Kavey & yestravel, yes, do it. It has the potential to change the way you travel. I stayed with several families in India, for instance, unbelievable experiences all. I stayed with a woman in Oxford, England who, it turned out though I didn't know it at the time, is famous (infamous?). You just never know what may happen or who you'll meet. I've had no bad experiences with any members.

Thanks for that info MmePerdu, I'm going to sign up too. Kavey, I think I may have already told you, but we're staying at the Salisbury too (harbor view, albeit, not a suite). For the location and cost, I haven't found anything that even comes close.

Yep, I have your message and looking forward to us meeting up. I'm just off on another trip, back later this month and then will be focusing on the HK and Taiwan trip full steam. x

internetwiz - that sounds like the sort of room we had at the Salisbury and it was fine. we even had a kettle for making tea and coffee - very British. hope you enjoy it [and that view] as much as we did.

On my first visit to HK at the Salisbury it was Chinese New Year and and we watched the fireworks from our harbor view room, set off from barges in the water. I'm not normally that keen on fireworks but it was fantastic, right outside the window. One of those moments.

MmePerdu - I am going to be in HK during Chinese NY. Are sites, restaurants etc open? I am looking forward to the fireworks as I love fireworks!

Lots of things were closed, a few were open. It's been some time now so hard to remember which but I know I had to content myself with a lot of walking around. I didn't reply before because I can't remember exactly what was open in the way of activities but I do recall it being pretty much shut down. We did not, however, go hungry.

Hi Kavy, Some ideas about food experience in HOng KOng :P http://wp.me/p5Lw9a-1bX

Thank you!

Going authentic? U gotta go 4 the chicken feet, either boiled or deep fried. And tripe soup with noodles will put u over the top.

What some don't say is that the original cantonese cooking, very bland to start, was overlain for 150 years by the equally bland british cooking style. Result: u guessed it, very bland food.

I like the many kinds of dim sum, but in general, the taste of HK cuisine is flat.

I love chicken feet, depending on cooking style.
Not a fan of tripe, though I try it every few years to see if I've changed my mind - doubt that's going to happen anytime soon!

don't know about bland, we had some good stuff like cantonese roast goose, and I've never met a dim sum that I didn't like.

we also had some of the best Thai food we've ever tasted.

I'm surprsied to read "bland" but I guess I'll find out in a couple weeks!

Thanks to everyone for their tips!

We had a lovely week in HK.

We stayed at the Salisbury which we liked very much. We booked a harbour view suite for the price of a regular double at the other properties we'd shortlisted, and really appreciated the extra space of the living room during the week.

We felt that the service here was a little less than we expected - house keeping and some of the staff but not a significant negative, and fair for the price paid.

We didn't do and see everything we planned, even with a week, but are agreed that next time we fly into East Asia to go elsewhere, we'll look at a flight that has a free stopover in HK to give us another 2-3 nights there.

Our time in Taiwan was also very enjoyable - 2 nights in Taroko Gorge and 3 in Taipei.

Glad you enjoyed HK and the Salisbury, Kavey. I agree that the staff there weren't the friendliest but as it's the only place I've stayed in HK I have nothing to compare it to!

Kavey, I do hope you will post a trip report!

Hi Kathie
I probably won't do a step by step trip report here but I'll be writing some content for my blog, and will share links once that's up.

And of course, if anyone has questions, I'll be happy to respond any way I can.

Annhig, it was an odd mix. The concierge and reception team seemed pretty good but housekeeping manager was super stranger and the guy outside the car entrance was beyond rude.

Kavey - we didn't meet anyone who was out an out rude but they weren't over-communicative, if you know what I mean. for example, we only found out about getting more vouchers for the breakfast discount by being told by one of the breakfast staff, we weren't told by reception. The same applied when we tried to get any information about nearby restaurants - they just weren't very helpful.

but as this was the first hotel we'd stayed in in HK, we didn't have anything to compare it with.

We had arranged to have dinner with fellow Fodorites, internetwiz and her husband on the night we arrived into HK. We decided to go for a non-reservations restaurant, and decided that to get there in good time, a taxi made most sense. The concierge pointed us out to the covered car entrance and we told the staff member manning it that we'd like a taxi to HK Island. He seemed to start looking for one and we chatted amongst ourselves. After about 10 minutes, one pulled in and two other hotel guests came outside at that moment, insisted that this taxi was theirs and they'd called for it and got in. We turned to the man we'd asked to get us a taxi and he shrugged and suggested we asked the concierge to call us one. Somewhat enfuriated, we asked why he hadn't been trying to flag one for us (many many go past here all the time) and if that wasn't something he would/ could do then why hadn't he told us when we first came out and asked him??? It was bizarre and he was really rude about it. Was bizarre and later during the week we never could figure out what his job was if not to help hotel guests with such requests. We also had the most bizarre conversation with house keeping manager after I called and said politely that when they'd made our room and switched the towels they'd forgotten the face flannels. The lady said she needed to check and would come back to me. Instead the manager came to our door with some weird story about having not finished the room (we got back later afternoon) and being in the middle and some other longwinded stuff that made no sense. I (very mildly) said, actually I think they finished the room but perhaps just forgot the flannels, it's no big deal, we just would like some please. About 15-20 seconds after he left, we got a knock, so soon after that I thought it must be him. It was the maid with said flannels. All so weird. I didn't understand why they didn't just do a simple "sorry we missed those, here you go". WEIRD.