Hello,
We've been looking for places to live with children in HK, while both of us will work in Central area.
Discovery Bay was the first place that was suggested to us, as it has nice beaches and is perfect for children to grow up.
However, we found that although there's plenty of transportation means, the commute to Central is quite tedious. First you need to take the bus to the ferry if you do not live in a place near the plaza (most units near the plaza are too small and very expensive - we need 4 bedrooms).
Then the ferry ride, which is advertised to last 25min only, we found posts that say this is only true under optimal conditions. After arriving at Central Pier, you need to take MTR or busses to the workplace. So door-to-door the commute could turn out to be more than 1 hour - too long for a working couple who wants to have dinner with their kids in the evening. Moreover, the ferry goes back to DB only every 30min in the evening, so quite unfortunate if you miss it. Therefore, we'd appreciate if you could answer us 2 questions:
1) Does anyone have better suggestions where to live with kids in HK as an alternative to Discovery Bay? Kids should have a nice place to play outside with other kids, area should have schools, but commute to Central should be possible in 30-40min door-to-door. Any ideas?
2) Moreover, we have a question about transportation fees. After calculating what it would cost us only to commute from DB-Central, we wondered if there is anything like annual general transportation tickets, which you pay for once, but can use any transportation for a full year. Such tickets exist in Switzerland, and for the cost of DB-Central for a full year, you could almost buy a first-class 1-year general transportation ticket in Switzerland!
Many thanks for any of your inputs!
Oh, and btw, we do not mind living in a more "local" area since I speak Cantonese.