The best thing about Hong Kong is leaving the middle of it

Hong Kong is 260-odd islands, and the famous bits occupy a small fraction of one of them. From the piers at Central you can be on a car-free island with a seafood lunch in front of you in under an hour, and plenty of visitors never realise it.

The three I send people to most often are Lamma, Cheung Chau and Tai O. They are quite different, so pick according to what you want rather than trying to do all three.

Lamma: the easy one

Ferries from Central Pier 4 to Yung Shue Wan take about 25 minutes and run frequently. Lamma has no cars, decent walking trails, a handful of beaches and a strip of seafood restaurants along the waterfront.

The standard day is: ferry in, walk the family trail across to Sok Kwu Wan, which takes about an hour and a half with a stop at Hung Shing Yeh beach, eat seafood at Sok Kwu Wan, ferry back from there. That is a full, satisfying day with almost no planning.

• Central to Yung Shue Wan: about 25 minutes
• Ferry back from Sok Kwu Wan: about 35 to 40 minutes to Central
• Bring cash; some of the smaller places still prefer it
• Avoid weekends if you dislike queues for the ferry

Cheung Chau: the one with the food

Cheung Chau is also car-free and smaller, with a narrow isthmus and a harbour full of fishing boats. The snack street near the ferry pier is the draw: giant curry fishballs on skewers, mango ice cream, dried seafood, and a local sweet called a lucky bun.

Walk the paved path around the island, which takes about two hours at an easy pace, and you pass a pirate cave, a beach, and a temple or two. Rent a bicycle if you would rather. It is flat, which is unusual for Hong Kong.

Cheung Chau hosts the Bun Festival in spring, when the island gets very crowded and there are parades and towering bun towers. Worth seeing once, worth avoiding if you wanted a quiet day.

Tai O: the one that is actually different

Tai O is on Lantau, not an island you reach by ferry from Central. Take the MTR to Tung Chung, then a bus, or the cable car to Ngong Ping and a bus down. It is a stilt-house fishing village on a tidal creek, and it is the closest thing in Hong Kong to a place that has not been tidied up for visitors.

The village smells of shrimp paste and dried fish, because that is what it produces. You can take a small boat out to look for the pink dolphins that live in the Pearl River estuary; sightings are not guaranteed and the boats are not gentle. The shrimp paste sold in the shops is genuinely good and travels well.

• Bus 11 from Tung Chung to Tai O: about 45 minutes
• The boat trips take 20 to 30 minutes and cost around 40 Hong Kong dollars
• Go on a weekday. Weekends are packed with day-trippers from Shenzhen and Hong Kong alike

Logistics that apply to all three

• Use an Octopus card for ferries, buses and the MTR. It works everywhere and saves a lot of fumbling.
• Ferry fares are cheap, roughly 20 to 40 Hong Kong dollars depending on route and whether you sit on the ordinary or the fast ferry.
• Take the slow ferry if you are not in a hurry. The upper deck outside is the best value sightseeing in the city.
• Sunscreen. The islands have very little shade and the UV in Hong Kong is no joke from May to September.

Which one to choose

If you have one spare day and want the easiest good time, go to Lamma. If you want food and a walk, Cheung Chau. If you have seen the usual sights and want to feel like you went somewhere real, Tai O. Any of the three beats another afternoon in a shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.