supermaan

I’m planning a trip for my family to Hong Kong. From HK we would like to visit one nice beach destination for around 5 days. We are all grown up and have elder people (50-60) and young guns (20-30) with us so we need place that entertain both worlds.

What is a good beach holiday destination, not too far from HK, for 5 day holidays?

Perhaps not the most touristic place – can be a bit of luxury and exclusive also.

All suggestions welcome - Thanks!

Kathie

Probably the closest lovely beaches would be in the Philippines.

kittymac

I agree - about 2 1/2 hour flight from HK to the Phil. You can fly direct to Cebu and bypass Manila entirely and from there either ferry or fly to your island of choice or check out some beaches on Cebu. Borocay is of course the best known of the beach destinations in the Philippines and is lovely and does have a lot of night life options. Bohol is also a beautiful option with less of the night life but stunning beaches and water and readily available boating options for snorkeling and diving. Philippines is a great value.

tongsa

cebu has direct flights while for boracay and palawan (if i remember correctly) one has to fly via manila and then take a ferry. gorgeous white sand beaches. or fly to phuket in thailand directly from hk. if at cebu, stay at the shangrila mactan resort and laguna phuket is good value too. other beach options in thailand would be hua hin (fly to bangkok and then take a car). if feeling rather intrepid, try hainan island in china!

Cicerone

The recommendations for the Philippines and Hainan island above are fine if your trip is after the end of October and before the beginning of May, as otherwise you could run into rain and typhoons, esp. the latter in the Philippines. See weatherbase.com and other weather sites for information. (Rain in beach locations in most of SE Asia is going to be a potential issue for any trip in the fall/winter months, as there are two different monsoon patterns moving in the area.) Hainan will be on the coolish side in the winter months, as it is fairly far north (it has similar weather to Hong Kong). But the beaches are quite lovely. While there are a good number of Chinese tourists, it is not yet been discovered by Western tourists for the most part. I would look at the Ritz-Carlton Sanya.

My issue with Cebu is that the city parts around Mactan Island are quite congested and not that interesting (I would not go all the way there to stay at the Mactan Island Shangri-La for example), and the more remote beach areas can involve several hours of driving to get to. But see what you can find. For my money I would not go to Cebu, but would go to El Nido in Palawan, which has two hotels, see http://www.elnidoresorts.com/; although there is no night life or shopping, so I don’t know if this fits your criteria.

I would also say to consider Bali, because it would probably offer you the most in terms of activities. The beaches are not going to be as beautiful as you will find on remote islands in the Philippines or parts of Phuket, but overall the magic of the island and number of activities on offer should please the large group you have. You can fly non-stop from Hong Kong in about 5 hours. The other advantage of Bali is that even during its rainy season there is so much to see and do that the rain does not really affect plans, IMO, and in ways makes the island more green and beautiful. You could look into renting a house on Bali, there are tons available, see something like vrbo.com.

You might look at Phuket in Thailand, which you can fly non-stop to from Hong Kong in about 3.5 hours. Again, I would say that mid to end of November is better to avoid the rains, see the weather sites. There are hotels on Phuket itself, you could also take short boat or car rides to get to more remote places like Krabi; or fly via Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur and connect to flights to Krabi.

Also try Koh Samui on the east coast of Thailand, but you can have weather issues starting in late October though the winter months as the monsoon moves into that area, so see if your timing works with a trip there. You can’t fly non-stop from Hong Kong, you generally have to go through Bangkok.

Beaches on Kalimantan/Borneo in Malaysia may also work, you can fly non-stop from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu in about 3 hours, and can get to beach resorts pretty easily from there. Those interested could climb Mt Kinabalu and there are jungle trips, etc. The activities on offer there may suit your group. Look at the Shangri-Las there, although there are other hotels as well, but the Shangri-La website will give you an idea of the island and what it offers. These are rainy in the fall months

The beaches of Vietnam may work, again this may involve travel time as few of them have international airports so you have to fly into HCM or Hanoi and then drive. But DaNang or NhaTrang may be interesting and might meet your criteria. Note that these areas can have heavy rain in the fall months, check weather websites.

Finally, although it is a bit of a trip from Hong Kong, the Maldives are sublime. You have to go via a change in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, so it may be a bit much for 5 days, but you might look into it.

marmot

When I lived in Hong Kong I vacationed frequently in the Philippines and in retrospect I think I would have preferred either Thailand or Bali. The net travel time by the time you actually get to your resort is more or less the same. In the case of a remote location like Palawan, Bali is actually closer timewise.

As Cicerone says Bali offers a lot of diversity for people of different ages and different preferences. Many, many options in accommodations and lots to do and see including both culture and nature.