Where to stay in Hong Kong

A lot of my friends from New York are traveling to Hong Kong and they often asked me where they should stay at. Instead of typing essay-length emails every time, I thought that I will create a blog post of my original email so I can just reference this in the future.

Depending on your price range. Centrally located + good + inexpensive options are:

• YMCA Salisbury at Tsim Sha Tsui (next to Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Hong Kong Art Museum, Peninsula Hong Kong) – Kowloon
• YMCA Wan Chai (next to Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong Art Center, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts) – Hong Kong Island

Moderately priced:

• Sheraton Hong Kong in Tsim Sha Shui (TST) – Kowloon
• Renaissance Wan Chai – Hong Kong Island

If cost is not a criteria for consideration or your client is paying for your stay, then consider these options:

• Intercontinental Kowloon in Tsim Sha Shui (TST) — the original Regent Hong Kong, sold to Intercontinental. Amazing sea views. I used to go to the coffee shop in the lobby for fantastic homemade ice cream in the weekends when I was little.
• Four Seasons Hong Kong in Central (Hong Kong Island) — with Hong Kong's only Michelin 3-Star restaurant Lung King Heen (Foursquare, where SML is currently the mayor), Four Seasons Hong Kong is the place to stay at in if you are a foodie. Four Seasons also has a very responsive Twitter presence and they have been very helpful to many of my queries. Highly recommended.

In general you would want to find hotels around TST / Wan Chai. The urban planning of Hong Kong is buzzing in downtown – and to access all 11 types of transportation, the hub is also there. You can check-in to airport downtown also so this is your best option. I don't know where your conference is, but most likely it would be on Hong Kong Island, so Wan Chai might be more convenience / next door.

There might be even more inexpensive options but I don't really know about them so I can't really recommend any. You can send me listings that you saw on hotel booking site and I can let you know what I know about them. The really cheap lodging options in Hong Kong can potentially be dangerous.

If you don't mind traveling for long distance (subway 30mins to downtown, for example), however, there are cheaper options – for example there is a hotel right next to where I live: Hyatt Regency Shatin (25 mins to TST, 30 mins to Central, approx $1,200 HKD ~ $130 USD) which is in fact the hotel facilities of the teaching hotel for School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong – think Cornell's Hotel / Hospitality. Food is super yummy there.