DIY Hongkong-Macau Trip

For our Hongkong-Macau Trip, we decided to do it ourselves. It is a 4-days-3-nights tour covering the Hongkong Island, Lantau Island, Yau Tsim Mong District, and Macau. By the way, we dropped Hongkong Disneyland. The locations below were part of our itinerary: Yau Tsim Mong District 📍Choi Hung Estate 📍Ping Shek Estate 📍Mongkok Night Market 📍Sneakers Street 📍Tsim Sha Tsui (Victoria Harbour, Avenue of Stars, Hongkong Cultural Center) Hongkong Island 📍Central (IFC Mall, Mid-level Escalators, SOHO, Bakehouse) 📍Hongkong Observation Wheel Lantau Island 📍Ngong Ping 360 (Ngong Ping Village, Tian Tan Buddha, Po Lin Monastery) 📍Tai o fishing village Macau 📍The Ruins of St. Paul's My personal tips that might be helpful for first-time HK-Macau travellers: 1. Google maps is more accurate than Apple maps, based on my personal experience, most especially when finding the locations of the urban estates. 2. Buy esims or physical sims that covers both Hongkong and Macau. 3. Metro man app helps you navigate through the local subway stations, just make sure to set the location to Hongkong or Macau and you need to know the stations where you are going. 4. For foreigners, Alipay HK works in some establishments, however due to weak cellular signals, some payments won't go through and the failed transfer amounts would be refunded back to your linked bank cards in the app. 5. Using the Octopus card is very convenient, it can be used to pay in stores, restaurants and MTR. Just make sure to monitor the remaining balance and top it up whenever the balance runs low. 6. Bank cards (Visa, Mastercard) can also be used to pay in some stores and restaurants. 7. Secure some cash, most especially when going to night markets and when you plan to go to remote areas in HK (like in Tai O fishing village) 8. Tai O village is a very laid back location perfect for people escaping from the bustling cities of Hongkong. You can go there through bus transport from Ngong Ping Village or from Tung Chung bus station. 10. In Macau, it is difficult to book rides online, so I suggest for first time Macau tourists to join a half-day or whole-day tour in order to save time and energy. We haven't tried using their MTR, but I heard you can use a Macau Pass card and some bank cards on the gates to pay for the fare. 11. HK dollars can be accepted in Macau. We tried withdrawing Macanese Pataca (Macau currency) using our Bank of China cards but it cannot go through since we're foreigners and it requires the bank card holder to present a Mainland Chinese ID. We tried to use our international bank cards to withdraw money, but the minimum amount that can be withdrawn in most atm machines there is 1000hkd or 1000mop, which is too much for our half-day trip to Macau. So, it would be better to secure cash (in hkd or mop) before going to Macau. Overall, it was a great DIY travelling experience around Hongkong (and a quick trip to Macau) for the first time. Will definitely go back. 🫶🏻