Hi,
We're a family of 2 adults and 2 kids; at the end of our 5 week trip to china, we'll have hopefully 2 but maybe just one night to stay somewhere relaxing prior to the trip home. We'll have just come from a very busy week, and my kids love hanging out anywhere near the water, so my thought was go to one of the islands at a small hotel, for a quiet day/night or 2. Possibly Lantau would be best since then we'll be flying out? But our main criterion is quite and relaxing, and a swimmable beach. Any suggestions?

The nicer beaches with swimmable water is mostly on the east side of Hong Kong. But I can't think of any that has real hotels or even short term rentals that are close by.

On the beach on the west side, there are the Warwick Hotel on Cheung Chau, the Silvermine Bay Hotel in Mui Wo on Lantau and the Gold Coast Hotel near Tuen Mun. Water quality all highly questionable, and the beaches are nothing like those in California, Hawaii, Florida or the south Texas Coast (just for reference if you're from the US).


That's why Hong Kong locals go to Thailand or Hainan when they want to be on a beach.

Anyways, Cheung Chau is a busy fishing village, though the Warwick is at the far end of the beach, so not too crazy there. Mui Wo is very quiet AND DEAD these days, with nothing going on - few shops and eateries left. Gold Coast is part of a large residential/shopping complex.

Another option is one of the rental vacation apartments along the south shore of Lantau. Like Pui O or Cheung Sha. Those rental facilities in village houses are popular with young people in the summer, but there's no service. Also, you may question the cleanliness of those places. Water quality may be better than Mui Wo or Gold Coast, and you will get to see highspeed catamarans and jetfoils zooming in front of you (very very safe distance) every few minutes.

A higher end facility is Sea Ranch on Lantau, which has its own ferry service. I don't have information about rentals, but they should be nicer than the village houses at Cheung Sha or Pui O.

Here's a picture of Sea Ranch I took from a Macau-HK jetfoil:
http://rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p384013685/e199b1379

There are hotels on the beach in Macau. I don't know what the water quality would be like, but there were Chinese tourists in the water when we were there.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too.

Your choices in Macau will be the Westin on the Hac Sa beach, or the small Pousada de Coloane on the Cheoc Van beach, pretty close to Hac Sa:

http://www.hotelpcoloane.com.mo/

I live in Hong Kong and my thoughts would be that for one night trying to go to a place like Cheung Chau or Lamma and then back out to the airport is not going to be worth the hassle. Cheung Chau and Lamma are outlying islands, and you have to get to Hong Kong Island and then get a ferry to them, and ferries do not run that often other than on Sundays, and do not run that late at night, so this may not work well with your arriving or departing flight and you may end up waiting around with bag and baggage at various places like ferry piers and the airport for more time than you want.

Lantua is a thought but there is no beach in Mui Wo, mentioned above, or at least not really a nice beach. The really pretty beaches are along other coasts, and hotels are really more like hostels, and I am not sure if this is what you want. You could stay someplace like the Novotel or the new Marriott at the airport and just take a bus over to the beaches. I am not aware that you can actually stay at Sea Ranch, at one point they talked about making it a hotel, but I do not believe it is open to overnight guests. I have some info at home about these hostel type places on Lantua, but I am in an airport lounge today. I can post it after April 22 when I am back in Hong Kong if that will be helpful

You might just want to stay on Hong Kong Island and make a day trip to a nice beach like Big Wave Bay (strong current), Stanley, Repulse Bay or Deep Water Bay. These are reachable by bus or taxi easily and relatively quickly. Water quality is vetted, I can give you a website that you can check to see if it is OK with you, I would not say Hong Kong waters other than out in Sai Kung, are pristine. (Sai Kung is a bit of a trip, but has lovely beaches, the best require a hike in of about an hour each way. ) All have restaurants, bathrooms, lifeguards (in season). That is the other issue to bring up: don't know when your trip is. If in the summer than beaches are fine, if in say January temps are too cool for swimming. Also in summer you run the risk of a day of rain, so again staying actually at a beach hotel in Lamma, Lantau etc. If it is pouring rain, IMO, you want to be in a more populated area where there will be more things to do.

Macau would really only work if you can fly into Macau from wherever you will be in the PRC. Otherwise, again for 1-2 days that is a good bit of travelling. But OK if it rains as there is a good bit to do. (Not so much for kids perhpas). The only beach hotel I know is the Westin. The casino hotels are not on a beach.

Correct. Sea Ranch is not a hotel and you can't rent from them directly. But I believe some units may be available for rent through those vacation villa agents - the same ones who you'll rent one for Cheung Sha or Pui O. I don't know the going rate or whether you can rent for just one day.

Also, transportation is definitely a hassle. When I think about it, I am not sure if they have direct ferry service to Central anymore (they used to, years ago). Now, you may have to connect in Cheung Chau.

Anyways, I agree with Cicerone. It's not worth the hassle. Another idea is just to get a room at the Grand Hyatt or the Renaissance Habour View which share a large pool.

The Hong Kong government has just updated its database for beach water quality a few days ago. Links from this page:

http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/envir...beachwater.htm