I'm arriving at the airport around 10 pm. What's the best way to get from the airport to the hotel, say, in Kowloon, at that hour?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by honmani2:
I'm arriving at the airport around 10 pm. What's the best way to get from the airport to the hotel, say, in Kowloon, at that hour?

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Train (Airport); or Airport Bus. Here is the Airport link http://www.hkairport.com/eng/aguide/airportex.html

various forms of transportation to/from airport, see:

http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ftairports_forum/Forum20/HTML/000011.html

Take the subway since it is so easy, clean, cheap and efficient. You can take a cab from a city station to your hotel if needed.

The train from the airport is fast, efficient, clean, safe. You board right there by baggage/customs and it's quite convenient. It will cost you about $10-15 US and should take about 20 minutes into Kowloon.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by minatonka:
Take the subway since it is so easy, clean, cheap and efficient. You can take a cab from a city station to your hotel if needed. </font>

Unless your hotel is either (a) well outside a two-kilometer range from Kowloon or HK Airport Express stations, or (b) within a one minute walk of an MTR station, I'd recommend taking the train to Kowloon or HK and then taking a cab from there. Taking the MTR and then a cab from the train station can be more annoying than the 10 HKD you might save (and if you've got more than a couple of people in your party, it might even cost you more!)

Also, a number of hotels run free shuttles from the stations to the hotels.

Thanks for the tips. The only concern I have is that I am arriving fairly late at night and after clearing immigration, waiting for the train, etc., it will be pretty late. Wouldn't it be simpler to just reserve one of those shuttle type things that run around 90HK$?

honmani2,

Eh, howszit, brah! I've got a couple of extra tourist maps of HK from my trip last fall. If you want them and are in central Honolulu, I can drop them off to you. Could maybe answer a few questions you might have too.

Fellow FTer in Honolulu,
tbear

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by honmani2:
Thanks for the tips. The only concern I have is that I am arriving fairly late at night and after clearing immigration, waiting for the train, etc., it will be pretty late. Wouldn't it be simpler to just reserve one of those shuttle type things that run around 90HK$?</font>

Airport Express currently runs every 15 minutes.

I took CX twice last week, both flights arriving in HKG just past 10 p.m. I hopped on 10:45 and 11 p.m. services. The second flight even arrived at Gate 68, one of the farthest from the immigration.

If you can get on the 10:45 p.m. service, you can take a shuttle bus to the hotel at Kowloon, at least. Thereafter, you need to take a taxi.

Better yet, just have the hotel arrange an S class for you.

What is safest for a woman traveling alone? I'll be arriving around 9pm on CX and will be staying at the Peninsula.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by MGR:
What is safest for a woman traveling alone? I'll be arriving around 9pm on CX and will be staying at the Peninsula.</font>The obvious choice is to have a Peninsula Rolls meet you at the airport. They do this well but charge a modest fee for the service (forget the exact amount but it is around USD 50). There is also a "limousine bus" that runs between the airport and hotels which costs about the same as the airport express (but takes longer). These are your best choices (depending on your budget, but if staying at the Pen it really is best to use their car service).

Having said that, anywhere on HK public transport is perfectly safe for women travelling alone. Attacks of any sort are extremely rare, and on westerners more or less unheard of.

I went back to HKG in summer 2001 and stayed at Penninsula. They had a promotion at that time that includes Rolls Royce picked up and dropped off. They picked me up at another hotel to Penninsula for my two nights stay and actually dropped me at the airport the last day. Very good service. Give you towel when you get into the car and they have airport rep. waiting for you at the airport and rolled the luggages for you to the airline counter. Another option to go to the hotel is to take the bus service. At 10pm, you should be able to get to the hotel pretty quick. You can also check out HK night view sitting on the upper deck. Also check Cathay Pacific website, they have a coupon for 33% off for taking Airport Express. Take the airport express to Kowloon Station and then take the taxi. It is about 10 to 15 minutes ride.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ywchi:
Also check Cathay Pacific website, they have a coupon for 33% off for taking Airport Express.</font>

I can't seem to find this on either the main or the USA sites. Please could you give a more specific URL or directions?

Thanks.

They burrowed it into the yum sing offers.

http://downloads.cathaypacific.com/offers/yumsing2003_transport01.pdf

Better yet, it's actually 45% off for Airport Express.

[This message has been edited by terenz (edited 08-23-2003).]

I'm flyihg United so this Cathay thing wouldn't work. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/frown.gif

The main reason for this was for my wife who is arriving at 10 pm and figuring out what is the best way for her to get to the Eaton Hotel. I will be coming from Shanghai the following day.

If it were me, well, no problem. Any method would work since I've been to HK a number of times but she's understandably a little apprehensive arriving in a strange city and having to make her way to the hotel late at night. (I know, she could just jump in a cab but my wallet has limits!) http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

For the Eaton, the most sensible way by far for any but an experienced HK traveler is the train to Kowloon, then taxi to the hotel. It's easy to take the train, and taxis are well-marked at the Kowloon station. The taxi cost is low -- about HK$30, which includes surcharges for night travel and luggage.

At the Kowloon train station, your wife should ask the attendant at the taxi stand to tell the taxi driver that she's going to the Eaton Hotel (many HK taxi drivers don't communicate well in English). Better still, if you can get a card from the Eaton with its name/address written in Cantonese, your wife can just show the card. (You might also be able to get this off the Web).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by wideman:
The taxi cost is low -- about HK$30, which includes surcharges for night travel and luggage.</font>

Er, there is no surcharge for night travel in taxis in Hong Kong. (You may be confusing it with Singapore where there is such a surcharge.)

The charge for luggage is HK$5 for each piece put in the boot (that's a "trunk" in American) and, in theory, for each piece over cabin baggage size carried in the passenger compartment.

Flag-fall is HK$15 with $1.4 per 200m (or thereabouts can't remember the exact figure). Taxi drivers don't expect tips but they will normally round your fare up to the nearest HK$1 or $0.5.

MAybe he confused it with a tunnel charge of $20 or so?

Did you check with Eaton hotel to see if they have airport pickup with a reasonable price. Since you have to pay HK$130 (Airport Express & Taxi), why not paying HK$20 or $30 more and have the hotel pick your wife up and she does not have to worry about anything. When I went back to HKG couple years ago, I stayed at Metropole and the hotel picked me up at the airport since my room rate included airport pickup. I don't think it ran by the hotel since it dropped off other guests to another hotel. I remembered I saw some "bus" companies at the arrival hall that they do take you to the hotels. They used the 14/16 passengers vans. Similar to what we have in US. Does anyone in HK know anything about this?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by hfly:
MAybe he confused it with a tunnel charge of $20 or so?</font>


Maybe, but if you get the Airport Express and then a taxi to your hotel and you incur a tunnel charge then you got out at the wrong station http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

Much more likely he confused HK taxis with Paris taxis.

If anyone is flying into or out of HKG on CX by sometime next May, there's coupons for 45% off Airport Express fares. See the CX and Coupon Connection forums searching by my user name and "CX" or "HKG".