Last month, the day after attending the Philippine Blog Awards, me and my siblings (four of us) traveled to Hong Kong and Macau for 3 days and 2 nights.

It was our first trip abroad and it took months of planning because we wanted to personalize our itinerary and did not want to be part of a constricting tour group. Planning for the trip was quite easy because there are a lot of information available online about Hong Kong and Macau but we just wanted it to be flawless and cram as many sights during our short visit. We flew into Hong Kong and stayed there for two days, visited Macau on the third day, and then flew back to Manila via Macau later that day.

Photo-op at fountains in Tung Chung town center

We originally just planned to visit Hong Kong for our trip but Macau was too tempting to pass off. It’s just one hour away by ferry … much like crossing the strait from Iloilo to Bacolod, heh. I was the one who convinced them to include Macau in the trip given that I was responsible for planning the Macau leg of our itinerary.

Taking a rest at Fortress Hill in Macau

The Hong Kong and Macau threads on Pinoy Exchange were actually the most helpful resource I found since the forumers have posted just about everything you need to know about the place and the tips are more targeted to (Filipino) backpacker-ish travelers … like us :D

We ended up not religiously following our original itinerary since we didn’t expect that we would be so tired during the trip. We managed to visit all the major destinations that we planned but I just personally wanted to experience more of the off-the-beaten-path attractions, especially in Macau.

For the benefit to those who are also planning to travel to Hong Kong and Macau, here’s the summary of our actual Hong Kong and Macau itinerary during our recent visit:

3 days and 2 nights Hong Kong and Macau itinerary summary

3 days and 2 nights Hong Kong and Macau Expenses

  • Total Expenses – HK$ 3463.4 or Php 21,126.74 per person
  • Expenses (excluding Airfare) – HK$ 2288.5 or Php 13,959.8 per person

*computed at currency exchange rate of 1 HK$ = Php 6.1

For those who want to know if we hired a travel agent … we didn’t take one. We made the itinerary, paid for everything (most of it online), and toured HK and Macau ourselves. To save on airfare costs, subscribe to the Promo fare alerts at Detourista or the Cebu Pacific Promo page.

Update: View the improved “Hong Kong and Macau “Theme Park Hopper” 3-day itinerary.