Family Travel to Hong Kong: A Memorable 6-Day Adventure

If there will be a place that I will travel with my family, it will be Hong Kong. As I marked my 10^th year of solo international travels, I dreamt and thought of bringing my family this time. I always opted Hong Kong out of my choices when travelling abroad as I know this place will be better to travel with a group of friends or families. So, this year, I did it! 🥰🥰 I travelled to Hong Kong for 6 days with my family. 🥰🥰🥰

My nephew turned 7 years old, so I made a promise to myself to bring my family abroad. It was a solemn pledge that God and I only knew before. I wanted them to experience living in a different place and of course, to visit Disneyland! 🥰🥰🥰

Immigration Stories

Like my previous travels, I did not have concerns with the Immigration Officer who interviewed me. In less than 2 minutes, I already got my stamp. 🤩 Same with my mother, the IO just asked when we will come back.

Prior to the Immigration, I already gave pointers to my family on how to answer the IO questions. Indeed, my pointers were on point! 💯

For my sister, brother and sister-in-law together with their kids, here were the questions asked:

Where do you work?
What type of work you are doing?
When will you return?
Where is your hotel reservation?
Where is your return ticket?
For the kids, where is the birth certificate?

Aside from these questions, they haven’t experienced any inconveniences. Since this was their first time to travel abroad, these were the most likely questions we were expected to ask. So, it happened. We were happy that we were assigned to decent and accommodating Immigration Officers.

The golden rule – be truthful with your answers! 👍

Transportation to and in Hong Kong

Flying to Hong Kong with 2 kids, my Senior Citizen mother and a 6-months pregnant sister-in-law was no joke. The preparation took me almost a year. I booked a flight to Hong Kong last December 2024. With total of 5 adults and 2 kids, the seat sale was the key! 😍

Since I will travel with 2 kids, Senior parent and a pregnant sister-in-law who were mostly first time to fly, I reserved seats that were in the first section of the plane. My 7-year-old nephew always had this motion-sickness so instead of worrying, reserved seats were the best option. Though we had an early flight, my family kept up to enjoy their first plane ride. Good thing, this was the second time my mother travelling abroad. Her first international travel was in Singapore. It was easier for her this time aside from the pressure on the plane that somehow irritated her ears.

After a 4-hour flight from Manila, we arrived in Hong Kong International Airport before 12PM. On the arrival, after the Immigration, picking up of luggage, claiming of sim cards and Octopus cards, we headed to the hotel coach area where the shuttle bus of our hotel was.

The hotel shuttle fits more than 15 people and good enough for our luggage. From the airport, out hotel is 10 minutes away. The hotel shuttle was really a real deal as it saved us money and time, specially travelling with the family maybe too tiring for all.

For the city travel, we used the Octopus card that I purchased in Klook. I purchased the Octopus cards with pre-loaded of HKD 50. While for the kids, we bought in the airport upon claiming the cards for the adults. The transaction was fast. We just showed the QR codes that I got upon purchasing the cards.

In the city, we used mostly the Octopus cards in the trains. Similar to my Taiwan experience, the stations in Hong Kong are fewer than Japan. And we were very much happy to navigate in the city as it was easy to take the trains. All of the train stations has working elevators and escalators. It was a delight to have this kind of transportation system. 😌

Octopus card can be topped up in 7-11 stores with minimum amount of HKD 50. It will be better if you are the one who will tap the card in 7-11 stores to add cash. I tried to top up my card in a 7-11 store in the entrance of Ocean Park. It should have HKD 50 but when we checked the balance, it has none. 😳😢😳 I was not sure if it’s because of the 7-11 cashier or the system but it was not topped up properly. 😢

In every station, you can top up in the vending machines with minimum of HKD 100. You can also check the balance in the same area. Just tap your card and the balance will reflect in few moments.

We also tried to hire a cab in the city. These happened when we were at the Victoria Harbour. From the harbour, we queued to ride a cab to get to Kowloon Station. This was the nearest station that we can get so we can ride the train again and return to our hotel.

The driver we had was speaking in English and understood our instruction easily. However, my brother, sister-in-law and nephew was in a separate cab and they had a difficult driver. The driver dropped them off at Tsim Sha Tsui Station. My brother said that the driver insisted that it was Kowloon.

Yes, they were in Kowloon but not in Kowloon Station. After that, my brother hired another cab. Fortunately, they were able to reach Kowloon Station. Same in the Philippines, there are stubborn drivers. 😅

Lastly, we also tried the cable car inside the Hong Kong Ocean Park as part of the theme park’s transportation. It was fun! 🤩🤩🤩 It was the longest cable car that I experienced. It took us to the other side of the island of Ocean Park.

The cable car ride was part of the entrance fee in Ocean Park.

Internet in Hong Kong

Prior to our travel date, I bought sim cards via Klook that we will use in Hong Kong. I bought 3 sim cards for me, my sister and brother. I chose the unlimited data with 7 days validity. Since if in case we get lost or need to contact, we can use the internet. We can also turn on our hotspot if my mother or the kids needed it.

After the immigration and picking up of our luggage, we headed in the arrival hall to pick up our sim card. If you will buy in Klook, the instructions will be provided upon purchase on how you can claim the sim cards.

I did not choose the pocket wi-fi as we might be separated, so the sim cards were perfect. Overall, the signal was good everywhere! Even in tunnels where trains passed by or in lower ground floors. It was always a perfect idea to purchase in Klook. 🥰

Accommodation in Hong Kong

We decided to stay in Tung Chung area and checked-in at Novotel Citygate. The hotel was just 10 minutes away from the airport. Tung Chung is very ideal if you wanted to visit Ngong Ping Village, Disneyland and Macau. All the public transportation to these places is reachable in between 5 to 30 minutes only.

From the airport, though we were unable to find at first the hotel coach area, locals and airport staffs assisted us. The hotel coach area seems like a new place in the airport since some of the stores nearby were not yet open.

After finding our shuttle bus, we conveniently sat down. In less than 10 minutes, we arrived in Novotel Citygate Hotel. 🥰🥰🥰

We booked two separate rooms in the hotel. The receptionist made my request possible to have the rooms in the same floor. My brother, sister-in-law and 7-years old nephew had the Standard Queen Room. It was large enough for three people. The room has a private bathroom with all amenities. My brother also liked the espresso maker inside the room. ☕😍

In our second room, I booked an Executive Room with king-sized bed. It was enough for me, my mother, my sister and 4-year-old nephew. We had a private bathroom with bathtub. Our space is incredibly large! 🥰🥰🥰 A couch was available too that we made as the extra bed for my nephew. Though both rooms have no bidet, it was bearable.😁

Included in our room reservations is the buffet breakfast. We love all the meals we had. All the food we had were delicious. As I informed in my booking reservations that it will be my nephew’s birthday, the staffs surprised us with some treats. 🥰🥰🥰

A pool and gym were available too in the hotel. However, the pool was under maintenance when we arrived. It was like a good thing since it was getting colder. The kids will just get colds if they saw the pool accessible to all. 🥶

But what I love most in our hotel? It was the proximity in Tung Chung area. It was adjacent to Citygate Outlet Mall. Just beside the MTR Tung Chung Station, where Disneyland is very close too. The convenience of the hotel was outstanding! 👍👍👍

Itinerary in Hong Kong

For this travel, I created our own itinerary by researching in internet. A must consideration in curating this itinerary is my family with 1 senior citizen, 1 pregnant woman and 2 kids, range from 4 to 7 years old.

So, I made our itinerary light and not too jam-packed. Here were the places we visited last November 2025 in order of days.

Since we were celebrating my nephew’s 7th birthday, I really intended to visit the happiest place on Earth for him on his special day. I posted a seperate blog on this and added some tips that can help you if you will spend a day in Disneyland. 😍

Also, we included the Ocean Park Hong Kong in our itinerary as my 4-year old nephew really likes animals. I wish I made both of them happy. 😍🥰😍

As we explored these places, I felt a different joy to walk, ride a train or cab or just simply stare as I was with my family. It was a pleasure that I will forever be grateful to our Good Lord. 🙏💜🙏

I wrote another blog for our itinerary, follow it here. 💜

Expenses in Hong Kong

Travelling with family abroad should be taught of carefully and it includes the budget. This was the first time that I will bring my entire family outside the Philippines. I do not want it to be too grand but at least comfortable for everyone. 😌

As I booked flights from seat sale about a year before our travel, the planning for the accommodations, itinerary, transportation and all was a bit challenging since I will consider the span of energy and health of my Senior Citizen mother, 6-months pregnant sister-in-law and 2 kids. Nevertheless, in His grace, I was able to plan it accordingly. 🥰

We thought of renting an AirBNB in Hong Kong so we can cook food to save money. However, I wanted my family to experience a real hotel with comfortable bed and buffet breakfast. 😁 While planning, I watched a reel in Facebook of the best area to stay and it was in Tung Chung. Right on that, I decided to book Novotel Citygate. 🥰 Though a bit above the price, I never regretted our stay in this wonderful hotel. As they say, “It’s worth the price”. 👍

In HK International Airport, I used some of the US dollars I had from my previous travel to exchange it to HK dollars. ATMs are everywhere in Hong Kong too including in train stations.

Most of my cash were withdrawn from ATMs and credit cards with low foreign exchange. My sister-in-law also used her Gcash card to withdraw from ATMs. Incredibly, it has low foreign exchange, too.

Sharing you the expenses I had for a family of 7. Again, as what I wrote in my previous blogs, this is not to brag but to provide a glimpse on how you can spend. It’s really up to you or your family on how you can budget your expenses.

Click here to see my expenses for 6 days in Hong Kong. 💸

Some of these expenses were paid ahead as we planned this travel for almost a year.

Xièxiè, Hong Kong!

Overall, we truly enjoyed our vacation in Hong Kong! I am so happy and blessed to bring my family abroad, timely for my nephew’s 7^th birthday. It took me almost a year to plan this get-away yet it was very worth-it. 😍🥰😍

It was truly memorable not just for me but specially to the kids! 😍🥰😍 I am also fortunate to bring them in Disneyland which is one of my dreams. It was amazing and magnificent! 😍🥰😍

I hope my family specially the kids will remember these days even they were grown-ups. As for me, I am very grateful for provisions that our Good Lord provided. In His grace, all of us were safe and happy upon our arrival in Manila. 🙏💜🙏

Thank you, Lord! You are amazing! 💜✨💜