CounterClifton

We're looking at Fortress Hill, Mong Kok near Prince Edward station or even discussed Sha Tin, having exhausted our search in the nearer areas of Hong Kong island

If these were your choices for accommodation, which would you choose? Or other suggestions?

There are three of us (1 adults and an eight year old) and in HK, that seems to filter our choices by quite a bit. A lot of them seem not to do an extra bed due to the room size or increase the price considerably to do so. The YMCA price went from $224 AUD to $1024 AUD by adding our daughter into the search, for instance. We're trying to keep the budget under 1,300 HKD per night for our two night stay. Tail end of a longer trip.

Harbourside hotels or around Central would be great of course, but not realistic. So a "taste of HK" in an neighbourhood where it's not a snooze or dodgy to walk around, a comfortable room and good transport to those better known areas will suffice. (if possible)

We thought we had this nailed with a Causeway Bay Inn stay... but as well as it's reviewed, we arrive at nearly midnight and it's not a hotel in the sense of having a front desk or staff onsite. So someone is meant to meet you with a key, more like 3 individual serviced apartments. Decided we should rethink that bit as we couldn't figure out a contingency plan if no one showed up.

Thanks

CounterClifton

Geez - sorry. Only just caught a typo. *2* adults and an eight year old.

jobin

What are your travel dates?

CounterClifton

We're in HK the nights of April 25 and 26.

janisj

Not sure how you got $1024 AUD. I just did a dummy booking at the Salisbury for your dates for 2 adults and 1 child and got US$164 / AUS$232 for a standard room and US$174 / AUS$247 for a partial harbor view

rkkwan

Not Sha Tin. Both Fortress Hill and Prince Edward are totally fine and convenient locations, as long as they're close to MTR entrances. Just get the best property for your budget. Those are right in the city, hardly "outer" areas.

Sha Tin is a bit different.

CounterClifton

janis, it was at a 3rd party site (Agoda, I think... I've looked at a lot of test bookings...). I think it bumped us into the family room once we added our daughter on. I see now that the standard room can accept 3 and an extra bed is available at an additional cost . Looking at their site, the standard room comes in at "Room Subtotal 631.42"(AUD) without the extra bed or breakfast, or $1740 per night. That's when we widened the circle.

rkkwan, thanks for that. Sha Tin was one I kind of hoped to drop anyway. Just meant "outer" as so many recos here seem to focus on the fringes of the harbour.

Last time we were, very briefly, in HK we stayed at the Langham in Mongkok on a special deal (which now seems to be Cordis). I'd say it was fine but we got hit with a bug from their breakfast buffet and hardly made it out of the hotel. So had no feel for how it was to get around from there or if it was an good area to grab a dinner, etc.

janisj

I did the test booking on Salisbury's own site - 2 adults, 1 child.

CounterClifton

me too.

Check-in: Mon, 25 Apr 2016
Check-out: Wed, 27 Apr 2016
Nights: 2
Rooms: 1
Occupants: 2 Adults, 1 Children
Edit Stay Related Details
Room Cost (2 nights) All prices in AUD
Total Pre-Tax View Rates/Day 574.02
Tax 57.40
Room Subtotal 631.42

rkkwan

The above total for the Salisbury is a little above your budget of HK$1,300 per. If you want to stay within budget, I searched on booking.com, and the Holiday Inn Express Causeway Bay have pre-paid price of HK$2,752 for double room + sofa bed on your days. Small room, no view, but super convenient - steps from thousands of shops and restaurants and reasonable walking distance to MTR trains.

Holiday Inn Express Soho near Central, also quite convenient. $3,077 for suite. Much larger room, and also with a sofa bed.

BP International above the Scout Centre in Jordan is $2,551 for Family Room with 2 bunk beds (sleep 4 total). Hotel itself is fine, but most of its clientele are mainland tour groups.

Anyhow, just a few options out there. And truth is, hotel prices are much lower than the last 2 years, which is a good thing for international travelers to HK.

CounterClifton

Thanks rkkwan,

I'll have a closer look at those. I can't remember if HIE has come up yet in the searches. We'd been looking at an iClub in Fortress Hill as well, which is I was curious about the neighbourhood. It had a fairly spacious setup within our budget too.

It IS nice that they're cheaper. Unfortunately the AUD tanked a little bit since then too.

JoyC

Just a heads up re: Holiday Inn Express Causeway Bay

We stayed there on our last trip to HK. I liked the location, near Times Square, where lots of shops and eateries abound. But I found the rooms (we occupied 2 triples - double + sofa bed) really, really small. Once you open the sofa bed, there's no room to walk because it extend from one wall to the opposite wall. Bathroom is likewise tiny. And this is coming from someone use to the size of European hotels.

CounterClifton

Thanks for that, Joy.

I was looking at the room pictures on TA a little earlier and that's one of the things I was trying to figure out. "Where would they put an extra bed?" It's hard to figure out from pics if there's some part of the room not in view.

CounterClifton

I think we're on to one we hadn't seen before that could work for us.

Anyone ever stay at the Cue Hotel? On the Hong Kong side, Queen St, about a block from the tram and 450metres from Wan Chai station. Have to think that's a pretty convenient location. Not a full service hotel - no breakfast, gym or pool. Seems like enough restaurants around not to worry about it.

But they do have a front desk and 24 hour staff. The rooms look pretty decent. We can swing one with a queen bed plus a day bed in a suite sort of layout and they don't charge extra for a child.

Seems a bit of an oddball (which is ok with us) in that they have dorm rooms as well as the usual private rooms. The bunk areas don't seem at all like a hostel though and it has a business centre and seems more oriented around that for the dorm (they call it "hall") guests.

rkkwan

Most hotel rooms in Hong Kong are tiny. But hotels and most booking sites should have the room size in meter square (approx 10 sq feet) mentioned. Should mean the main room and does not include bathroom.

No question about it, they are small. The Holiday Inn Express Causeway Bay is about 20 sq meter or 200 sq feet. Which is why I also mentioned the HIE Soho's suite for not too much more, but is at 34 sq meter.

Salisbury is relatively older and their rooms are relatively large by HK standard.

Anyways, you don't really spend your money to enjoy your hotel room. You want a clean safe place to stay while enjoying the city. At least at this budget. At least with the sofa bed option, you can close the bed until bedtime rather than adding a third bed to an already small room.

rkkwan

The location of the CUE is pretty good. You may find it faster and easier to walk to the Admiralty MTR station via the Pacific Place 3 entrance rather than to Wan Chai. Tonnes of fancy - I mean PRICEY eateries nearby, though more local stuff are also available further away. I am talking about HK$100 (US$13) burgers and ramen noodles to start, and prices go up from there.

Tonnes of buses to get you to Central in 2-3 minutes, and buses to The Peak, Stanley also goes on Queen's Road East (QRE). [It's not Queen St. There's another street called Queen's Street, but in Sheung Wan.]

Geordie

A business I did work for, would put their people into the Bishop Lei hotel, I haven't stayed there but no one seemed to complain. It's in mid-levels on HK island and is not as convenient as those in Wanchai or Causeway Bay but still easy via taxi / buses

Also have a look at Trivago and plug in your dates, there's a few options that are close to your budget

If you are sure of your dates, there are some good deals with hotwire, if you use mastercard or visa you will not get charged the internatioanl transaction fee, Amex you will

CounterClifton

Rkkwan, thanks for the heads up about the street name. Also about the food prices in that area. We live in Melbourne and are kind of used to expensive eating out, but when I think Asia, I usually think cheap eats so we'll watch it around there.

I think we're going to grab the Cue hotel. Area seems convenient enough as does the room and the price (relatively speaking). Walkability and public transport are big pluses for us.

This is just a short stop over for us after a few weeks in Vietnam and Laos, and mostly to give my daughter a little taste of Disney one day and some walking HK around the other to make up for the big fail last time (we got to the Bird park one morning and to Chi Lin and then it all fell apart). After a long-ish trip, keep it simple and affordable, I figure.

Geordie, thanks for the feedback. I've always thought about trying a hotwire or priceline but have never followed through. I think this time, as I was saying, we'll probably choose the Cue. Seems suitable and we can avoid those taxis (which wouldn't have been a stopper, but I don't love depending on them)

DonTopaz

I really like the Cue's neighborhood, though I don't know anything about the hotel itself. I stayed in the area a couple of months ago, and there are a gazillion choices for eating at a wide range of prices, along QRE, along Hennessey Road, and on the smaller streets that connect those two. Check out openrice.com if you want to do some advance work on places to eat.

CounterClifton

Thanks for the comment about the neighbourhood, as we're all booked in and looking to make the most of it. Appears there's a little street market almost directly across QRE so we'll have to check that out too.

The openrice website looks very useful. Probably download their app next. Thanks again!