It's hard not to fall in love with Hong Kong at first sight, a disarmingly high-rise metropolis in the dreamiest of island settings. Then you start to discover just how memorable the food scene is, how vibrant the nightlife is, how incredible the shopping is – and game over, you're smitten.
This modern cityscape has become a global icon at a breakneck speed, emerging from British colonial rule to staggering wealth and success on the world's stage. This newfound power and influence have brought confrontational challenges with the Chinese government as it attempts to bring its upstart territory to heel. For now, at least, this incredible city retains its allure.
It's hard to know where to begin in Hong Kong – the scale of its attractions can be overwhelming. Start your must-see list with our ten favorite things to do there.
Despite rumors in 2022 that the service would close after 142 years, Hong Kong's iconic Star Ferries continue to chug the ten-minute trip across Victoria Harbour between Kowloon and Central. Costing mere pennies each way, it's a commute dressed up as the world's cheapest sightseeing cruise. It's also simply the best way to take in the skyscrapers (over 500 are above 150m/492ft tall) and jungle-clad hills that Hong Kong Island is best known for.
Detour: Star Ferry also runs a one-hour Harbour Tour voyage with pick-ups at Tsim Sha Tsui, Central, and Wan Chai.
With eight venues ranking in Asia's 50 Best Bars for 2023 (including first and eighth place with Coa and Argo, respectively), Hong Kong's bar scene is positively humming with creativity. Coa is all about boutique agave and the flavors of Mexico, while Argo utilizes sustainably sourced staples like coffee and cacao to make a statement about climate change. Hong Kong's trailblazing mixologists also include Quinary, inspired by the Spanish molecular restaurant El Bulli, and The Old Man, which takes its inspiration from Ernest Hemingway.
Hong Kong's teetering trams have been traversing the north shore of Hong Kong Island since 1904. Looking like slimmed-down London buses, the double-decker "ding dings" are a fun and low-impact means of exploration, and you get a killer view from the top deck. Hop on an eastbound tram to North Point, and you'll have the added thrill of trundling right through the middle of Chun Yeung Street Market, inches away from stalls and carts stacked with glossy cabbages and fresh seafood.
Glitzy Hong Kong has some of the best (and most expensive) fine dining in Asia, but you can still eat like royalty on a budget if you know where to go. Yat Lok and Kam's Roast Goose are two unpretentious local diners that specialize in the Cantonese staple of roast goose over rice. Both serve glorious renditions of the dish for
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Often misunderstood as a chaotic urban jungle or a mere pit-stop before hopping the islands, Greece’s capital is having a shining moment. Driven by young Athenians who have moved back to the city following years of financial crisis, Athens is experiencing a renaissance in its arts and culture scene. While the Cyclades have made Condé Nast Traveler’s list of the Best Places to Go in 2024, for those en route to the islands, Athens and its bon vivant attitude await, and demand more than just a single night to be discovered.
Nothing makes you feel the force of nature like a stay in the Faroe Islands. For a start, those volcanic, moss-clad mountains with boulders the size of houses on their sharp slopes make you feel as small as an ant. Add to that torrents of water pouring down them on rainy days, powerful winds, ever-changing skies, and dark sea stacks set like paper cut-outs against the horizon, and you get the picture. It is like nowhere else on earth.
Thanks in large part to the 2022 World Cup, Qatar’s capital city continues to rise higher in the collective imagination of global travelers and in the sky itself, with the opening of new luxury hotel towers. The editors of Forbes Travel Guide have named Doha’s best hotels—based on the stays of its incognito inspectors—including several Five-Star properties such as Raffles Doha as well as the Four Seasons Doha and Mandarin Oriental Doha.
Walk the streets of Memphis and you can almost feel the bones of this mid-size city rise up from the pavement. There’s a reason this place has an outsized impact on American culture.
Self-styled as ‘Asia’s world city’, Hong Kong has seen its fair share of upheaval over the decades, but much of its current prosperity is built on its historic standing as a trading outpost. You sense that when you fly over the freighters that crisscross its waters, and see the skyscrapers that pierce its chockablock centre. A one-time British colony that sits in the South China Sea, it has always been a place where tastes and cultures collide. In this easily navigated destination, travellers typically stay in Kowloon, with its Victoria Harbour views, and on Hong Kong Island, which has exceptional places to eat and the landmark Victoria Peak.
Stretching along the sinewy curves of the Douro River, Porto is a city of hilly cobblestone lanes, avant-garde museums and grand architectural monuments that date back to the Middle Ages.