My wife and I spent three days and nights, including the first two days of the Asian New Year, at the Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui. It’s centrally located in Kowloon just a couple of short blocks from Nathan Road, adjacent to the Tsim Sha Tsui MRT station and the K-11 Mall, one of Kowloon’s larger shopping centers. (Indeed, the most convenient pedestrian entrance to the hotel is through the shopping mall, which faces on Mody Road. The drive-in entrance to the hotel is also on Mody Road, even though the hotel’s official address is on Hanoi Road, which is smaller and harder to find than Mody.)
Guests who are coming from the airport can take the quick and easy Airport Express train to Kowloon Station and then a free shuttle to the hotel. But we had spent a few days in Macao, so we took a ferry to the Kowloon terminal, which is called the “Hong Kong-China” ferry terminal, and then took a taxi for the short ride to the hotel. The taxi took us down to the basement, a polite and helpful Hyatt bellman took our bags, and we took the elevator to the third-floor lobby.
We had access during our stay to the 23rd-floor Regency Club Lounge. The breakfast and evening cocktails/hors d’oeuvres in the lounge were good but not spectacular; the food selection wasn’t particularly wide and two of the three bottles of red wine served...My wife and I spent three days and nights, including the first two days of the Asian New Year, at the Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui. It’s centrally located in Kowloon just a couple of short blocks from Nathan Road, adjacent to the Tsim Sha Tsui MRT station and the K-11 Mall, one of Kowloon’s larger shopping centers. (Indeed, the most convenient pedestrian entrance to the hotel is through the shopping mall, which faces on Mody Road. The drive-in entrance to the hotel is also on Mody Road, even though the hotel’s official address is on Hanoi Road, which is smaller and harder to find than Mody.)
Guests who are coming from the airport can take the quick and easy Airport Express train to Kowloon Station and then a free shuttle to the hotel. But we had spent a few days in Macao, so we took a ferry to the Kowloon terminal, which is called the “Hong Kong-China” ferry terminal, and then took a taxi for the short ride to the hotel. The taxi took us down to the basement, a polite and helpful Hyatt bellman took our bags, and we took the elevator to the third-floor lobby.
We had access during our stay to the 23rd-floor Regency Club Lounge. The breakfast and evening cocktails/hors d’oeuvres in the lounge were good but not spectacular; the food selection wasn’t particularly wide and two of the three bottles of red wine served during the cocktail hour came from screw-top bottles. But the lounge had a spectacular view of the harbor, so we spent a lot of time there. A couple of the Regency Club staff were a bit stiff and unhelpful, but most of the Club staff, and just about every other hotel employee we encountered, were great.
It was also great to be in Kowloon during the New Year celebrations. Even at other times of year Kowloon radiates more energy than central Hong Kong. The parade on the first night of New Year passed within a block or two of the hotel; we walked down to see it but couldn't see past the crowd, so we went back to our room and watched the passing floats, marching bands, and costumed dancers through our binoculars and zoom lenses. On the second night there was a great view from the lounge of the fireworks on the harbor, although, as we had expected, it was a bit crowded.
One high point of our visit was a lunch at the hotel's Chinese restaurant, called The Chinese Restaurant. I had the vegetarian dim sum -- both the restaurant manager and a couple of restaurant-review web sites emphasized that this is among the most vegetarian-friendly restaurants in Hong Kong -- and my wife had the non-vegetarian version. We both greatly enjoyed our food, the atmosphere, and the service. Both the all-purpose coffee shop/bakery/restaurant and the French fine-dining restaurant (Hugo’s) also looked good.
We enjoyed our stay at the Hyatt Regency, and especially the courtesy and helpfulness of so many of the hotel staff members. But this Hyatt is far less impressive than many other Hyatts in Asia. The lobby is neither as monumental nor as welcoming as those in most other Hyatts in the region, and the rooms and suites are also on the small side. The décor in our room was perfectly nice, but it was more in the style of a Crowne Plaza than of one of the better Hyatts. Some of the most memorable hotel stays of our lives have been in Asian Hyatts, including the Grand Hyatts in Goa and Singapore, the Hyatt Regency Kyoto, and the Grand Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok. Fortunately, we spent the final three days of our visit at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, just across the harbor, which turned out to be another world-class hotel.More
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