We stayed at Courtyard Marriott on Hong Kong island. The location was just ok - not walking distance to much but close enough to an MTR station (subway) and there was a shuttle that left very often for Hong Kong station which is where a lot of the train lines connect from. We used the shuttle 3 times in 2 days.
As we have been to Hong Kong before, we didn't go back to Victoria peak or take the star ferry across from Hong Kong island to Kowloon which was nice to do last time but not warm enough to enjoy it this time. Was only high of 18 degrees but you definitively need a sweater. We did go to the Big Buddha which is an impressive thing to see although it's a whole day process. We originally had an 8 hour stopover on our outbound flight but we changed our flight while we were in Hong Kong so we had to cram it in and couldn't buy tickets 24 hours in advance which I'd highly recommend as there are painfully long lines for a cable car ticket but at least they had wifi. The big Buddha is stationed on Lantau island and you can take a bus up to the site or the famous cable car which is what the long wait is for. There is an option to take a crystal car which means there is a glass floor or a regular car. We were in a rush so we opted for a regular car as there are more of them. It wasn't a very clear day but a neat ride. We took the A23 bus back down to the Tung Chung MTR station instead of a 2 way cable car ride. Ideally, if it works, it could be faster to take the bus up and cable car down but we didn't inquire if the tickets worked that way. If you took your time, the whole process of taking the MTR, cable car, roaming around Ngong Ping Village 360 and roaming the mall called City Gate outlets at the cable car terminal station could be 6 hours. As its very close to the airport, if you travel light enough, they have luggage storage so you could take your bags with you and go straight to the airport (save a lot of MTR time).
The day you go to the big Buddha, definitely buy an MTR day pass as its the best value and convenient if you're going to take even one more trip that day. Day pass $55HKD per person
My favourite areas to explore and where we ate the most was Soho and the Lan Kwai Fong as they were more local and less touristy than Mong Kong or Kowloon/Tsim Sha Tsui area. There is a light show at 7 pm everyday on the Tsim Sha Tsui but we didn't do it again this time. 2 days this time was quick but we got to see everything we wanted to but didn't get to all of the eating we planned to! To get to some of the restaurants, there is an outdoor escalator called Mid level escalators that take takes you up hill so you don't have to walk as many stairs. It's considered a sight to see in Hong Kong and was very useful to get around.
The Ladies Market and Temple Street Market are also popular markets but our hotel told us to just go to one of them and we are glad they did because it's your typical Asian Night Market with souvenirs and random fake stuff - Adam and I have stopped buying stuff from these types of markets as we find the quality isn't usually good and bargaining is exhausting for us - we didn't have Aleena or the Tran Sisters with us to haggle this time 😄
We did get to a couple of restaurants recommended by friends/people that live in Kong Kong although we had a good list going so hopefully someone else can check out the rest of the list.
We went to the following:
Chili Faranga (Soho) - yummy spicy szchewan restaurant that is probably geared to non-Chinese. It was filled with a lot of Indians. This restaurant was Farhan Gilani spicy - so beware if you can't handle spice but it was so tasty! ~ $30CND/dish. I would definitely go back
Zuma (by central station) - modern Japanese that has restaurants in London, Dubai, Rome and a few other places around the world. Sushi was ok but grilled stuff was so tasty esp the lamb chops and beef! Super pricy though - a can of coke was $10 CND as an example.
Boomstack - chicken and waffle sandwich. This was a place that was recommended and we needed a quick meal. Tasty but portion was too small. Not super memorable
Ebeneezer - Indian/Lebanese fast food type that has many locations. I'd definitely NOT recommend this
Other places we were told to try:
Bindaas: modern Indian in Soho (beware closed between lunch and dinner)
Bombay Dreams: also Indian as the name implies and also closed between lunch and dinner
BEP Vietnamese
Chachawan (Thai)
sohofama Butchers club burger
Yardbird
Sushi Kuu
Myung ga
21 ships
Mango Tree
Carbone
Roundhouse
Little Bao
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