The Peninsula Hotel - Hong Kong

We knew many hotels in Hong Kong were offering great staycation deals for residents, as there were no tourist visitors to the city. The most iconic and famous hotel in Hong Kong is The Peninsula, situated right at the centre of the Tsim Sha Tsui harbour front, and somewhere where would never have considered staying under normal circumstances due to the eye watering room costs. However, this was a special occasion, and the deal offered was too good not to take. We only stayed for one night, and booked one of the Special Day deals, which offered room upgrades, and credits.

I had already informed the hotel of our anniversary, and when we arrived, we had a warm greeting from the reception staff, the Manager also introduced himself as we were escorted to our suite in the tower, the first upgrade. We were taken to the very corner of the building on the 23rd floor, high enough to see well over surrounding buildings, and to our suite. Only word to use was breathtaking, the suite itself was larger than our apartment, it had a huge vestibule and loo, leading to a dining/sitting area with large sofa, table desk and wardrobes.

Back through the hallway led to the bedroom, floor to ceiling picture windows, another TV, then walked through to the dressing room and bathroom at the rear of the hotel, along with sunken bath. The room quite literally wrapped itself around the hotel. The hotel had also provided us with a cake creation and tea. After getting unpacked we decided to go out for some lunch , we caught the Star Ferry to a cafe on one of the pier on the on the island side.

Called Cafe8 (http://www.cafe8.org/) the restaurant provides vocational training and provides employment opportunities for their students, and those of other NGOs and organisations in Hong Kong, and they do great Aussie style pies. After lunch we took a taxi to the Peak, and after a quick look around the deserted shopping centre to have a look at the view neither of us will tire of, we completed the Peak Walk. A very sedate walk of 2km or so around the Peak brings you to some stunning viewpoints around the west end of the island and over to Kowloon, if you ever visit Hong Kong, its certainly worth an hour of anyone's time.

We took the bus back down to central and the underground train back to the hotel, where yet more surprises awaited. It takes around 5 minutes to get through the lobby, into the lift and up to the 23rd floor, as we approached our room, a side door opened, and a chef greeted us with a trolly, addressed us by name and presented us with two hand designed and crafted fruit puddings. They were delicious, but only left us wondering how did they do that, what was already impressive just got better.

For our evening meal we had a table booked at Aqua Restaurant (https://www.aqua.com.hk/experience) at the top of 1 Peking. It's one of our favourite places to take friends for a different view of the harbour, and for dinner we chose the 7 course tasting menu, with free flow fizz to go with it, well, it was a special occasion. The restaurant was also where our Gold Travel Counsellors had their Gold Dinner in 2015.

I couldn't believe that after a very good nights sleep, I woke hungry, we made our way to the Cafe in the lobby, where full a la carte breakfast was served. There was an an amazing choice of, well, pretty much anything and everything you'd need for a western or Chinese style breakfast. We decided on the simple cereal, bacon and eggs, toast and pots of tea, which just kept on coming.

After a very leisurely meal, we decided to take make the most of the nice weather, and walk along the newly completed Walkway of the Stars along the length of the harbour, ending at the K-11 Art Mall, which has to be one of the most unusual buildings in Hong Kong. Brand new it only opened at the very end of 2019, its is in fact a shopping mall, though set out like an art gallery, it even has suggested points for photo opportunities, the architecture is so unusual and impressive. After a break for coffee and cake we made our way back to the Peninsula te rest up before checkout and their world famous afternoon tea. You can't book a table for afternoon tea, unless you are a resident at the hotel, and we both had to admit there was something special about bypassing the queues to be shown to our reserved table. Though very nice, we couldn't finish the cakes, and decided to bring them home with us to enjoy later.

All too soon we were in a taxi back to our small apartment, and we still smile even now thinking back on what is sure to be our one and only experience at The Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong. Hope you enjoy looking at the photos not only of The Peninsula bit our anniversary meal and a day out and about around Hong Kong

stay tuned for more staycation news soon