Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - HOTEL in HKG and BKK

If I understand you correctly, your budget would be US$30 per person per night. Does that include tax and service? In both cities, tax and service will add about another 10% to the bill (many places do not include this in the quoted room rate, so do ask, but some rates do and may also include breakfast). A good place to start for hotels would be the Lonely Planet guide, esp their “high end” reccos which usually represent good value for money (although these days they recco the Imperial in Delhi which is a luxury hotel with prices to match). Also try lonelyplanet.com and the Thorn Tree section of that website for ideas if you really need to stick with the US$30 per person budget. I would also suggest you try tripadvisor.com where you can search by price, and also read reccos from people who have stayed at hotels, see frommers.com or click "hotels" above and see what fodors reccos.

The good news is that in March you won’t get much, if any use, out of a hotel pool in Hong Kong (unless it is indoors), so you can cross that off your list. (Only a small handful of hotels here have indoor pools, and one is a budget hotel, see below). The bad news is that even in this economy, hotels in Hong Kong are quite expensive. The other bad news is that in Asia generally you will not be able to fit 4 adults in one room, as most hotel rooms do not have two double beds. Do ask when making enquiries, but in my experience this is quite hard to find.

Some perennial budget favourites for Hong Kong are below. In my opinion, at your age and with your interests, you probably want to be on the Hong Kong side near to the Lan Kwai Fong area of the Star Street area of Wan Chai, but Hong Kong is actually quite small and has excellent public transport. However, if you like late nights, the subway under the harbour and the ferry across it stop running at about midnight- 1 am, so if you plan on many late nights, IMO you are better off staying on the Hong Kong side where the better clubs are located, or you may have some hefty taxi bills to get back to a Kowloon side hotel.

1. The Salisbury, which is a YMCA with the same View which you get for a lot more money at the 5 Star Peninsula next door and the Intercontinental down the street. Website for YMCA hotels in Asia is /www.ymca-hotels.com/. The most popular and probably the nicest is The Salisbury. It’s not really a Y, it’s like a good 3 star or possibly 4 star hotel. Can’t beat the location really, even if it is in Kowloon. This has a very large indoor pool, and may be useful. There are other YMCAs to consider as well which are cheaper and may work better for you, see the website.

2. Bishop Lei International House. This hotel is in mid-levels on Hong Kong Island which makes it very convenient for things like dinner, exploring Soho and Hollywood Road, and just generally being a tourist. Their room rates are very good. In early March, it appears that their smallest rooms would actually be at US$35 per person per night, but I have to say that I believe that their smallest rooms are very very small and may not work at all for 2 people, so you may want to go up to the next size room (even that is going to be quite small). Their rates for all rooms increase toward the end of the month as they are finishing a redo. The rooms are small but quite adequate and the location is good, in a residential neighborhood near the top of the escalator and on a bus route. It is just above the zoo in the botanical gardens and you can hear the orange utans in the morning, quite unusual in the middle of the city. . . Many of the rooms have great views over the city and the harbor. They have an outdoor pool and restaurant, and there are other restaurants in the neighborhood. http://www.bishopleihtl.com.hk

3. Next door to the Intercontinental Hotel in TST on Kowloon is the Renaissance New World hotel. This is an older hotel and I don’t know that any of the rooms have harbour views, but would be cheaper than the IC for the same location (albeit no views). May be worth a look at marriott.com. This hotel is going to close sometime in early 2009 so bear this in mind.

4. A budget hotel which I don’t know inside but which I pass virtually every day and I think has an excellent location in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island is The Wesley. (It’s run by the Methodist church, like the Bishop Lei above is run by the Catholic Church.) This hotel is about 300 yards from the Pacific Place complex of the JW Marriott/Conrad and Shangri-La which of course charge hundreds more for their rooms. This is in a great neighborhood of excellent restaurants, both cheap and dear, and near some of my favorite (and fast disappearing) market areas for strolling and people-watching. The Admiralty/Pacific Place subway stop would be very close, and the hotel fronts the tram line and several major bus lines. It’s quite moderately priced, but make sure you get as large a room as you can.

22 Hennessy Road
Wan Chai
Tel (00852) 28666688
Fax 28666633
[email protected]
www.hanglung.com (I don't think this website works too well, you might try http://www.asiatraveltips.com/TheWesleyHotel.htm.)

5. There is a chain of serviced apartments with various location on Hong Kong Island, some are small studios and some are 1800 square foot 2-bedrooms priced accordingly, take a look at http://www.thev.hk/. I don't know anything about this group or the quality of the apartments. There are no on-site fitness clubs, but it appears you would have access to private ones in the neighborhood at which you would have temporary membership.

6. There are several hotels in Causeway Bay, which is an area of Hong Kong Island a few miles to the east of Central. This is a primary shopping area, there are a number of good restaurants, a significant Tin Hau temple, a very large public park, and a typhoon shelter/harbour, but not a whole lot else for sightseeing. (there is the Noonday Gun which is fired off every day at Noon from the waterfront in front of the Excelsior Hotel, a colonial naval tradition that carries on.) It’s a very bustling area of shoppers. In previous years, this was an area full of little discount outlet shops and market stalls so it was interesting; however that has really changed and those are fast disappearing (rents are too high) and so the main reason to perhaps stay here is gone. Overall, I am not really a fan of recommending a stay there, esp for a short stay and/or for a first time visitor, as I think you will spend a lot of time of the subway or in taxi going into Central and other places. The subway is really jammed at rush hours, otherwise it is fine (but who wants to spend all that time underground when all the great views are above). In any event, hotels to consider in the budget range would be the Central Hotel (www.centralparkhotel.com.hk), the Metropark (http://www.metroparkhotel.com/) and the Rosedale (http://www.rosedale.com.hk ). At these latter hotels, ask about room size, as rooms tend to be very small (like 220 square feet, do not even think about getting 4 people into that size room, it really hardly will work for 2 people) and get the largest you can. These may all be a bit above your budget, but worth a look if you can go higher per person.

7. A new Courtyard by Marriott has opened in Sheung Wan to the west of Central on Hong Kong Island, I don't think it will be quite within that range, but take a look at Marriott.com. I like this interesting quite local neighborhood (Chinese medicine shops and dried fish), it is on a tram line and taxis are easy to get, it is a bit of a walk to the nearest Metro, but there is interesting stuff in the neighborhood, you can get a bus over to Stanley from here (a very pretty ride, not quite the thrill of the mountain ride of the #6 but you can take that back), and you can walk to Soho and Hollywood Road from here with a little effort (and maybe combined with the tram). This area, IMO, is a lot easier to navigate around that Causeway Bay, and is more interesting (as mentioned, Causeway Bay is fast becoming all mobile phone shops and large chain stores). Other budget hotels in the Sheung Wan area are the Central Park Hotel (http://www.centralparkhotel.com.hk/) and the Lan Kwai Fong Hotel, which despite it's name is NOT in Lan Kwai Fong, see http://www.lankwaifonghotel.com.hk/) There is an older Ramada in this neighborhood that I believe is cheaper. Note that rooms at the Courtyard are quite small.

8. Another thought are the serviced apartments at Two MacDonnell Road in mid-levels on Hong Kong Island. These are available for short-term rentals of one night, and the smallest units are in the US$200 range (with a very tight squeeze, you might get 4 people into these, not sure if this is allowed or if you would want to do this, but look at their larger rooms.). All units have small kitchens, which is a nice feature for breakfast (there is a grocery store across the street). I like the location on MacDonnell Road, as it is close to the great walking path on Bowen Road , you can walk down to the Peak Tram station or Hong Kong Park in about 5 minutes or to Central in a bit more. It’s across (a very busy) street from the small zoo and park by the old Governor’s mansion. This is a quiet residential neighborhood,. The hotel has a free shuttle bus to Central as well, and a small gym a restaurant. See http://www.twomr.com.hk.

In Bangkok, I think you might like the Chinatown area, one hotel which I have eaten in, but not stayed at is the Shanghai Mansion. The rooms do not seem expensive. See http://www.shanghaimansion.com/ Their cheapest rooms are US$100 a night (and for 2 people), but that does include tax and breakfast, so if you can go up a bit per person, that is pretty good IMO. Another thought is the new Courtyard by Marriott which I like it a lot, even though it is not on the river which is generally my preference. They are showing an internet rate for March of US$82 and this includes a choice of a king or 2 double beds (but this may mean “full” beds and not really doubles so do ask). The pool area is small but nice. I like their little spa, good massages. Very convenient to walk out to the sky train and the busy main streets in that area, but it is tucked away on a side street behind the Four Seasons and so is very quiet at night, a nice plus IMO. Nice restaurant for breakfast. I don’t believe many of the rooms have bathtubs, mostly showers only, if that makes a difference to you, ask for a room with a bathtub. Ask for as high a floor as possible, just to get any views which may be available (not really any but high floor offers some city views at least).

However, there are lots of hotel options for Bangkok, and this may be a good town to try priceline (see other posts on this board on that).