This is Asia Tours Hong Kong - Great Private Tours Going Into 2027
Jacky Wong and his Great Guide Team and their Lantau Island Car Tours
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Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong since January 2nd 1972 - I know the place.
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Jacky Wong and his Great Guide Team and their Lantau Island Car Tours
Foreword by Jamie
Why Cruise Ship Guests Book This is Asia Tours for a Shore Excursion
I first bumped into Jacky Wong in 2011, in TST MTR station (Subway) in Kowloon, both of us on the way to pick up guests. He already knew who I was. I went home, looked him up, we arranged to meet, and that was that. Fifteen years later he is still doing the same job, only the diary is much thicker, the car is smarter, and the Guide Team behind him is no longer a one man show. That is the bit that has dated my older posts. I wrote about a young operator going places. He went. This is the grown up version.
This is Asia Tours started not long after I did. Jacky founded the company in 2011. I have met him many times since, usually over coffee, sometimes in a 7 seater Toyota, once for half a day in a Mercedes Benz showroom eating free ice cream and photographing cars neither of us was about to buy. We get on. That matters in this trade. Hong Kong is a small industry dressed up as a big city, and the operators who last are the ones other guides will still take a call from on a Sunday night when a ship has changed its berth.
What follows is a proper look at the company as it stands in 2026 going into 2027. Not a press pack. Not the two older pages I am replacing. Those had gone stale. This one should not.
Why the old posts I did about Jacky needed a rewrite
The first piece I put up about This is Asia Tours was really a signpost. Click here, Jacky is great, off you go. The second was a spotlight that still talked about him as if he had only just arrived. Neither captured what guests actually book him for now.
The business has three pillars that were only sketched last time.
One. Lantau Car Tours are a proper speciality. Jacky holds the special permit that lets his own Toyota Alphard use restricted roads on Lantau, and on those mornings he is often both driver and guide. Most private cars cannot simply roll up to the Big Buddha and the Tai O Fishing Village on those roads. When Jacky is already booked, which is often, a member of the Guide Team goes out with a hired driver or a booked car | driver. That is not a fallback. That is how a company with a strong Guide Team actually works. The car option sits alongside public transport, the cable car, taxis and the cheap coach loops of 25 to 50 people. The guest decides.
Two. The company was early, and remains serious, about cruise and layover work. Pickup inside the terminal. Luggage in the boot. Back to the ship with a buffer. That is a different skill from a leisurely 8 hour city walk.
Three. Jacky did not stay a solo act. He built a very strong Guide Team. Ben, Kiyo, Liz, Sydney, Linda, William (Bill), Ashley, Pearline and the others who rotate through the diary are the reason the company can put 6 guides on 6 different cruise parties on the same morning. I watched him do exactly that in late March 2025. That is not luck. That is an operator.
If you only remember one sentence from this page, make it this. This is Asia Tours is a founder led private tour company with a capable and highly trained Guide Team, a diary that still tilts toward people who have a ship, a flight or a tight clock, and Lantau Car Tours as one of the ways they get guests across the island.
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Jacky Wong and his old Alphard and our Mercedes Benz day out!
Jacky Wong, the founder of This is Asia Tours guests actually meet
Every great private tour company in Hong Kong has a founder with a face. Guests book the face first and the itinerary second. Jacky is no different, and that is a compliment.
He is Hong Kong born and Hong Kong based, with a stretch of his teenage years and early twenties in Melbourne. That Australian decade is the reason his English is easy in the car and why American and British guests stop bracing for the usual accent scramble. He also works in Cantonese and Mandarin, which matters the moment you leave the tourist script and start talking to a stall holder in the Tai O Fishing Village or a temple keeper in Kowloon.
The temperament is what guests write home about. Laid back is the word that keeps turning up, and it is the right phrase. Not sloppy. Not late. Laid back in the sense that he does not fill silences with a rehearsed monologue. He will change the order of the day if your mother cannot manage a slope. He will add a bakery stop because you asked. He will cut a temple if the group has already had enough incense for one morning. Reviewers who have used other companies the day before tend to notice the difference immediately.
He is also, unashamedly, the car guy. His own working vehicle is a Toyota Alphard, the 7 seater with the leather and the sliding doors that cruise guests remember more fondly than they expect to. On Lantau days when he is free, he is often both driver and guide in that Alphard. If he is already out with another group, the office hires a driver or books a car | driver through a third party and sends a member of the Guide Team. Same company. Different private car. Worth knowing before you assume Jacky will be the one driving.
I have always got on with him. He has helped me out more than once over the years, which in this business is a better reference than any badge on a website.
The Guide Team at This is Asia Tours
There is more than one way to run a private tour company in Hong Kong. I still do every tour myself and I have never hired another guide. That has been the policy since day 1, and it is not changing. Jacky chose a different road. He built a Guide Team so This is Asia Tours can put several parties out on the same morning without the day falling over if he is already in the Alphard. That is his model. It is a great model for the cruise and multi party work he takes on. It is not a verdict on anyone who stays solo.
The Guide Team is local, mixed in age and background, and mainly bilingual or trilingual, which is exactly what you want when the diary contains a family from Wichita, a pair of cruise guests with limited walking, and a food writer who wants wet markets rather than Victoria Peak. Ben Chan works in English, Cantonese and Mandarin and has the sort of lived Hong Kong timeline guests cannot get from a script. Kiyo came out of online media and treats a tour as a story with a pulse. Liz brings a Guangdong and Macau thread which is useful on the days the car is pointed at the bridge. William, who guests will also meet as Bill, works in English only. He is the retired international lawyer turned street photographer, which is a sentence I enjoy writing because it is true and because his Kowloon years give a walking day a different grain. Ashley comes from food journalism. Pearline has been walking these streets for 30 years and started in Malaysia, which is a useful extra lens. Sydney and Linda are Hong Kong born, 1980s generation, and fluent across English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
I am not going to pretend I have met with every name on that list but I have met with Bill and Ashley multiple times over the years. What I have seen, repeatedly, is Jacky trusting them with his own guests. That is the test that matters once you decide to have a Guide Team. When he cannot take the booking, the work still goes out under his name because he stands behind the people who take it.
If you write to the office and ask for Jacky by name, say so early. He still takes days himself when he is free, especially some of the Lantau Car Tours and the more complicated cruise timings. He cannot possibly do all the tours himself, which is why the Guide Team exists. If he is already booked, you are not being fobbed off. You are being handed to someone very capable, highly trained, and standing under the same company name. Just do not assume that person will also be driving Jacky's Alphard. On those days the private car belongs to a hired driver or a third party car | driver.
What This is Asia Tours actually specialises in
The website is honest about the range. I will be equally plain.
Hong Kong City Tours
These run as 4 hour, 6 hour or 8 hour private outings. Current published prices for a group of up to 4 people sit at about HK$3,892 / US$499 for 4 hours, about HK$5,148 / US$660 for 6 hours, and about HK$6,396 / US$820 for 8 hours, with an extra person at about HK$390 / US$50 and children 11 and under not charged for the tour itself. The shape of the day is familiar on paper, Victoria Peak, the old City of Victoria and Hollywood Road, Aberdeen, the Star Ferry, Kowloon markets, Chi Lin Nunnery if the clock allows, and then whatever the guests actually asked for. The value is not the list. The value is that the list gets rewritten on the pavement.
Lantau Island Car Tours
This is the product I would send a guest toward if they specifically want the Lantau day done by car. Published price for the private Lantau day is about HK$5,850 / US$750 per group of up to 5, extra person about HK$390 / US$50. Duration is around 5 - 6 hours or more from the city. Tai O Fishing Village, the stilt houses, a short boat run when it is included, Po Lin Monastery, the Big Buddha, and the option of the Ngong Ping cable car on the way back at the guest's own cost. If Jacky is free he may be driving his own Alphard, because that is the vehicle tied to his restricted road permit. If he is not free, a Guide Team member goes out with a hired driver or a booked car | driver. Ask which version you are getting so you know who is guiding and which private car is turning up. Both are private Lantau Car Tours. The standard of the company is the Guide Team, not one seat in one car.
Cruise and shore shore excursions
This is where the company is unusually well set. Pickup inside Kai Tak Cruise Terminal or Ocean Terminal with a name sign. Luggage stays in the vehicle. Published private prices for the common 4 to 6 hour shapes sit in the region of HK$3,892 to HK$5,928 / US$499 to US$760 for 1 to 4 guests, with larger cars priced up. They publish a back to ship buffer of 45 to 60 minutes, which is the only number on a cruise page that actually matters. Pre cruise welcome days and post cruise airport finishes are on the same menu. If you are coming off a ship, this is the work they have been doing for many years.
Airport Layovers and Transit tours
Airport pickup, a compressed city or Lantau loop, back in time for the next flight. Same habit of watching the clock. A 6 hour layover in Hong Kong is either a wasted air conditioned seat at the airport or the best page in the trip. Jacky has been doing the second version since the early years of the company.
Macau
A full day at about HK$9,352 / US$1,199 per group of up to 4, extra person about HK$780 / US$100, children 11 and under not charged for the tour itself. The car goes over the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau Bridge. The day is the old city, the churches and squares, Ah Ma, a bit of the resort strip so guests can see what the postcards left out, and enough Macanese food that nobody gets back in the car hungry. Liz's Macau thread in the Guide Team is not accidental.
Shenzhen
About 9 hours, about HK$7,566 / US$970 per group of up to 4. Nantou Ancient Town sits next to the new Shenzhen of Ping An, Huawei, Xiaomi, DJI and the current crop of robot and EV demonstrations. It is the day I would give to a guest who has already done Hong Kong once and wants to understand what is happening on the other side of the border in Hong Kong, not another temple circuit.
Night, junk and food
There is a night junk with dim sum, a Kowloon after dark walk, and a food day. I do not run food tours myself, so I will not pretend to score their siu mei against anyone else's. What I will say is that the food days work because the Guide Team includes people who actually care about the stalls, not because a menu was copied from a listicle.
Car Transfers
Airport to hotel, hotel to ship, ship to airport, and the Macau bridge run. Useful on their own, more useful when the transfer is the first or last hour of a tour so nobody is standing on a kerb with a suitcase negotiating a taxi in a language they do not speak.
Lantau Car Tours, and where the Toyota Alphard sits in the mix
I want this in plain English because the transport choice on Lantau is one of the first questions guests ask, and the answer is not a contest.
Large parts of Lantau are not a free for all for private cars. The roads that make a Big Buddha and Tai O Fishing Village day run to a tighter clock are restricted. Public coaches, licensed services, the MTR, buses, taxis and the Ngong Ping 360 all exist. A great many private guides in this city, myself included, take guests that way every week. A one way cable car ride and the rest of the day on public transport is a proper Lantau day. I have had no complaints about it. Plenty of my friends offer both that version and a car option. The guest decides. The websites are clear. There is no reason for anyone to feel annoyed about the choice they made.
Jacky has the licence that lets his own Toyota Alphard use those restricted roads, and he uses it. On those mornings he is the driver and the guide. That is his Lantau Car Tour. It sits alongside the public transport days the rest of us run. It is not a replacement for them.
If Jacky is already booked, This is Asia Tours still runs Lantau Car Tours. A member of the Guide Team goes out with a hired driver, or the office books a car | driver through a third party. That is a great private day with a great guide. If you specifically want Jacky, say so. If he is free, great. If he is not, the Guide Team is why the booking still stands.
How the This is Asia Tours Tripadvisor reviews actually read
I am not going to paste other people's paragraphs. You can go and read them yourself. The pattern is very stable.
Tripadvisor has This is Asia Tours sitting at 4.8 out of 5 from roughly 446 reviews, which for a private operator working cruise clocks and custom days is a serious pile of paper. The repeats are the same ones I hear when I bump into his guests by accident. He turned up on time. The car was comfortable. He changed the plan without a fuss. He knew the history well enough to answer the second question, not only the first. He got them back to the ship. Families with mixed ages did not feel marched. People on a layover did not feel robbed of the day.
A 4.8 from that many reviews is not a honeymoon score. It is a working score. Working scores are the only ones I trust.
Book directly with This is Asia Tours if you can
Like every great tour company in Hong Kong, This is Asia Tours would much rather you booked through the website than through an OTA such as Viator or Get Your Guide.
There is nothing mysterious about this. An OTA takes a slice, sits between the guest and the operator, and turns a simple WhatsApp into a ticket with small print. Direct means Jacky or the office sees the request the same day. Direct means you can ask for Jacky by name, flag a wheelchair, flag a ship departure, flag a child who will not walk up 268 steps to the Big Buddha. Direct means if the weather turns on Lantau they are rearranging your morning, not arguing with a portal.
The website is hongkongprivatetourguide.com. Use it. If an OTA listing is how you first found them, that is fine, but finish the booking on their own page if you can.
Full contact details of This is Asia Tours in Hong Kong
This is Asia Tours
Website: hongkongprivatetourguide.com
Email: thisisasiatours@gmail.com
WhatsApp and mobile: +852 6534 4367
Instagram: ThisIsAsiaTours
The contact page on the website is the cleanest route. WhatsApp is monitored. If you are writing from a ship the night before arrival, put the ship name, the terminal and the all aboard time in the first message. That one habit saves more mornings than any brochure.
Who this company is for, and who it is not for
This is Asia Tours is a strong fit if you want a private tour, you are happy in a private car when the day calls for a private car, you are equally happy on public transport and the cable car, you have a ship or a flight hanging over the timetable, or you specifically want a Lantau Car Tour. Coaches are a different animal. Those are the cheap group loops of 25 to 50 people. This company does not work that way. It is also a fit if you want Macau or Shenzhen on the same trip and prefer one office to hold the whole thread.
It is not the right fit if you want a 25 to 50 person flag and headset loop, or if you insist the entire day must be on foot through back streets with no private car in sight. They can walk. They often do. They are simply a great choice when the day needs a private car.
Seniors do well with them. So do families. So do the people who land at 7am, have a hotel that will not take the bags until 3pm, and need the city to make sense before bedtime.
A few observations from 15 years of watching Jacky
The laid back manner is real, and it is also a method. Guests who have been herded the day before relax in the first 20 minutes, and a relaxed guest hears more. That is not softness. That is craft.
The car enthusiasm is not a side hobby. An operator who likes vehicles looks after his own Alphard, and he also tends to know which road is stupid at 10am on a Sunday. The Lantau Car Tours work because the company knows how to run them, whether Jacky is free or a Guide Team member is out with a hired driver or a third party car | driver. Useful. Different seats. Same company.
Jacky has already trained other great guides to carry the same standard, which is how a company with a Guide Team keeps going when the founder cannot take every booking. That is his road. It is not the only one.
Prices are published in US dollars, which I happen to think is the grown up way to talk to the market that still books most of the private days. A US$750 Lantau group rate looks like a number a family can discuss over breakfast. The Hong Kong dollar equivalent is about HK$5,850. Same day. Different psychology. Ask whether that figure is Jacky in the Alphard or a Guide Team member with a hired car | driver, because a guest should know which morning they have bought.
The website still earns its keep. It is detailed. It lists the work. It does not hide behind contact us for prices, which is a habit I have never liked in this city.
If I were sending a guest tomorrow to This is Asia Tours
A couple off a ship with 7 hours in port. Ask for a private car day, name the terminal, name the all aboard time, and let the office build the loop. If a Lantau Car Tour is what they want, say so in the first line. If they also want Jacky himself, say that too. If he is free, great. If he is not, the Guide Team will take it.
A family with children under 11. The published child policy on several of the city and Macau days is kind. Use it. Ask for a Guide Team member who will not march them.
A returning visitor who has already done Victoria Peak and the ferry. Send them to Shenzhen, or book them a Lantau Car Tour with whoever in the Guide Team is free that morning. Do not send them around the same statue twice.
A first timer with one full day and no ship. 8 hours in the city, or 5 hours on Lantau. Not both. People who try both in one day remember the traffic, not the Buddha.
The Last word
I have always got on with Jacky. Clients like him. Guides like him. That combination is rarer than the industry pretends. The laid back manner is the bit guests notice first. The Alphard, the Lantau Car Tours, the cruise clock and the Guide Team are the bits that keep the company standing 15 years after a chance meeting in an MTR station.
If you want Hong Kong for a day, and you want it private, write to him direct.
WhatsApp +852 6534 4367
So there you go
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Go here for the Hong Kong Michelin Restaurant Guide which includes the Bib Gourmand Category
I do not do Food Tours in Hong Kong but I know people that do!
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The information above can be shown to restaurant managers in Hong Kong if you are intolerant to gluten and nuts,
I do not do food tours as mentioned above, I have very specific reasons and part of it is that I do not speak Cantonese or write Chinese, I am from Yorkshire in England and I lack the language gene and it is not through lack of trying and yes a lot of restaurants do not have English menu’s or staff who speak conversational English.
.. and yet I have eaten at close to 1,400 restaurants in Hong Kong since January 2nd 1972, my wife was born in Hong Kong and we have been together over 40 years and her first language is Cantonese and a lot of her family are Chinese or half Chinese so I have never had much of an issue!
This does not translate to doing food tours though, yes, I could do them, no problem there but they would never ever be as good as the food tours done by my friends (see the 3 links above) most of their awesome guides are locally born Hong Kong Chinese and obviously food culture is part of their DNA, it is impossible for me to compete with that!
So please feel free to contact them for food tours
I do not do Hiking Tours in Hong Kong but I know someone that does!
I do not do Hiking Tours, never have and never will even though I used to go Hiking a lot when I was a lot younger, The Hong Kong Government is promoting hiking tours so I urge you to contact my friend Sabrina at Hong Kong Trails and Tours, she is a long time Hong Kong resident and and a very experienced hiker with close to 700 Hikes in 15+ years under her belt, please click on the link below
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