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A fishmonger tending live seafood in orange tubs at a Hong Kong street market

Sample journey · 5–7 days

Hong Kong and Macau: food, walled villages and old streets

Sheung Wan & the Western District, the villages of the New Territories, old Macau, Taipa & Coloane

Photo: Desmond Leung / Unsplash

Illustrative journey ideas — not bookable packages. No prices, dates or accommodation are implied.

Hong Kong and Macau are neighbours whose histories ran apart for centuries: one grew as a British trading port, the other was Portuguese for more than four hundred years. Both are proud of their cooking, and it is through food that you most easily understand how Cantonese, European and colonial traditions have woven together here. Behind the towers lies an older layer too: the villages of the New Territories, where the same clans have lived for more than three hundred years.

This sample route is for curious eaters and lovers of history: mornings in markets and teahouses, days in old neighbourhoods and villages, evenings at tables crowded with dishes. Stays are chosen for character, from small hotels in old districts to heritage buildings in Macau. The length and pace would be shaped around you.

The route

The journey

  1. Hong Kong Island
  2. The New Territories
  3. Macau
  4. Taipa & Coloane
  5. Hong Kong airport
  1. An old cold-drinks cabinet in a long-running Hong Kong cha chaan teng

    01Days 1–2 · Hong Kong Island

    Dried squid, dim sum and milk tea

    You stay in Sheung Wan or the Western District, where the streets still smell of dried seafood, herbal medicine shops and incense. An early morning belongs to an old-style dim sum teahouse, where the teapots are refilled without end, and the afternoon to a cha chaan teng for milk tea, a pineapple bun and macaroni soup. The old double-decker tram carries you west to the Kennedy Town waterfront. In the evening, one of the few surviving dai pai dong, open-air kitchens in Central, where food is cooked over a roaring flame.

  2. A brick gateway hung with red couplets in an old Hong Kong village

    02Days 3–4 · The New Territories

    Clan villages behind walls

    The metro takes an hour to reach a completely different Hong Kong. The Ping Shan Heritage Trail leads past the ancestral halls of the Tang clan, an old study hall and Hong Kong's only historic pagoda, while in Kam Tin stands a walled village with iron gates where people still live. The next day brings Tai Po market, where local cooks choose their fish and greens, the cooked-food centre upstairs, and the wishing trees of Lam Tsuen. If you can, try poon choi, the village feast dish served in layers in one great bowl.

  3. Wave-patterned paving and colonial façades on a square in Macau's historic centre

    03Day 5 · Macau

    Portuguese squares and Macanese cooking

    A ferry from Sheung Wan crosses to Macau in about an hour. The historic centre, with its wave-patterned square, baroque churches, the façade of St Paul's atop its steps and Chinese temples alongside, is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Above all there is Macanese cooking, born of Portuguese, Cantonese and other port traditions: minchi, 'African chicken', serradura pudding. In between, Portuguese egg tarts and a pork chop bun.

  4. A mint-green colonial-era house with a veranda on a cobbled street in Macau

    04Days 6–7 · Taipa & Coloane

    Villages in pastel

    In Taipa's old village, narrow lanes are full of snack shops, and mint-green colonial houses stand above the former shoreline. Further on lies quieter Coloane: a fishing village with a small chapel, yellow façades and cafés where egg tarts come out of the oven still hot. On the last day, a bus across the bridge linking Macau and Hong Kong takes you straight to Hong Kong airport.

Experience highlights

  1. 01

    Morning in a dim sum teahouse

    Teapots, bamboo steamers and neighbours at the next table: Hong Kong as the city wakes.

  2. 02

    The Ping Shan Heritage Trail

    Ancestral halls, an old study hall and a pagoda: centuries of one clan's history in a single walk.

  3. 03

    A Macanese table

    Cooking born where Portugal met China, and hard to find anywhere else.

  4. 04

    Coloane village

    Quiet lanes, a chapel and warm egg tarts after the noise of the city.

First, we listen. Then, we explore what's possible.

Make it your own

  • Shorter: five days

    Fold the New Territories into one day and Taipa and Coloane into an afternoon, and the journey fits into five days.

  • With the outdoors

    With a day or two more, walk the Dragon's Back ridge or take a ferry to Lamma or Cheung Chau.

  • A cooking lesson

    A class with a local cook in Hong Kong or Macau lets you not only taste but take a few dishes home.

  • As part of a longer journey

    Hong Kong is an easy start or finish to a longer Asian journey, perhaps with Japan, Taiwan or Vietnam.

Practical considerations

  • October to December is usually the most pleasant time; summer is very hot and humid, and roughly May to November typhoons are possible, when ferries may be suspended.
  • Ferries run from Hong Kong to Macau, and buses cross the bridge; it is a separate border crossing, so we plan travel time with a margin.
  • Hong Kong's metro, trams and buses link the city easily with the New Territories; distances in Macau are short, so much of it is best on foot.
  • We suggest places to eat according to your tastes and the season, and the most popular dinner tables are worth booking ahead.

General guidance only. Seasons, weather and wildlife are never guaranteed, and travel requirements are always worth checking before you go.

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