Photo of the day No.44 - Barker Road Hong Kong View
Barker Road, Billionaires Row, Victoria Peak, 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.
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Photo of the day No.44 - Barker Road Hong Kong View
Barker Road, Billionaires Row, Victoria Peak, Hong Kong
The amazing city view that everyone misses out on, Barker Road, Victoria Peak
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To me the 2nd greatest city view in the world is on Barker Road at Victoria Peak and yes, amazingly this is another view virtually every visitor | tourist coming to Hong Kong misses out on and that is a real shame. it is stunning in all types of weather and to make it absolutely clear, the reason you make the effort to go to Barker Road is not because it is free but because the views are far, far superior to most of the popular places to see the view in my humble opinion and you get to see some other totally unexpected “things”! for example there are lot of Billionaire Houses and Family Compounds, some “stately” homes for high ranking Hong Kong Government Officials and also some old colonial houses from decades ago.
The road is very unassuming with not a lot of traffic, just the odd truck, taxi and residents Rolls Royce’s! and at the beginning of Barker Road as you walk down, you come across the Peak Tram Barker Road station which is a great place to take some awesome images of the Peak Tram (selfie heaven) - oh and the Barker Road Peak Tram Station used to be called Plantation Road Peak Tram Station, the Peak Tram opened in 1888 and Barker Road was built and opened in 1898 and hence it was renamed.
One of the tricky things a Private Tour Guide must contend with is TIME, yes time.
My most popular tour time wise is the 8 hour tour, most of my guests are in town for 1 - 3 days maximum and they want to get a detailed overview of Hong Kong and learn how to get around on Hong Kong’s amazing pubic transport, this would be day 1.
It also reminds me of a story I like to tell when a decade ago a young lady sent a general email to the 10 most popular tour companies in Hong Kong ( we are all great friends and share stuff ) in her message she had copied and pasted sites she wanted to visit and her request was to fit them all in an 8 hour of Hong Kong and she mentioned that whoever quoted the cheapest price would get her business! her request was over 30 sites and attractions!
Well, we estimated that it would take at least a week ( 7 days ) doing 8 - 10 hours a day., we never heard from her again.
The vast majority of visitors to Hong Kong never bother to do a tour, that is a fact, I get the impression after being in the game since 2010 that these days people believe that Google Maps and city apps will solve all of their problems and they can travel around the city “like a local” - when I am out doing photography or researching I am quite often stopped by tourists who are lost and likewise I am often amused by their dependence on Google maps, looking at a small smart phone screen in 2d is not quite the amazing app experience they expect.
Hong Kong is 1,114sq km or 430 sq m, it is a lot, lot bigger than people imagine and we have the best public transport in the world but even so, if this is your first time to Hong Kong, getting around can be a major challenge and it is not just about getting around, you absolutely need someone to tell you about Hong Kong and it is a rather unique place with a fascinating history.
I was born to be a Tour Guide (as are a lot of my friends) I have done 2,340+ private tours in Hong Kong with well over 6,000 guests, I am pretty good at the art of conversation and I absolutely hate those group tours available in Hong Kong who compete on price, you have tour groups with 20 - 100 people and a lousy guide speaking from a memorised script (through a microphone) that does not change, the guide can get quite agitated if you ask them a difficult question or any question for that matter!
Google search can throw up seemingly thousands of search results for any simple enquiry and trust me there is a lot of rubbish out there about so many things, Google search and AI will NEVER replace a human tour guide despite all the hype you might read about,
Barker Road, Victoria Peak, Hong Kong
Google search results and yes my comprehensive blog post on the subject is the first result you will see!
… and yes, if you just type in Barker Road, Hong Kong, you get a different set of results! it can get very confusing.
I will be blunt, I do NOT ever use Wikipedia, I learnt a long time ago that it can be wildly inaccurate and riddled with errors and you also get a lot of totally useless information. On the Barker Road search results
Here is just one error, minor but it could cause confusion
“Barker Road (Chinese: 白加道) is a road located on Victoria Peak, Hong Kong at an altitude of approximately 350 metres (1150 ft) above sea level with a length of about 1,7 km (1,1 mi). It starts from the Old Peak Road (below the Peak Tram Upper Terminus) and ends at Magazine Gap on Peak Road.”
Barker Road does NOT end at Magazine Gap it ends at Peak Road where the house of the US Consul General is, to get to Magazine Gap and Magazine Gap Road you have to turn left and walk for approx. 2 minutes!!
… and Wikipedia never seems to be updated in a timely manner, the image of the Peak Tram shows a burgundy carriage, this was actually changed to new much bigger carriages in an iconic green colour in 2022.
In 53 years I have accumulated a lot of knowledge about Hong Kong, the currency for a Private Tour Guide is knowledge and keeping it up to date.
When I research which I do daily, I am a Google Search junkie and I have been using it since it first came out, I am smart enough to weed out all the junk that comes out and it also helps that I will read multiple articles on the same subject, I imagine that a lot of people will limit their research to the first 5 or 10 results which is a recipe for disaster, a lot of companies are ranked highly on Google because they use the right key words and NOT because of quality content.
For those that read my blog posts (and I am pretty prolific ) I have a thing about blog posts by travel bloggers who in general may have only visited Hong Kong once and in my experience their advice whilst seemingly helpful can also be wildly inaccurate and often they omit key facts, you cannot really know Hong Kong after one brief visit if you are the sort of people who does not hire a quality private tour guide.
On the other hand I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years, I have done 2,340 + Private Tours of Hong Kong since April 2011 and I have been to Victoria Peak over 6,000 times - it is fair to say that things change on a day to day basis. so a blog post written by a Travel Blogger 5 years ago may be riddled with errors because things change rapidly in Hong Kong.
This is why I write new posts daily and try to keep old posts updated.
One of the big problems I have (and as mentioned) is time, even on an 8 hour tour I simply do NOT have the time to fit in the Barker Road view experience which is why I prepared the How To get to Guide so if you do not book a tour you might like to do Barker Road so to speak, I highly recommend it and honestly I would love to go there on every tour but there just isn’t the time!
… and for those that really read my blog post, you will note that the Barker Road view is the 2nd greatest city view in the world, the best view is simply the one at the Lugard Road Lookout and I have written many blog posts about that view.
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.
© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong |
| 2010 - 2025 All rights reserved. |
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