Hong Kong or Singapore

What is your budget and where in HK do you want to stay? We almost always stay at TST and the hotel of choice is Marco Polo Gateway or Marco Polo Prince.

Other options around that area would be Royal Pacific Towers, Marco Polo Hong Kong (5 star), Butterfly on Pray, Holiday Inn, Panorama Hotel and book only if you don't have a choice - Imperial Hotel.

If you want to stay on the HK side, this may be outdated but our usual choices would be Excelsior Hotel, Park Lane, Holiday Inn Express.

Thanks. Out of interest is there any reason why you stay on the mainland side and not the island? is there any real difference which side you stay on?

Budget wise somewhere about £200/night I think as I'm maybe thinking of 5 nights.

Getting difficult to get tickets for the 7's rugby. Cathy Pacific do flights and a 3 day pass for about £1000!!! Would have to find a hotel on top of that as well.

The best for the Sevens is the Excelsior because it is nearest to the ground.

I an not a good source of advice as I always stay in the Mariners' Club - cheap clean etc. The new suites there are nice.

When I was younger, we'd stay in the HK side specifically Causeway Bay and it was pretty convenient enough for us already. But we tried staying in TST and found it much more our cup of tea with regard the food choices, attractions and shopping. It's also nearer to the airport. The only thing we visit once is a while in HK Island would be Ocean Park and Victoria Peak and even if we are in TST, it's very easy to travel via MTR.

Central is HK island would be a good choice too as there expat community is there and lots of nice bars and restaurants.

£200/night will take you a long way. You can try Mandarin Oriental in Central, Marco Polo hotels in TST, The Peninsula HK (not sure about current pricing). Have stayed in the first 2 hotels mentioned and I'm pretty satisfied with it. Important to choose a hotel that is a short walking distance to the MTR.

Well i say £200/night, that would be my top end, cheaper is better as long as its clean. Had a look at the Execlsior andrew and its £304/night for the dates i'm wanting!! Obviously prices are up for the 7's. I think I'm leaning towards a hotel in TST as there is a wide spread from the ones Blue acid has mentioned at surprisingly reasonable prices. My main problem now is actually getting 2 tickets for one day of the rugby instead of doing a grand in with cathy pacific

Hong Kong - if you have flexible dates, always check hotel prices before booking your flight,
moving your visit by a few days can avoid some crazy prices.

(£304 / night sounds like a crazy price)

Stu, try the Holiday Inn on Nathan Road, TST (it's listed as "Holiday Inn Golden Mile"). Mae and I stayed there for almost a week when we got married and it was not that expensive - from memory, less than £100 a night inclusive of a full breakfast - it was comfortable and has/had free internet in the room. But book direct with the hotel and not via an agent here offering flights and hotel - not only does that work out more expensive but you won't get breakfast in the hotel but at some cheap cafe serving "conveyor belt" food nearby.

My recommendation PROVIDED you get a 4th floor or 5th floor suite - cheap and cheerful and clean. Round the back of the Peninsula.

http://www.marinersclub.org.hk/

When did you stay in Holiday Inn Golden Mile? Last we check on our dates, it was over £100 and closer to £150 per night. So we always compare it with Panorama hotel which is just a stone throw's away from Holiday Inn.

Are you referring to Cafe de Coral? It's yummy there!

I had always the impression that the whole Mariner's Club is some swanky exclusive members only club LOL

In March 2011 and I'm pretty sure there was a promo in effect for part or all our stay. I also have a Holiday Inn club card which got us a free upgrade, free breakfast and a bottle of Champers in the room.

No. On a previous trip to HK, I made the mistake of booking a package (flight, transfers and hotel) with a travel agency in Cebu. The hotel was the Marco Polo Rupert (never again, thank you) and for breakfast I had to go to some small cafe in Ocean Terminal almost at the Star Ferry exit. It was quite literally a "conveyor belt" cafe - all the food was pre-served onto (cold) plates and placed on a conveyor belt similar to a baggage carousel.

The Mariners Club used to be called "The Missions to Seamen, Flying Angel Club" and was just outside the dock gate near Pier 2. That was in the days when Ocean Terminal was Pier 1 and used by passenger liners (almost exclusively P&O), Piers 2 and 3 (one of which has since disappeared) were right next to it and was where P&O's cargo ships docked. Beyond the Mission was the start of the "red light" district which has since shrunk to one small part of Mong Kok.

Thanks for the recomendations folks. Checked them out on tripadvisor and I'm leaning towards the Butterfly on Prat. We hardly stay in the room anymore so I'm being sensible and getting a reasonable hotel and leaving more cash in the old sky rocket. The surprising one was the holiday inn, for the dates its was about £180/night!!

So going to book that tomorrow and the flights, I think Cebu Pacific is about £150 each. Think I'll chance my arm on tickets for the rugby. Might be able to buy one there

Compare the airfares carefully on a like-for-like basis because Cebu Pacific are about to increase their fuel surcharge on that route by 150%. You may find it cheaper with PAL.

Thanks for the tip Mark i'll bear that in mind. As long as the the flights are within £30 or so of each other I generally take the most convienient time wise.

^ Odd but everytime we go to HK this past few years, we always end up taking Cathay Pacific/Dragon Air as the times are better and is cheaper compared to PAL. I think PAL knows how much of a market HK is for it's passengers that's why they keep the prices high.

Cebu Pacific is for budget travelers but their flight times are sucky

Thinking about it I have a real problem on Cebu Pacific flights because of the leg room. I can bearly survive the hour flight to tacloban from Manila!! Cathy seemed to be pretty close in price

Stu

Cathay run a variety of planes on the Manila-HK and Cebu-HK routes including A320, A340 and 747 and I've found that there's a bit more legroom on the A340s and 747s. Dragonair - a subsidiary - also flies between HK and Manila using A320s.

This is part of Cathay's policy of "intelligent abuse of aeroplanes" - by which they mean that, rather than have an expensive long haul aircraft sitting on the tarmac between long haul flights they will use the plane for a short hop to Manila, Cebu or Taipei and back. Since the 747 and the A340s used in this way are far below their maximum take off weight, as they are only carrying fuel for the short hop and back, Cathay are very notably more relaxed about baggage weight limits than the other airlines on these routes - IU have seen a maid returning home from Hong Kong turn up with 90 kilos and get away with it!