Hong Kong | Why a Private Tour is far superior to a Group Tour
If you book a Group Tour you must take note of the small print
Me Jamie, English and 52 years living in Hong Kong and I know the know the place - I personally completed 2,324 Private Tours (6,000+ guests) from 2011 - 2020 and was considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.
A blog post with a difference - Please do visit Hong Kong in 2024 | Travel, Tourism, Tours, Tips, Daily Life and my personal thoughts on Hong Kong - Pearl of the Orient
Discover the Real Hong Kong with Jamie
I am still pretty angry at the moment and my blog post of a couple of days ago probably shows that anger after myself and one of my associates took a popular group tour of Hong Kong, it had been a long time since I had been on a competitors tour so this was a perfect opportunity to update my knowledge and there were 2 other reasons :
to figure out how a mediocre (at best) Tour Company can obtain over 300 Tripadvisor Reviews, virtually all glowing 5 star reviews in 2024 (even the best of the best tour companies in Hong Kong average 5 - 10 a month at most) and a lot of the reviews using the same words over and over - BRILLIANT | AMAZING | WONDERFUL | EXCEPTIONAL | FANTASTIC
and to check out a guide called Grace who it seems is the second coming of the Messiah, the reviews she has gotten over the past 2 years, well if they are real then a lot of my friends would be keen to hire her on a freelance basis at the very least
So here is the thing, please click on the link below that covers our tour with Hong Kong Free Walks | Memory Tours on August 20th 2024 and then click on the link below that as well
I have left in most of the text from the Private Tours vs Group Tour blog post as it is totally relevant as well as adding in new thoughts and such for context.
Above are links to 6 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, I would hate it, if you had a horrible experience.
13 Excellent reasons to book a Private Tour of Hong Kong
You can choose to go on a PRIVATE Tour, just you, your family and | or friends
Ask yourself a very simple question, a family of 5 comes to Hong Kong, Mum, Dad and 3 Kids, which tour do you think will give them a better experience of Hong Kong and those memories to last a lifetime
A private tour, just the top quality private tour guide and the family with a flexible itinerary going at your own pace
A group coach tour with a bored, underpaid “local guide” working from a prepared script, cracking awful jokes 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 who generally has to screech to make themselves heard, the only thing that matters to them is to stick to the schedule and not lose anyone.
Frankly, what has gnawed away at me since 2010 is why people chose to book these group tours | free tours | coach tours, in general the tours are awful, for the paid tours they are very cheap and if ever there is a more apt phrase than “you get what you pay for” then I do not know of one.
This terrible business model has operated in Hong Kong for over 50 years and it is just recently (i.e. the past 18 months) that one or two poor quality tour companies are trying a new business model which is just a step up from free tours and it involves a tour priced at a very low price and for them to make a profit they need numbers and basically they think a minimum of 20 people on the tour is the lowest going all the way up to 100 people., because the price is so cheap they cut corners on everything you can imagine and their slick tour itineraries need to be scrutinised as they leave out information that may impact on a decision to book one of their tours and they make it a half walking | have coach tour hybrid tour.
628 Tripadvisor reviews as of 24th August 2024 - virtually all in the past 18 months - some of my friends who are the best of the best and offer a genuine 5 star tour and they do lots of tours on a daily basis are lucky to get 5 - 10 reviews a month. This review above which is the latest one, we basically did the same tour (but free) and we were not invited to eat lunch! They paid around US$80 per person for their tour. please do read my comments basically of the same tour and I am a very objective person, if it was great I would say so, but it was not even close
We took the free tour version of this tour, we where the only 2 people out of 20 guests that were on a free tour - I am simply too angry to write a review so my associate (a young lady and great friend who is one of the very best private tour guides in Hong Kong) did the job, she takes tours all over the world when she travels, she knows good from bad.
I heard from our guide that a lot of people complain if there is too much walking so the do itineraries where walking is minimised, this to me is nonsense, the itinerary is crucial and with proper planning there should not be a problem, hopping on and off a coach every 10 minutes ruins the continuity of the tour itself.
I talked with other guests on the tour we did on August 20th and basically all of them admitted that they had very low expectations for the tour because the price was so cheap and lunch was included and basically they understood that they were NOT going to get a competent guide., you cannot argue with that I guess.
What was interesting was that our group 18 people paid the full price and myself and my associate were on the same tour but advertised as free and we were told by the guide not to mention this to the other tour guests.
To sum up, I am angry not so much with the tour or the guide, I knew what to expect as I have done them before and some quite recently, I am angry because it is such a horrible experience and yet amazingly in 2024 they have gotten over 300 mainly 5 star Tripadvisor reviews (and lost 50 recently because they were deemed false only for them to get 70 new ones in the space of 3 weeks) and they are so mushy and over the top you just know they are false.
In this case the guide was at exactly the level of a Hong Kong Guide I have seen many times and remember the guide makes the tour, there is no possibility that all these 5 star reviews were written by people who did this tour…. there are quite a few 5 star reviews that are very short and sweet and they do not mention the guides name, the guide who was so brilliant
Anyway, enough of my diatribe but as someone who put his heart and soul to the tour business I get mad as this poor standard and that is that.
Read on.
Updated | 13 reasons to book a Private Tour of Hong Kong
The size of the group is limited to 1 - 6 people
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!)
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
My favourite tour size - 2 guests! believe it or not 52.4% of my 2,324 private tours were 2 guests - personal service assured and it was my job to give them memories to last a lifetime.
Here are some statistics that might interest you based on my final tally of 2,324 completed private tours of Hong Kong in just 9 years, when I pioneered the Private Tour Business in Hong Kong in 2010, my aim was to offer the best possible experience.
1 guest 349 tours or 15.1% of the total
2 guests 1,217 tours or 52.4% of the total
3 guests 240 tours or 10.3% of the total
4 guests 316 tours or 13.6% of the total
5 guests 94 tours or 4.1% of the total
6 guests 53 tours or 2.2% of the total
more than 6 guests 55 tours or 2.3% of the total
and 30% of my tours completed were 8 hours long
The Large Group Tour
Is this really how you want to see Hong Kong?
The Coach | Walking Group Tour - the seemingly preferred way for visitors to see Hong Kong in 2024 with the group size starting at 20 and going up to 100 people on the tour
It is my opinion that most “local tour guides” in Hong Kong are quite clueless at how to run a tour with less that 20 participants, all their pointless Government Training furnishes them with knowledge on how to deal with large groups sat on a coach, it seems they are taught the bare minimum when it comes to all those facts and figures and most of them have no idea how to tell a story or talk about themselves and life in Hong Kong and it seems they have no interest in keeping up with ever changing statistics.
I understand that on the Government course for tour guides they are trained in how to crack a joke (which explains a lot)
The guide Grace we had yesterday is not a one off terrible guide, she is the poster lady for all Government Trained guides in Hong Kong (roughly 5,500), I simply could not get me head around how a mature tour guide with 10 years experience could be so bad.
I have overheard local guides talking on the streets many time over the years particularly ones with large groups and | or doing free tours, mostly their knowledge of Hong Kong is appalling.
One thing for sure, Grace at Hong Kong Free Walking Tours | Memory Tours does not have the quality | expertise to do tours with just 1 - 6 people over 8 hours, she would have no clue on how to run the tour.
So here is a piece of advice when it comes to booking tours in Hong Kong, particularly if you are booking a group tour through Viator or Tripadvisor
READ THE SMALL PRINT
This is crucial
The tour we took on August 20th was not as advertised, in fact there was no mention at all of whether it was a walking tour or a coach tour, because we know the itinerary we assumed naturally it would be a walking tour - we were wrong, for some bizarre reason it was a hybrid walking tour and coach tour (see image below) this made no sense and on one short stretch of Hollywood Road in Central we had to get off and on the coach 3 times when it could have easily been done on foot.
The booking confirmation we received the night before the tour had some relevant details :
Payment - this is exactly what it says
Pay what you feel : there is no fixed fee for this tour : tip according to value and budget
Pretty specific right?
No, after meeting the guide at the starting point we were told that we had to agree to pay the guide HK$100 per person (US$12.80) in cash otherwise we would not be allowed on the tour
This is not the money that is the problem, it is just a devious way to extort money from you and goes completely against the payment ethos of the Free Tour Companies in Hong Kong that are honourable.
This came from the guide who seemingly has hundreds of reviews claiming she is the best tour guide in Hong Kong.
We also started the tour 34 minutes late! at my quality level, sticking to start times is crucial
Frankly I am appalled at how tours have evolved in 2024 - a lot of tour companies now totally rely on Viator and Tripadvisor for bookings, they have to pay a hefty commission on each tour listed and I do mean hefty and they can pay more to secure higher rankings and therefore more bookings.
Quite often it is not what is written that is the problem it is what isn’t mentioned on the tour description, the price may seem to be very cheap (and it is) but the tour company will cut as many corners as possible, I imagine the main expense after the commission to the OTA (Viator | Tripadvisor) is the guides salary, the guide is the key to a great tour and I bet our guide on our tour is paid a pittance and it showed, there will be hidden costs that come out of thin air (like transport costs) and then you get the intangibles like food quality in terms of snacks and meals provided, they will absolutely cut corners here.
For the company we used, their sister company Memory Tours offers tours of Lantau Island - The Big Buddha and the Tai Fishing Village are the key places to visit, it is a long way from town and quite close to Hong Kong International Airport.
Their tour description images show lovely images of the amazing cable car ride to and from the Big Buddha and that coupled with the way the itinerary is written, well you would easily surmise that at the least a one way cable car ride is part of the package.
It isn’t and a single journey one way ticket for an adult is HK$195 which is close to US$24.50 and this is for the standard cabin and imagine there are 5 of you and you are having to pay almost HK$1,000 extra for a ride on the cable car one way!
READ THE SMALL PRINT
Myself and my associate on a hybrid walking and coach tour in Hong Kong on August 20th 2024, I cannot tell you how annoying this guide was screeching over the PA system with incorrect facts and really awful jokes.
The Group Tour on Foot - another popular way for visitors to see Hong Kong
Myself, my associate and 18 other guests plus the Tour Guide Grace in Central Market, Hong Kong - she is screeching at us to make herself heard and we are being treated like 5 year old kids in a crowded public place.
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 13 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!
When you are part of a large tour group you are NOT going to get any personal attention from the Tour Guide and they do not like being asked questions by numerous people as it conflicts with timing and good luck with actually hearing anything that the guide is saying with all the background noise.
We experienced this on August 20th 2024 on our tour, 21 people including the guide Grace on the pavement opposite to this spot on Hollywood Road in Central | Sheung Wan, honestly we had no business being on such a crowded street, the tour group shown in the image above looked as bored as hell.
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.
This was an actual review on Hong Kong Tripadvisor for a Group Coach Tour, I could not crop as a single file so I had to split it in two., I had pretty much exactly the same experience and things have got worse since 2018.
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
The size of the group is limited to 1 - 6 people
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!)
… and yes, my last word on the matter - what a very bland description of something so important and “hidden gems” is one of the worst tourism cliches in the world!
The truly stunning and amazing panoramic day view from the Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak
The truly stunning and amazing panoramic night view from the Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak
Lugard Road Lookout at Victoria Peak
If I had any followers on Instagram who liked views rather than my car images then this would be a classic, Mum, Dad and 4 kids aged from 12 - 22 from England, perfect weather, the planets aligned as they do on most days at the Peak.
This rather sums up Jamie’s spot at the Peak.
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.
Click on the image to enlarge to full screen
Current images from my Instagram feed
