If you're going to Singapore don't miss afternoon tea at Raffles. Go hungry!

Also, I enjoyed the Asian Civilizations Museum, the National Museum, the Chinatown Heritage Center and the new Temple of the Tooth.

I hope there's lots to see for someone who's not into shopping! I like markets, don't get me wrong, and street markets in places like that I'm sure are amazing. But I'm more interested in neighbourhoods, people, beautiful views and parks (and of course food). I'd love to stay close to a park where they do tai chi in the morning, for instance (we both do tai chi.) Soak up some life, and stay away from the glitzy places (although not looking for bare-bones hotels, we're certainly past our backpacking days.)

WW - exactly our thoughts.

that's why we're leaning towards Singapore.

There is a lot to do in Hong Kong other than shop.

Hotel prices are high in both cities, but the (expensive) hotels are lovely. Both cities have fabulous food and lots to do.

Two wonderful parks in Hong Kong, where you'll find dozens of people doing tai chi every morning, are Hong Kong Park (on HK Island) and Kowloon Park in Tsim Sha Tsui. Hong Kong Park is 2 steps away from the hotels in Pacific Place (Conrad, Shang, JW Marriott) and the Admiralty MTR; Kowloon Park is just to the west of Nathan Rd, easily accessible from TST hotels or the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station

The Salisbury IS undergoing renovations too this year, starting in June, I think. I get the impression that they're updating the harbor view rooms first. We still booked with them for a partial harbor view for the end of August. We decided that location, the (partial) harbor view, and the fact that we can stash our stuff there and clean up in the Y section before our 11pm flight to the States made up for any potential problems from renovation noise. I couldn't find anything else that I was keen on for the price.

Hi-

Singapore: Efficient, but not exotic. The hightlight was definitely the night zoo (walking, not taking the train).

Hong Kong: More hectic, more interesting. I'll have a blog series starting on it in about a week, but in the meantime, I highly recommend:

- 10,000 Buddhas (highlight)
- Walking Dragon's Back
- Tram to Victoria's Peak, walking down
- Night bus tour (sit on top, outside)
- Bo Innovation for lunch (book far in advance)
- Cable car + Big Buddha

I've stayed in both Kowloon and Central, and like them equally. Between the Star Ferry and the MTR, crossing from one side to another is quick and easy.

If you have a late or early flight, I recommend staying at the SkyCity Marriott (especially if you're a Marriott Gold Member) -- it's JW Marriott quality and incredibly convenient.

- esme

Esme - that's really helpful - thank you.

I think we're about to book and our first stop will be HK for 3 nights [and we will have 3 whole days]. as we have a late flight out, I will investigate the SkyCity Marriott, though we are not gold members.

If you want to spend three days in Hong Kong, I would recommend against staying out at the airport (e.g., SkyCity Marriott). You will want to be in the city for easy access to sights.

ok, Kathie, when i came to look at a map i could see that the SkyCity might have been convenient if we had been staying one night, but not for three, so I went back up-thread to remind myself of all the other excellent help I'd received, and managed to get a room with partial harbour view at the Salisbury for only £120/night, with free cancelation. hurray - i think that's pretty good. I may look for something else, but I suspect I'll be lucky to be able to match that for position or price.

I assume that they will keep our luggage for us on the last day, in fact alisa says they are planning on doing exactly the same thing.

now to sort out the rest of the trip!

thank you all for your assistance; i'll keep coming back with HK based queries as we go along.

Sounds like Tsim Sha Tsui is a popular area to stay for a few days?

Yes, it's a popular area for visitors.

TST has more and higher density of hotels and guest houses than other areas, therefore by default more visitors stay there. Doesn't necessarily mean it is a BETTER area to stay than others.

To clarify -- I agree you should stay in Kowloon or Central for the majority of your stay -- my Marriott SkyCity recommendation was for the night following a late flight or prior to an early flight.

Its up to you of course but we had a 3 day stay in HK on 2010 and wished we had planned more like 6 days. This was part of the return from India. We will be going to India again in the fall and plan one week in BKK on our return.

jacketwatch - as with every trip, one has to compromise and we're no different.

this time it'll be 3 nights in HK as we want to get in some diving on the GBR before the test match starts in Brisbane.

next time, we may want to stay longer.

what would you prioritise to see in 3 days?

Good question:
A few answers;
The Peak.
Stanley market.
Nathan road, esp. at night.
The nightly laser show over the harbour.
Macau if you like gambling.
Man lo temple. (I think thats the name)
Night market at Temple st.

No offense intended as to the # of nights to stay there but I just wanted to say we were disappointed in that we had less time than I would have liked, in retrospect of course. I offered that per our experience and you did ask.

Test matches? Cricket I assume. I don't know much at all about it but if I may digress a bit a cricket match on TV was a great "male bonding experience" for me once. We were visiting my inlaws in Delhi and as I was a bit jet lagged I awoke around 12AM to find my BIL and his son glued to the TV watching India play at some intl. tournament in the UAE. Well it was Dec. and Delhi was cold so we sat around the heater watching it and they explained the game to me. I don't remeber much but I can never forget how enthused they were so we watched, I asked, they explained and I sipped a single malt to warm me up. Sure enjoyed that night. I hope I did not bore you.

Cheers, Larry

1. ride the Star Ferry
2. go to Victoria Peak, use the escalator going up

After that there are options. I stayed the Holiday Inn, which I don't recommend, in Tsim Sha Tsui. Enjoyed walking down to the ferry terminal area to take in the view of the harbor area at night - couldn't get enough of it.

Wednesday night horse racing at Happy Valley Race. Take your passport and go to the HKJC member's entrance. It is probably open on November 27. December 4 should have a special program. On December 8, go to Sha Tin Race Course (optional on any other day) as it is the biggest racing day of the year.

I passed a flower market, a few shops with flowers out, front on my way to a bird market. An animal rights activist would have an issue with the bird market, but I enjoyed it. A bird market is not something you get to see every day.

I had 3 full days in HK, one day at Sha Tin, and a day trip to Macau, and thought that was just the right amount of time.

jacketwatch - no offense taken and thank you for telling us about your bonding experience over a cricket match. I see from your fodors profile that you live in Chicago so I shouldn't think that you've had much exposure to a game that obsesses most of India and the sub-continent [and that is a hell of a lot of people] as well as having followers in many other parts of the world including South america, Canada, Holland, Afghanistan [I'm not kidding, they made the last 20/20 World Cup] as well as the old British "colonies".

all your ideas about what to do in HK gratefully received, though I think we'll probably pass on the casinos.

mrwunrfl - thanks for the tip about the horse-racing. We WILL be there on a wednesday night so it might be a fun way to spend our last night in HK. we have booked a room at the Salisbury with a "partial view" of the harbour, so hopefully that should give us plenty of opportunities to enjoy watching it, though I'm sure being part of it is more exciting.

BTW, there is a bird and animal market on the right bank in Paris, which probably wouldn't pass muster with many animal welfare organisations.

Ok, then definitely get a tourist badge at the entrance to the member's enclosure. I took a taxi to get there: the entrance to that area was not obvious. Took a double-decker tram for the return.

http://entertainment.hkjc.com/entert...ist-badge.aspx