Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Hotel In Hong Kong

I don't know the hotel, but I live in Hong Kong and do know the area. I like Causeway Bay, it has some interesting areas and a more traditional feel. The hotel is in a more untouristed area of King's Road (at least by Western tourists) and you may find it interesting to explore the neighborhood. There are some very good Buddisht temples in the neighborhood to start with. There is also Victoria Park, which is a huge local park with locals strolling, doing Tai Chi, etc, lots of activity there. It is a little bit out of the way of the main tourist path, but as the MTR is close you can get to the main areas of Central where the main sights are pretty easily and taxis are very cheap; the very fun double-decker tram also passes in front of the hotel which is a great way to get a bird's eye view of the frenetic street life on Hong Kong Island. There are not a whole lot of restaurants in the neighborhood of note, but again with the good public transport system this is not really an issue. Some great walking and hiking trails start/end just up the steep hill behind the hotel on Tin Hau Temple Road.

From looking at their website, their room sizes vary quite a bit, please get the largest rooms you can, some of their rooms are 26 sq meters, which is a bit small for 2 people. You want at least 30 square meters, unless it is just for one night. Rooms in hotels in Hong Kong in general tend to be small. From my look at the website, my guess is that this hotel is caters a lot to mainland PRC guests; there is nothing particularly wrong with this, you may find English levels at the front desk and elsewhere to be a little poor, but overall this should not be an issue.

I am not sure what views you will get of the harbour (from their website, I see that only 1/3 of their rooms have harbour views), the main thing you should know is that they really are of course of the "wrong" side of the harbour as you are on Hong Kong Island and the views will be of Kowloon and not the famous skyline you see in all the pictures (that is behind you and to the west), if you can get harbour rooms with west and park facing views that may be the best chance for the kind of view you want. King's Road is quite a busy road, so I would get a room on as high a floor as possible, that would also give you unobstructed views. In March, however, you may get no views at all, as we tend to clouds and fog during that month. It is also cool and rather damp. Really not our best month weather wise. If there is any way you can move your trip to either Feb (esp Chinese New Year which is Feb 7-9) or to April or later in the summer, IMO you will have better weather, or at least clearer days.

The Salisbury, which is the YMCA on Salisbury Road, which mentioned above, is very popular on this board, and does indeed have great harbour views. It is not a "Y" like you might be thinking, it is a perfectly fine place. I am just not a fan of staying on the Kowloon side (too many touts, too few good restaurants and more sights are on the Hong Kong side), but if you decide to stay on that side (it does have The View), of the budget hotels, this would probably be the best choice in terms of location. For info see www.ymca-hotels.com.

If you want a good harbour view and are not limited by budget than try the Peninsula or Intercontinental for the famous picture postcard view (fog permitting), then the Mandarin and the Four Seasons (the latter two are again on the "wrong side" but believe me, you will not care at all and views are still decent). I am not a huge fan of the Hyatt, but it does have some nice views (again wrong side). Your choices are really quite large, a lot will depend on budget. How did you pick L'hotel? If you can give me a budget and an idea of how long you want to stay, what you are looking for in a hotel, I can provide other suggestions.