Hong Kong Tourism - Private Tours or Group Tours?

Discover the Real Hong Kong with Jamie

Above are links to 4 blog posts that I have also written relevant to this post, my aim is simple and that is to convince you to carefully consider booking a Private Tour of Hong Kong with my friends, they offer fabulous experiences at prices you can afford and you will come away with memories to last a lifetime.

13 Excellent reasons to book a Private Tour of Hong Kong

Ask yourself a very simple question, a family of 5 comes to Hong Kong, Mum, Dad and 3 Teenage Kids, which tour do you think will give them a better experience of Hong Kong and those memories to last a lifetime

1. A private tour, just the top quality private tour guide and the family with a flexible itinerary going at your own pace

2. A group coach tour with a bored, underpaid “local guide” working from a prepared script and you have another 20 tourists on the bus with you and you have no control of the tour itinerary including how long you spend at a particular place and no chance to interact one on one with the guide.

13 reasons to book a Private Tour of Hong Kong

1. The size of the group is limited to 1 - 6 people

2. Itineraries customised to your personal specifications with unrivalled flexibility

3. Go at your own pace based on your personal dynamics and circumstances

4. You can choose the date and starting time and it can cost a lot less than you think!

5. Beat the crowds! you will absolutely maximise the time for actual sightseeing

6. You get a local resident | expert with an insiders knowledge of Hong Kong - the ultimate benefit

7. Flexibility on changing the itinerary during the tour if required

8. An opportunity to make amazing memories with family and friends

9. An in-depth learning and participation experience

10. You will get a great value for money experience and you will get the best guides

11. The undivided attention of your Private Tour Guide

12. Going from attractions A to B to C to D to E seamlessly and hassle free with an expert

13. You will absolutely have a lot more fun! (p.s. and someone to take your picture!)

Please bear in mind the tour is just for you, your family or friends, 1 - 6 people, a private tour of Hong Kong is a combination of walking and using public transport which enables you to see the very best of Hong Kong and get those memories of a lifetime

The Coach Group Tour - the seemingly preferred way for visitors to see Hong Kong

The Group Tour on Foot - another popular way for visitors to see Hong Kong

The Private Tour of Hong Kong - the very BEST way for visitors to see Hong Kong

Here are just a few of my great friends who offer Private Tours of Hong Kong

Hong Kong | Private Tour vs Group Tour - which is better?

…. and that is the question isn’t it? and really, from my point of view there is no doubt that a private tour is far superior in every way that you can think of.

When we arrived as a family in Hong Kong in early January 1972, the very next day we went on a coach tour organised by the Merlin Hotel in Hong Kong and it was a great tour, we actually booked a Hong Kong Island tour and a Kowloon and NT coach tour, over 2 days we got quite the introduction to Hong Kong., unfortunately for coach tours it has been in a shocking downward spiral into mediocrity since then.

Winston Tours could very well have been the tour company that we booked with as their office was literally a few yards from the Merlin Hotel.

As they say, those were the days and I remember how much I enjoyed it, it gave us a great insight into our new home, Hong Kong.

Unfortunately if you fast forward 52 years and coach tours are still the most popular way for visitors to Hong Kong to see Hong Kong which is a complete tragedy from my perspective, the itinerary is quite similar, the problem is, some of the Tour Companies that run these tours feel compelled to take you to a “jewellery factory workshop” under the guise of it being a “cultural experience” and basically lock you in a showroom for 30 minutes and give you the hard sell and not only that, the mediocre tour guides are underpaid and work to a prepared script (that helps if you are doing the same tour every day, 6 days a week for 20 years)

Whatever goodwill they have built up on the tour (and the itinerary is just fine) goes out of the window when you are given the once over by jewellery store staff.

I am not suggesting that all group coach tour buses end up visiting jewellery stores and such suffice to say that two very high profile companies with a long and chequered history do the jewellery factory stop, they should be ashamed of themselves, they pretend that it is a cultural experience as Hong Kong is famous for making jewellery (it is but that is irrelevant) when in fact they simply try and do a hard sell on you to buy overpriced gold jewellery. This is the sort of thing you expect in certain Asian countries who are perhaps a little poorer than Hong Kong, I am never quite sure how or why the Hong Kong Government tolerates this practice.

It also does not help that a few years ago a major coach tour travel agent was found guilty of a cartel style price fixing racket to keep the prices of coach tours at a price determined by them and their cronies, to stifle competition, amazingly this company still has representation on the board of the Hong Kong Tourism Board despite them being found guilty, vested interests have far too much influence.

I should also make it quite clear now that I have for research purposes been on coach tours, free tours, group walking tours and such so I know what I am talking about.

Private Tours - well I was a pioneer of private walking tours in Hong Kong, setting up my company J3 Private Tours in 2010 and doing my first tour in April 2011. At the time there was one company offering hiking tours (since 2003) who were totally invisible and only did hiking tours in the countryside so to speak, they did NOT do what we call City Tours and there was a one person organisation who was an editor of Lonely Planet who started offering “private tours” the only problem was it was a bait and switch gag, he actually lived in Japan and if you booked a tour a local Hong Kong Chinese guide would turn up to lead the tour, he traded on his Lonely Planet credentials to drum up interest. I did not consider him a viable company or competitor.

In late 2010 myself and my brother in law stood at the Peak Tram Terminal on Garden Road and gave out thousands of leaflets advertising J3 Private Tours to likely tourists, it was a resounding failure in many respects but I did speak at length to around 50 tourists and some of the advice they gave me was quite crucial.

The concept of my private tours was simple, I would take | accept tours for 1 - 6 people and show them Hong Kong by utilising a combination of walking and public transport, I only ever did tiny percentage of tours with more than 6 people and they were just big families!

This concept though novel in it’s approach with incremental per person pricing proved to be an instant hit, in the first 4 years I averaged over 350 tours a year all with me as the private guide and naturally other people got interested as is the nature of business and since then there has been a huge increase in the number of companies offering private tours although the Hong Kong Government does not seem to acknowledge or recognise the contribution of Private Tours to tourism in Hong Kong.

Those that got in early (3 or 4 of my friends in 2011 and a whole lot more in 2012 and 2013) were the lucky ones so to speak and we have a small group of approximately 15 companies that make up an informal society of Private Tour Guides, we are all great friends, look out for each other and refer guests to others if we cannot handle them and everyone and I mean everyone is totally committed to providing the best possible private tour.

I always tried to be very firm in my modus operandi, I would never ever do a tour with 20 people (coach or walking), I would never use a microphone or headset, I would never carry a flag, wear a shirt or hat with my company logo and I shudder at the thought of having a couple of binders full of useless information to show guests, for me it was 1 - 6 people and that was that and my success was based entirely on my ability to tell the Hong Kong story and not with the mediocre drivel you get in guide books or on Wikipedia.

Contrast that to a lot of coach tours that can have anywhere from 20 - 50 guests on a coach or the group tours that you see on the streets (free or otherwise) which have 20 - 30 people led by a flag waving whistle blowing guide.

At the beginning of this post I mention the 12 excellent reasons to book a Private Tour of Hong Kong, other than the cost which is actually quite reasonable I cannot think of one other good reason to go on a coach tour or a large group tour on the streets, I can however think of many reasons NOT to book a coach tour or large group tour and these require an explanation more than a one line bullet point!

If you are booking a coach tour you will be part of a group of 20 - 50 people and there is basically a fixed itinerary which has not changed in over 50 years and quite often when you get to places of interest you are left to your own devices and the tour guide disappears for an hour (really)

You can never be sure if they will pick you up from your Hotel or whether you have to go to a meeting point, you need to check this and also check where you will be dropped off at the end of the tour and you would be amazed at how many people missed a tour because they could not find the meeting point, with me and my Private Tours, I would always pick you from your Hotel, the Cruise Ship Terminal or the Airport.

Getting stuck in traffic is an occupational hazard which is why they always remind you never to be late and this can cause time overruns which might also mess with your post tour plans.

On the coach tours I did, they overran by at least one hour.

One of the great itinerary tricks is to say “en route” which is particularly prevalent when describing the Hong Kong Island Coach Tour, in a nutshell it says “en route Repulse Bay” now what this means is that you drive by Repulse Bay without getting off the coach, the drive by lasts 20 - 30 seconds and yet I personally love Repulse Bay, fabulous beach, buildings and other points of interest and yet they do a drive by to save time rather than stopping for 30 minutes, it really gives an insight into Hong Kong Culture.

The per person cost as I have mentioned is quite reasonable, however there is the small matter of a potential visit to a jewellery factory and then getting the hard sell to buy plates, key chains and other trinkets with your image on them (I am not kidding) and any meals thrown in are liable to be of mediocre quality (to maximise profits) and did I mention the hard sell to guilt you into giving the guide a big tip which can be 15 - 20% of the tour fee you paid, no matter if you had a good, bad or terrible experience.

There is no flexibility in the itinerary what so ever, on standard coach group tours the itinerary is quite ok for the most part but on a Private Tour you can see an awful lot more and cover a lot more ground and of course special requests are not entertained on a coach group tour, on a private tour there is total flexibility along with going at your own pace.

On a standard coach group tour or a walking group tour, you are with a lot of strangers, whilst some people, particularly young people relish the chance to meet new people, most people do not and these other group members can totally ruin everything with their complaining and tardiness.

The Hong Kong Government has for decades being offering professional course for guides to take (aimed at the local Hong Kong Chinese Guide) and amazingly the course (which can take up to a year) has a written exam and a practical exam where and I am not kidding, you have to take a bunch of tourists on a coach and rattle of a prepared script whilst if you are a male, you are dressed in a suit, it is completely nonsensical and many people fail the tour coach exam plus the rubbish they teach is exactly that, rubbish, statistics and such can change on a daily basis and one of my strong points is | was that I never ever stop learning about Hong Kong and yes, even the jokes are from a prepared script and for me there is nothing worse than a bored, underpaid tour guide who recite meaningless statistics

To be a great tour guide it is all about self learning and spending hours every day delving into everything about Hong Kong.

For guides doing private tours, this course has no relevance to reality and no private guide of any great standard would ever do a coach tour anyway.

Honestly, other than the course and exam, the bar is not set very high to become a tour guide, in fact in my way of thinking the whole thing is irrelevant, I believe people are born to be Tour Guides and if you treat it like a job you will fail and fail badly… you have to be 100% all in to be a private tour guide, the learning (you really need to know Hong Kong) is non stop, every day and you have to be a passionate people person with an abundance of self confidence, unfortunately there are far too many people who treat it like a poorly paid job and as a result the reputation of the Tour Industry falls into disrepute.

It would never occur to “Local” Travel Agents or the Hong Kong Government that tourists visiting Hong Kong might like to have a guide who is a native English Speaker or who is absolutely fluent in all the major European Languages, they simply feel more comfortable and that is that.

I have written extensively about English fluency (as an example) in Hong Kong, sadly there are far too many people who do not speak fluent English at a level acceptable to foreign visitors… I should point out that I do not speak Cantonese the local Hong Kong Chinese Language despite been married for over 40 years to a wife whose native language is Cantonese, I simply do not have the language gift despite many attempts at trying and lots of money spent on private tutors and I do not pretend that I can speak a little of it or understand it.

I was born to be a private tour guide and if you have lived in Hong Kong for 10+ years and you are over 35 you will have more than enough knowledge, I have been in Hong Kong for 52 years since I was 11 years old, I KNOW Hong Kong and I expand my knowledge daily because I want to, it is such a fascinating place.

My take on the whole tour guide situation in Hong Kong is very simple, we have 5,000+ very mediocre tour guides who are mediocre because of the poor training - virtually all Hong Kong Chinese with very varying levels of English fluency, it is not their fault, they are forced to do a course and exams which have no relevance to leading actual tours with actual foreign tourists, they work from memorised scripts and are paid in general very poorly which is shocking, I know a lot of my friends have been forced to hire so called local tour guides and you know what, with the right training and being told to forget everything they learnt on the Tour Guide course, they can become really brilliant tour guides, as far as the Hong Kong Government is concerned, Private Tours do not exist in Hong Kong.

… and one little tip, a local Government trained tour guide is likely to be carrying 2 or even 3 binders full of useless information to show you, this is a confidence thing, if you have the confidence you can tell any story without the need for distracting materials., I never, ever once had a binder nor would I show information on my Iphone or Ipad.

To make things worse the Hong Kong Tourism board has been running a PAL’s scheme for many years, this is basically volunteer “tour guides” to work shifts in Hong Kong Tourism Board outlets to talk to visitors and give them advice. The qualifications are simple, you have be 18 and above and fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English, yes 3 languages which rules out most non Chinese people who do not speak Cantonese or Mandarin - like I said, it would never occur to the Tourism Board that a tourist might want to talk in their native language and I have spent a lot of time observing the HKTB Outlets and many tourists that go in for advice are native English speakers, so why not hire foreigners? it smacks of discrimination.

… oh and I have strong feelings about being a tour guide and age, I do not believe that really anyone under 35 has enough life experience to be a tour guide particularly when you are dealing with people who have very impressive occupations, I took up being a guide when I was 49 | 50 already married with 3 sons and a lifetime of work experience as a consultant, most of my Private Tour guide friends are over 35 and trust me Tour Guides get better with age, do not underestimate life experience it is critical to the whole tour experience and as for the PAL scheme, most 18 year olds here have just left school, what on earth do they know about Hong Kong, Hong Kong History and Life when their own life revolves around social media on their phone!

I have a hard time believing that young kids have the life experience to deal with people who are generally much older and remember this whole PALS initiative by the Hong Kong Tourism Board is on a volunteer basis so I am pretty sure they do not get paid and the old maxim applies, you get what you pay for and seriously do you think 18 year old kids are qualified to talk to foreign people I have mentioned below about Hong Kong?

.......and I have done private tours with people who have the following diverse occupations:-  A REAL Princess, Very close relatives of a US President!, One Star Admiral of the US 7th Fleet, Nuclear Missile Operations Officer (Missileer) for the USAF, Plumbers, Postman, Supplier of ALL frozen burger pattie’s to McDonalds, Nuclear Sub Commanders, Farmers, Chip Shop Owner, Teachers, Pulitzer Prize Award Winning Journalists, Photocopier Repair Guys, Lawyers, Rocket Scientists, Movie Producers, Consul Generals, Police Officers, Homicide Detectives, Travel Agents, House Keepers, Linguists, Retired and Serving CIA Officers, Fighter Pilots, Army and Navy Guys, Socialites, Students, Judges, Journalists, Software Geeks, Nuclear Power Plant Inspectors, Surgeons, Doctors, Forensic Pathologists, Nurses, Coroners, Venture Capitalists, Hospice Directors, Town Planners, Accountants, Psychiatrists, Nuclear Physicists, Professional Athletes, Ferry Captains, Commercial Pilots, Airline Crew, Social Workers, Veterinarians, Musicians, Theme Park Executives, Professional Photographers, College Professors, Gaming Geeks, Inland Revenue Tax Officials, American Airforce B 52 Bomber Pilot, Senior Engineer / Ballistic Missiles, Bodyguards, Beer Salesmen, Park Rangers, Scuba Diving Instructors, Popcorn Machines Makers, Coastguard Officers, Firemen, Structural Geologists, Veterinarians, Architects, Surveyors, Hooters Waitress, Dentists, Ski Instructors, Civil Engineers, Air Traffic Controllers, Electricians, Top Law Professor's at major US Universities, Librarians, Steel Guys, Economists, Homemakers, Novelists, Book Publishers, Currency Traders, Carpenters, a Rabbi, Boiler Maker, Strawberry Farmers, Food Bloggers, Morticians, Financial Advisers, Corporate Video Makers, Private Investigators, Bounty Hunters, Chiropractors, Air Traffic Controllers, Builders, Stonemasons, Botanists, Dog Sitters, Spy, Geneticists, Interpol Agents, Prison Food Suppliers, Radio Announcers, Military Cryptologists, Forklift Drivers, Locksmiths, Icecream maker, Pastry Chef, Baker, Zoo Keepers, Explosives Experts, DEA Agents, Coffee Traders, Diamond Buyers, Wedding Photographers, Google Guru's, Geologists, Professor of Medieval History, Navy Chef's, Camp Site Operators, Animal Embalmers, Telecomms Engineers, Helicopter Pilots, Oil Industry Divers, Navy Seals, Editor for USA Today, Landscape Gardeners, Mary Kay Super Agents, Hotel Owners, TV Actors, Optometrists, Gourmet Chef's, Acclaimed Plastic Surgeons, Barristers, Travel Bloggers, Politicians, Funeral Home Directors, Former Gang Member, Anthropologist, Children's Book Author,  Geophysicist, Chicken Artist, Priest, Movie Makeup Artist, Expert Witness, Bail Bondsman, Opera Singer, Master Brewer, Child Prodigy, Debt Collector, Victoria Secrets Store Manager, Head of a major Charity, Celebrity TV Talking Heads (!), Fortune 500 CEO's, Corporate Trainer, Futures Trader, Waitress (quite a few) General Manager of a Worm Bait Company, Owner of a RV Dealership, Convenience Store Owner, Owner of an Amusement Game Manufacturer, Elephant Conservationists, Chemist, High School Students, Crematorium Operator, Concert Pianist, Vet from Honduras, Hair Stylist for a Funeral Home, Calendar Maker, Pedicab Operator, Poets, F16 Fighter Pilot USAF, Steve Jobs Doctor, Major US Democratic Politician, Big cheese Executives from HBO and CBS, Famous journalist and a Journalism Professor, former Secret Service Agent, Famous Rare Coin and Stamp Collector, Major Charitable Foundation Owner ... and some really, really senior people from J. P. Morgan, Starbucks, United Airlines, Boeing, Google and Microsoft.

So please remember this on your coach group tour and | or street group tour, the tour guide has to follow instructions by the bosses so they cannot really deviate from prepared scripts and they really have no time to give you any sort of personal attention.

On this post I have steered away from talking about Free Group Tours, that deserves a blog post all it’s own

Since 2011 there has been a subtle change when it comes to PRIVATE group tours, some companies offer group food tours where there could be up to 10 guests so you are sharing food with strangers (not my cup of tea) and some tour companies offer group tours, paid or free where there could be up to 30 people on the tour, I am not quite sure how these are seen as private tours., so you do have to double check that a private tour is a private tour and not a slightly larger or massive group tour.

When you are on the streets, there should really be NO MORE THAN 6 people on the tour + the guide.

I totally understand why people do not book private tours (and bear in mind you really do get what you pay for) if you go to Viator, Tripadvisor, Get Your Guide and such the listings are dominated by companies offering group coach tours and you really should check their reviews on Tripadvisor which in general are quite accurate when it comes to getting an overview of the company.

I recognise that a lot of these big coach tours do get lots of 4 and 5 star reviews but by the same token a lot of them get 20 - 30% average of poor to terrible reviews which is indicative of problems which they do not address and yes, sometimes visitors simply do not care, they have low expectations, they are paying a low price and they can ignore all the guides drivel but is that anyway to see Hong Kong?

Hong Kong is an amazing city and as a visitor there is only one way to experience Hong Kong and that is to take a Private Tour of Hong Kong.

I also save the best until last - a lot of my friends have on their books Hong Kong Chinese Guides who are brilliant, they have had all their useless Government training knocked out them, a lot of them are probably well over 40 which is perfect, I was fortunate in that I lived in Hong for 25 years under British rule and now 27 years under Chinese rule, which means I have rather a unique perspective on Hong Kong and anyone that has lived in Hong Kong for 40 years will have that perspective as well, something to bear in mind.

13 reasons to book a Private Tour of Hong Kong

1. The size of the group is limited to 1 - 6 people

2. Itineraries customised to your personal specifications with unrivalled flexibility

3. Go at your own pace based on your personal dynamics and circumstances

4. You can choose the date and starting time and it can cost a lot less than you think!

5. Beat the crowds! you will absolutely maximise the time for actual sightseeing

6. You get a local resident | expert with an insiders knowledge of Hong Kong - the ultimate benefit

7. Flexibility on changing the itinerary during the tour if required

8. An opportunity to make amazing memories with family and friends

9. An in-depth learning and participation experience

10. You will get a great value for money experience and you will get the best guides

11. The undivided attention of your Private Tour Guide

12. Going from attractions A to B to C to D to E seamlessly and hassle free with an expert

13. You will absolutely have a lot more fun! (p.s. and someone to take your picture!)

J3 Group Hong Kong

J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong

J3 Consultants Private Hong Kong Experiences are tailored for individuals who prefer to explore Hong Kong independently but would like a Hong Kong Expert to tell them about Hong Kong

This unique experience offers an authentic insight into the real Hong Kong, providing a deeper understanding of the city's culture, history, and local way of life.

Led by Jamie, a dedicated Hong Kong specialist and resident for 52 years, the experience covers many aspects of Hong Kong's identity, spanning its time under both British and Chinese rule.

Cultural Tourism at it’s very best

J3 Private Hong Kong Experiences

You want to learn about the REAL Hong Kong from a local host

How local do you want to get?

You have come to the right place.

Jamie, your friend in Hong Kong

52 years living in Hong Kong, our family arrived on January 2nd 1972

I have lived here for 25 years under British Rule, 27 years under Chinese Rule

I have 45 years of Business Consultancy experience in Hong Kong

My wife is a local & has lived her entire life in Hong Kong, her first language is Cantonese

We have 3 Adult sons all born and educated in Hong Kong, 2 still live in Hong Kong

I pioneered the Private Tour Industry in Hong Kong in 2010

2,324 completed award winning Private Tours of Hong Kong from 2011 - 2020

……and yes, I am a bit of an expert on the Hong Kong car culture!

© Jamie Lloyd | J3 Consultants Hong Kong | J3 Private Tours Hong Kong | | 2011 - 2024.

All rights reserved.

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