The Nostalgia Tour: Aberdeen, Repulse Bay & Stanley
Ask anyone who visited Hong Kong in the 1970s or 80s what they did, and you'll hear the same answer: the Island tour. Peak, Aberdeen, Repulse Bay, Stanley. It was the classic circuit — the one printed on every hotel desk brochure — and here's the secret the modern internet forgot: it's still a wonderful day. The south side of Hong Kong Island has changed less than any other part of this city. The junks became yachts, the rickshaws became Teslas, but the bones are all there.
The Peak — the eternal opener
Every era's tour started here, and for good reason: the view over the harbour is the single greatest city vista in Asia. What the old tours never did (and I always do): the Lugard Road loop, a flat 40-minute walk around the Peak through jungle and lookouts, where the crowds vanish and the city glitters below like a circuit board.
Aberdeen — the floating world
Then as now, Aberdeen is the soul of the south side. The typhoon shelter still packs with fishing boats; the sampan ladies still row visitors among them (negotiate gently, it's a tradition). The famous floating restaurants are gone — the Jumbo capsized at sea in 2022, a genuine loss — but the boat-dwellers' community, the fish market across the water and the smell of diesel and dried shrimp remain gloriously intact. My guests are always surprised: this isn't a reconstruction. People still live on these boats.
Repulse Bay — colonial curve
The old tours stopped here for tea, and so do I. The Repulse Bay building keeps its colonial verandah look (a loving rebuild of the 1920 original), the beach curves exactly as it did in the old photographs, and at the southern end stands the wonderfully eccentric lifeguard temple — giant statues of Tin Hau and Kwun Yum guarding the swimmers, built by the lifeguards themselves in the 1970s.
Stanley — where the market never left
Stanley was a fishing village, then a wartime tragedy (the internment camp at St Stephen's College — the museum there is small and devastating), then the market town it remains today. Murray House, the 1846 officers' mess, was dismantled stone by stone in Central and rebuilt here in 2001 — with two columns accidentally left over. The market still sells everything and nothing; the promenade still does the best lazy sunset drink on the island.
· Do the day in this order: Peak → Aberdeen → Repulse Bay → Stanley — the light follows you.
· The sampan ride in Aberdeen costs around HK$60–100 per person; 20–30 minutes is plenty.
· St Stephen's College wartime museum opens limited hours — check before you go, or go with me.
· Buses 6/6X/260 from Central do the whole south side; with four hours or less, take taxis between stops.
👉 This exact day, with me: the Old Hong Kong Nostalgia Tour
Why the old tour still wins
Modern Hong Kong itineraries sprint between Instagram points. The old Island tour understood something better: that a day needs a rhythm — a view, a harbour, a beach, a market, and time for tea in between. If your parents did this tour in 1978, bring their photo. We'll stand where they stood, and I'll show you exactly what changed — and what, wonderfully, didn't.
