Hi

Will be arriving into hong kong on 28th Dec on qantas flight arrives at 17.45 and departing on Cathay flight to london at 23.55, will be my first time in business class for both flights so looking forward to it but was wondering what to do in Hong Kong Airport for 6 hours or is it worth a quick city tour??

Any thoughts or ideas?

Sure. Take AEXP return same day ticket to Kowloon, or HK.

Do some quick shopping.

Why don't you go up to see the Giant Buddha on Lan Tau Island.. there is a bus to the cable car station I think. Oh wait. You arrive at 6pm.. never mind!

Or just take a nap in the CX lounge.

Definitely take the AE out to Central, it goes straight into the terminal. It's 23 minutes each way and will be able to spend at least 4 hours downtown.

If you already have a BP, there is no need to plan to arrive at the airport sooner than 35-40 mins before your flight, assuming you will go straight to your gate.

From your comments it sounds like you haven't been to HK before - if that's true you have to go into the city. The airport is cool - but the city of HK rules! I'm still pissed I didn't go there in my 20's - might have stayed.

As the others pointed out the Express lives up to it's name (fast) and drops you right in the heart of the Hong Kong island or takes you over to Kowloon. From Central it's not that far to the Victoria Peak tram - there are a number of decent restaurants up there and you would have a great view of the lights coming on on the skyscrapers. On Lockhart St. is a great Mexican restaurant called Coyote. Or you could take the subway to the Causeway Bay exit, come up to ground eat, shop, then walk around Victoria Park.

Thankyou for all the info you have given me, i will make a trip on the express train and have a look around as it is my first time in Hong Kong as usually fly via singapore.

You can buy a same-day return ticket for the same price as one-way. I'm not sure that going to a restaurant would be high on my list for such a stopover (you have lots of food onboard both flights, plus the lounge has both hot and cold food on the J side, and better food than most restaurants on the F side). The best view is on the Kowloon side, an alternative is to have a drink at Felix, a bar at the top of the Peninsula hotel (it is world famous thanks to a Starck design and some interesting features). You can get there on the Star Ferry. Just leave plenty of time to get back to the airport and spend some time shopping there.

We've just lost our El Classico Star Ferry pier in Central. but maybe you can see the beaten up pier....

What happened to it?

Recently it was decided to 'redevelop' the Star Ferry Pier area. I was surprised who quickly they stopped ferry service. Glad I rode it on past trips. Ah, progress - the subway under the harbor is a whole lot faster.

Er, the Star Ferry is still running - but from a new pier next to the outlying ferry piers, which makes the cross-harbour trip about 25% shorter, and means a correspondingly longer walk to get from the new ferry pier into Central.

And I can't believe some idiots are making a big fuss about the demolition of that butt ugly (and relatively new) clock at the old pier.

anything older, the government has already taken it down. that's the thing i think about hk. we dont have anything that marked teh development. if you dont have the 50-yr-old bday, you wont have your 100th.
and we have only really started developing after 1920-30s. and the pier was built in the 40s.
no matter how ugly, that's the star ferry clock.
(Like, try knock down the trams in SFC)

I grew up in Hong Kong and still visit very often. In my opinion, there's little architectural significance in the old Central Star Ferry pier or clock tower.

But the protests are more than about the pier or the tower itself. It's a sign that some Hong Kongers have finally waken up to realize it's wrong for the government to just keep tearing down old things and filling up the harbor. Unfortuantely, it's too little too late.

I was reading a thread on a Hong Kong ferry forum, and I particularly like one piece. The author asked, where are all these people 10-12 years ago, when they took out all the other piers and filled the harbor to build the ifc? Lots of people used to rest, have lunch, whatever at the upper level of Blake's Pier and the garden next to it. Somehow, nobody even blinked an eye when those were gone.

[Personally, I spent a lot of times at Blake Pier, both on the upper level, and at the Discovery Bay ferry waiting area downstairs.]

So, it's really a lot more than just about the Star Ferry pier and clock tower.