Back before 1997, a visit to Hong Kong during a tour of China served as a sort of break from China. Today, even though the city remains more western than anywhere else in China, is still technically a “sepcial administrative region” of the country, and retained English as one of its official languages, it’s feeling more and more like China all the time.
Despite the growing similarities between Hong Kong and the rest of China’s big cities, there are still plenty of reasons to stop there when you’re visiting the country.
Unfortunately, Hong Kong is notoriously expensive - and its budget options notoriously seedy and/or dirty. There are a few standouts among the city’s hostels, but many of them are famous for being a rite of passage among backpackers. They’re cramped, usually fairly dirty, not terribly secure, and housed in giant multi-storey buildings (ironically called “mansions”) with restaurants, businesses, and shopping centers crammed in on other floors. Too many budget travelers end up in these less-than-desirable accommodation settings and end up with a sour feeling toward Hong Kong, which is sad because it’s avoidable.
There are a few basics to know about cheap beds in Hong Kong that are going to be true pretty much all the time, whether you’re staying in one of the hostels mentioned above or have opted for something a little bit nicer. The primary one is that bedrooms in Hong Kong are known for being tiny. This is almost always going to be the case unless you’re willing to splurge on a more modern and luxurious hotel, because many of the cheap hotels in Hong Kong occupy exisiting buildings that don’t allow for larger room sizes.
The good news is that although the more expensive accommodation options in Hong Kong may be out of the range of the backpacker on the strictest travel budget, hotels that are more on the high-end in Hong Kong are typically much cheaper than a similar place would be in other big cities like Paris or London or New York. So if your travel budget is somewhere in the mid-range, be sure to look at a star-level that’s at least one higher than you might usually go for to see how far your money will take you.
photo by skyseeker
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