My family and I are planning a trip to Hong Kong and its outlying islands, Lamma, Lantau, and Cheung Chau--we were also thinking about an excursion to Macau. I heard about the "Octopus card" in a travel magazine and wanted to know if this was a good value for getting around Hong Kong and the other islands, as well as Macau. Thanks in advance for all your tips!

First of all your octopus card would be invalid for use in Macau.

But as for getting around HK, yes its a good value as you don't have to undergo the headache of carrying heavy coins and the amount required for most public transport is slightly less than if you paid cash. For example if you would travel the entire "Island Line" from Sheung Wan to Chai Wan, it would cost you $7.5 with cash for a single ticket journey, but if you have an Octopus, you would only be deducted $6.8 from your card balance. The Octopus card also makes for a good tourist souvenier.

To choose your card type as well as pricing:
http://www.octopuscards.com/consumer...bal/en/map.jsp

Short answer. Octopus is a must for its convenience. Each bus line, each MTR ride, each ferry route cost different in Hong Kong. You'll be carrying huge amount of coins on your without an Octopus.

Unless you only take taxis...

Make sure you load up your Octopus before going to the islands as ferry to the are relatively expensive, and so are the buses on Lantau. [Tip: take the "slow" ferries over the "fast" ones when available. Half the cost, better views, and only take 15-20 minutes extra.] Few places to load up the card on the islands as well.

Macau has its own stored-value card, but it's really not necessary to get one, unless you're staying there for a week. Taxis are plentiful and cheap. And you can walk to a lot of places.

My husband and I were in Hong Kong last September and bought an Octopus card before even leaving the Airport. Second (third?) everyone else's comments about the convenience of the card. Our last day in Hong Kong, we had run out of money on our cards and had to resort to paying the exact fare in change for the Star Ferry, etc. What a pain. (You can recharge your card with extra money, but there is a minimum recharge value that was going to exceed what we would be doing that day.)

FYI: The Octopus card can also be used at many (most?) convenience stores; again, very convenient to just swipe the card when purchasing a couple of bottles of water, rather than digging in your pockets for change. Also, I think that each person must have their own card; you cannot use your card to go thru a turnstile and then pass the card back to the next family member.

jam40 - You could have and should have recharged the card. One can get all its value back + HK$43 of the deposit when you're done. [Full HK$50 only if the card has been issued for 90 days or more.]

But you are right that each person needs to have his/her own card.

rkkwan - We actually did recharge the cards once during our visit (very easy to do; I think all the main subway stations have the recharging machines.) We did not want to recharge the cards again because we did not want to have excess Hong Kong dollars to use up, or trade in for US dollars at a lousy rate. We are headed back to Hong Kong in a month and we will definitely be getting Octopus cards again. Wish all major international cities had a similar card.

Yes, the convenience of the Octopus card was staggering. And it now serves as a souvenir of a very wonderful first visit to HK. ^ I can't wait to return!

A couple of things
Last May we bought our cards at the ferry terminal on Lantau using it for both the buses and ferries - recharge at the ferry terminal was not an issue.
BUT when we asked about recovering the card fee and balance the clerk said - you have to go to a MTR terminal to do that... at least not at the ferry terminal.

So the question - how long are the cards valid? We won't be back in HKG until Jan / Feb 2006.....

Happy wandering

WF

There's no expiration. The money's already out of your pocket.

In June when I flew Cathay I noticed that they had them, and Airport Express tickets in their Duty Free Catalogue.

You get a voucher to exchange at the station.

BUT, you also Frequent Flyer Miles for the purchase, AND there is a discount on the walk-up price!

Well according to Octopus's website here: http://www.octopuscards.com/consumer...s/en/index.jsp
the card wil be valid for 3 years from the last add value date.

Thanks, christep. I stand corrected.

Since a big part of FT is about accruing mileage; is it possible to top up Octopus cards with credit cards? I didn't seem to see this facility at all. Not at 7-11's, nor MTR stations. Simply a question for 'next time'.

No - you can only use cash. Obviously this is because Octopus cards are fully refundable in cash so there is an obvious mileage scam if you allow card purchases.

The only exception to this is that you can link your Octopus card to be auto-recharged from your (HK-based) credit card when it reaches a certain low balance. That way you can earn miles on your Octopus spending, but I am not aware of any way to get cash back from an Octopus card without handing it back.

Although it is easy to see how to get a few miles for free, I don't think this scales well - i.e. it would be a lot of hassle, and almost certainly "trapped" if you do it repeatedly.

Ahhh.. makes sense.

I just figured there's not enough time in HK to pull out a credit card, let alone let alone swipe it, then sign for it. Thanks for pointing out the obvious to me.