First time visit to HKG & Macau
 

Never been there and always wanted to go once. We are US citizens= 2 adults and a 2 year old boy. Will be flying from Midwest and I think there are some direct flights from ORD-HKG. How is the weather in Jan or Feb??

I know it won't be easy with a young toddler but we will stay for less than a week only. What area should we stay? What do you call the main downtown area where all the shops, restaurants, transportations and market are located?

And what hotel do you recommend? I can do, Hyatt, Hilton, CC, or Marriot.

Maccau is only 45 mins by boat? If it is a fun place, we can stay 2 nights in Maccau. Thanks for any recommendations, suggestions, tips and advice! We were recently in Singapore and Seoul for total of 2 weeks. The transportation system was better in Singapore specially with a infant. I love Chinese food so HKG maybe the right place.

I would like to recommend Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui.

Hong Kong to Macau ferry trip will take around 55 min. Here is the link:

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/...e/by-ferry.jsp

Chinese food should be try including the following:
1) Dim sum
2) Wantan mee
3) Roast Goose

Enjoy your shopping as well : )

Yeah what about some information, tips and what to how tos?

Tsim Sha Tsui is the main part of the city? Easy to get around and how is the public transportation system? Subway?

The cost of ferry ride for one way to Maccau is $164 economy and $326 superclass per person? Not cheap for 55 min ride.

Central on Hong Kong Island is the CBD, but Tsim Sha Tsui has more restaurants and hotels. There are shops everywhere in Hong Kong. And Central gets quieter at night, as you can expect. Mong Kok and Causeway Bay are the areas that most locals go dine and shop, and get livelier in the evening.

There are lots of threads here about HK and transportation. And you should look into guidebooks too (either paper or online). Forum like this is better for specific question than for very general questions like yours.

<US$25 is for a 40-mile ride between two separate "administration" regions on some of the fastest passenger vessels in the world. It may not be very cheap, but I don't understand why you sound surprised. And it's either Macau or Macao, with only one C.

When it comes to HKG, I only have heared of Kowloon. But seems like it is a district? Yes I will also look on tripadvisor too about tranportation and attractions. The MTR stations there has elevators (lifts)?

Like I said you need to first read more about HK first. As for the MTR, most but not all stations have one elevator to get from street to concourse, a few have more, some still i stalling. Then usually one elevator to get to platform. Is there a reason you ask? Most exits have escalators for part of the way.

OP, Jan. & Feb. is among the among the best time of the year to visit this sub-tropical modern & compact city of high-rise buildings a/k/a concrete jungles, with an ultra efficient & inexpensive public transit system. As noted above, please do more online research & reading first, there are many FAQ & quasi-stickies frequently updated to narrow down what you wanted to do.
ORD has non-stop options to HKG, CX would be our choice but you should also checkout DFW or ATL as your gateway depending on your preference for carriers, keep in mind weather & flight mis/connect in Jan/Feb. in the U.S.
Macau is a micro-city of historical old landmarks and new, known to many as Vegas East with numerous casinos so you might feel at home, wide choice of hotels, amenities and prices to match (better luck on weekdays, maybe - still packed with mainland China tourists.) A one-night stay might suffice but please research to see what's of interest with 2 years old in tow. Wear comfortable walking shoes for both cities.
Last but not least, explore Youtube for tons of visuals of what it's like for your first visit. Eating various of ethnic food, especially Chinese, is what most visitors (and, locals) do and loved, with broad range of prices & choices so that's a given.

There is more to HK/Cantonese Chinese food than just those three items. You can do research on the internet on HK food and see what you might like and their names in HK English.

HK shopping is not what it used to be due to pricing. Everything that you can get in HK now is cheaper and with full warranty in the US.

It is cheap considering the distance covered in that time span. This is not meant to be a scenic boat ride. You can do a "chopper" ride in 7 minutes for $5,000HK.

Weather wise Jan/Feb is the best time.

Just a note to pay attention to Chinese New Year period where there is additional shopping tourist from China overrunning the city. HK locals usually travel during CNY as well.
The week after new years eve/day is holiday for many.
Feb 8 in 2016
Jan 28 in 2017

Best to plan your arrival and departure away from the beginning and end of this holiday period.

I'm only answering the questions I have personal experience with; most of the answers to your other questions can be found with a basic Google search (I also suggest looking at discoverhongkong.com).

1. While there are rural areas, Hong Kong is fairly built-up. There is no one "downtown" area, but I suggest anywhere near an MTR stop on the north side of Hong Kong island or between Kowloon and Tsim Sha Tsui would be convenient in terms of what you are looking for (more below).
2. Macau offers casinos, culture, and architechture. I suspect a 2-year old is going to be quite bored.
3. Do you like Chinese food, or Chinese-American food? If your tastes run to egg rolls and sweet-and-sour chicken, you probably want to stick to American and European type restaurants. If you can handle roast goose, fish served with the head on, and tofu as a dessert you're going to have a marvelous time eating in Hong Kong.
4. The MTR ("subway" is more often used in Hong Kong to talk about underground pedestrian crossings) is a very good system that covers just about everywhere a tourist might want to go in Hong Kong except the beaches. In addition there are various ferries that cross the harbor and go to outlying islands, and taxis are relatively cheap in Hong Kong (and very useful when the MTR and ferries shut down for the night). I wouldn't recommend the bus or mini-bus systems to first timers, but the tram across Hong Kong Island is also reliable.
5. MTR stations are accessible, but often there is an elevator at only one entrance and it may be inconvenient to get to from where you are at the moment. If you require elevators, I suggest you go to MTR.com.hk beforehand to map out which entrance is accessible.
6. If you're looking at prices on a Hong Kong website, please be aware that the prices quoted are in the local currency unless otherwise noted. If you're looking at prices on a Macau website, the prices could be in Hong Kong dollars or Macau patacas, but since there's only a 3% difference in them, it's essentially the same.

The Chinese foods I love are fried rice, Kong pao chicken, lowmien , chowmien, Szechuan beef, etc

The examples you list exist in China, and therefore in Hong Kong, but are often modified for Western tastes in the US. That being said, I would suggest you try dishes like these (or other familiar-sounding ones) in restaurants while you're there. If you find the food to your liking, then you can start to explore more unfamiliar dishes.

Luckily, Hong Kong is definitely a food culture, so you can find just about anything there, including authentic Chinese cuisine from all regions of China, cuisine from just about everywhere else in Asia, steakhouses, Belgian mussels and fries places, Italian restaurants, English pubs....

For the flip side of Westernized Chinese food, you might find cha chaan tengs interesting; they serve Western food adapted to Cantonese tastes. A sample list: http://www.timeout.com.hk/restaurant...haan-teng.html

Warning: Just don't expect the American version these dishes to look, taste the same as the ones with the same name in HK.