.. and for that matter “Live Like a Local” as well!
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Insider tip - Forget the cliche “Travel Like a Local”
.. and for that matter “Live Like a Local” as well!
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“Live like a local.” That’s the message that travel publications and influencers have parroted for years now, a simple piece of advice that can supposedly transform your travels. Help you have a more authentic experience. Except is that really what travelers want? To live like locals when they visit new destinations?
On the r/travel subreddit a while back, one user asked, “What is a travel thing that is popular on Reddit, but not in real life?” The responses were varied, but one that garnered a lot of attention was this: “Obsession with ‘being with locals.’ It’s not extremely pronounced in this sub, but tends to be in many travel forums. It’s a special kind of arrogance and I literally know no one IRL who travels with the proclaimed priority to ‘hang out with locals.’” Nearly everyone who responded was in agreement.
“I think it feels like treating locals like cast members in Disney World or something,” one user replied. “It’s an update of the ‘white explorer is accepted by natives and becomes the celebrated foreigner’ trope,” said another. The consensus was that trying to “live like a local” is a form of virtue signaling.
While there’s an element of truth to that, it’s largely a matter of context. Visiting a developing country under the guise of wanting to “live like a local” is, without a doubt, exactly that. There are lots of destinations that encourage visitors to immerse themselves in the local culture, but I don’t believe anyone is truly operating under the pretense that both visitor and local are, at any point, having an interchangeable experience, regardless of what Instagram may have you believing. “
© Insidehook March 25th 2025 article | All Rights Reserved
These are the opening paragraphs on an excellent article with the title “Is It Virtue Signaling to Want to “Live Like a Local” When Traveling?” and the author Lindsey Rogers pretty much nails it
My insider tip.
Forget the travel cliches, all you need to do is just hire a great private tour guide and let them show you Hong Kong, one of the worlds great cities! simple really!
Please take on board some practical advice
Most visitors to Hong Kong are here for 1 or 2 days only, it is pretty much impossible to see “everything” in that time span and Hong Kong is 430 sq miles which is a pretty large area, you cannot really get to know and understand Hong Kong in 1 or 2 days unless you hire a Private Tour Guide.
Myself and my friends have for the most part anything from 3 to 8 hours to show you Hong Kong and we use our vast experience in doing private tours to give you the best possible experience! as you might imagine I have personally done well over 2,300 private tours of Hong Kong so I know a few things.
The one thing that is NOT possible is showing you how to live like a local or travel like a local, those experiences are only gotten from living and working in Hong Kong, a couple of days in Hong Kong with the right guide will give you a pretty good insight though.
I have found that on longer private tours people love the fact that I take them to my town which is about 45 minutes or so from down town Hong Kong on the subway | minibus and they get to see suburban living that I experience and my town is really very interesting in its own right.
….. and read my 2 blog posts in 2024 on this subject and the full article as highlighted above and forget about travel cliches!
Finally, a great article that puts a real spin on the subject of travel cliches.. a constant subject of discussion amongst private tour guides in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is not a developing country, it has been for decades a world class large city and one of the 3 great financial centres in the World, it is has a Chinese | British hybrid culture courtesy of 156 years of British Colonial Rule and as such many visitors do not really know what to expect other than it is going to be a unique experience visiting Hong Kong.
This is a kind of another accurate description of “Travel Like a Local”
“To "Travel Like a Local" means stepping off the beaten path, embracing the unfamiliar, and seeking authentic experiences. It's about understanding that travel isn't merely a transaction of seeing new places; it's a meaningful connection with cultures, traditions, and people.”
Off the beaten path is just a less irritating term than hidden gems or secret spots.
The best bit of a recent article from Foders repeats a lot of what I have said in previous blog posts.
“A century later, not much has changed in travel. Travel media is still rife with tropes like “hidden gem,” “off the beaten path” (a phrase that is itself very well-beaten), or “like a local.” While some of the travel tropes are just trite, it’s that last one that’s grown troublesome as popular tourist destinations worldwide begin to grapple with the prospect of overtourism as “revenge travelers” return with the vigor of a cattle drive.
“Traveling like a local” is frequently thrown out in close proximity to exaltations about “authenticity”–seeing the real destination instead of a contrived facsimile, sanitized for tourist consumption. But travelers risk being wholly inauthentic by seeking to emulate locals (which they’re not). Even if they stay in a vacation home that could have been rented to a local as a primary residence and take up parking spaces at the local supermarket, they’re not locals—they’re just temporarily congesting the same spaces that are part of someone else’s everyday reality”
So you probably get the drift by now!
It is a fine line in Hong Kong with doing tours with a Private Tour Guide or free tours for that matter, the object from a guides point of view is to give you an insiders perspective of what it is like to live in Hong Kong (which to me means having really meaningful conversations whilst visiting places)
I am very fortunate that I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years since I was 11 years old, in other words I pretty much have a handle on what makes Hong Kong tick.
I have had well over 6,000 guests since my first tour in April 2011 so how I do tours is based on a combination of what I feel best represents Hong Kong with what my guests want to see and do and hopefully add in “stuff” that really makes them think about what Hong Kong is really like and as I like to say, see below
The quality of your Hong Kong Tour | Experience is absolutely dependent on the quality of the guide you choose to book, please choose wisely.
One of the things that defines me and my methods is that I am open and you get the hard truths no matter “the good, the bad or the ugly” I am not the sort of person who spins tales of Hong Kong being some form of perfect world or Utopia but you will always get the impression of how much I love Hong Kong, it has been my home for 53 years, my wife was born here and our 3 boys grew up here, two still live in Hong Kong and one lives in London, they are all adults!
Below are 7 images with some notes relevant to what I am saying.
A lot of Hong Kongers rely on public transport to get around, so do I and I try when possible to ride on a local minibus with my guests, an essential part of public transport in Hong Kong, I travel on a minibus pretty much daily.
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I go into great detail on housing in Hong Kong, from the US$100 Million mansions at Victoria Peak to the more common low cost apartment blocks that make up private and public housing but I draw the line at visiting sub divided slum housing, that is a story I have covered in other blog posts
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Visiting a local wet market may or may not be on the agenda given that some people find it to be a horrible experience, Hong Kongers like fresh food and a lot of the population visit a wet market daily for fresh food essentials and a lot of food tours will cover a wet market, suffice to say we have thousands of supermarket type stores should you want a less visceral experience.!
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When it comes to religion anything and everything goes in Hong Kong, probably just about every religion you can think of is covered here and many people are more than happy to visit a local temple. I know from experience that a lot of visitors who are on an “Asian” holiday covering a number of countries are all templed out when they come to Hong Kong so I take that into account.. for many people they do not like crowds, they want some great photo opportunities and want the basics explained to them
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The Homeless population is Hong Kong officially averages between 1,300 - 1,500 people and that is that and this figure is not static, it changes daily, there really should not be any reason why someone sleeps on the streets and according to Government reports many of these people have no desire to live a normal life in a small apartment, the Hong Kong Government does its very best to ensure that everyone has a roof over their heads no matter what their income level is.
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One of my favourite images that I have taken, this is the view from the Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak in Hong Kong and should be the No.1 priority to visit when in Hong Kong, I have personally been to this spot over 6,000 times since 1972, it is quite simply the most amazing panoramic city view in the world today and for some reason or another the overwhelming majority of visitors to Hong Kong never go to this spot.
A lot of people who visit Victoria Peak feel that it is a tourist trap up there and in many respects I agree but this view point requires a 20 minute walk there and 20 minutes walk back from the very touristy Peak Tower and Lions Pavilion and your effort will be rewarded with an astonishing view, even on a cloudy day. 7 - 10 million people a year visit Victoria Peak and miss out on this view. Nuff said.
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There has been a couple of buildings added to this view since I took this image but the 2025 view is almost the same and this is the 2nd best view in Hong Kong, the view of Hong Kong Island across Victoria Harbour from Kowloon.
There are 3 places to get this view
TST Promenade next to the Clock Tower and the Star Ferry Pier
The Avenue of the Stars a little further East close to the Regent Hotel
The Ocean Terminal Deck in the Ocean Terminal Shopping Mall | Cruise Ship Terminal next to the Star Ferry Pier
My personal favourite place to go with guests is the Ocean Terminal Deck where I took this image from, it is generally deserted and is a raised platform on the roof.. the view is quite staggering.
Like the Peak Tower at Victoria Peak the Avenue of the Stars is a bit of a tourist trap but that does not mean I avoid it, far from it, you just have to pick the right time!
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…… and for the record many Hong Kong residents visit Victoria Peak on a Sunday to do the Peak Circular Walk which takes in the Lugard Road Lookout place for the staggering view and they have been doing that for over 100 years! it is a thing and I personally never get tired of that view, I have 53 years of watching Hong Kong evolve from up there.
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