I had always thought of Hong Kong as a stopover (similar to the Singapore stopover I did a few years ago), so was saving it for a future Europe Trip. But in the past 5+ years it’s been far cheaper and better flight times, to go to Europe via the Middle East than Asia, which is why I usually transit through Dubai.

But with no other travel plans over the 4 day Easter long weekend a few months ago, I decided to pop up to Hong Kong and finally cross it off the list.

To add this to your Google Maps, click the star button in the maps window above (beside ‘Hong Kong’ on the top left).

Easter this year fell on April 3rd to April 6th. If you’re planning a trip to Asia, this time of year is a great time for cherry blossoms in Japan. See this post for recommended places to see the cherry blossoms in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.

Click here to download a copy of the itinerary for free. There are more itineraries from my past trips in the free printables library.

Hong Kong 4 day itinerary

Day 1 – Causeway and Central

Causeway and Central are the more built up part of Hong Kong with most of the modern skyscrapers. There’s also plenty of shopping options on this side of town, as well as the Ding Ding trams and the port to get the ferry over to Macau.

The Peak is the mountains above looking down on all those skyscrapers. Make this your first priority on the itinerary as it’s extremely weather dependent.

After visiting The Peak, spend the rest of the morning in Central visiting iconic spots such as:

Stone slab street
Mid level escalators
Don Donki in either Central or Causeway
M & S (note: prices were about 30% higher than in London but stocked many similar items)
Head down to the waterfront for some daytime pictures

The chocolate egg waffles were the best, followed by original. I didn’t like the cheese version

Then spend the afternoon in Causeway. There’s plenty of shops here including international brands like M & S. If you’re looking for a snack, try mammy’s pancakes which has good egg waffles.

There’s not many restaurants in this area, I would go back to the Wan Chai Hennessy Road area for dinner.

Couldn’t get over the bamboo scaffold!

In the evening, you can head down to the waterfront to watch the light show from Golden Bauhinia Square. But if you have more time, it’s better to get the ferry from Wan Chai over to the other side of the harbour and watch the light show from there. Both the ferry and subway are fast to get back across the harbour.

Tip: The Ding Ding Trams, subway and most of the buses run parallel with Victoria Harbour. You’ll probably have to walk for a while to reach the waterfront so make sure you allow enough time to get there if you want to see the light show (it’s on at 8pm every night). If you’re short on time I’d skip the light show, it was incredibly underwhelming.

Day 2 – Macau

Start your day early, there’s lots to see in Macau! At a fast pace it was a struggle to fit everything into 1 day. 1.5 or 2 days would be better for Macau. Then you would also get to see everything when it’s lit up at night.

I struggled to find much information about how long clearing customs takes so I’ll have a whole separate blog post with more details on the process and a recommended schedule to pack it all in.

The Grand Casino Lisboa

Some key things to see include:

Senado Square up to the ruins of St Paul’s cathedral (this is the Portugese looking part of Macau, with the mosaic tile footpaths)
Make sure you try the egg tarts. They taste better than the ones in Portugal in my opinion
Macau Tower
Coati Strip (reminded me of the strip in Las Vegas)
Taipa

Day 3 – Kowloon Side of Hong Kong

The Kowloon side of Hong Kong is probably more what you expect when you visit Hong Kong. Less modern, more crammed buildings, that more ‘authentic’ Hong Kong feel compared to Causeway and Central.

This is the side of Hong Kong which has the best views of that iconic skyline (looking back at Causeway and Central from the Kowloon side).

Avenue of the Stars

Assuming you stay on the Central / Causeway side, get the ferry across in the morning then explore:

Avenue of the Stars (good views across to the other side of the harbour)
Nathan Road (the main street)
Jordan Road
ICC Tower (Sky 100 Observation Deck) – closed for renovations in 2026
Kowloon Park
Shopping
Temple Street Night Market (nothing to see during the day, but the streets around it are good for exploring during the day)
Ladies Market
Argyle Road Pedestrian Bridge
Goldfish Street (there’s heaps of pet stores in this area, including ones selling exotic reptiles)
Tung Choi Street
Langham Place shopping mall (if you like visiting Lego stores around the world, the one in this shopping centre has a mosaic of the Hong Kong skyline / harbour)
8pm light show

I walked all the way from the ferry terminal to Mong Kok. But if you want to give your feet a break, the subway is quick. Just note that like Japan, it does take a bit to find the subway entrance and the right platform, so allow more time than Google Maps tells you it will take.

I had an Octopus card but had no issues using my Revolut card to pay for trips.

Victoria Harbour from the Kowloon side looking back towards Central and Causeway Bay. This is the best side to view the Symphony of Lights but I wouldn’t go out of your way to see it.

Day 4 – Lantau Island + rest of Hong Kong

Today you’ll get out of the city and explore nearby Lantau Island. Situated out near the airport it will takes about an hour to get to. Things to see and do in Lantau Island include:

Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car
Ngong Ping Village (lots of food places here if you need a lunch spot)
Giant Buddha Statue
Tai O fishing village

If weather is foggy, do Tai O first and the Big Buddha later.

Did the cable car first thing in the morning. There were views for the first 5 minutes, then it was just fog the rest of the way. I should’ve flipped the itinerary and visited Tai O fishing village while waiting for the fog to clear

The roads are windy and the bus drivers don’t take the roads slow. Take some kwells or other motion sickness tablets.

The buses aren’t very frequent, make sure you check the bus timetable before your visit.

Tai O Fishing Village

Lantau Island needs half a day to 3/4 of a day, depending how early you want to wake up, and if you time the buses well.

Use the rest of the afternoon to explore anywhere you didn’t have time to visit on previous days in Hong Kong. If it’s not foggy, you could head up to Victoria Peak and do the Peak Circle Walk (takes approx. 1 to 1.5 hours).

Tip: it’s much faster to get up to the peak in an Uber rather than public bus or the tram. Ubers are very inexpensive in Hong Kong (and Macau).

What I’d change about this itinerary

March / April is not the best time to visit The Peak. Hong Kong is notoriously foggy at this time of year and unfortunately we experienced very thick fog. The kind of fog that lingers for days. Every morning we’d wake up and check the Victoria Peak webcams on the meteo blue website. Every day it would show thick fog.

On the afternoon of the last day of our trip it was now or never. The view heading up on the bus looked great, until about 10 minutes from the peak when we hit thick fog. The thickest fog I’ve ever been in!

So if you really want to see the view from the Peak, I’d visit Hong Kong at another time of year.

The other thing I’d change, is the day spent on the Kowloon side. This was a packed day, if you prefer a slower pace I’d save Mongkok for another day. It was raining on and off which slowed us down a bit.

For the day trip to Macau, I’d get an earlier ferry at 7am and a later ferry back at 9pm. It will still be a packed day so if you prefer a slower pace you may prefer to do an overnight stay in Macau. If you only have one day, use uber if visiting locations that are a bit out of the way or have infrequent buses. We relied on the public bus the entire day to save money (was only 6 Macau dollars / $1 AUD per bus trip), but the buses weren’t very frequent from the Macau tower. We should’ve just got an uber from the Macau tower to the Cotai part of Macau – it would’ve saved us an hour.

I’d also skip the Giant Panda Pavilion in Macau. This was out of the way from other tourist attractions and the pandas were in small enclosures and pacing. They seemed distressed and it felt like witnessing animal cruelty. I regret visiting the Giant Panda Pavilion.

Tips for visiting Hong Kong

If the peak is clear, rearrange your itinerary so you can get up there pronto. We were on the Avenue of the Stars and could see the peak. That’s when we should’ve gone. We looked up Google maps which said it’d probably take an hour to get up there via ferry / bus or underground train / bus. It was supposed to rain soon and the clouds were moving quickly so we though the peak would be covered within an hour. Who knows how long the good weather will last. We didn’t even think of just getting an Uber (which are really affordable in Hong Kong and Macau) which would’ve got us up there much faster.

At the time, the webcam showed the view was still obstructed and it seems to be updated regularly, so we heavily relied on that. But if you can see the Peak from the Avenue of the Stars, then surely you’d see at least a partial view from the peak. Oh well, guess I have a reason to visit Hong Kong again.

I was expecting to see tons of souvenir shops but there actually wasn’t. I collect glass with laser etched images of the skyline or iconic buildings at destinations (like the colosseum). These are fairly easy to find in Europe and major cities around the world so I was expecting to see heaps of them. I only saw one at the markets in Mong Kok. I also rarely saw postcards. There were quite a few fridge magnets though – those were easy to find in grocery shops in the Causeway / Central side of Hong Kong. So if you see a souvenir you like, don’t shop around for a good price, just get it or you may end up with no souvenirs at all.

The Ding Ding tram is more reliable than the public buses, but it only goes up and down Central to Causeway. If you want to get to the harbour (e.g. for the light show), then you’ll need to take a bus which aren’t very frequent to that part of Hong Kong. It’s deceiving how long it takes to walk down to the waterfront from Causeway so if you’re pressed for time just get an uber.

Food is cheap – in selected places only. Everyone I’d spoken to who had visited Hong Kong talked about how cheap the food was. Well if you eat at restaurants where the locals are eating where they don’t speak much English and the menu is in another language then yes it’s cheap. Otherwise we didn’t find food to be that cheap.

We stayed in Wan Chai and liked this area, in the middle of Causeway and Central with good public transport access and not far from The Peak. The hotel I stayed at was Ying’nflo, Wesley Admiralty. There’s bus and tram stops right out front of the hotel.

If you do the day trip to Lantau Island, take some kwells motion sickness tablets as those bus drivers are crazy and the roads are very windy.

For Macau you will need cash. The public buses require the exact fare amount (6 Macau dollars per bus trip at the time of my visit). Cash was all we used all day in Macau (1:1 exchange rate between Macau Dollar and Hong Kong dollar).

Buy your return ticket for the ferry when leaving Hong Kong, then use cash in Macau

You’ll also need cash for the markets in Mong Kok. You can use a credit card or travel card (I use Revolut) to pay for the underground trains and Ding Ding trams. We tried used the Revolut card to pay for the public bus but it rejected it, so had to get the Oyster card for the buses. You can buy the Oyster card at the airport on arrival, or from Circle K convenience stores. You have to buy and reload the card using cash.

If the peak is covered in fog, head to level 55 of the Two International Finance Centre – you will still get a partial view (and it’s free to visit).

Sky 100 (on the Kowloon side) is another viewpoint however as of 2026 it’s closed for renovations with no date when it is set to reopen announced yet.

The Star ferry is a cheap and relaxing way to cross Victoria Harbour, but ferry times aren’t very frequent (they were 20 minutes apart during my visit).

Do I recommend this itinerary?

Yes, except I’d skip Lantau Island. I think there’s more to see in Macau so it would be better to do 1.5 or 2 days in Macau. Alternatively, I had recommendations from other people to do the Dragon’s Back hike (8.5km, takes 2 – 3 hours).

Hong Kong Disneyland is another option, but it looks tiny and reviews I read online indicated it’s one of the worst Disneyland’s. For the price you have to pay to visit one, I’d rather the original in the USA.

Click here to download a copy of the itinerary for free. There are more itineraries from my past trips in the free printables library.

What about a 3 day Hong Kong itinerary instead?

If you’re visiting Hong Kong as a stopover and you need to cut a day from the itinerary, skip the day trip to Lantau Island. It was really underwhelming, there’s not much there to see, and it’s time consuming to get to it. I found it really overrated and definitely not a must do.

The big Budda statue was kinda meh. No comparison at all to the Batu Caves Murugan Statue in Kuala Lumpur. The Tai O Fishing Village was extremely unhygienic and not very photogenic, could easily skip that as well.