Private Victoria Peak and Cheung Chau Island Hong Kong Tour 2027
The 8 hour alternative to the Big Buddha and Victoria Peak Tour
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Private Victoria Peak and Cheung Chau Island Hong Kong Tour 2027
Foreword by Jamie
The 8 hour alternative to the Big Buddha and Victoria Peak Tour
I have lived in Hong Kong since 2nd January 1972. That is 50+ years, and I have been running private tours since 2010, a tad over 2,400 tours and something like 7,000 guests. Most of those tours stay on the city sides of the harbour. A smaller number go to Lantau Island. A smaller number again go to Cheung Chau Island. This post is the one that puts two of those together.
For years the itinerary people ask for is Victoria Peak in the morning and the Big Buddha in the afternoon. I still run that as a 7 hour private tour, and I still think the order is the only order that works. What I kept hearing, once the tour page was up, was a second question. What if we do not want the Big Buddha. What if the 268 steps are a poor idea. What if we have already done Lantau. What if we would rather be on a fishing island in the afternoon than standing in a plaza. That question is what this tour is for.
I used to run Victoria Peak and Cheung Chau as an 8 hour tour. I did it 20 or 30 times, about 10 years ago, and then it faded, mostly because the Big Buddha Lantau Island tour or Peak | Buddha Tour took the enquiries. I am bringing the island version back. Same idea. Peak first, island second. The difference is the ferry instead of the Ngong Ping cable car, and Cheung Chau Island in the afternoon instead of the plaza at the Big Buddha. A meal on the praya is there if you want it. It is not the tour. It is not a softer copy of the other tour. It is a different Hong Kong.
What this 8 hour private tour is, and what it is not
It is a private tour for 1 to 6 people, hotel pickup to hotel drop off, about 8 hours. I meet you at the hotel. We do Victoria Peak first. We come back down to Central. We take the ferry from Central Pier 5 to Cheung Chau Island. We walk the flat middle of the island, the praya, the Pak Tai Temple, the lanes, and the edge of Tung Wan Beach if the pace is right. We sit down for a meal two minutes from the pier if you want one. We take the ferry back, and I take you back to the hotel.
It is not the 5 hour Cheung Chau tour that I offer. That one is Cheung Chau Island only, and it is the right call if you are in Hong Kong for 2 or 3 days and can give one of them to the island. It is not the 7 hour Victoria Peak and Big Buddha tour. That one stays on Lantau in the afternoon, and it does not include a meal as part of the shape of the tour. It is not a hike. I will not walk anyone up a hill on Cheung Chau. It sounds easy on a listing. It is not, and it is not this tour. It is not the cave. I tell the pirate story from the praya, with the typhoon shelter in front of us. I do not spend an hour on a hole in the rock.
It is also not a coach tour, and it cannot be made into one. I will come back to that, because a few listings still talk as if a vehicle can do both halves. A coach can take you up Victoria Peak. A coach cannot come to Cheung Chau. There is no road, and no bridge, and the island does not allow coaches cars. The second half of this tour is a ferry. That is the point of it.
Why I am bringing this tour back
The Big Buddha | Victoria Peak is a strong tour. I am not retiring it. A lot of guests want the sBig Buddha, the two Po Lin Monasteries, and the ride on the Ngong Ping 360 cable car, and I am glad to do that with them. A fair number do not. Some have bad knees. Some have already stood in that plaza. Some have young children who will look at 268 steps and want no part of them. Some simply want the afternoon on an island, not in a plaza.
Cheung Chau Island answers that without dropping the view. You still get Victoria Peak, and you still get the choice of viewpoint, which matters more than people think. You then get a working island town of about 20,000 people, shaped like a dumbbell, with a fishing praya, a Grade I temple that is still in use, a beach, and no cars. I have been over more than 150 times across the years. Most of those visits were on a weekday. That is the island I want you to see.
There is a practical reason as well. The 7 hour Lantau run has a fixed order and a cable car that does not open when you want it to. The Cheung Chau ferry runs all day from Central Pier 5. .
Why Victoria Peak first, and Cheung Chau Island second
Victoria Peak first. Cheung Chau second. The reason is the crowd, not a theory about the perfect order. If you are at Victoria Peak after 2pm, the number of people can be overwhelming. Coaches, tour groups, and everyone else who had the same idea. The paths clog. The viewpoints fill. A private tour stops feeling private. Morning is when you can stand and look. After 2pm you are sharing it with the mob.
That is why I will not flip it. Cheung Chau first, and Victoria Peak after 2pm, is how the view disappears into a queue. Peak in the morning, ferry after, island in the afternoon. That is the tour. The ferry also takes a clean block of time, so leaving Victoria Peak until last means racing a boat and then racing the ride up. I am not doing that.
I still love the Peak Tram one way, going down, front seats, if the queue is kind. I do not build the tour around it. Most visitors think the only way up is the tram both ways and then the paid viewing platform, because that is where the tram stops. It is not. Three of the four views I use are free. I will come to that.
How the 8 hours actually run
Hotel to hotel, about 8 hours. A normal start is 8.30am or 9am, earlier in the hot months, a little later if the hotel is already on Hong Kong Island and the group is small. I would rather start on time and have a calm morning at Victoria Peak than start late and arrive on the island in a rush.
The morning is Victoria Peak. Travel up, the viewpoint you pick, time to stand and look, then back down toward Central. Late morning we are at Central Pier 5. The ordinary ferry is about 55 to 60 minutes. The fast ferry is about 35 to 40 minutes. I prefer the ordinary ferry on the way over, upper deck, outdoor section at the stern, because the harbour is part of the tour and not dead time. The fast ferry is your call on the way back if time is tight. I will not pretend it is the same ride. It is quicker, and it is indoors.
On the island we have roughly 2 to 2.5 hours. That is enough for the praya, the temple, the lanes behind the pier, and the beach edge if you are walking easily. A meal fits inside that block if you want one. It is not booked in. It is not enough for a cave, a bike (I do NOT ride bikes ever!) loop of the whole island, or a hill. I would rather tell you that now than discover it at the pier. The return ferry, then the ride back to the hotel, closes the 8 hours. If you want a longer sit, tell me and we look at a later boat. The tour does not run past a sensible evening finish. This is not a night tour.
Victoria Peak, and the choice of view
Victoria Peak is 552 metres. The view is the reason most people come. The mistake is thinking there is only one place to stand.
I give you the choice. Weather, and how far you want to walk, decide it. Lugard Road Lookout is a free wide panorama, about a 40 minute walk there and back, with no shelters. On a clear morning it is the one I still like best. A lot of people stop too early, just past the house at 27 Lugard Road, and turn back. Keep walking. The real view is obvious when you reach it. Lions Pavilion Lookout is free, and it is basically the same slice as the paid platform. The Peak Galleria roof is free, and it is the easy one if the legs are not in the mood. Peak Tower Sky Terrace 428 is the paid viewing platform, about US$10 a person (about HK$78), crowded, a smaller slice of the view. I have taken fewer than 5 guests up there in 15+ years. Three of the four views are free. Two of those free spots are basically the same view as the paid platform, without the ticket.
We go up by public transport. I have never owned a car in Hong Kong. The tour is not a private car sitting in a lay by while you take a photograph. If you want the tram down, and the queue allows it, we do that. If the queue is a mess, we ride down the way we came up. Either way you have seen the view.
The Cheung Chau Island ferry is the middle of the tour
Sun Ferry runs the service from Central Pier 5. As of the fare change on 1st April 2026, a weekday adult ticket is HK$16.70 on the ordinary ferry (about US$2.15) and HK$32.90 on the fast ferry (about US$4.20). On Sundays and public holidays those figures are HK$24.80 (about US$3.20) and HK$47.60 (about US$6.10). Public transport on the tour is covered. The full inclusions and exclusions list sits on the FAQ page and on Prices | Book Now page I am not reprinting it here.
The ordinary ferry is the one I want on the way over. You can stand at the stern and watch Central drop away, then Kowloon, then the channel, then the dumbbell of Cheung Chau coming up on the bow. That half hour is not a transfer. It is the join between the two halves. The fast ferry is fine when we need it. It is not the same ferry ride.
What we do on Cheung Chau island, and what I will not do
We step off onto the praya. Fishing boats, the typhoon shelter, the row of restaurants, the wet market a minute inland. The Pak Tai Temple is the anchor. It dates from 1783, it is a Grade I historic building, and it is still a working temple, not a museum. Pak Tai is the Taoist lord of the north, the one the fishing families called on against plague and pirates. I will talk you through the swords, the incense, and the bun towers, and we stand back if a ceremony is on.
The bun festival is once a year, in May. It is the thing a lot of listings lead with, and it is the wrong picture of the island for the other 11 months. Cheung Chau is not the bun festival. It is a working town, a fishing praya, a temple that is open through the week and not only in festival week, beaches, lanes, and no cars. The festival is real. The climbing of the towers stopped after a collapse in 1978 and came back in 2005 as a managed competition. On this tour the towers are not there. The temple is. I would rather you book the island for what it is on an ordinary week than for a festival you are not here for. Festival week itself is a different visit, and I do not take this tour then
From the temple we walk the lanes. Hardware shops, shrines, the gap between the two beaches. Tung Wan is the east beach, the one with the windsurf sails when the breeze is up. Cheung Chau gave Hong Kong its first Olympic gold medal, Lee Lai Shan in the windsurfing at Atlanta in 1996, and the island still takes that seriously. Kwun Yam Wan, the afternoon beach, is over the rise if the pace is right. The Bronze Age rock carvings beyond it are a declared monument from 1982. They are optional. If the legs have already done Victoria Peak, we do not force them.
Cheung Po Tsai is the early 19th century pirate the cave is named for. He started on the wrong side of the law and ended, as a lot of successful pirates did, with a pardon and a rank. The island story is that he used the southwest rocks as a hideout. I tell that from the praya, shelter in front of us. Shades of Jack Sparrow, if you like. I do not do the cave. The walk out, the small boat, and the crawl through the hole can eat the middle of the tour, and on this run that time belongs to the temple, the lanes and the meal if you want one.
No cars. You will hear a village vehicle long before you see it, the small village vehicles that move goods, and the emergency vehicles. Visitors walk, or they hire a bicycle. I do not build this tour around a bike, ever. A bike is a nice idea on a free afternoon. On an 8 hour tour that already has Victoria Peak in it, a bike loop is how you miss the ferry back.
The meal on Cheung Chau Island, if you want one
There is a row of rustic restaurants about a 2 minute walk from the pier. Seafood, noodles, whatever the boat brought in. Cheap and cheerful, and the food is great. A sit down is usually 30 to 40 minutes. You pay for what you order. A budget set menu is often HK$100 to HK$200 a head (about US$13 to US$26). A whole fish, and you are more like HK$200 to HK$400 a head (about US$26 to US$51), sometimes more if you order with enthusiasm.
The meal is not set in stone. It is entirely at your discretion. Some guests want it. Some would rather walk, snack, or keep the time for the temple and the praya. Tell me when you contact me, or tell me on the island. I will not build the tour around a meal you do not want, and I will not be offended if you skip it. If seafood is not for you, there is a McDonald's and a 7 Eleven by the pier.
A few figures, so the island is not a postcard
About 20,000 residents, on an island of roughly 2.4 square kilometres.
Dumbbell shape. The town sits on the narrow middle. The two ends are the high ground I will not walk you up.
No cars for visitors. Walking, or a hired bicycle. Village vehicles for goods.
Pak Tai Temple, 1783, Grade I, still in use.
Ordinary ferry 55 to 60 minutes. Fast ferry 35 to 40 minutes. Central Pier 5.
Weekday adult ferry, from 1st April 2026: HK$16.70 ordinary (about US$2.15), HK$32.90 fast (about US$4.20).
Sunday and public holiday adult ferry: HK$24.80 ordinary (about US$3.20), HK$47.60 fast (about US$6.10).
Island time on this tour: about 2 to 2.5 hours. A meal only if you want one.
I have done the pairing 20 or 30 times, and I have been to Cheung Chau 150+ times.
Victoria Peak: 552 metres. Four viewpoints. Three of them free.
Bun festival: once a year, in May. The island still works without it.
Who this tour is for
It is for a couple, a family, or a small group of up to 6, who want Victoria Peak and then something that is not the Big Buddha. It suits guests who have already done Lantau, guests who do not want 268 steps, and guests with children who would rather have a beach edge than a plaza. It suits anyone who likes the idea of a town with no cars after a morning of skyscrapers. The walking on the island is flat. The walking at Victoria Peak depends on the viewpoint you pick. Tell me how you walk and I will match it.
A Tuesday in October is the tour I want to run. Clear enough for the Peak, breeze on the island, pier queue that moves. The busy season for private tours here runs from the end of September through May. May to September is hotter, wetter, and more likely to throw a typhoon at the ferry. I still run the tour in those months. We start earlier, we watch the weather, and we do not pretend a red rainstorm warning is a photo opportunity (to be fair sometimes it is!)
Who should book something else
Book the 7 hour Victoria Peak and Big Buddha tour if the Big Buddha and the cable car are the point. Book the 5 hour Cheung Chau tour if you have already done Victoria Peak, or if you only have a short afternoon and the island is the thing you want. Book a city tour if you want markets, a street shrine and the harbour from the ground, and you do not want a ferry ride.
Do not book this for a Sunday. Hong Kong people flock over to Cheung Chau Island on that day, the pier queue starts before you have left Central, and the lanes are not the quiet town. Do not book festival week by accident. The bun festival is once a year, in May, and Cheung Chau is not that week. Do not book it if you want the cave, a hill path, or a bike circuit. I will not add them to make a listing look longer.
I also do not generally take cruise ship passengers on this tour. A ferry can run late, or break down, and we are a long way from town if the ship has a sailing time.
What the other similar listings sell, coach or otherwise
I went through the public listings before I wrote this, mainly Viator, because I wanted to see who else is actually selling this tour or something similar, and what they are padding it with.
The honest count is small. The crowded shelf is still Victoria Peak and the Big Buddha, usually 6 to 8 hours, often in a private car with a permit for Ngong Ping. That is a different product. I do not hold that permit, I have never owned a car, and I am not competing with it. A second offering is Victoria Peak and Stanley, or Victoria Peak and a city loop, again usually in a private car. Great tours, if that is what you want. They are not this.
On the Cheung Chau side, most pages sell the island alone. A private walking tour of about 7 hours will often include the cave and a small boat ride, and will not add Victoria Peak. A private agency day, the sort sold into Mainland China and beyond, will often start from about US$239 a person based on 2 people, meet you with a private car, put you on the ferry, and offer a bicycle and the cave as the extras. The car stops at the pier. It has to.
The tour I offer itself shows up rarely. The clearest public one I found is an agency page on a large booking site, sold as a private Cheung Chau and Victoria Peak tour of about 9 hours 30 minutes, door to door, in a medium private car with 7 seats, Mandarin or English, from roughly US$218 a person, and on at least one market page a minimum of 4. The copy is the usual agency copy. Quaint island, city rhythm, worry free, a team with 20 years of experience. The car is the part that does not survive a second look. Cars cannot go to Cheung Chau. There is no bridge, and no road onto the island. Visitors do not drive there as there are no cars. A 9 hour tour that sells a private car as if the car does both halves is pointless. The car can take you to Central Pier 5. It then sits in town, or it goes away, while you are on the ferry. You are paying for a vehicle that cannot do the second half of the tour. A private car to the pier is not a private car to the island.
Coach offerings of this tour: I could not find one. A coach can do Victoria Peak. A coach cannot board the Sun Ferry, and it cannot drive onto Cheung Chau. Any coach page that lists both is either dropping you at Central Pier 5 and ending the guided part, or it is hoping you will not read that far. If a group of 20 wants this shape, it is the wrong shape. School sized groups belong on a coach tour that stays on the city side, or on the Lantau side with a permit vehicle. This tour caps at 6 people
What those pages tend to add, and what I leave out on purpose: the cave, a bike hire, a sampan, a long hill path, and the bun festival as if it were on every week rather than once a year in May. Some of that is a pleasant free afternoon. On an 8 hour tour it is how the time disappears and the return ferry becomes a sprint. I would rather you book me knowing the walk is flat and the pirate is a story, than book a longer list and spend the tour apologising.
My prices for this tour
The only live price list is the one on Prices | Book Now. What follows is an example of the 8 hour line, so you can see the shape before you open the page. The live page wins if the two ever differ.
1 person: US$690 (about HK$5,382)
2 people: US$760 (about HK$5,928)
3 people: US$830 (about HK$6,474)
4 people: US$900 (about HK$7,020)
5th or 6th adult: US$70 (about HK$546) each
The price is the total for the group, not a per person rate. Children 17 and under are free with a paying adult. Otherwise adult prices. I cap the tour at 6. Cash on the day, in US$ or HK$, at US$1 to HK$7.80. No deposit. I do not take payment apps.
Public transport is covered. The meal, if you choose one, is not. Peak Tower Sky Terrace 428 and the Peak Tram ride is not, if you insist on the paid platform. The Peak Tram, if we take it down, sits with the other optional rides on the FAQ page.
What to tell me when you contact me
Contact me from the Prices | Book Now page, or on the contact details in the footer. The form is there, and so is the calendar. A short note is enough, and the more of this you put in it, the faster I can say yes or point you to the other tour.
The date, and a second date if you have one.
How many of you, and the ages of any children.
Hotel name, or the ship if that is the arrival. Cruise bookings on this tour are usually a no.
How you walk. Flat for an hour is fine for almost everyone. Lugard Road is the longer Peak view option.
Whether you have done Victoria Peak or Cheung Chau before.
Whether you want the meal or not which is optional.
That you want the 8 hour Victoria Peak and Cheung Chau tour, not the 5 hour island tour and not the 7 hour Big Buddha | Victoria Peak pairing.
If the diary is full I will say so. I do not hand the tour to a stranger. A small number of guide friends run great private tours, and if the fit is right I will introduce you. Most of them do not run this pairing. That is one reason I am putting it back on the page.
Tripadvisor reviews sit at 800+. I am not going to recite them. If you want the long version of how I work, the FAQ page is the place. It is long on purpose.
Book the tour with Jamie
Two Hong Kongs, one tour. The vertical city in the morning, from a viewpoint you actually choose, before the afternoon crowd arrives. A fishing town after that, with no cars, a working temple, and a meal only if you want one. I have done the pairing before. I know where the 8 hours go, and I know what to leave out.
If that is the tour you want, contact me. Tell me the date, the group, the hotel, and that it is Victoria Peak and Cheung Chau, 8 hours, Peak first.
So there you go.
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