Book your Private Tour and your Hotel Room at the same time and well in advance of your planned trip to Hong Kong, do not leave it to the last minute and please book your Tour directly through the Tour Companies Website as opposed to Online OTA’s like Viator.

A sound piece of advice.

When I was doing Private Tours in Hong Kong I lost count of the number of times I received a frantic phone call from a Hotel Concierge at 8am wanting to book an 8 hour Private Tour for his | her guests for that day and 99 times out of 100 I was not able to help because I was already booked.

For years now I have been struggling to find a solution to convince people to book their Private Tour of Hong Kong at the same time as when they book their Hotel Room and guess what, no matter what I try I fail miserably, for some reason booking a Private Tour is an after thought and people assume that with OTA’S (Online Booking Agencies) and such it will never be a problem to book a last minute tour of Hong Kong.

I beg to disagree…. so more to follow.

12 Excellent reasons to book a Private Tour of Hong Kong

**Book your Private Tour and your Hotel Room at the same time**

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12 reasons to book a Private Tour of Hong Kong

Itineraries customised to your personal specifications with unrivalled flexibility
Go at your own pace based on your personal dynamics and circumstances
You can choose the date and starting time and it can cost a lot less than you think!
Beat the crowds! you will absolutely maximise the time for actual sightseeing
You get a local resident | expert with an insiders knowledge of Hong Kong - the ultimate benefit
Flexibility on changing the itinerary during the tour if required
An opportunity to make amazing memories with family and friends
An in-depth learning and participation experience
You will get a great value for money experience and you will get the best guides
The undivided attention of your Private Tour Guide
Going from attractions A to B to C to D to E seamlessly and hassle free with an expert
You will absolutely have a lot more fun! (p.s. and someone to take your picture!)

I will state quite categorically that Private Tours of Hong Kong for most guests are a game changer and I made it my life’s work to give the greatest experience possible a tradition that all of my friends follow, whether you choose a cultural tour of a food tour or a mix of both you will have an amazing experience.

Booking a last minute tour is never a good idea and I appreciate that sometimes circumstances dictate your actions but let us assume that you know well in advance you are coming to Hong Kong for business, a family holiday, a Trade Show or just passing through on a Cruise Ship.

You do your research and you book your Hotel Room months in advance and you assume that booking a tour or an experience is something that you can do | arrange when you arrive in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is maybe a just a little different - in an effort by myself and 12 other Private Tour companies we have put Private Tours of Hong Kong on the map since 2011, unfortunately the tour market in Hong Kong is still dominated by poor quality Travel and Tour Companies who for some reason think that seeing Hong Kong on a 25 seater or 50 seater coach with a poor quality and underpaid tour guide working from a prepared script is still the best way and the itineraries of these coach tours have barely changed in over 50 years and neither have the visits to Jewellery Factories under the guise of a cultural experience.

You can read anyone of my 6 blog posts listed above for my hard hitting opinions on this subject.

**A typical Hong Kong Coach Tour**

Is this how you want to see Hong Kong? typically 20 - 25 “guests” with a fixed itinerary, no flexibility, strict timing and a poor quality tour guide working from a prepared script.

For a lot of visitors these coach tours are great, you can book a seat a couple of hours before the coach tour starts and they pick you up from the Hotel (in most cases) unfortunately after that it is all downhill.

Quite simply Private Tours of Hong Kong need to be booked in advance as the best Private Tour Companies tend to get booked up quickly and may not have a guide available for a last minute booking and I would say it is imperative that you contact the Private Tour directly rather than going through a third party like Viator, Get Your Guide and the like.

I have just finished a position paper on how the top 30 Hotels in Hong Kong treat the whole concept of Tours and Experiences of Hong Kong and sadly it makes for depressing reading.

Only 10 of the Hotels offer a tour or an experience outside of the Hotel and at prices that will make your head spin and the tours are so limited in scope that you will not find them interesting

Some Hotels simply give you a link to a coach tour company who will offer a competitive price and will take a last minute booking but the experience for you and your 25 + | - fellow passengers will be dreadful and yes I have done quite a few coach tours for research purposes.

The majority of these awesome fancy Hotels simply refer you to the Concierge in the lobby, the Kings and Queens of their turf and who can apparently work miracles on every possible problem you can think of. Yes, I have a problem with Concierges and I have experienced their “attitude” a thousand times or more in Hong Kong, they are arrogant, aloof, condescending and believe that they know everything about Hong Kong and you would be amazed at how many of them recommend that the guests take the Big Bus Tour of Hong Kong, I will be doing a blog post about that in the not too distant future.

**The Big Bus Tour in Hong Kong**

An absolutely terrible way to get an overview of Hong Kong

My particular nemesis was the famous Italian Concierge in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong who sadly passed away in 2023 after 38 years as the Concierge. I had a lot of guests stay at the Hotel and I referred many guests to the Hotel and it will be accurate to say I have been in the Hotel many, many thousands of times in my 52 years in Hong Kong and for some reason one day the Concierge challenged me as to what I was doing in the Hotel lobby for 30 minutes (I always turned up early) I was never in a suit, just my usual, jeans, sneakers and polo shirt, what did he think I was? some homeless bum?

It was simply the condescending look he gave me that upset me and even when I explained who I was and why I was there he was not satisfied, after that I made sure that I always met my guests in front of the Concierge Desk and the classic was when I greeted the MD of JP Morgan in Canada (and took him on a tour) who was obviously a VIP in the Hotel, the look on his face was priceless.

It also didn’t help that one of his junior concierges, a young lady who was well aware that I was a fixture in the Hotel Lobby confirmed everything I had said (she is now in a much more senior position).

There where some articles in Hong Kong online Magazines about his passing and naturally they spoke very fondly of him, perhaps I was just unlucky and caught him on a bad day but I had quite a different experience.

Anyway, I digress.

The point is that many Hong Kong Concierges do not seem to like Private Tour Guides and are not very good with complex enquiries, like how to get to so and so attraction and will generally get out a map! (they can however and to be fair be very good at getting an impossible booking at a fancy restaurant) and they certainly do not seem all that interested in referring a guest to a Private Tour Company and many of them never seem to understand the concept of Private Tours and I witnessed on more than one occasion a Concierge throwing my business card into a trash can.

Given the reputation that coach tour companies have (and have had for 50+ years) I am totally mystified as to why any 5 star Hotel would refer a guest to them and I am not inferring that the Concierge and the Coach Tour Companies have “side deals” to me it makes no sense for a 5 star Hotel who go to great lengths to be the best of the best would work with companies who have a terrible online reputation, I guess it just an easy and convenient solution for the Hotel with little chance of negative publicity coming there way.

So my rather simple advice to you is do your research directly with a Private Tour Company in Hong Kong and book your Private Tour of Hong Kong at the same time as you book your Hotel Room and reconsider any thought of booking a seat on a coach tour in Hong Kong, trust me you will thank me for the advice!

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