Back to Hong Kong
“Personally I felt like I missed it in my soul and I don’t ever feel that way about any other place in the world.”
We knew that we wanted to do a family trip this year for Spring Break… but where to go?! The US didn’t seem like a good idea… with the political state of our country, and not to mention the exchange rate! Mexico all-inclusive was an option but once we tallied up everything it somehow became $15K for the week. In the end we decided to take the kids to Hong Kong. We had not been back since Ayrton was literally just shy of 1 years old and it has felt like a second home to us for so long. We used to go at least once a year to visit Shelby’s grandparents who have since passed away so there was no longer the same reasons for us to go.
That didn’t mean that we did not miss it. Personally I felt like I missed it in my soul and I don’t ever feel that way about any other place in the world. So we booked our tickets and took the kids on a 10 day jetlagged blitz to the city that we love.
“Kiddie Tip:
We love our Stokke Jetkids Bedbox. Makes it easy to pull them along and if your hands are full then they can wheel themselves behind you. It also converts to a little bed for them on the airplane and is perfect for the toys and such that they insist on bringing on the trip (slime and random food toy, yes their necessities so why not).”
The flight itself was waaay longer than I remembered. It is now almost 15 hours from YVR to HKG. Reasoning is that they can no longer fly over Russia so safety first but not to say that was easy! Our Air Canada flight that left around noon time arrived in Hong Kong in the evening which was good. We were tired but still managed to push the kids to go to Sorabol (one of our long-time favorite Korean chains) for dinner.
Hotel-wise we opted to stay at the Sheraton in Tsim Sha Tsui (Locals refer to it as TST) which is one of the more central areas on the Kowloon side. It is a nice enough (but busy!) hotel that we have stayed at in the past. They offer a great breakfast buffet and the pricing is reasonable. Force of habit made us stay on the Kowloon side but we said maybe next time we will try staying on the Hong Kong side since sadly there are no family obligations to stay on this side anymore. Bonus is the hotel has a rooftop pool with 3 hot tubs (?!). All the mornings that we went it was not busy.
Our days were filled with exploring and showing the kids the city that we have loved for so long. Some of our suggestions for Hong Kong with kids:
1. Take the Mid-Levels escalator in Central. It’s a sight to see and the longest outdoor escalator in the world. Plus it saves little legs from getting tired and makes it easier to check out all the little cute shops and restaurants around. Make sure to also check out Pedder Street for a photo op.
2. Take the Star Ferry! It is a super cheap way to get across the bay and one of the fastest ways too (offered every 8-10 mins and takes 10 mins to get across). Also seeing the amazing HK skyline is always an added bonus.
3. Octopus Card – makes you feel like a local and the kids will have a blast tapping their own to get into the subway areas and buses.
“Bonus side tip:
There is a Jellycats kiosk inside the Lane Crawford in Causeway Bay. Good side distraction if needed for kids!”
4. Bus or Tram ride – (Notice the transportation theme) Make sure to head up to the second level for maximum views and bonus if you can catch one of the Citybus Siteseeing ones then you’ll also get added history commentary as well. Octopus card is accepted as payment.
5. Legoland Discovery Centre – it’s small and can be done in a few hours. Just enough little rides in there to make it an easy stop in. Like Legoland California, there is a build area where they love to spend countless hours (I might’ve lost some life there). Grown up plus is that it is next door to K11 Musea where you can head to after for non-crowded shopping. They loved the little tunnel in the HK city display where they could pop their heads up into the city.
6. Disneyland – A mini version of any other Disneyland. Will post more about this separately but was perfect for us in terms of size and walkability. (Of course of all the days to pick, we picked the rainy one but it didn’t stop us from having fun….just a bit frozen feeling but maybe that was perfect for seeing the Land of Frozen for the first time LOL)
7. Egg Tarts – If you go to the Mandarin Oriental in Central, they have Lord Stowe egg tarts from Macau every day starting at 12pm until they sell out. But go early because they told us that some days there are line ups. They were amazingly good….even for an Unfoodie like me.
8. Conrad Buffet – Not necessarily a must just with kids but seriously the craziest buffet I have ever been to outside of Vegas. There is a ridiculous amount of Seafood, pasta and basically everything you can think of. I am probably the last person to maximize the benefit of the buffet (#unfoodie) but even I can appreciate the abundance of choice and selection!
“Bonus tip:
You can hack the system. You can take lobster from the seafood station, bring it to the pasta station and they will unshell it and make it into a pasta for you! All complete with fresh truffle if you would like!”
Basically all in all the 10 days was too short. We filled some days with seeing our friends and family but we could have used more. There was still so much more to show the kids and for us to revisit. Will have to do another trip soon to our home away from home!
