In this episode of the Winging It Travel Podcast, I share my real-time experience during a 4-hour layover in Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). From navigating quick immigration to sampling authentic local food, I break down how to make the most of a short stopover in one of Asia’s busiest transit hubs.
You’ll hear tips on how to leave the airport, our experience of finding local street food, great viewpoints around Central Station and ideas on how much things cost. I also dive into a few other fantastic cities around the world for layovers, including:
✈️ Singapore Changi Airport – Nature, food, and luxury in one
✈️ Kuala Lumpur – Affordable and easy to get around
✈️ Amsterdam Schiphol Airport – Europe’s layover gem
✈️ London Heathrow – Historic sites just a train ride away
✈️ Reykjavik – Utilise Icelandic Air's free layover service with your airfare
Whether you’re a frequent flyer or planning your first big trip, these layover travel hacks will help you turn airport downtime into a mini-adventure.
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Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Winging It Travel Podcast
00:30 Layover Adventures in Hong Kong
06:07 Exploring Other Layover Cities
10:21 Final Thoughts and Future Plans
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Cheers, James.
Do you love spontaneous adventures, travel tips and stories that will inspire you to pack up and go? Well, welcome to the Wigging It Travel Podcast. I'm James, your host, and each week I bring you travel tales, practical advice and interviews with travelers from around the globe. Whether you're planning a big trip or just dreaming about one, you'll find everything from hidden gems to epic fails because travel is not perfect and that is what makes it beautiful. So grab your backpack and let's wing it.
New episodes every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts, and on YouTube too. You can find WING in it and more fantastic travel podcasts from around the world at voyerscape.com. The link is in the show notes. Let's go and explore the world. Hello and welcome to this week's solo episode. And today I'm doing a layover episode and specifically for me, it was Hong Kong on the way back from India to Vancouver. And I've chucked in at the end.
some places that I've been to that are fairly easy to do a layover in, whether that's just an afternoon or a day, or you're staying over two or three nights. So when I flew to India, I went via Hong Kong with Katé Airways, and on the way back, I had a six hour layover. Louise, my friend and I thought, well, can we do Hong Kong in about four hours, because you've got to be back for the flight back. And we thought, oh, do you know what, let's give it a go. A bit hairy for time, you're not going to have loads of
leeway for things going wrong. But I want to say it actually went pretty smoothly and in the four hours it's very comfortable with the things that we did. So I thought I'd give some ideas for you if you're in Hong Kong for a day. I think it definitely is possible. So as I said it's a six hour layover and four hours of that was into the city and the immigration was an absolute breeze. Visa on arrival, no queues, straight in and before you know it we're at the gate for the central station train.
getting a return ticket for 20 Canadian dollars and it's about 22 to 25 minutes one way. So put that together, we've got about three hours in the city. This train was super modern, had aircon, great views on the way in. So we aimed for Central Station, as I said. And on the way, we went to an ATM to get some cash out and we got about 200 Hong Kong dollars, which is about 35 Canadian dollars. And the only real plan really was to walk around the harbor front, get views of the city and get some street food.
and we may get some souvenirs along the way. So as we came into the city, we got off at the station and we got stuck into the Hong Kong traffic, crossing the road, big skyscrapers, but very orderly, unlike India, which is the opposite pretty much. We're hungry. So the first thing we're gonna try and find is some street food. No idea where to go. We're gonna follow a few streets and we managed to find one near Central Station, probably about a six to seven minute walk. And if you pop onto Google Maps and put in Hong Kong, Gutz Laugh Street,
That's G-U-T-Z-L-A-F-F Street. And we found a plethora of options on the street, local food, those classic plastic chairs, quite low sitting, and cooked for you fresh on the go. So we thought, you know what, let's try one of these. We found a seat, they welcomed us in. We spoke to the guy next to us and he's like, yeah, here's the menu and this place is known for pork and rice. And we're like, you know what, let's go with a recommendation. So we sat down, ordered a Coke and a pork and rice.
and that comes to about 70 Hong Kong dollars each, not too bad. Quite expensive in Asia for street food, but this is Hong Kong, it's known for being quite expensive. The owners took our money, came back about 10 minutes later and gave us huge plate of food of pork and rice and egg. It was absolutely unbelievable. And I must say, if you go to that street, there about three or four along there where I assume they do similar foods, but they're all packed out to the rafters with locals. So it must be a great place to have some lunch. And do know what? We're so happy.
We weren't sure what to find. We didn't really want a restaurant, but we wanted some classic street food. Because believe it or not, in India, we didn't really have much street food. It's much more hotel-based because we're on the go and getting hosted quite a lot. That was a lovely hour, just sitting there, reflecting on our Indian trip, stuffed that in our faces, paid, and then walked off. And then the next part of the journey really was to wander towards the central pier area. And you'll see a big observation wheel first up.
Of course you can go on it if you want to. But we really wanted a great view of the whole harbour. So we walked along the pier, couldn't really get the best view, kept on walking. Then we found this nice pier that went out, which is public access. And at the end of this pier, there's people fishing. And as you look back into Hong Kong, the whole harbour is there with unrestricted views, boats on the water, skyscraper as far as the eye can see, some hills in the distance. It really was the best.
picture that we could find and we're so happy we sat there, it wasn't too muggy, had a drink, got some photos, admired the views, took in the sea air and that really was pretty much three hours to the dot. So we wandered back via some souvenir shops along the way to Central Station and we probably spent about, yeah, 180 Hong Kong dollars, have about 20 left. But in terms of being in Hong Kong for three hours, I don't think you can do much more than that. Of course you can get in and out of the...
street food area, but we're there for an hour and we had no sleep on the flight. Our flight was 1 a.m. We got on about 6 a.m. India time and we're just absolutely sleep deprived and we thought, you know what, we're just gonna wander around, survive a little bit, don't do anything too strenuous, get some food and see some views and that's exactly what we did. So I do think Hong Kong is definitely worth it. It's just one of those places that things are done properly. The train takes 25 minutes to come every 10 minutes I think.
and they're all on time, all regular, all very comfortable, all easy to navigate. Of course, Hong Kong is a place I wanna stay longer, so next time I'll make sure I stay there for a weekend or a week and see all the things around it. But I'm super glad to get a taste of what Hong Kong is like. It's made me want to go back for more. And do know what, if you're gonna lay over to Hong Kong and it's between six hours and a day, it definitely is possible. Below six hours, you're really cutting it, because you wanna be back for the flight, right? So have to be really in and out.
And if you know where you're going, it probably does help, but we had no idea really. So we kind of wander around aimlessly. I've got some other layover cities from my experience that are pretty cool. I've got Kuala Lumpur. There's a direct train from the airport into KL Central Station. And you can tick off in a day, the Petronas Towers, the KL Tower, and some great local food markets. If you're there at night or in evening, the Petronas Towers area is really nice. It lights up, great for photos, great food in the area, and very trendy as well for a drink.
I did stay at the Reggae Mansion but it's a bit of a party hostel so if you're younger, fair play, go and stay there. You'll probably meet some cool people and have a great night out. I did have a few nights out in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur and one was my birthday. It didn't end that well. I think I was sick of my sleep in the hostel. I that's a story for another time, that one. Okay, Singapore. Another great place in Asia if you want to have a layover. Very small, so a layover makes it ideal. Get a train or bus from the airport into the city. The Marina Bay Sands is great for the view of the city with a drink. You can pay for the entrance fee to go up to the...
viewpoint but I would say don't do that, go to the bar instead it's slightly cheaper to buy a drink and have the same experience and the airport is one of the best in the world so that's worth staying in for a day as well and a cheeky recommendation or tip for the airport is if you find a staff canteen it's hidden quite well but anyone can actually have access to this, it's public access but it's not well known and they have drop-down prices for really cheap local eats that's a cool thing to do of course in Singapore you've got the Botanical Gardens
Raffles Hotel, the Cloud Forest, they're pretty cool to check out if you have the time. Amsterdam, technically not done this, but I think I will this year because I can fly from Vancouver to Norwich via Amsterdam with KLM. And the train, I think it's about 20 minutes from the airport into the city, major hub for international travel. We didn't actually do it last time because it's so busy. So I think if you're in busy times like the summer or Christmas like we were,
you've got to be careful about getting in and out because they actually stop us from going down into immigration to go out because it's so busy. Just be aware of that. But as you well know, so much is seen due in Amsterdam. Icelandic Air, they offer free layovers with their flights if you want to stay for one, two, three nights. So for example, if you're going from Vancouver to London with Icelandic Air, you can request to stay for three nights with no extra cost. in Reykjavik, do what you want to do in Iceland and then fly to London. If you stay for a weekend, that does give you the chance to see the Blue Lagoon, the city of Reykjavik.
and maybe do some waterfalls in the country. We even did a great boat tour, which I think you could probably do in a day. It's called the Jokosalen Glacier Lagoon Tour. Basically it is on a boat weaving in and out of icebergs. It's pretty incredible thing to see and do. And of course you've got the, I mean my Icelandic's not great here. You've got the Hal Grimm's Gakurka Cathedral, the famous one in Reykjavik. That's worth seeing. And you could do a waterfall day. Skogafoss Waterfalls Classic. I think Vela National Park has a few waterfalls.
We did add that in as well. Very expensive. Cost is a great hostel if you want to stay at for one of the cheaper options in the city. I've got London here. I mean, I've been to London so many times, but if you go to Heathrow, you can get to central London on the Elizabeth line, or you can also do the Piccadilly line if you want to. So it's very easy in terms of trains. Of course, if you've got a load of stuff with you, that doesn't help, but there is an easy way to get into the centre of London. I think Gatwick has a good service to London Bridge if you're that way as well.
You can buy travel card for the day, go and see the sights. If you need a hotel to stay at near Heath Road, the Renaissance Hotel is great as well. If you need to spend a night, which we do sometimes, if we're going via London. To be fair, I've never really had a bad experience on a layover. I did have a capsule flight coming back to Vancouver via Calgary because of the snow and eventually got a hotel paid for by WestJet, which took an absolute age to get insurance on. That was a nightmare. I think I wouldn't risk.
a major hub like that in bad weather wherever you're going in the world. So do you make sure I don't entertain the possibility of being delayed or even a cancelled flight. But on the whole, it's pretty easy. You just need to be a bit brave, do your research, dip out into the city, see your things, get back in time, and it is possible. But I think what I would say is there's probably countries I would trust more than others in terms of the transport. So East Asia, for example, I would definitely trust the trains, but in UK, I would not trust the trains.
airports that are quite far away from the main city you are running the risk there of not getting back in time so it's all bit of a game really and of course the Dream is something like Icelandic air where they give you the weekend for free I would always do that to explore new place. So yeah, that's my layover episode to Hong Kong very durable If I had longer, I'd probably go and see a bit of a viewpoint. I'd do some hiking as well. Definitely all possible
And if you've got any nightmare experiences, let me know, because I'd love to hear them. They're quite funny to read out. I might do them on the next episode. That officially wraps up my India trip. I've done some episodes on that, and Hong Kong was the last bit. I've actually pretty much wrapped up all of my international travels now on the podcast. We're now going into the local travel season as it's camping season and summer in Vancouver and BC. So I've got some cool stuff coming up in the next couple of months. I've got some great interviews coming up, and I've got some immersive episodes coming up. So let's all go.
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