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Victoria Peak In Hong Kong

Victoria Peakscape with water and mountains in the background

After getting rained out the first day of my 2 days in Hong Kong, we finally had glorious (hot) weather, so we headed up first thing to Victoria Peak before it could change its mind.

When we’d gone the afternoon before, a Sunday in July around 3PM, the line was really long despite the imminent threat of bad weather. At around 9 on a Monday morning, there was no line at all, and only about 5 people straggled in to join our tram before it left.

a woman standing in a room

 

Tickets were about ~$6 USD for a return, about $10 USD for access to the viewing tower. We decided we could always buy viewing tower tickets once we were there, so passed.

a train tracks through a window

Most of the tram ride is spent going up through the city, and it was on the ride that you really get a feel for how steep it is — either I or the buildings were at a deep slant! The picture below is looking behind us as we ascended.

a view of a city from a window

Close to the top you turn a corner and start getting amazing views of the city, but they were nothing compared to what awaited us. We got off the tram and made our way to the little plaza area to scope things out.

The first order of business was to get my friend an Icee. She loves Icees, and its been fun for us to visit a 7-Eleven in every international location possible to check out the flavors and compare.

a woman smiling at a machine

In the same building (right across from the tram) we’d seen advertisements about a free viewing deck on top, so we headed up. Only to discover it was temporarily closed for cleaning. No worries, we could check out the view from the other side of the peak and then hit that side. It was lovely but not as dramatic but we still enjoyed lingering for 15 minutes.

We headed to the other side to discover it was still closed, so we headed down to the most scenic McDonalds I’d ever visited, coming back up after half an hour. Though the “cleaning” was basically done, a sour faced worker denied us entrance, while ignoring a Chinese tour group that walked past the barricade to get in.

a sign on a pole

My friend’s first taste of discrimination in the city. So we headed back down to the ground floor and went for a walk along path. It was heavily forested but occasionally you could catch stunning views of the city.

a woman walking on a path in a forest

We returned again 30 minutes later (at this point we should have given up and paid for access to the Sky Terrace 428). It was still closed. The worker scowled at us the whole 15 minutes we waited, but eventually it was opened.

Amazing, amazing views! (but probably not so much better than below that it was worth the wait).

Victoria Peakscape with water and mountains in the background

 

Best Viewing Locations

If you feel like paying the extra $4-5 USD a person, the Sky Terrace 428 is probably the best view in town.

If you like to sip coffee or tea and enjoy the view, Pacific Coffee has one of the best spots for looking right at the harbor.  Pearl on the Peak directly above it has outdoor seating and a wine list.

Victoria Peakscape with trees and mountains

The Peak Galleria is directly behind the Peak Tram and offers a free viewing station with almost equally amazing views. The trick is to go when it’s not closed for cleaning.

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7 Comments

  1. yeah remember that path, i went up to the peak by foot once with my gf, ~45 min & sweating hard, only to have the night covered by thick haze, so no magnificent views of the harbor at all. we did see it on the 2nd trip there though, well worth the effort.

  2. @Winston & @Patrick — Thank you for catching that! Blogging at 5AM was the wrong decision!

    @DJ — if we’d had more time we were tempted to try the walk in at least one direction. Does the path let you have better/more variety of views?

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