be left out.
Repeat after me……..
I always stress this again and again, pretty much any reputable tour company you contact can give you a good tour but getting a GREAT tour is totally down to the Guide and sadly there are a lot of very poor guides out there in Hong Kong. (I do a lot of “competitor tours” for research purposes)
If you choose to do a group tour with 10 - 99 people on the tour (I kid you not) it is NOT the same quality as a Private Tour and you get the additional gift of listening to an underpaid tour guide shouting into a microphone on the streets.
I know from past experience since 2011 that some potential guests want a sample itinerary so they can send it to multiple tour companies to get the best deal, I always stick to my guns and do not give out sample itineraries, whilst price is a factor, choosing the right company and the right guide is a lot more critical than the price, please bear this in mind and remember the old cliche - you get what you pay for.
My insider tip 1
Forget sample itineraries
Please note that in general if you book a tour on Viator or Tripadvisor you have NO control over what guide will lead your 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, you can normally figure out which are the best and most popular guides and they will be experienced enough to sort out a tour itinerary on the fly!
My insider tip 2
Visit the right spot at Victoria Peak
You will notice from my link Victoria Peak HK on the site menu that I know a few things about the Peak. Most people who write about Victoria Peak for some reason claim that the best view from Victoria Peak is from the Peak Tower Sky Terrace 428, this is total nonsense, they also recommend the Lions Pavilion and the Peak Galleria roof, again nonsense. The best place by a huge margin is the Lugard Road Lookout, I have been there 6,000+ times since 1972, it is a 20 minute walk there and 20 minutes back, there is NO entrance fee and it is a lovely walk, as long as it is not foggy or raining you need to go here and even on rainy days the view can be outstanding!
Finally - I came across this academic gem
“Little research has been conducted examining the factors that influence the development of day tour itineraries. While the literature suggests that a combination of commercial, operational, political and experiential factors contribute to itinerary development, this article argues that it is the business model chosen that affects it the most. Essentially two business models predominate: commission-based and noncommission-based. This study examines the impact of the business model on the selection of day tour itineraries in the Macau Special Administrative Region of China. It finds that experiential values are traded off almost entirely in the itineraries of commission-based tours, while a better balance between experiential and operational considerations drives itinerary choices for noncommission-based tours. (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
Typical academic nonsense but if you cut through the jargon and also factor in that Macau is similar but different to Hong Kong, they are also saying that a lot of factors influence a tour itinerary, in fact commission based tour companies try and add in lots of stops where you are encouraged to purchase items for which they will get a commission, something to take into account if you select a coach tour in Hong Kong with a fixed itinerary! and yes, to fit in these stops they remove much more interesting places to visit.
I imagine that many companies that do group tours in Hong Kong with 10 - 99 people on the tour, no doubt get a commission if they stop at a particular restaurant every day.
So there you go and something to think about if you are planning to book a tour in Hong Kong
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong |
| 2010 - 2025 All rights reserved. |
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