Holiday Inn Golden Mile Hong Kong Review – Best Location!

Whenever we visit Hong Kong, we usually stay at different hotels. It all depends on promos, membership points, etc… because you should take advantage of those! 🙂 Sayang naman! Whatever we can save goes to food, hahaha 🙂

By far, the hotel I have stayed at with the best location, in my humble opinion, is the Holiday Inn Golden Mile in Tsim Sha Tsui. This hotel has been there since the eighties! It’s good to see that despite its age, the hotel has kept up with the times and still looks good compared to the other hotels of that era that have become rundown.

We stayed at Holiday Inn Golden Mile again during our last visit 🙂

Holiday Inn Golden Mile – Best Location!

Holiday Inn Golden Mile is located at the corner of Nathan Road and Mody Road in TST, Kowloon side. Here are all the advantages of this location that I can think of:

• There is an MTR Exit (N5) right outside. Being beside an MTR exit is an advantage that is difficult to top. The hotel has a back entrance to Mody Road and a front entrance leading to Nathan Road.
• Most of the buses that ply Nathan Road pass by Holiday Inn – it’s difficult to get lost; just get off at the nearest bus stop
• The FREE Airport Express Shuttle stops by the hotel door every 15 minutes. It’s the K3 route and it drops you off at the Airport Express station beneath the Elements Mall in Kowloon (the shuttle from hotel to the station is free, the Airport Express train ticket to the airport is not). This makes getting to the airport and vice versa very easy. The Hong Kong Airport Bus route A21 (not free) also stops by Holiday Inn.
• It’s right beside Chungking Mansion where you can get your money changed to HK dollars. The money changers there accept most currencies. You can bring Philippine pesos and have it changed there. Chungking Mansion has many money changers in one place — it is generally thought to have the best exchange rates, but you still need to canvass among the money changers there to make sure you are getting the best rate. FYI, there’s a vendor in Chungking Mansion who also sells cheaper mineral water (same brands like Bonaqua, Watsons).
• There are so many places to go within walking distance. Just along Nathan Road, there are several Sasas, Bonjours, restaurants, malls, etc… Please read my Beauty Bargains in HK post for all the scoop!
• You can easily walk to:
  • • The Peninsula Hong Kong
    • Canton Road
    • Harbour City / Star Ferry
    • Silvercord
    • Sogo / Avenue of the Stars
• Carnarvon Road is just around the corner! This is where Potato Corner is, where Michelin-approved Mammy Pancakes is, etc… it is near Godwell Dispensary, various Bonjours & Sasa, a big Etude House, and many other shops, and restaurants like Paradise Dynasty
• It is very near the Turkish / Middle-Eastern area where all the authentic doners and kebabs are! You must try those! Look for Hart Ave / Prat / Humphrey. It’s around that area.
• Cameron Road is just one block away – this area around Carnarvon / Cameron Road is the place to walk around in TST. Many of the cool new restaurants set up around here because of good foot traffic. It is one of the trendier areas in Hong Kong but isn’t too “out there” in terms of price and it doesn’t feel as intimidating as Lan Kwai Fong. The vibe also feels more relaxed than in Causeway Bay.
• Granville Road is just 2 blocks away – there are also some shops & restaurants along Granville that you might want to check out, most notably Yum Cha
• Other places that you can walk to that are a bit farther away but still walkable:
  • • Australian Dairy Company
    • Yee Shun Milk Company
    • Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei (2 MTR stops away)
• Only one short bus ride (or 3 MTR stops) to MongKok
• Only one short bus ride to Tim Ho Wan (From Nathan Road, take Bus #6 north bound, get off at Fuk Wa Garden bus stop. There will be an announcement / signage on the bus showing the next bus stop. Walk about 2 minutes to reach Tim Ho Wan)
• Most of the places I like to go to are in Kowloon, so we spend most of the trip on the Kowloon side and only spend 1-2 days walking the Hong Kong side.

*Apologies for the poor quality photos. I just used my phone camera during the entire trip and this new Samsung A7 phone doesn’t take as good photos as my old Huawei Leica phone. Did not use DSLR, too bulky to lug around everywhere.

IHG Check-In + Free Internet + Handyphone

If you are planning to stay at an IHG hotel, sign up for the free IHG membership for additional perks. You check-in at the IHG Member’s check-in area with seats and coffee. No need to stand in line at the front desk. You also get free WIFI and the use of a Handyphone during your stay 🙂 We were also given free Welcome Drinks coupons.

Checking in was quick and hassle-free. They ask for your credit card (security deposit) but the cancellation of the security deposit charge couldn’t be done during check out and they couldn’t provide any written confirmation that the charge would be cancelled. The lady who did our checkout just basically said trust her and that she will email the cancellation within the day. She did email, and we weren’t charged the security deposit, but I don’t remember going through this with other hotels. I remember years ago, they would just ask us to sign a blank charge slip and then rip the charge slip during check out. In other hotels, I remember having to sign some paperwork stating that the charge was cancelled.

We didn’t get breakfast at the hotel because “why?”. There are so many places to eat in Hong Kong and only so many meals to do it in! We’ll take any opportunity to eat outside 🙂

What is the Handyphone?

The hotel provides a free Android smartphone for guests’ use. You can make FREE PHONE CALLS (local & international) and the phone also has FREE MOBILE INTERNET. You can use the phone as a WIFI hotspot.

This was very helpful. However, I just did not want to log in all my accounts (Facebook, Instagram, emails, etc…) on the phone, so we just ended up using the handyphone as a phone for calling each other when we got separated, and for calling home (Philippines). I got a Klook SIM card for my phone.

To call the Handyphone, you need to dial a number, and then key in a code. It’s not as straightforward as simply dialing a phone number, but it’s free so it’s fine 🙂

THE ROOM

We got a Deluxe Room. The room is a good size for city center Hong Kong where rooms the size of a shoebox is the norm. The aircon works (it’s cold but you can adjust the temp).

It has the standard amenities like a flat-screen TV, desk, safe, hot and cold shower, towels, hair dryer, mini coffee bar with electric kettle, mini ref, etc…

Again, I am grateful that Holiday Inn Golden Mile kept its “real” wall for the bathroom. The trend right now with new hotels in Hong Kong and even in Manila, is glass walls for the bathroom. The bathroom door doesn’t have a lock though. Standard toiletries were provided, as well as 2 bottles of water every day.

What I appreciated is that they installed USB sockets so we can easily charge our gadgets 🙂 I didn’t count them all, but there were at least 3. I did bring my power strip, of course, but I never used it because we didn’t need it. There were enough outlets to use. They also provided an adapter for guests’ use. It’s little things like this that help make a stay at a hotel better, especially if you’re coming from a different country.

We also got this welcome tray of candy with real White Rabbit, sachima, and fruits.

They also provided an iron, ironing board, flashlight and an umbrella, thank goodness! Hong Kong was rainy. I was also able to iron my dress without much trouble.

FACILITIES

Holiday Inn Golden Mile has a pool and a gym. I used the gym once – hey, I got to burn *some* calories 😀

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use the pool because it was cold and raining by the time I wanted to take a swim. The pool isn’t heated.

SUMMARY

I am happy with Holiday Inn Golden Mile – they have nice, generally clean-looking rooms and a very good location. Barring other circumstances like better perks at other hotels, or needing to stay at a different location for some reason, Holiday Inn Golden Mile is the hotel I always pick given my choices. It’s just the most convenient one with its proximity to everything. (Sometimes we are limited to hotels where we can redeem points/miles).

Although, Housekeeping missed wiping the tables and vacuuming the crumbs after we ate dinner in the room one night. No big deal, I just wiped the table myself with some wet tissue, but I couldn’t do anything about the crumbs on the carpet. The crumbs lasted until the day we checked out so I’m guessing they don’t really vacuum when they tidy up the room every day.

The lobby is spacious and secure, the elevators work. The elevators are normal-sized. I only mention this because I have stayed in other hotels in Hong Kong where they had only one elevator that was the size of a tiny linen closet and where the rooms were atrociously tiny and dark. We’ve also stayed in a big suite at another hotel chain that felt like it hadn’t been refurbished since 1970. Compared to those hotels that are the usual hotels offered by tour packages, this Holiday Inn is a league above. Transportation in HK is expensive, consider how much time and money you will be saving by staying at a hotel with a good location. I find it very convenient that I can walk everywhere I want to go, and even stop by the hotel first to drop off things we bought, get some rest, before heading out again.

Holiday Inn Golden Mile is a great value if you can get rooms at a good price online or use points/miles. If you book early and choose dates wisely, the room rate is around P7,000-8,000ish per night (HK is expensive; I would consider this reasonable by HK levels). They also maintain a certain standard. I’m not too sure about the cleanliness standard, but overall, at this price range, I think Holiday Inn Golden Mile is a good place to stay when in Hong Kong 🙂