Or what about Tsing Yi that might be suitable as a good area with reasonably good transport links between Tsing Yi and Kowloon/Central as well as to Tung Chung.....
Or what about Tsing Yi that might be suitable as a good area with reasonably good transport links between Tsing Yi and Kowloon/Central as well as to Tung Chung.....
Budget of below 18k, really - to start with at least. Maybe even 15k or less.
Sounds like Tsing Yi may be our best bet; Avoid Nam Cheong, but Sham Shui Po might be ok?
We've got a week in a hotel when we arrive to look round these places and get sorted with accommodation... just looking to get an idea where to focus our search
Hi all! So we arrived in HK Monday night, and yesterday we spent looking around a few places near to stops on the Tung Chung-Hong Kong line. As it's about a 25 minute walk from Tung Chung station to my girlfriend's work, I think it's going to have to be either Tsing Yi or Tung Chung. For the benefit of being a bit closer to HK, I'd tend to prefer Tsing Yi, but I'm not sure how 'happening' Tsing Yi/Tung Chung are... we've seen that there are fairly busy shopping centres in either place, but we've not been able to gauge so far if there's much going on in terms of bars, night life, what the local communities are like, clubs and groups to join etc etc... does any have any insight on this, or thoughts on which is better?
Tung Chung - No night bus, and from Tsing Yi to Tung Chung is very far, that taxi bill goes up an extra $100 + $30 for lantau link toll fee. LOTS of tourists. More dog friendly.
Tsing Yi - Closer to central. Morning airport express service to HK station 20 bucks, gets you a seat, good aircon, no pushing/shoving in the trains, easy commute. Easy to get to Tung Chung as well.
Both are easy access to the airport. TC via bus $3.4 I think and TY you take the airport express $80 or something one way.
Tsing Yi, I prefer, because it is closer to central and if you are in YMT for work, then its a happy medium. Good food options, nice mall on top. You pretty much only have two options, Tierra Verde or Villa Esplanada. If you want to save you can go further out, but closer to MTR is better, you don't want to add 15 min each way commute walking in the heat or waiting in a bus queue to save 3k, tack that on to possible overtime and working hours, no good.
Skip Nam Cheong. Definitely skip Sham Shui Po. Trashy, dirty, smelly. Nice to visit but to live, arg.
Olympic is another good choice I think. Lots of good food and very close to Central. You can take minibuses to Mongkok at night and walk home or an easy taxi home (less than $100 I think).
I don't know the current prices, but I'm guessing a 2 bedroom would be:
Tung Chung 13-15k
Tsing Yi 15-18k
Olympic 20-22k
All have older housing estates where you can save 3-4k, but then you have to consider their location as well.
Check to make sure everything works, they won't fix it later. Check air-con (personally I will only do a split type quiet powerful air con, window ones are loud and sometimes they get the wrong size and it doesn't cool the place down, so test it and make sure you are freezing), windows (they like the leak in the rain), water pressure (do you have both hot and cold water), make sure they have a gas water heater (electric is slow but the new ones are much better nowadays). If you don't check, you'll be on here in 6 months asking How to get my deposit back or How to get landlord to fix flood during rainstorms. :-p
In the end we went for Tung Chung - 16.3k for a decent sized 2 bedroom apartment. Bit disappointed not to be in Tsing Yi or further in, but it was that extra bit pricier. Just need to figure out how to get back to Tung Chung from HK at night if it's after MTR has finished...
Easy to get back, $300