Tailor-made travel to Hong Kong

This is Hong Kong

Vertical to the extreme, green within half an hour.

Skyscrapers that give way to green islands and walking trails within half an hour: a city that rarely stands still.

From the Mid-Levels escalators in Central, you look straight into the living rooms of hundreds of flats, while the Peak Tram is already crawling upward below. Hong Kong is stacked vertically because there was simply nowhere else to go: the mountains begin where the streets end. First-time visitors mostly see the skyscrapers of Central and the neon streets of Kowloon across the harbour.

Yet more than seventy per cent of the territory has never been built on. Country parks cover the hills behind the skyline, walking trails such as the Dragon's Back start ten minutes from a metro stop, and islands like Lamma and Cheung Chau run at an entirely different pace from Central. Hong Kong is not one city. It is a city that constantly alternates itself with its own back garden.

Flight time: About 13 hours direct, often 15 to 18 hours with a stopover
Languages: Cantonese and English, both ever-present in the streets
Time difference: 6 to 7 hours ahead of Belgium, depending on daylight saving
Elevation: From sea level to 957 metres on Tai Mo Shan, the territory's highest point
Best time to visit: October to December, dry and mild

Victoria Harbour: not a backdrop, but the water that connects the two sides of the city.

The many faces of Hong Kong

Five districts, five paces.

Hong Kong is not a uniform block of skyscrapers. Every part of the city, and the islands around it, has a rhythm of its own.

Financial heart

Hong Kong Island: Central & Sheung Wan

Bank towers next to centuries-old temples, escalators that pull an entire district uphill, and alleys in Sheung Wan where dried seafood dries right out on the street.

Street life

Kowloon: Yau Ma Tei & Mong Kok

The densest streets in the city: night markets on Temple Street, neon signs tumbling over each other, and more people per square kilometre than anywhere else on earth.

Mountains and wetlands

New Territories

Country parks, the walking trails of Sai Kung, and the wetlands of Mai Po, where thousands of migratory birds winter within a stone's throw of the skyscrapers.

Island pace

Lantau, Lamma & Cheung Chau

The Tian Tan Buddha and the stilted fishing village of Tai O on Lantau, car-free streets and fresh fish on Lamma, a bun-festival island that falls back into silence come evening.

Connecting water

Victoria Harbour

Junks, ferries and the Star Ferry, which has connected both shores for more than a century: the water as the city's backbone.

At the table

Yum cha isn't breakfast, it's a gathering.

In a cha chaan teng you order macaroni in broth alongside toast with condensed milk, and nobody finds that strange. Hong Kong has breakfasted this way for decades. The city never cooked to a single fixed recipe; it took what worked and made something of its own from it.

Dim sum remains the ritual families fight for a table over on Sunday mornings: trolleys of har gow and char siu bao, tea that must never run dry. At the wet markets of Sheung Wan or Kowloon City you can smell why: fresh produce, no refrigerated displays, an economy that still buys in daily.

Nature within the city limits

Where the skyscrapers stop.

Dragon's Back

A ridge line above Shek O and Stanley Bay, starting just ten minutes from a bus stop yet with views stretching to the South China Sea.

Sai Kung Geopark

Hexagonal volcanic columns, kayak trips along deserted bays, and a peninsula still known as 'Hong Kong's back garden'.

Tai O and the pink dolphins

A stilted fishing village on the west side of Lantau, where the region's last Chinese white dolphins still hunt in the bay.

Forty minutes from neon to nothing but wind.

What you can do here

Hong Kong cannot be captured in a single register.

No fixed programme. But a city that opens up the moment you change register.

A junk across the harbour

At sunset, as the skyline slowly switches on its lights: the classic way to see Victoria Harbour from the water.

Early to the Peak

Before the cable car wakes up with day-trippers, walk the Peak Circle Walk around the summit while the city below still hangs in mist.

Temple Street by night

Fortune tellers, street opera and stalls grilling squid: the Kowloon night market as it has existed for decades.

Crossing over to Lamma

Twenty minutes by boat for a completely different pace: no cars, fresh fish on the terrace, a walk back to the ferry pier.

Taking the Ding Ding

The double-decker tram that has run across the north of Hong Kong Island since 1904: slow enough to really see the city.

What you combine shapes the trip. We help work out the order that suits you, not a fixed schedule.

Verder kijken dan de highlights

How we look at Hong Kong

More than a stopover Hong Kong is often booked as a stopover. Anyone who gives it three to five days discovers a city that is already a complete trip in itself.

Density and emptiness in balance The tension between the busiest streets in the world and quiet country parks is not incidental. It's what Hong Kong is about.

Eat as the city eats Not the tourist menu, but the cha chaan teng around the corner and the wet market where the neighbourhood does its own shopping.

Islands are not a day-trip tick box Lamma or Cheung Chau deserve time, not a photo squeezed between two metro stops.

Wanneer reis je?

When to travel to Hong Kong

Hong Kong sits just within the tropics, and you can feel it: summer is hot, oppressively humid, and the period when typhoons most often track towards the coast.

From October to December it turns drier, sunnier and pleasantly mild: the months when the city itself lives most outdoors, from the country parks to the rooftop terraces in Central.

Jan

Feb

Mrt

Apr

Mei

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Okt

Nov

Dec

Top: dry, sunny and mild, the best months for walking the city or the trails. Good: warming up with a chance of showers, still perfectly travel-friendly. Fair: high humidity, oppressive heat or the risk of typhoons in summer.

Goed om te weten

Praktisch, zonder ruis.

A few things that make planning easier.

Getting there: Direct flights from Brussels are rare; most journeys route via Doha, Istanbul or Frankfurt, stretching travel time to 15 to 18 hours.
Documents: Belgians can travel visa-free with a valid passport for stays of up to 90 days.
Health: No mandatory vaccinations, and excellent medical care available in the city itself.
Pace: The metro (MTR) is fast and easy to navigate, but pedestrian density in Central and Mong Kok calls for route planning during rush hour.

Frequently asked questions

What travellers ask us most often about Hong Kong.

Is Hong Kong best combined with a stopover, or does it deserve a full stay?

As a stopover you miss most of it: the country parks, the islands, the change of pace between Kowloon and the New Territories. A full stay of several days does the city more justice.

Is it a suitable destination to combine with another country in the region?

Yes, Hong Kong sits particularly centrally in Southeast and East Asia, and its airport is one of the best-connected hubs in the region. Which combination makes sense depends on what else you want to see.

What about the humidity and summer typhoons?

From June to September it can be oppressively warm, and typhoons can temporarily disrupt travel plans. That doesn't rule out summer, but it's something we take into account when planning.

Is Hong Kong a good destination for walkers, or mainly a city destination?

Both, and that's exactly what makes the city special: trails such as the Dragon's Back and the MacLehose Trail start literally on the edge of the built-up area.

Or perhaps this