Victoria Peak or locally known as ‘The Peak’ is a mountain on Hong Kong Island it provides an amazing perspective of the iconic Hong Kong skyline! A must do trip when in Hong Kong. with an elevation of 552 metres its the highest mountain within Hong Kong Island. Witness the breathtaking views of Hong Kong harbour, ocean, islands and mountains in the background. The peak is one of Hong Kong’s most visited attractions with 7 million visiting each year!
Here are our 7 top tips to visiting the peak
Tip Number One – Go at night!! We had the opportunity to go in the day time and night ; but due to locals advice about the night view and the photo opportunities, we would say night is much more memorable.
Tip Number Two – Take the bus! its cheaper and less busy than the tram. Bus 15 takes 40 minutes and a rather scenic journey of the suburbs. Bus 15 is under 10HKD one way and leaves at least every 10 minutes from Central Exchange Square / Central Ferry , Other Ways to get to the top are by Tram, Taxi, or walking.
Bonus tip – Bus 15C will take you to the foot of the peak where you can get the tram
Tip Number Three – Dont pay for the view! Once off the bus or tram, follow the crowd, or ask! the free views are just after the shopping area.
Tip Number Four – Be flexible when you visit! the main reason for this is the Weather, as you dont want Fog or cloud or rain to be an inconvenience to your trip. You can even check weather on the Hong Kong webcam https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/webcams/victoria-peak_hong-kong_1818391
Tip Number Five – Leave more time than you think you need! Honestly we stayed up there until the last night bus, but we could have stayed longer. Those views wont get boring any time soon! especially at night with the added light shows, and lazers!
Tip Number Six – Why not make a day of it and hike up! Yes, its possible to hike up Victoria peak. Take a picnic from the markets beforehand and hike the trails. The Morning Trail Hike starts with a journey on the longest outdoor escalator in the world! https://hikingtrailhk.appspot.com/w/morning_trail_the_peak
Tip Number Seven – Whilst up the top, apart from the views you can enjoy museums, restaurants, shops and entertainment. Sky Terrace 428 (due to being 428 metres above sea level) offers 360 degree panoramic views above the city.
Bonus Tip – Peak Tram and Peak Tower have free WIFI so you can send live social media updates of your visit to the peak
Tickets for the Tram / Sky Pass see https://ticketing.thepeak.com.hk/?productCode=SKT5001&locale=en
Here’s our day in Hong Kong – visiting Hong Kong Museum, eating with the locals, visiting various markets and completing the day with a trip up the Peak
Took the star ferry and navigated our way to the history museum unfortunately most of the children in China were also visiting the HK history museum today! Here we spent a good few hours looking at the interesting displays of the history of HK…surprising how much a city has grown in just a few years.
At this point ‘hangry’ emotions began so we went in search for some food. We headed over to the spot where we found the BBQ pork but failed to find it, we did however stumble into a locals food joint. We nearly didn’t make it after spotting there wasn’t a full table free for just us. This didn’t seem to matter and sat with the locals on their table as there were two seats free, this restaurant served mainly noodles and rice. With mainly beef meat, and some more curious parts of the cow . We opted for beef and noodle / rice option. Soon a local man got chatting to us and was intrigued about why we chose a local Cantonese restaurant…he was very chatty and in between slurping noodles he told us about Hong Kong tourist tips including going up the peak at night (advice we took). He spoke about Cantonese cuisine and pointed out (literally) to the lady who had also joined us at our table that she was tucking into a noodle dish with beef intestines…
With our own intestines full we went in search of our own walking tour, we went over to ladies market -where most traders were convinced we needed at least one of what they were selling, Rachel opting for a bag in a bag early on .. Even though she haggled we found earlier for half the price!, also visiting sneaker street, goldfish market, flower market, wet fish market….
All this market stuff made us rather thirsty so we headed to a modern tea café. We enjoyed some ginger brown sugar tea…it was amazing!
Taking advice from the man earlier we then hopped on the star ferry back to HK island and hopped onto a bus which took us up Victoria peak. Despite it being night time it was very busy and we realised at the top that taking the local bus rather than the tourist tram was a good shout as the queues for this were huge! We enjoyed hours at the peak taking in the amazing views of Kowloon and munching a sushi picnic before taking the coldest ever bus back to our hotel.
