Travelling to Hong Kong with young kids
I consider myself a total amateur traveller. I have some travel experience (most of it pre-kids) and usually when we travel as a family we stay within our province. As my husband and I prepared for our family of 4 to fly to Hong Kong to see our family and have some work meetings, we felt a bit overwhelmed. The last time we had been to Hong Kong was in January 2020 shortly after we were married. What would our experience be like this time with 2 young children with very different needs than our own?
Now about 90% of the way into our trip I wanted to reflect and share some details about travelling with young kids that have really shaped our experience so far.
Length of stay: 6 weeks
Kids ages: 2 and 5/6 months
The flights
I was most nervous about the flight(s). We flew 15hrs from Toronto to Seoul. Then flew another 4hrs from Seoul to Hong Kong. I read a lot of blogs and got some ideas about how to manage long flights with toddlers, so I loaded up on snacks and activities. In our experience I could have left most of it behind as it turned out to be fairly unused.
I honestly felt like our flight experience to Hong Kong was more of a reflection of what “not to do”. I completely overpacked. My husband and I ended up having to carry both children through airports while also carrying 4 bags and pulling a carry on luggage. It was ridiculous.
What DID go well, was booking seats in the front row of the section so that we could access the bassinet for our 5 month old. Many people don’t realize there is an option to use a bassinet on a plane for infants who cannot sit on their own and are under 25lbs. The bassinets attach to the wall and are a fantastic option for babes to sleep or lie down to give yourself a break from carrying them. The front row also has more leg room (on Air Canada it’s called “Priority Seating”) so it ended up being a God-send for all our extra backpacks and stuff. It also gave space for our toddler to stand in front of her seat without feeling claustrophobic.
I didn’t anticipate being so close to the bathrooms and all that extra standing space to be using as loitering space for everyone else on the plane. Or the noisy sound of continual toilet flushing. But you win some, you lose some. Our kids were still able to sleep a bit thankfully.
A note on transfers
A big regret we have when booking flights with young kids was not getting a direct flight. If it is at ALL possible, always do direct transit with young kids. In our experience a direct flight would have actually been cheaper and much quicker. We found out months after we booked and will not be making that mistake next time.
The other small(ish) details when booking flights is to find a route that doesn’t change airlines between transfers if possible. This saves a lot of hassle and stress when the other airline makes changes to the flights and it doesn’t align with your main airline.
We found when flying with young kids that if you DO have a transfer when flying over the Pacific or Atlantic oceans from North America to make the first flight the longest one. It made a big difference for me mentally to know I was getting the biggest leg of the trip done first and helped me feel productive when I was so utterly exhausted.
But trust me: fly direct with young kids. It’s worth any extra cost if need be.
Flying with Air Canada from Toronto to Seoul. The bassinet attaches directly to the wall with safety straps on top to prevent the babies from flying out in an emergency. You are required to hold onto your child for take off, landing, and when the seat belt sign is on during turbulence.
What to wear
Did I mention already that I totally overpacked for this trip? I packed too many clothes for our kids. At home in Canada we do laundry 1-2 times a week depending on how many potty training accidents we’ve had, spit up days, or the weather outside for play time.
But here in Hong Kong we do laundry every day. Here’s why: the machines are on average half to a quarter size smaller than our top loader washing machines in North America. So after a day for our family of four, everything we have worn (plus a few extra items like linens or extra clothes from spit up/accidents) fits into the washing machine. It is also common for there to be no dryers in Hong Kong (I suppose they take up space and with the humidity would be a huge energy sucker). Everything is air dried. Which also takes up quite a bit of space, so having more than a days worth of laundry drying at one time is much too overwhelming.
Note: If you really do need a dryer the local laundromats have them at a reasonable cost! Our friends use laundromats to wash and dry their bedding.
I packed 7-10 days worth of clothing for my kids (perhaps more for my toddler), but I really only needed 5 days worth of clothes for our laundry rhythms:
1 outfit for them to wear
1 outfit to be in the dirty laundry bag
1 outfit to be hanging dry
1 outfit for the backpack in case of accidents
1 spare outfit
2 pairs of pyjamas
1 pair of sneakers/running shoes
Since we repeat the laundry cycle daily, there is always clothes to wear, being cleaned, and drying. More clothes takes up more space and is way more to manage.
Plus with most of Asia having a strong shopping culture, bringing less clothes offers space to purchase additional items if needed depending on the weather. I purposefully did not want to buy much clothes for my kids in Hong Kong because we have enough in Canada––but I wish we brought less.
The washing machine in our AirBnb flat is about 1/4 of the size of our machine at home in Canada.
Getting around
I knew our strollers in Canada would be way too large for navigating the streets and transit in Hong Kong. Thankfully we were able to borrow this Leclerc Influencer travel stroller from family that folds up with one hand. It’s not as light as the Babyzen YoYo or Bugaboo Butterfly but it worked amazingly for both our kids.
Most days we would encourage our toddler to walk (or carry her), and the other parent would carry the baby in our structured carrier (we have the Ergobaby Omni 360).
Hong Kong offers a TON of public transit options which are great and efficient but not all are easy for young kids to access. Our toddler loves Trams (“ding-ding”) the most because it moved slowly, had big breezy windows, and offered a ton of viewing of the surroundings. We also regularly used the bus and the minibus. We took our kids on the MTR (subway) but it was a lot more exhausting for our toddler. It can be a lot of walking (or carrying for us!), very overstimulating, and navigating large crowds which can be overwhelming for young kids who aren’t used to it.
We ended up using taxis more often than we expected because it was often simpler to get from one place to another more quickly than public transit. Though it obviously cost more, it allowed our kids to reserve their energy for whatever we were doing at our final destination without using it all up on a 45-60min transit ride (door to door) and then being way overtired to engage in a meal or with other people.
Our family’s favourite mode of transport is of course boats, and the Starferry is one of the most unique Hong Kong experiences going between ports in Victoria Harbour. Our toddler loved every minute.
A note on car seats
A massive cultural difference between Hong Kong and Canada is the use of car seats. In Canada it’s illegal for your child to be in a vehicle without an appropriate car seat. Most people have their own cars and we use car seats every time we drive anywhere.
In Hong Kong families will use car seats if they have their own vehicle, but if you are taking a taxi, or sharing another vehicle that is not your own, kids don’t have car seats. It is illegal for children to sit on the lap of an adult in the front seat of a car, but common for an adult to sit with a seat belt in the back (they must wear a seatbelt legally), and for a young child (infant-preschool) to sit on their lap until they are old enough to sit by themselves with a seat belt (which is even a much younger age than what is common in Canada now).
I knew this was a normal practice before I arrived but it was hard for me to mentally and emotionally accept. I even brought my infant car seat to Hong Kong for my baby but honestly we haven’t really used it. It doesn’t click into a stroller here. Also it feels cumbersome to carry anywhere and other people scoff and think you are crazy. I suppose it helps that when we take taxis it is normally a short trip and the cars do not drive as fast as is common in Canada (more traffic on the roads means much slower driving sometimes).
But still. I miss our car and our car seats and I will be looking forward to using them again when we return home.
Things to do
Getting around Hong Kong with young kids quickly reveals how emotionally kid friendly the city is, and how practically non-kid friendly the city is. Everywhere we brought our kids people on the street, in stores, and on transit were so kind, welcoming, and fun. Hong Kong feels safe with young kids––everyone is looking out for them and making sure they are safe and cared for! If I was alone with both kids (baby in the carrier and toddler walking beside me), many women in the grocery stores would make sure my toddler wasn’t getting hurt or chase them down when she ran out of the store by accident calling her name (after hearing me call her name).
But as lovely and sweet people are towards kids, it takes some time to figure out how to care for your kids well in the city. There’s not many convenient places to breastfeed. Not many washrooms offer space to change diapers. More than once I breastfed sitting on toilets, or even changed a diaper while balancing the baby on top of the toilet seat. When I found breastfeeding rooms (called “Baby Care” rooms) the chair/bench to sit on was so uncomfortable I had to twist all around to hold up the baby and ended up pulling some muscles in my back. Some malls offer these Baby Care rooms only on certain floors so it takes a bit of time to access them depending on where you are shopping. Even getting around with a stroller can be hard at times. There’s a LOT of stairs and escalators, but elevators can be hard to locate in older buildings or in the MTR transit.
Once you sort out how to get around with kids, and find the right places to care for them, finding activities for young kids to enjoy in Hong Kong takes some creativity.
We really loved:
travelling around on Trams
quiet play in our AirBnb
the local playground
the Starferry
Ocean Park (they have rides and Pandas/Walrus/Penguins/Aquarium!)
the Tram up to Victoria Peak (and around the Peak)
going to cafes for snacks
Central Market (indoor vendors in the historic wet market in Central)
the Central Library children’s playroom
shopping at local grocery stores
Junk Boat tour in Victoria Harbour (this may become our tradition every time we visit the city, our family loved it THAT much)
Sleep set ups
One of the biggest headaches I think parents face when travelling is navigating nap times and sleep for young children. Due to the ages of our children they each needed an appropriate bed to sleep in and dark environments during daytime naps.
I brought 2 pack n plays from Canada because it was the most simple solution, though it was extra luggage to transport. The AirBnb we stayed in did not offer pack n plays or travel cribs for kids. We weren’t able to borrow those items from family and the city did not seem to have a good rental company to borrow from (though in North America most major cities offer incredible rental companies for kid gear and we have used these services before!). It seems a select number of cities in Asia do offer baby gear rental but not travel cribs in Hong Kong (if I’m wrong share it in the comments!).
I made sure to find an AirBnb for our family with enough bedrooms and space in the rooms for their travel beds (not easy, but we found one). I also brought our Slumberpod blackout tent for our baby which we have used for local and international trips for several years now. The Slumberpod folds up so compact that I’ve even brought it in carry on luggage when we travelled in Vancouver + Whistler for 10 days when our firstborn was 10 months (we did not bring any checked luggage––it was so freeing and incredible!).
Managing the energy levels of young children while travelling can be challenging on a day to day basis. We found it essential to go at the pace of our children, not at the pace of other’s plans.
This meant we structured our days around an afternoon nap at our flat whenever possible. We also arranged our schedules to accommodate our kids wellbeing and not what was culturally normal. This made it hard at times, and on some occasions we stretched our kids more than we would at home in Canada. Everyone tries their best and if we had a particularly full day we made sure to block off the following one as recovery.
At home in Canada we often host others for dinner so that our kids can sleep at a normal time and we can enjoy time with friends. We were able to do this a few times at our AirBnb with some appointments with friends, family, and work meetings. It helped our kids go to sleep at a healthy time (even if they were still overstimulated and exhausted), while we could visit later into the evening with other adults.
And still, I found myself more than once carrying a passed out toddler through the streets to get home for nap time. Thankfully my body has gotten stronger over the course of our trip!
The extended time together as a family has been so incredible and a blessing. But as we prepare to go home I’m also looking forward to our normal routines, rhythms, and sleep cycles. And having childcare support.
After all this, I totally understand and respect why families don’t travel with young kids –– and why they do! Let me know if you have any other suggestions on how to travel with young kids well in Hong Kong, other Asian cities, or even Europe/North America!