HONG KONG WITH KIDS

3 Day Itinerary

We travelled to Hong Kong from Newcastle in the UK. We got a flight from Newcastle to London Heathrow and then a connecting flight directly to Hong Kong which took around 12 hours. Unfortunately our connecting flight to London was delayed meaning we missed our connection and lost one night in Hong Kong. 

It took us a little while to adjust and get over the jet lag but we tried to cram in as much sightseeing as possible in the time we had. Here’s how we handled the jet lag with our toddler [coming soon!]

 

Where we stayed

We got a taxi from Hong Kong airport to the hotel. We stayed at the Royal Garden Kowloon East. This hotel is a comtemporary resort-style hotel located in Tseung Kwan O. The hotel has a well-known sister hotel Tsia Sea Tsui Royal Garden Hotel. Royal Garden Kowloon East is focussed on leisure travel for families, couple and friends alike.

The hotel has 366 modern guest rooms and seven private villas. There are also specific family-focussed rooms with bunk bed styles and suites with a separate living space and kitchenette perfect for making your little ones breakfast in the morning.

There is an Italian restaurant opening at the hotel in July 2026 but currently food is served at the Fine Foods Lounge. We enjoyed the most impressive afternoon tea here which was presented beautifully and everything was hand-crafted to perfection and used local ingredients. There is a gym and outdoor swimming pool and best of all if you’re travelling with kids, Giggle Hill play area. This is filled with soft climbing apparatus and a ball pit for your little ones to enjoy freely and safely.

The hotel is connected via the nearby PopCorn malls meaning you have an array of shops and restaurants on your doorstep. The malls are also connected meaning you do not have to step outside if you do not wish. There is also the Tseung Kwan O waterfront again filled with restaurants and playgrounds. The hotel offer a free shuttle service which takes you into the centre of Hong Kong. It would drop us at a train station and we walked 8 minutes or so into the centre. We did have to get taxis back to the hotel each night which were fairly pricey but if you are looking for an escape outside of the busy city centre then this hotel is for you.

Day 1

We visited Hong Kong in May and it was humid and rainy. On the first day we arrived we explored Victoria Harbour and got the ferry over to Hong Kong island. We then jumped aboard the observation wheel to see Hong Kong from above. The wheel takes you 60 metres high in the sky and allows you to see the city skyline and Victoria harbour from above. There were 3-4 rotations and it stops at different points so you can take photos from different positions. Tickets are $20 HKD for adults and $10 HKD for children (under 3s are free).

Day 2

On day 2 we joined the Big Bus Tour around Hong Kong which has an open upper deck. It’s a hop on hop off bus with 3 different routes and an audio guide so you can learn all about Hong Kong as you’re taken around the city. We got the Explore ticket which was valid for 48 hours $115 HKD pp. This also included Star Ferry Return tickets to get us from the mainland to Hong Kong island and tickets for one of the main attractions in Hong Kong, the Peak Tram. The basic ticket is the essential ticket which covers the bus tour only but all routes around the city, red, green and blue.

Next we got the bus to the Peak Tram to take us to the top of Victoria Peak. This was included in our Big Bus Tour ticket. If you are paying separately for the Peak Tram tickets are $82 HKD for a single trip and $116 HKD for a return trip. This does not include access to the Sky Terrace but you can buy a combo ticket to include this. Sky Terrace access was included in our Explore ticket with Big Bus Tours. At the top there’s a mall and lots of bars and restaurants to choose from. There’s also a Monopoly dreams attraction with interactive games. Tickets for this are $260 HKD for adults and children and seniors $200 HKD. Monopoly Dreams is the world’s first Monopoly- themed attraction and offers interactive experiences like the Water Works and Train Stations.

There’s a free outdoor playground at the top of the Galleria. We got a coffee from %Arabica coffee, a pizza slice for our daughter and utilised the 7Eleven for extra snacks. 

Day 3

On our final day in Hong Kong we visited Ocean Park. This is a theme park for all ages with an aquarium and animal attractions and best of all? Pandas! This is a great cheaper alternative to Disney and much quieter too. We know Disney is likely in your sights if you’re visiting Hong Kong but we decided against it. Mainly because we did not want to stand in queues with our toddler who doesn’t know how to wait! She is only 2 years old also so isn’t obsessed with Disney (yet!). We may have changed our minds if there was a particular character she loved for example and was desperate to meet. 

We started our day exploring the rides. There are specific rides for under 5s and height restrictions so we went on the hunt for the ones our toddler could go on. You can filter on the website by age which is really helpful. The rides we went on with our toddler were: Balloons Up-Up and Away, Cable Car, Ferris Wheel, Merry-Go-Round, Ocean Express, Ocean Park Tower. The Cable Car and Ocean Express take you from one side of the park to another. The views from the Cable Car are incredible. You have picturesque views of the water and coastline below. It is a beautiful experience.

We visited Ocean Park on a hot day so when we’d had a lot of sun exposure we took adventure of the South Pole Spectacular where it’s 8-10 degrees celsius. Our daughter absolutely loved watching the penguins and this was one of her top 3 activities of the day. You are surrounded by penguins swimming in the water, waddling around and jumping up and down from ice craters. It’s a joyous experience.

We also managed to catch a show with Ocean Park characters singing and dancing on the stage near the Giant Panda Adventure. Our daughter had never seen a show or a parade like that and she was mesmerised. Next we went into the Giant Panda Adventure. Inside we saw 3 giant pandas and 2 red pandas. It was incredible to see and watch them. The Giant Pandas were sleeping every time we visited! But we managed to catch the red pandas being fed.

We finished our day at Ocean Park with a visit to the aquarium. You can easily spend 30-45 minutes here seeing all of the incredible Sealife. Make sure to check out the Neptune restaurant where you can dine inside the aquarium whilst the fish swim around you. 

We loved Ocean Park and it was a great introduction to a theme park for our daughter who had never been to one before. We didn’t have to queue once which was an our biggest fear and what put us off visiting Disney with our daughter. The tickets for Ocean Park are $538 HKD for adults and $269 HKD for children aged 3-11 years old. Children under 3 are free.

We arrived back at our hotel for an afternoon tea at the Fine Foods Lounge at Royal Garden Kowloon East. The afternoon tea was a spectacle and prepared so beautifully. The detail of each individual piece was extremely impressive and the presentation was immaculate. We had this between my husband and I and our 2 year old toddler and still couldn’t finish it all. 

We finished the night by the harbour for the symphony of lights show. This is a free event in Hong Kong every night by the avenue of stars and has been happening for 22 years every night at 8pm. Unfortunately the light show is stopping in the second half of 2026.

Other attractions which we unfortunately did not have time to do are: 

• Hong Kong Park 
• Hong Kong science museum (£2pp) 
• Lantau island to visit the big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery. The cable car tickets to get to the top are [.   ]. There’s also a fishing village nearby called Tai O. You can get here by a 20 minute bus from Tung Chung (top station of the cable car) – this is how we would have spent our third full day if our flight hadn’t have been delayed
• Dragon’s back hike. This hike is 2.5km to highest peak and another 1.5km down to the end of the trail. Start at bus #9 at cape collinson road, eastern district, Hong Kong and End at #9 at To Tei Wan, Shek O, Hong Kong 
• Disneyland 
  

Our trip wasn’t finished there, we were next travelling Japan. Japan blog coming soon!