hong kong · Just You Community

pottingshead
9 years ago
(Member) (Topic Starter)

(Member) (Topic Starter)

9 years ago

hi all not long got back from hong kong , my thoughts on the trip was , no one was at the airport when i checked in , but i found my way to the meeting area were i met the other 4 travelers. on ariving at hong kong we met the other group and are tour guide. the hotel was great ,location great , clean rooms . the trip itself i thought had to much free time , we arrived at the hotel at 2.30pm the guide sarah anounced we had free time , we all met up for are evening meal at 7pm and walked to the restaunt ( food not good ) splitting us into to groups on the tables . 2nd day we did a trip that was very good it finished at 2pm and we had free time , the group that had been on another trip had arange to go out not inviting everyone so 3 of us went out together,3rd day there was a foody trip that some went on for the rest it was free time again till we all met up and went on a boat trip followed by a meal back to the place we had visited on are 2nd day ,4th day we had free time till are bus took us to the airport at 11.30 am .i do think if you are a nervous traveller and would not go of on there own there was far to much free time , even if the tour guide took you to the harbor or there was a lovley park up the road , we found all these places are self , on the last morning we could have booked the bus and maybe gone up the tallest building on way to the airport, the other problem i thought was the group that met up with us had already bonded and it felt like them and us , over all i had a good 4 days . rosie

SarahS
9 years ago
(Member)

(Member)

9 years ago

Great review Rosie. What a shame some aspects were disappointing for you. I had a two day stopover in Hong Kong on the way out to New Zealand. We didn't find much to do outside the organised tour either. Our situation wasn't helped by being there over the Chinese new year, when everything closed down.

nixon
9 years ago
(Member)

(Member)

9 years ago

Rosie

thank you for your thoughts on HKG, I might be wrong and If I am, I am sure someone will let me know!

If this was a city break? I thought the point was there was free time for people to do there own thing? if this is the case maybe JY need to say that a bit more but then I might be wrong.

Julia your thoughts?

Glad you enjoyed your four days HKG is a great place to visit.

Cindy

Julia
9 years ago
(Member)

(Member)

9 years ago

Hi CIndy,

The City breaks have been designed to be a little more flexible offering more time for travellers to explore at their own pace. That being said - we do listen to the feedback of our travellers and tweak itineraries accordingly. I am aware that the Berlin City break changed from the first departure to the second and again for the third based on feedback from some of us that took the individual departures.

I have forwarded the comments on to the wider team to review.

Kindest regards,

Julia

BGray
9 years ago
(Member)

(Member)

9 years ago

Hi Julia, I must admit comments like this would put me off doing a city break to be honest. I'm very interested in doing the Dubai break (and would love to see Hong Kong but if the tour was still offered over the next few years, I'd love to do it as an add-on to Japan a couple of years down the road). However, wasted time hanging around waiting for hotel rooms, a lack of excursions etc would put me off. I think the way around this is to plan the whole holiday extremely carefully so that the time available is maximised. What I mean by this is that for every portion of the day - morning, afternoon and evening - there are excursions available (either included or optional, but I suggest most be included) so that those who are not that confident (or like me and like to be taken to the best sites - these are escorted tours after all) can be kept busy and see the best of the destination. You only have around two or three full days at best, so it's vital that we are able to make the most of the time available. For those who are adventurous or independent minded, they could opt out as suited, but I really do think the balance has to be in favour of having most sight-seeing included - otherwise the break does seem to be very expensive and possibly disappointing if the traveller doesn't get to see the best of the destination, or even worse is at a loss as to what they can organise themselves during the free time.

All the best,

Bob

pottingshead
9 years ago
(Member) (Topic Starter)

(Member) (Topic Starter)

9 years ago

'nixon' wrote:
Rosie
thank you for your thoughts on HKG, I might be wrong and If I am, I am sure someone will let me know!
If this was a city break? I thought the point was there was free time for people to do there own thing? if this is the case maybe JY need to say that a bit more but then I might be wrong.
Julia your thoughts?
Glad you enjoyed your four days HKG is a great place to visit.
Cindy

my first city break was to NY were we had a full itineray so i thought HK would have been the same , with that amount of free time you might as well have flown out on your own . rosie

nixon
9 years ago
(Member)

(Member)

9 years ago

Julia

thanks for clarifying this point, so not sure if my answer was right or wrong!

daveJB
9 years ago
(Member)

(Member)

9 years ago

Hello rosie, I'm glad you had good time but you could have used your free time with a hop on-hop off bus in Hong Kong, most large cities have them nowadays, they take you to the most popular sights of interest, I did this in Istanbul and had a great time. I'm sure if you had asked at the hotel they would have helped you to make the most of your trip.

Dave.

pottingshead
9 years ago
(Member) (Topic Starter)

(Member) (Topic Starter)

9 years ago

'daveJB' wrote:
Hello rosie, I'm glad you had good time but you could have used your free time with a hop on-hop off bus in Hong Kong, most large cities have them nowadays, they take you to the most popular sights of interest, I did this in Istanbul and had a great time. I'm sure if you had asked at the hotel they would have helped you to make the most of your trip.
Dave.

Hi Dave I did make the most of my free time , I found a Heritage centre , a lovely park with an Avery , turtles it was so Tranquille Art centre . My review just points out to any nervous Traveller That if you are nervous about going out on your own and don't mix or make friends easy you could be stuck in the hotel . Rosie

Angela Bingham
9 years ago
(Member)

(Member)

9 years ago

'pottingshead' wrote:

'daveJB' wrote:
Hello rosie, I'm glad you had good time but you could have used your free time with a hop on-hop off bus in Hong Kong, most large cities have them nowadays, they take you to the most popular sights of interest, I did this in Istanbul and had a great time. I'm sure if you had asked at the hotel they would have helped you to make the most of your trip.
Dave.
Hi Dave I did make the most of my free time , I found a Heritage centre , a lovely park with an Avery , turtles it was so Tranquille Art centre . My review just points out to any nervous Traveller That if you are nervous about going out on your own and don't mix or make friends easy you could be stuck in the hotel . Rosie

Hi Rosie

I totally agree with your comments, the whole idea of going on an organised tour with a travel guide is so that the most can be made of the time available. If there are insufficient excursions then to my mind the holiday does not fulfil its brief.

The reason many people choose JY is that they want to travel but not be on their own.

I hope this experience doesn't put you of holidaying as a solo traveller as not all JY holidays in my experience are like this, perhaps it is just City breaks.

Kind regards

Ange

Jaya
9 years ago
(Member)

(Member)

9 years ago

Hi Dave

Unfortunately not everyone is brave enough to venture out on their own, me included! I prefer organised excursions and agree with Bob's comments. A little bit of free time is okay for one to recharge the batteries, but I personally would get bored with lots of free time as I am not one for the beach or lying around doing nothing. I know one can read, but that too would bore me after a while. I love sightseeing and choose holidays which accommodate this.

Jaya

TimH
9 years ago
(Member)

(Member)

9 years ago

Really helpful review, I'm off to Japan in a couple of weeks and doing the Hong Kong add on, so I now know to make sure that I look at my guide book to plan to make the most of my time there. On previous tours where there has been free time the tour manager or local guide have suggested ideas to help us make full use of free time and helped those interested make the arrangements (In San Diego as nearly all of us wanted to visit the zoo they arranged for the coach to take us all there and back), so while not official optional trips a steer in the right direction really helps make the holiday.

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