Hong Kong is small and vertical and extremely well connected, which means three days covers a great deal — the constraint is the humidity rather than the distance.
Everything below runs on an Octopus card.
Day one: Hong Kong Island
Morning. Sheung Wan — Des Voeux Road West for the dried seafood, Ko Shing Street for the herbs, then uphill to Man Mo Temple and along Hollywood Road.
Midday. Tai Kwun — the old Central Police Station and prison, free, air-conditioned, and three hours if you let it be.
Afternoon. Ride the Mid-Levels Escalator up — remember it runs uphill from 10.30am — and walk back down through SoHo.
Late afternoon. Victoria Peak, up by tram or bus 15. Walk the Lugard Road loop rather than paying for Sky Terrace; it is free, level and the better view.
Evening. Down, then the Star Ferry to Kowloon at 8pm for the Symphony of Lights from the water.
Day two: Kowloon
Morning. Yum cha — see dim sum — then the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade and the Clock Tower.
Midday. Walk west along the waterfront to the West Kowloon Cultural District for M+ or the Palace Museum. Both are substantial; doing both properly takes the whole day.
Afternoon. North to Mong Kok for the flower, goldfish and bird markets, which run in a line from Prince Edward station.
Evening. Temple Street for clay pot rice and open-air seafood — the food rather than the stalls.
Day three: out of the city
Two options, both good.
Lantau — MTR to Tung Chung, cable car or bus 23 up to the Big Buddha, then bus 21 on to Tai O for the stilt houses. A full day.
Or a hike — Dragon’s Back is forty minutes from Central and finishes at a beach. Around 75 per cent of Hong Kong is undeveloped, and this is the easiest way to see why that matters.
Evening. Sham Shui Po for the cheapest good food in the city, or a cha chaan teng anywhere.
What to book
Almost nothing. The cable car is worth a timed slot at weekends; Xiqu Centre tea house performances sell out.
If you are here on a Wednesday between September and July, Happy Valley is the evening.
If you have a fourth day
Macau — an hour by ferry, a full immigration crossing, and a UNESCO-listed Portuguese old town. Or the outlying islands — Cheung Chau or Lamma, both car-free and half an hour from Central.
The seasons decide a great deal
October to early December is the best of the year — dry, clear, in the low twenties, and the air is at its cleanest. This is when the Peak view is actually there.
January and February are cool and often grey, with a real chance of days where the Peak is inside a cloud. Cheap, and the hiking is excellent.
March to May warms and turns humid. June to September is hot, very humid and typhoon season — everything above still works, but plan for indoor middles of the day and check the Observatory’s signals daily.
The one thing to check
Chinese New Year, which falls in late January or February. A great many restaurants and family businesses close for three to five days, prices rise, and transport is packed with people travelling.
It is also spectacular — flower markets, lion dances, a night parade and fireworks over the harbour. Worth coming for, provided you know that half the small shops will be shut.
Getting oriented
The harbour divides everything. Hong Kong Island to the south — Central, Sheung Wan, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay along the northern shore, mountains behind, and the quieter south side beyond them. Kowloon to the north — Tsim Sha Tsui at the tip, running up through Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok. Beyond that the New Territories, and then mainland China.
Crossing takes ten minutes by ferry or four by MTR.
Two days, if that is all you have
Drop day three. Island in the morning and Peak in the afternoon on the first day; Kowloon, one museum and Temple Street on the second. You will miss Lantau and the hiking, which is a real loss.
What to skip
Ocean Park and Disneyland unless you have children who want them — both are good and both take a full day you could spend on the trails.
Ladies’ Market if you have already done Temple Street; they sell much the same things.
The Peak’s Madame Tussauds and the Sky Terrace ticket, for the reasons set out elsewhere.