Hong Kong Family Trip: November 14-18, 2016

Last year, I was able to cross out one of the things in my bucket list and that is to visit the happiest place on earth - Disneyland! I am a mother and 35 years old already but Disneyland is still a dream for me to fulfill. Well, I guess its true that when you really want something to happen, the universe will conspire to make it happen for you!

This travel was not a planned one since my sister just saw a promo airfare at Cebu Pacific a month before the actual travel. She instantly booked our flight to Hong Kong amounting to Php 4,100+ each which was a good deal. And because of that, our budget was limited because we also didn't have enough time to save for this trip. So, we did a lot of research where can we stay in HK with our budget and where should we be going so we can make the most of our Hong Kong vacation.

Firstly, our flight was around 7 AM Manila time so we had to wake up early. We, adults, hate this but the kids never seemed to be out of energy even with only 4hours of sleep and they're just too excited. We woke up at 2:30am and hit the road at 3:30 AM. At 4:30 AM we dropped our car to Park N Fly (very convenient, I will give my review on another post) and by 5 AM we were already in the airport. Not ideal, don't be like us hehehe because we barely had time for checking in and for exchanging money. 

Hong Kong airport(HKIA) is one of the busiest airports in the world. They have many dining options and kiosks for customer service and airport personnel speak good English. You can also buy your Octopus card inside the airport which you can use pretty much everywhere in HK.

Tip 1: If you have kids and senior citizen traveling with you, tell the cashier that you will be purchasing cards for children and senior citizen because they have a discounted fare so a different card will be given to them.

HK airport has an Omega clock! I think all the buses from the airport are double-decker.

After purchasing our Octopus card, we headed to the bus station that would take us to Jordan road where we will be staying. We opted to take the bus because the bus fare is very cheap compared to the airport express(train from the airport). We stayed in a small hotel for four days. I recommend this hotel if you do have limited budget. But the hotel is actually very small but very near Jordan train station which is very convenient if you are traveling around HK.

Tip 2: Choose a hotel near train stations so you won't have to walk long going back and forth to the hotel and train. Also train subways in HK are already a long walk so its highly recommended to make sure your hotel is really near the train station.

The hotel that we booked for 3nights, City Econo Guesthouse Hong Kong, have very small rooms but location wise, its very convenient. There's 7-11, restaurants, and night market just across the hotel. And as I've mentioned, its very near Jordan station. I recommend that you book the quadruple room because it has just enough space for 3 persons. Just the right amount of comfort to move around the room. If you book a room smaller you might be disappointed with the space. What I really like about the hotel aside from its location, are the owners. They are a couple and they are very kind and accommodating. They speak very good English too. They also gave us advice on how we can go to different places in HK and what are the nice places to see. They also provided 2 big bottled water for your first day only. Hot water is available in the thermos in case you want to eat cup noodles. Towels and slippers are also provided and they change it every day. The room is also cleaned everyday. I must say the bathroom is really small but for HK what can you expect with space? If you are really on a budget and will use the room only for sleeping and keeping your belongings, I do recommend this hotel's quadruple room. Otherwise, its not that comfortable staying inside this hotel as it is really small and not too much amenities (I mean, you can't even watch the TV because they only have local channels). Another thing I like about the hotel is that they do have fast internet even inside the room and the air conditioner is working properly.

Quadruple room in the middle pic has 3 beds. The other two pics are in the hotel's receiving area.

On the first day, we just rested and slept the whole afternoon as we are all so sleepy and tired from the morning flight. We already ate at the airport so we all agreed to stay inside the hotel. When we woke up we decided to go to Tsim Sha Tsui to watch the Symphony of Lights. Tip again: Its quite a long walk from TST station to Victoria Harbour. While watching, we just bought some sandwich and drinks. Nice bonding moment! I love simple bonding moments like this :)


After that, we bought some food in one of the stores in TST subway where there are lots of different stores in their subway (loved it!). Before going back to our hotel, we ate at a nearby restaurant just across the street of the hotel where we stayed.

Tip 3: It was really a challenge to speak with the locals but to make sure you are ordering the right thing, just point what you want in the menu. You can also ask them, "Pork or chicken?" because there are some keywords they do understand. I'm proud to say we were able to order good food. :)

Pics grabbed from my sister's FB.

There you go our first day at HK! We didn't bring any SLR so pictures are not so good. At the end of our first day in HK, I already knew that this place is a great for family bonding. Next days of our HK trip will be posted on succeeding posts.

Stay positive and pass it on.

Cebu Pacific Roundtrip Airfare: Php 4,100+ per person

https://www.cebupacificair.com/

City Econo Guesthouse Hong Kong

Booked through Booking.com: https://www.booking.com/hotel/hk/city-econo-guest-house.tl.html
Quadruple Room: Php 4,500++