Hong Kong Travel Tips—Hong Kong Travel Requirements
Visa requirements and applications vary for different countries. If you have a U.S. passport, you can visit Hong Kong for up to 90 days without a visa. If you have a U.K. passport, you do not need a visa to visit Hong Kong for stays under 6 months. This does not cover entry to other areas of mainland China.
Anyone who does not hold a Hong Kong Identity Card must fill out entry and departure cards, which will be distributed by flight attendants on your entry flight. The forms use carbon paper, customs will remove the entry card on the first page when entering Hong Kong. The photo depicts the departure card on the bottom layer, which contains information transferred from the first page when filling out the entry card.
If your passport does not require a visa for entry to Hong Kong, fill out your passport number in the "Travel document No." column. If you are traveling with a visa, fill out your visa number instead.
For my fellow R.O.C. citizens (Taiwanese citizens), please read the Traditional Chinese version of this post for detailed information on visa application or Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents application. You can toggle between the language settings on the upper right corner of the page.
Hong Kong Travel Tips—Payment Methods
If you plan on using a credit card, there will be an overseas transaction fee at different percentages depending on your bank and country of origin. Most stores take Apple Pay and Google Pay but a lot don't take credit or debit cards. If you do not plan to do a lot of shopping in Hong Kong, I personally recommend using all cash. Even though Hong Kong should be tax free, cosmetics and designer brands are in fact not cheaper but sometimes even more expensive here, so unless they are not available in your region, it's not the best place to shop.
Instead of a credit card, use an Octopus Card in Hong Kong. They are accepted almost everywhere. You can use it for transportation, at convenience stores, and at Sasa as well as most restaurants and food stalls.
The best ways to get around in Hong Kong include the subway, bus, and tram, which can all be paid for by swiping your Octopus Card. Getting an Octopus Card is one of the most important Hong Kong travel tips, it saves you from needing to always have exact change or having to purchase subway tickets before every ride. I put HKD$300 into my Octopus Card as soon as I arrived and had around HKD$50 left in it after 6 days.
The arrival hall is connected to the subway airport line, where you will pass by an Octopus Card service counter. If you already have one, there are machines right behind it where you can top up your card and it saves you from staying in line.
There's a HKD$50 deposit when you purchase an Octopus Card. For adults, you must put at least HKD$150 on the card upon purchase, and HKD$50 for children. If you will no longer use your Octopus Card in the future, you can return it and get the HKD$50 deposit back before leaving. You can also purchase your Octopus Card online in advance on KKday, the card comes with HKD$50 preloaded and you can pick it up at the arrival hall counter. The advantage is that you don't have to stay in line with the rest of the people at the Octopus Card counter. Which saves a lot of trouble.
Hong Kong Travel Tips—Mobile Data eSIM
I don't think I need to remind anyone about how important mobile data is especially when traveling. My friend chose to use data roaming which cost her about NTD$1,000 (USD$31) while I bought a SIM card and spent less than NTD$400 (USD$12.3). And from what I know about data plans in other countries, you might spend a lot more than she did if you choose data roaming.
It's very easy to get a Hong Kong mobile data SIM card delivered in Taiwan, but the best option for most English-speaking countries would be an eSIM. Pay close attention when you make your purchase because most sellers advertise "unlimited data" but have a daily limit after which your internet speed will be lowered significantly. I have bought SIM cards like that before, trust me, nowadays, slow internet is basically no internet. You will spend a whole minute loading Google. I strongly recommend that you get an eSIM with unlimited data AND no daily high speed limit.
I looked everywhere and only found one available option outside of Asia with this plan which is also on KKday. And it's only available for eSIMs that work in Hong Kong, Macau, and China. There is no Hong-Kong-only option with the same plan. And it's only a USD$1 difference per day from a HK only limited data option. Make sure you select the correct option of "unlimited data" as shown in the photo.
Hotel WiFi is notoriously bad and most people are in their rooms at night, which takes up even more bandwidth. I like to watch videos before bed and it's a constant loading indicator when using the hotel WiFi, so I always connect to my cellphone hotspot. Which is why I strongly recommend getting unlimited data.
Simply scan the eSIM QR code upon arrival, do not do it in advance since it might cause premature calculations of the validity period. Real-name authentication is required before using an eSIM in Hong Kong. Once the eSIM is installed, you will receive an authentication SMS. Since the installation requires internet access, I suggest you do this as soon as you land, as there is free WiFi at the airport. Once installed, give it a few minutes for your phone to complete the data transmission handshake.
Hong Kong Travel Tips—Bring Toiletries
According to the guidelines of Hong Kong's "Product Environmental Responsibility (Amendment) Bill 2023" hotels in Hong Kong shall no longer provide free disposable toiletries including toothbrushes, combs, etc. I always bring my own because I'm very careful with my oral hygiene. I stayed at Empire Hotel Wan Chai this time, and there's a vending machine located in the hotel lobby with disposable toiletries, but it's not guaranteed to be available at every hotel.
Hong Kong Travel Tips—Water Bottle
Not every hotel provides bottled water. Plus, according to the Product Environmental Responsibility Bill, hotels are also not allowed to provide plastic-bottled water.
You cannot drink tap water in Hong Kong and water is pretty expensive in Hong Kong but there are water fountains everywhere in the airport and at every public ball court.
I brought a 600ml water bottle with me and we each bought a 1.5L bottled-water upon arrival. Once we finished it, we filled them up at the basketball court near the hotel. I also brought the empty bottles with us to Disneyland, where there are water fountains at every restroom and filled them up before we left. Bringing a water bottle is a super important Hong Kong travel tip for saving money.
Hong Kong Travel Tips—Tissue Paper
It might be hard to imagine but an important Hong Kong travel tip is to bring you own tissue paper.
If you eat at big restaurants, they might offer you napkins or have tissue available on the walls, but a lot of restaurants don't. Especially not at spots popular among locals. None of the restaurants on my list of best Wan Chai and Causeway Bay restaurants have napkins. One of them even listed napkins on its menu and you need to buy a whole pack from them if you need some. From my personal observation, more restaurants on Kowloon Island provide napkins or tissue paper and less on Hong Kong Island. No matter what, bringing tissue paper with you is going to come in handy.
Hong Kong Travel Tips—Check Your Hairdryer!
If you are from the UK, you can stop reading the rest of this post but if you are not, the following is quite important.
The voltage of outlets in Hong Kong is 220V not 110V so DO NOT bring your own hairdryer, it is going to bust. I did that once and almost burnt my hair.
You can buy a hairdryer locally, but I think the best option is to make sure that you stay at a hotel that has a hairdryer in the room. They might be a little smaller but they are mostly strong enough nowadays. It's a lot more convenient and you won't risk burning down anything. I stayed at Empire Wan Chai which is a pretty affordable 4-star hotel and the tiny hairdryer managed to dry my waist-length hair in 15–20 minutes.
Hong Kong Travel Tips—Adapter Plug
Since the voltage is different, the power sockets are obviously different as well. You need plugs with 3 rectangular pins, so make sure you have a travel adapter plug.
Phones and laptops typically support a full range of voltages so you just need to make sure that your charger is compatible and you would not need a transformer in addition to the adapter. Once again, don't try to use your hairdryer even with an adapter.
I honestly think bringing a charging station is a great idea. I don't use one at home but the clock at Empire Wan Chai was a charging station with a wireless charging pad, 2 USB ports, and 1 two-pin socket. I didn't even have to take out my own adapter and simply use my charging cables with 1 type-C charger for my laptop.
If you don't like the thought of a charging station, I would suggest that you bring an extension cord so that you have enough sockets to connect to. This would be a lot easier than buying a bunch of travel adapters.
Hong Kong Travel Tips—Street Crossing
Don't even think about crossing the street illegally. The fine is HKD$2,000!!!!
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