Hong Kong’s best outlying-island guest houses, for a break from the city
- The outlying islands offer a raft a bucolic retreats, perfect for a pandemic-weary population
- From Cheung Chau to Tung Ping Chau, small, family-run establishments are reasonably cheap and resolutely cheerful

Getting out of Hong Kong has rarely been trickier – so getting out of the city and heading to one of the islands has never been more tempting. Rather than staying at an impersonal hotel, it makes sense to pick an upmarket guest house, especially if it is family run, reasonably cheap and resolutely cheerful. And while there may not be a whole raft of what five-star properties dub “facilities” on offer, there’s often a great feeling of freedom and ample opportunity to indulge the imagination at Hong Kong’s “midget-budget” accommodation.
Prices shown are for the smallest accommodation available and the cheapest days of the week.

Espace Elastique: Tai O, Lantau (from HK$750)
A heartfelt essay in sympathetic design and historical preservation, Espace Elastique (Chinese name: Return to the Country) gives a lot of the city’s larger, noisier accommodation a run for its money. It’s a family business, whose associations with the village stretch back a century. Owner Veronica Chan Wai-chi’s grandfather set up a fabric shop in the house opposite Espace in the 1920s, and it remains a classic example of tong lau architecture, perching family quarters above business premises.
Small and perfectly formed, Espace echoes this premise, with just four rooms (the balcony of the top-floor, purple-hued Deluxe Suite has the best view of the nearby waterway) placed in the upper storeys and a cafe and outdoor terrace downstairs, all but steps away from one of Hong Kong’s most charismatic neighbourhoods.

B&B Cheung Chau (from HK$550)
B&B Cheung Chau is not so much “get away from it all” as “get into it all”. Cecilia Ko Lei-weh, who has worked at The Peninsula and other high-profile establishments, opened B&B in 2006, on Tung Wan Road, which spans the island’s narrowest point and is busy enough at times to feel like its jugular. Overwhelming demand led to an expansion, and a satellite wing – five minutes’ walk away, near Pak Tai temple – brought the room total to 17, all fitting neatly into the cute, cosy and comfortable bracket.