We are looking for a hotel room for two nights in Hong Kong at no more than $350 per night. We will be flying in Friday afternoon and departing Sunday mid-morning. We'd like to see the usual sights and be convenient to the Star Ferry and airport transportation. We'd definitely also like a view of the HK Island skyline acorss the harbor (assuming we sty in Kowloon. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Which month - prices and offers on room upgrades fluctuate significantly throughout the year.

At $350 you might just be able to snag a full harbour view room at the 5* Kowloon Shangri La - fantastic hotel with great big rooms and excellent views IF you get the full harbour view.

There are cheaper options such as the often praised YMCA and the less praised new world hotel.

The Grand Stamford Intercontinental is also worth considering, as is the Sheraton.

I think The Peninsula and Intercontinental (as opposed to the Grand Stamford IC) will probably be outside your budget.

From West to East, hotels in Kowloon with good views of HK island are:

Marco Polo HK - nice 4* with very large rooms

YMCA Salisbury - solid hotel, you can get the largest suite with your budget

Peninsula - harborview room will be out of your budget

Sheraton - get the nicer "Tower Room" with harborview

InterContinental - harborivew room will be out of your budget

Kowloon Shangri-La - like Walter says, you may be able to get it

IC Grand Stamford - less convenient; further up Tsimshatsui East then the Shangri-La

Nikko - 4* hotel next to Grand Stamford. For some reason, very few reviews.

Harbour Plaza - It's way out in Hunghom, but it's on the water and has good harborview. Not convenient, but very nice hotel.

And then, there's the new Rhombus Panorama, which is a couple blocks inland behind the Sheraton. But it's new and tower over everything in front. Haven't read any reviews, but your budget can get one of the nicest room or suite in the top floors.

Is the New World hotel (the one next door to the Intercontinental) no more?

The New World is now called the Renaissance Kowloon. It is still there, but will be closed later (not sure when). It never has harborview rooms.

I wonder what the thinking was to build a hotel next to the harbour and not give any of the rooms a harbour view...

Walter - Short answer. The New World and the Regent (now IC) were developed together. They decided then to build a 5* hotel to rival the world's best, and a 3* for mostly packaged tours. They don't want the New World to compete with the Regent.

I can write up the long answer about Tsimshatsui in the early 80's. If anyone's interested...

Thanks guys! Very Helpful. How about the Kowloon Hotel? Looks like it's just steps to everything.

The Kowloon Hotel has notoriously small rooms and because it sits directly behind the Peninsula, most rooms have no harborview or a significantly blocked partial view at best.

Again, what dates?

We are going Feb 22-24 on our way back from a week in Bangkok.

Marco Polo Hong Kong has harborview for HK$2,100 for standard floor, HK$2,800 for club floor.

The IC is HK$3,280 for standard harborview. That's a little over $400, but not too far off your budget.

IC Grand Stanford is HK$2,000 for deluxe harborview.

Kowloon Shangri-La is HK$3,350 for standard harborview.

Harbour Plaza in Hunghom is HK$1,400.

The YMCA Salisbury is $1,020 for standard harborview, $1,600 for harborview suite.

All prices + 10% service charge and 3% tax.

I'll say those are your main choices.

If you just want harborview, might as well save some money and get the YMCA.

If you want to make this stay most memorable, spend a little more and get the IC.

If you still want a nice room at a nice hotel but not quite the price of the IC, then perhaps the Marco Polo (very convenient but the view is more towards western HK Island and not straight on).

RKKWAN - Thanks so much!

niceguy -

I forgot to check another. The Rhombus Panorama has Deluxe Platinum Harbour View for $2,288. Again, I have not read any review about this new hotel, but their sister property, the Rhombus LKF at Lan Kwai Fong in Central, has good reviews. Which is a good sign.

Just want to add that I also looked up some 3rd party booking sites, but probably because it's still 5 months away, I don't see any particular good deals for those dates for any hotel - harborview or otherwise.

I don't think there's any particularly large convention or stuff going on that weekend, so you may find something later on, especially if you don't absolutely need harborview.

And if you don't need that famous view from Kowloon towards HK Island, you have more choices for hotels, in Kowloon or HK Island. For example, for you budget, you should be able to get a park/hill view room at the Conrad, HK Shangri-La or the JWMarriott. All 3 are nice hotels at Pacific Place at the Admiralty MTR on HK Island.

I've shown this picture before, but here's it again. I took this in May from the Star Ferry.

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p400104934/?photo=88669111

You can see the YMCA, Pen, Sheraton, IC, Kowloon Shang, and the IC Grand Stanford in it. The Rhombus Panorama is the building to the right of that very tall building under construction. [Not the one in front of it, but the one to the right.]

If you can afford it, I would recommend the IC. I've been to Hong Kong 5 times, stayed there 3 times, it is still my favorite.
Do not stay at the Kowloon hotel - it was awlful. The rooms were sooo small (my husband actually had to put the chair on the bed to have room to do sit ups!). It wasn't very nice at all, although the location is excellent.

i thought the kowloon hotel had been closed??

Kowloon Hotel is still there. It was sold by the Peninsula group to the Harbour Plaza group about 2 years ago.

thanks....i guess i thought that i read that the hotel was closed and that it was being converted to condos or something similar...