Hong Kong · Hong Kong · Long layover · Hong Kong
Hong Kong International Airport HKG
You can have a hot shower or go into the city at Hong Kong. You cannot find a bed airside: sleeping properly means entering Hong Kong. Better to know that before booking, rather than at two in the morning.
For subtitles in English: start the video firstthen click the gearat the top right of the video, select “Subtitles/CC”, then “Auto-translate” and choose “English”.
How long is your layover?
2 hrs
You can do it all on foot or by automated shuttle, without leaving airside.
- The airport works as one large terminal: East Hall, West Hall, Satellite and Midfield are all linked airside by walkways and an automated shuttle. Allow 5 to 10 minutes between halls, and 10 to 12 minutes to Midfield.
- Every connecting passenger goes through a dedicated security check before returning to departures: liquids over 100 ml are removed and electronics come out of the bag. It is a proper queue, not a token gesture.
- If you are connecting international to international and your baggage is checked through to your final destination, you do not clear immigration. An hour to an hour and a half remains the sensible minimum.
2–5 hrs
The shower is free, which is unusual enough to be worth repeating.
- Free showers are by the boarding area on Arrivals Level 5: one near gate 12 and another near gate 43. Shampoo, shower gel and hairdryers are provided. After a long-haul flight, it is the best quarter-hour of your journey.
- The towel comes from the vending machine beside it. If you have one in your cabin bag, nothing needs buying.
- Wi-Fi is free, unlimited and needs no registration: accept the terms and you are connected. Nothing to sign up for and nothing to renew after an hour.
- ⚠️ Left-luggage facilities are landside, on Level 5 of Terminal 1. If you remain airside, you keep everything with you there is no storage in the transit area.
5–10 hrs
With more than seven hours, the city tour is free provided you register.
- NO VISA the showers, Wi-Fi and rest areas will see you through half a day without clearing immigration.
- VISA REQUIRED the airport runs a genuinely free city tour of about four hours for connecting passengers between two flights whose layover exceeds seven hours. You must be able to enter Hong Kong: most European passports have visa-free entry, but check yours.
- Register or confirm your place at the E1 transfer counters, on Arrivals Level 5 in the restricted area BEFORE immigration. Your guide then meets you at the counters in Arrivals Hall A, on Level 5, once you have cleared immigration.
- ⚠️ You can book ahead, but places go first come, first served. Go to the counter as soon as you land, not two hours later.
10 hrs +
To sleep, you must enter Hong Kong. There is no other answer here.
- ⚠️ Unlike Doha, Dubai, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong has NO hotel in the transit area. If your passport does not allow entry, the night is spent in a chair or a lounge. Worth knowing when choosing the flight, not when you arrive.
- VISA REQUIRED Regal Airport Hotel is beside the terminal and linked by a covered walkway. You can walk there with your kit, without shuttle or taxi.
- VISA REQUIRED SkyCity and Tung Chung hotels are a little further out, reached by shuttle or the airport train, with more choice.
- Do not count on an airline-funded night either: where it exists, it is tied to a disrupted layover and requested in advance, never automatically granted for a layover you chose.
- If you are continuing to the Philippines, the timetable decides it for you: the first flight to CEBU leaves at seven fifty-five, the last at twenty-one thirty-five. Arriving after midnight therefore leaves several hours before the first departure and in Hong Kong, those hours are spent landside or in a chair, as there is no transit hotel.
What catches travellers out
There is no airside hotel
At a hub of this size, you assume there will be one. There is not. Every night in Hong Kong requires clearing immigration, both outbound and back. If your overnight layover is already booked and your passport does not permit entry, better find out now.
Left luggage only helps if you go out
It is on Level 5 of Terminal 1, landside. A long layover spent by the boarding gates therefore means carrying all your cabin baggage which changes how you choose a place to wait.
The city tour is first come, first served
Online booking is possible, sometimes several months ahead, but places are still allocated in order of arrival and the number of slots is limited. A nine-hour layover guarantees nothing if you reach the counter late in the morning.
Transit security is a real security check
Every connecting passenger goes through it again: liquids over 100 ml are removed and electronic devices come out of the bag. Something bought in a shop before boarding may not pass this check. Check before you get to the belt.
Why not wait it out in peace?
For subtitles in English: start the video firstthen click the gearat the top right of the video, select “Subtitles/CC”, then “Auto-translate” and choose “English”.
A lounge does not sell you a shower here that is free two doors away. It sells quiet, a proper chair and somewhere to put fifteen kilos of cabin baggage.
Start by dropping the usual assumption: an airport lounge is not reserved for business-class passengers. Hong Kong’s Plaza Premium lounges can be bought individually by any passenger, whatever is printed on the ticket, and the lounge at gate 60 is open around the clock.
Do the arithmetic most people skip. Three hours in the concourse means drinks and a sandwich, eaten standing up in the noise while you keep an eye on your bag. A lounge gives you a chair, buffet, drinks and a socket of your own.
For a diver, the real argument is not comfort. It is being able to put down the cabin bag regulator, dive computer, housing rather than balancing it on your knees for five hours.
Hong Kong’s most filmed lounges belong to Cathay Pacific: The Pier, The Wing and The Deck. You cannot buy entry at the door. Check the exact name before crossing the terminal.
Access is sold per visit, with the choice depending on the lounge and hall.
See the lounge →Where to sleep during the layover?
The only bed you can reach on foot from the terminal, via a covered walkway.
- It is the closest address to the terminal: no shuttle to wait for and no taxi to negotiate with your kit.
- ⚠️ It is landside, like every hotel here: Hong Kong has no option in the transit area. Check that your nationality allows entry before making it your plan.
For subtitles in English: start the video firstthen click the gearat the top right of the video, select “Subtitles/CC”, then “Auto-translate” and choose “English”.
A little further out, served by shuttle more choice and often better value for a full night.
- Choose this if the layover is long enough that the shuttle journey barely matters.
- Like the previous option, it means clearing immigration both ways, with your kit throughout.
For subtitles in English: start the video firstthen click the gearat the top right of the video, select “Subtitles/CC”, then “Auto-translate” and choose “English”.
The diver’s reflex
Two power banks, and no more
On every flight departing Hong Kong, the civil aviation authority limits each passenger to two power banks, in cabin baggage only, and bans their use or charging in flight some airlines even require them to remain under the seat rather than overhead. A diver travelling with a housing, two torches and the means to charge everything reaches that limit without noticing. Count them before check-in.
Your spare batteries are counted too
Spare batteries travel in cabin baggage, never in the hold, with terminals protected against short circuits. Up to 100 Wh, the allowance is generous around twenty items. Between 100 and 160 Wh, it drops to two, with airline approval. Above that, they are refused. A modern torch pack can approach the threshold quickly: read the marking at home, not at the counter.
The shower is free; the towel is not
This is one of the few large airports where you can wash without paying, with shampoo and hairdryers provided. Only the towel comes from a vending machine. A diver usually has a microfibre towel somewhere: take it from your hold bag before checking in, as this is exactly where it earns its place.
The airport at a glance
- Terminals
- Terminal 1 East Hall, West Hall, Satellite and Midfield, all linked airside
- Getting around
- Walk between halls (5 to 10 min) · automated shuttle to Midfield (10 to 12 min)
- Minimum connection
- 60 to 90 min international to international, including transit security
- Wi-Fi
- Free, unlimited, no registration “#HKAirport Free WiFi”
- Showers
- FREE by the boarding area, Arrivals L5: near gate 12 and near gate 43 · shampoo, shower gel and hairdryers provided; towel from vending machine
- Left luggage
- Landside only, Level 5 of Terminal 1, Arrivals Hall A charged service
- Lounge available to buy
- Plaza Premium gate 1 and gate 60 open around the clock, gate 35 has extended hours
- Airside hotel
- None you must enter Hong Kong to sleep in a bed
- Landside hotel
- Regal Airport Hotel, on foot via covered walkway · SkyCity and Tung Chung by shuttle
- City tour
- Free from the airport, about 4 h, layover of more than 7 h E1 transfer counters, Arrivals L5
- Going into the city
- Visa-free for most European passports check yours
- Power banks
- Maximum two per person, in cabin baggage, with no charging or use in flight rule applies to every departing flight
- Official website
- hongkongairport.com ↗
