Nush summed up a slew of good touristy things to do in HK. I did many of them myself.
OP, some other tips when I was there. Make note this was 10 years ago, so I dont know how much things have changed with the political uprising and COVID protocols.
- As tacky as it seems, do a tour bus ride of the city. Get into one of those big buses that have rooftop seats, you get cheap ear sets you plug in and enjoy the ride. A nice city
- Avoid taking public buses. Walking and subway works wonders. Taking a taxi sucks. We took it and it took so long in gridlock we wondered if it would had been easier to walk to the restaurant. Subway routes are easy to understand. When we stood at the tour bus stop, it was also a public bus stop. I dont think anyone visiting any foreign city wants to bother understanding local bus route
- Aside from our big restaurant day where tipping was mandated because we had a group of 8 or more, tipping is not a norm there. Taxi ride and small eateries are zero tip. I tipped the taxi guy and guess what he did? He personally thanked me even though it was maybe $5 CDN. When I got back to Pearson airport and took a taxi ride home for $40, I rounded it off to $50. So a $10 tip. I even did cash. The guy didn't even acknowledge it or even help take my bags out of the back. All he did was pop the trunk and I did it myself. So in HK, you'll notice the people are so friendly in every store as opposed to the typical scummy US/CDN tip worker evil eyeing you if you dont give them at least 15%.
- Take the subway across to Kowloon. The subway system is cool as the fee is done on a distance basis and still cheap
- Try out any restaurants that look mom and pop where they handmake their stuff in the open. Great food
- I didn't have the guts to do it but you'll see outdoor alleyway kinds of food stalls making shit outside in grimey pots and plates are washed in plastic bins which look like they havent been cleaned since yesterday. Up to you if you want to try it. Cant be that bad as there's typically lots of locals eating the food. But I didn't
- Convenience stores sell beers. Buying a single bottle of Heineken is cheaper than buying a case of 24 and doing the math on one bottle
- It's a very late night kind of city, so late at night it's always busy with people and things open late.
- Nush mentioned some Buddha cable car tourist area. It sucked for me. I'm not a tourist attraction guy to begin with (Id rather walk the city checking out shit and eating), but I did it anyway. I didn't know any better but it was a cloudy/foggy day that day. Couldnt be that bad, there's shit loads of other people doing it with me at the ticket office. It sucked. The fog prevented any of us seeing anything out the cable car. And when we got out and walked up to the giant buddha, the fog prevented any of us seeing the top of him. So if you do this thing, only do it on a clear sunny day
- There's tons of small kiosk markets all around the city (especially Kowloon). It's all cheap junk where peddlers sell the same shit from one area to another. It might look like authentic stuff. It's not. It's all mass produced crap that has a homey feel to it making you think it might be 200 year old artifacts. I bought some for myself since I was there. Dont pay more than 50% for it. If you see stuff you want cut to the chase and let them make the first offer (which will be shit). Then immediately offer to buy it at 75% off. They'll play dumb, but at some point you'll probably wiggle yourselves to like 50 or 60% off. At that point just buy it to save time and move on unless you want to bicker with each other all day for an extra 10% off. If it looks like a raw deal just walk. In these markets, there's probably another dude or old granny selling the same kind of shit down the block
- In Causeway Bay we went to a horse racing track which I think is only open on Wednesday (not sure). It was awesome. You get your usual track grubbies (old dudes who look like they gamble all day), but it's different than a typical track. In US/Canada race tracks are pretty grubby and most people there are all old slobby degenerates. It was different there. Tons of younger people dressed up, nice gourmet food kiosks, it's more of a trendy place to go to than for 54 year olds holding a racing form trying to make $50. Check it out
- There seems to be a Portuguese influence there. KFC served Portuguese tarts!?!?! And I think I had mushrooms with gravy. They also give you plastic gloves!
- If you're a gambler, schedule a day taking the fast boat to Macau and gamble. Super nice buildings. Because everyone knows it's all about gambling there, the customs booth letting you in and out is a joke. They didn't even ask me any questions. Just show them your passport, they'll take a look at you and stamp your booklet. Easiest customs border ever
- I was there for almost two weeks and had a good time. I couldnt believe how reasonably priced things were there. I thought things would be all jacked up like you hear about costly real estate. It's not. Converted to CDN money, everything roughly cost the same. And even better no tax there, so most things were actually cheaper
