low cost interasia carrier from HKG?
 

Am looking to add a few days to a trip to HKG during Lunar New Year. Would like to explore another nearby city. Any suggestions on the city and which airline carrier might offer a low cost flight?

You are just on 6 weeks away from New year, so you need to decide quite quickly. I am not a HK expert at all except for visiting there over the years, if you want something nearby for a day or so macau comes to mind, no flight needed!
If you want to head a few hours away then Chiang Mai is a very good option, Hong Kong express flies from HK to Chiang mai, about 2 hrs 50 mins, it is 'not daily' and likely flights would be heavily booked.
But a few days in and around Chiang Mai would certainbly be an interesting option.
Another place even close would be hanoi, how does that appeal ? Would be very interesting for a few days, though no actual low coast carrier.
Macau has low cost flights with Air Asia and Viva Macao but only a few destinations.
Fares can be competative from HK to those places where there are a lot of carriers.
Others will naturaly have their suggestions but Chiang Mai or Hanoi or might be ideas to think about meanwhile.
Remember a large number of people will be flying and many will have already booked!
Bangkok is an option, 2 hrs 50, plenty of different airlines so a competative route.

Thanks James. Yes, it is last minute planning. Hanoi, Chiang mai, BKK all sound great. We have a full week to travel and are hesitant to stay the entire length in HK. So we're pretty much open to anything if there are competitive air rates. I am having a difficult time finding which airlines service HK with inexpensive fares. Am not familiar with SEA airlines.

So, with that said, will go research HK Express now.

This might be of interest to you, http://www.hongkongexpress.com and they have some package deals to Chiang Mai.
HKG is not attracting budget carriers, I would guess to do with landing/handling fees. Macao though has Air Asia ( budget airline ) flights and they have recently launched Viva Macau.
Normaly I would never suggest a 'package' but over Chinese new Year travel and tour groups have probably bought up a lot of seats so in the end it might be the best way.
Tiglion is a large HK travel business, they have Chinese new year Packages, http://www03.tiglion.net/pkg/news/pkg_news.php that will no doubt have a lot of HK getaway breaks for Chinese New Year.
Dragonair would be of interest if you wanted somewhere like Beijing or Shanghai
http://www.dragonair.com/icms/servle...6&lang=eng

For competative routes HKG-Bangkok is probably one of the most competative with 'quality' airlines such as Gulf Air and Emirates both having daily reliable flights but with cheap fares ( as these continue onwards to the Gulf region ). There are cheaper such as Kenya Airways and Ethiopian but Gulf and Emirates have daily departures. You could then head somewhere from Bangkok, or just head for a few days of beach or jungle near Bangkok.
For Hanoi I 'think' you are stuck with Vietnam Airlines or cathay Pacific so fares might not be so great.
Dragonair also flies to Kota Kinabalu which might be interesting.

From Macau ( boat ride from HK )Air Asia offers Bangkok, Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur www.airasia.com

airasia offer cheap fares to macau from bangkok and kualalumpur. but you should first come to macau from hongkong by ferry. if u need cheaper ticket to bangkok or Kualalumpur. check my travel photos of thailand at www.photosthailand.com

thanks for your replies. James, I looked at those websites and many of the dates don't work for us -- with the time frame that we have to work with. So, we've just decided to enjoy HK for a full week for LNY and put off some of those other cities for a two week adventure in the fall. I was partially convinced after finding a couple of informative posts with all that HK had to offer besides markets. Again, thanks for your help, I'm sure I'll be back with more questions later for the "longer" trip.