How To Travel Hong Kong In Luxury





Source: Wikimedia

When it comes to luxury and high-end experiences, Chinese travellers – at least the nation’s middle-class citizens – have often hot-footed it over to Europe or the USA to pick up exclusive products, eat at the best restaurants, or snuggle down at the end of the day under expensive duvets in some of the world’s best 5-star hotels. However, China itself has plenty to offer for visitors and citizens who want to, and are able to, splash out on extensive shopping or dining sprees. Even those who just want to window shop or snap themselves selfie-style at some of China’s most eye-popping landmarks – be it the awesome Rem Koolhaus-designed CCTV Tower in Beijing, or Hong Kong’s Tsing Ma Bridge, can do so in style.


Source: Wikimedia

For seriously breathtaking, panoramic views, what better place to take in the vista of the city and harbour than from the rooftop of the Wooloomooloo restaurant. Here, you can sip cocktails or savour the top quality, sizzling steaks on offer from an international à la carte menu that also features fresh seafood. Live music from global DJs is also part of the rooftop experience.


Source: Wikimedia

Of course, if extravagant views are really your thing you should definitely take time to visit the heart-stopping sight of Victoria Peak. Situated in the western part of Hong Kong, this mountain is also known as Mount Austin, although most locals call it The Peak. A very major tourist attraction, it offers scintillating views over Hong Kong’s Central Business District, Victoria Harbour and Lamma Island, where human settlements can be traced back to around 4000-3000 BC. Getting to The Peak is a great experience in itself as a Peak tram operated from the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) from Central. It’s the best and quickest way to catch all the exquisitely scenic highlights on the way to the mountain, although the ultimate prize is your arrival at the Sky Terrace viewing platform, which stands at 428 metres above sea level. This is unquestioningly the best spot to take in the 360 degree panoramic views of the region.


Source: Wikimedia

Most high-end shopping takes place in the malls and Hong Kong has plenty to choose from. It’s the super-wealthy who tend to frequent The Landmark, which is in the lower level of the 5-Star Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Mark Jacobs, Burberry and Valentino are just a tip of the high-rolling iceberg of brands that can be found in the 150 or so stores in this particular retail venue.
Sister-mall, Lee Gardens has now been pushed to the status of second most expensive shopping outlet since the new Landmark took pride of place. It has the same quality of global brands – Bulgari, Hermes, Chanel and the like – although it has far more in the way of Asian-oriented fashion from Japan, Korea and Taiwan, than its younger sibling venue.


Source: Wikimedia

Finally, if you’re looking for a swanky place to stay, Hong Kong's luxury Intercontinental Hotel with its 500 plus rooms, is built directly over the Kowloon waterfront, and is just a ten-minute stroll from the Star Ferry. From here you could sail over to Hong Kong Island, or opt for an overnight casino cruise on the aptly-named Rex Fortune, if you're looking to improve your luck with a classic round of Blackjack, or any of the other floating games on offer.

Labels: Advertorials

The exotic lure of Asian vacation destinations makes them a big draw for many people and there are some fantastic places to visit. Cheap flights to Hong Kong are low-priced and are backed up by world-class service. This makes it an affordable Asian destination and the following are a few tips for getting flights at a budget price.

Use Comparison Sites

A good place to start when trying to find cheap airfares to Hong Kong is to use flight comparison websites. They can search through the deals offered by hundreds of airlines and are an easy way to get an idea of typical prices. Use a few to see what they deals are like and identify the cheapest airlines for your route.

Airline’s Website

If you see cheap fares for a particular airline on a comparison site, it can also be worth checking the airline’s website. They may offer the flight at a cheaper cost and this is worth checking.

Consider Budget Airlines

A number of budget airlines have Hong Kong as a destination these days and it can be worth checking any that serve the route you are traveling. Budget carriers might not be included in the details provided by comparison websites, so it is worth checking these separately as they may offer unbeatable prices.

Book Early

The best prices for many flights tend to disappear early, so check the costs as soon as you know your dates of travel. If you get in early there may be promotional prices on offer that you can take advantage of to get a cheaper fare.

Day of Travel

When searching for flights try to be flexible on the actual day of travel. Prices can vary across the week, with midweek flights generally more affordable than weekend travel. Checking costs on a few different days around your time of travel might save you some money.

A trip to Hong Kong need not be expensive and with a little planning and forethought it should be possible to find flights at a cheap price. The tips above are some ideas that can help with this. Take them on board to save some money on travel so you have more to spend on the many attractions Hong Kong offers once you arrive.

Labels: Advertorials, Hong Kong

In this age of busy-bodies and technology, we often overlook special, quality time with family and friends. By quality time, it’s not just being with them but really being with them where you bond, update each other, tell stories, share problems, and not be disturbed and pre-occupied with mobile phones and gadgets

In these times, I spend quality time at home, or somewhere in roadtrips taking care not to be busy with work or with my phone.

When I want to dine out, or book out-of-town trips, I use my BPI credit card for the payment (either with card or my BPI e-Credit for online transactions). This same card I use to gas up at Petron gas stations where I get rebates thus making road trips cheaper.

In spending quality time with friends and family, do it now and everyday as if it’s your last day on earth. For you’ll never know when you or love ones with leave this earth.

You may want to view my own cool "so happy together" video invite to my love ones by clicking this link

My mother died just last month after ten months of battle with liver cirrhosis. Before the discovery, I paid for trips of both my parents to Bolinao, Pangasinan besides other personal and company trips that made her happy, for i know I inherited the "itchy feet syndrome" from both my parents.

Besides spending quality time, try to say and make your love ones feel how much you love them, for, again, you’ll never know the time or you’ll never have the chance to say what you need to say.

So what now, you can invite your family, friends, and love ones to spend a "so happy together" moment with you by making your own make your own version of the video using this cool Facebook app



Note: This is an advertorial

Labels: Advertorials

Back in the early days of per minute mobile phone call charges, Tutubi would use up a PhP300.00 call card in just one call, and at about PhP7.50/minute, and it's still not enough. He would call at least twice a week.

Then came Sun Cellular with its unlimited call and text per month at a monthly cost just about the cost of his one call card/call. Sun Cellular's unlimited-call service shaved off a huge chunk of Tutubi's "OpEx" when he got his first Sun Cellular prepaid number.

A few months later Tutubi decided to apply for a postpaid line at Sun Cellular, from being a prepaid user, to avoid inconvenience of topping up as it's become a regular routine. He specifically applied for a special number with his name on it (using the old 4x3 keypad), free of charge, and still maintains it up to this day.

In a few months, Tutubi promoted his Sun Cellular postpaid as his primary line for business as he noticed many of his contacts also prefer to talk freely sans worries of high phone bills or used up load. He relegated his prepaid "other network" number as his personal, backup number.

Several additions were made to Sun Cellular over the years, with their 3G service, Tutubi availed of the USB modem dongle then renewed it after two years lock-in period with a pocket wi-fi router. Sun Broadband has been his only Internet provider, he disconnected his landline-based DSL, and used Sun Broadband for his blogging activities and other Internet connection needs even when he's on the road: driving or traveling.

Sun postpaid bundled together with his Sun Broadband cost only PhP1249.00 per month, his main phone and Internet provider.

He also noticed that signal coverage is now wider, even with 3G access which used to be limited to Metro Manila, compared to its early years. Dropped call rates and call completion rate have also improved vastly and now with its acquisition by Smart, expects it to gain improvements in all fronts.

For Tutubi, a certified "sun worshipper" for years, Sun Cellular is one of Tutubi his good choices.

BackpackingPhilippines.com, the blog, for the last four years, is actually powered by Sun Cellular!


Note: This is an advertorial

Labels: Advertorials