Just a short travel note here on travel to and from Hong Kong International Airport. As tempting as it is to use Uber or taxi, if you’re willing to step on a bus you can get to your destination in Kowloon for almost as fast and a fraction of the price via CityFlyer.
A25 Bus In Hong Kong: Efficient, Cheap Transport Between Airport And Kowloon
I was going to the Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon, one of the three areas of Hong Kong.
If you’re going to Hong Kong Island or the New Territories, rail travel or Uber may be better, but the CityFlyer bus was easy and cheap here…40.8 HKG per ticket (about 5 USD) on A25 (A21 also works). My default is Uber or other ride share service, but Uber was $48, almost 10x the price of the bus.
The bus itself is a double decker and you can tap-to-pay upon boarding using contactless credit/debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay) and mobile wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Huawei Pay). It could not have been easier…you catch it at the bus depot outside the lower arrivals level.
Onboard, there is a luggage rack to store your baggage and seats have USB-A ports. I actually pulled out my laptop and was able to get some work done during the 50-minute journey to my hotel (Uber would have taken 38 minutes).
I arrived just a couple blocks from my destination.
For the journey back to the airport, located on Chek Lap Kok island, I again used A25. Once again, $5 instead of $40 (Uber was a little cheaper at 5:00 am) but without any traffic, the ride was even quicker.
Time is money and it won’t always make sense to use public transport, but here the time difference was negligible and the savings were significant enough that I felt like the bus made more sense…and was even able to be productive and work the bus, since unlike a city bus it was not nearly as crowded.
This is such a cool, simple, practical review of something I wouldn’t have expected to see on here! Like, sure, a lounge, a new business class product, but express city bus in Hong Kong? Now we’re talkin!
Matt, I look forward to your full-review of the new people-moved at LAX, whenever they finally get it up and running!
But you still think it is ok for Israel to bomb the s$it out of Gaza based on some bible crap.
You are cra cra !!!
Ah, the village idiot shows up and makes up things again.
Maybe Hamas should have thought of that when they slaughtered audience members at a music festival. It’s called cause and effect. But triggered snowflakes are best at moving the goalposts to suit their narrative du jour. Oh, and it’s always someone else’s fault.
Wherever and whenever possible, I use public transportation from the airport. In a week I will be in Anchorage, and the People Mover 40 bus is $2 and takes perhaps 30 minutes to get to the downtown transit center. Over the summer, I will also be in Seattle, Barcelona and London – and will always use public transportation to get from the airport. Ubers are just so expensive and taxis are just so unreliable in terms of doing everything possible to take the longest and most expensive route possible.
We had a morning arrival in HKG last January (our hotel room would not be ready anyway) and we used this same bus to TST so we can have a better view rather than using the MTR. The bus stopped a half block from our Holiday Inn hotel on Nathan Rd. Better view and lower cost. Great idea.
I’ve never actually taken the Airport Express in HKG. Every time I have been there the bus has been more convenient to my hotel.
I took the airport express last time (going to Victoria Harbour) and it worked out very well.
Isn’t it funny (not haha funny but ironic funny) that taking an airport bus makes it as an article on a travel blog?
Something which millions of Hong Kongers as well as millions of tourists from all over Asia do every single day.
I started taking these busses since 2013 – the A10 or E10 (I think) that goes to the Sheung Wan-Macau ferry terminal.
Heck, I just took it last month on a 1 night layover.
Note: I highly recommend the Ramada Harborfront at Sai Ying Pun. The darn Ibis has gone nuts with its pricing. FFS it is a budget hotel that charges $150-$200 per night !
** I stand corrected – since 2009.
2013 was when I visited HK 6-7 times that year.
It’s no longer the same (too many Mainland Chinese) and I haven’t been back since for vacation.
My reader demographics skew wealthy and I know many won’t consider public transport…I’m just trying to make the argument here that more should.
Chungking Mansions? I suspect that your reader demographic doesn’t visit there 🙂
For those who don’t know:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions
https://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/place-to-go/travel.guide-chungking-mansions.html
See here for background:
https://liveandletsfly.com/hong-kong-25-dollar-hotel-chungking-mansions/
We were just in San Diego, we took the city bus from the airport to where we were staying, and also took the trolley downtown. Car rental rates were absurd, gas was $6.50, and the hotel wanted $25 bucks a night just to park there. It was easy, and very cheap, we spent the money on food and drinks and enjoyed it without being gouged.
Hong Kong’s public transportation is reliable and it takes you practically everywhere. I was born in Hong Kong and hold their ID card and since turning 60 last year, I am entitled to receiving a “JoyYou” card which entitles me to a concessionary fare of HK$ 2 (US$0.25) on any public transportation including CityBus and MTR with the exception of CityFlyer. however, I get 50% discount on Airport Express; I can also get into Disneyland and Ocean Park for HK$100 (US$13).
From my perspective, the airport express train is a more premium option than a taxi/uber. You can always hop onto a red cab/minibus for the last few hundred metres of the journey.
However, if I’m staying in the Ibis North Point, which has some of the coolest views on the island and it’s ridiculously cheap to boot, there’s (or there used to be, haven’t been since the pandemic) a direct bus which just makes sense.
Nice, useful and PRACTICAL TIP!
I remember taking a bus back from Stanley when it was a marketplace. Definitely qualified as unique. We had the front seat on the double decker bus and when cornering, accelerating and braking maneuvers were done, the teen passengers would respond like the thrill ride that it was.
I travel to Hong Kong often and always take the AirPort Express. Never thought about the bus, will consider this in the future. I’ve been trying to take more public transit lately so this is well timed.
If one stays in Kowloon, another option is to take the S1 bus (across the street from the HKG bus terminal) to Tung Chung MTR station & then take the MTR to Kowloon.
For road transport enthusiasts → Note that this premium service uses specially designed Alexander Dennis Enviro500 MMC (sold as the Alexander Dennis Enviro500) coaches. Currently, the Citybus’ Cityflyer fleet consists of 138 Enviro500 MMCs.