Hong Kong · Hong Kong
Kowloon, Hong Kong — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Kowloon packs its streets onto a mainland peninsula, the dense urban shore of Hong Kong facing Hong Kong Island across the harbour.
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Where to stay in Kowloon
Where visitors usually base themselves, and why.
Kowloon sets its lodging across the peninsula, close to the harbour that faces Hong Kong Island. The waterfront draws first. Along the southern tip the shopping and eating streets run down to the harbour edge, with the crossing to Hong Kong Island and the ferries close at hand.
Stay near the water for the harbour front. Further up the peninsula the blocks around Ho Man Tin and Hung Hom sit back from the shore, quieter and nearer the run of the New Territories to the north.
Find hotels in Kowloon
Direct booking searches for these neighbourhoods.
Kowloon harbour tip
The southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula where the shopping and eating streets meet the harbour facing Hong Kong Island, nearest the ferries and crossing.Find hotels in Kowloon harbour tipquieter stays back from the Kowloon shoreHo Man Tin and Hung Hom
The inland blocks of Ho Man Tin and Hung Hom on the Kowloon peninsula, set back from the harbour and closer to the New Territories to the north.Find hotels in Ho Man Tin and Hung HomHotel links are affiliate links: booking through them may earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects how places are ranked. How this works
About Kowloon
What are the main landmarks in Kowloon?
Kowloon marks its streets with civic halls. The Fa Yuen Street Sports Centre sits on one of the district's busy market streets, while the Hung Hom Municipal Services Building Sports Centre anchors the eastern blocks near the harbour and its ferries across to Hong Kong Island. Two more stand inland.
The Ho Man Tin Sports Centre and the open Mission Road Ground add courts and turf among the dense mainland grid of the peninsula, threaded between the shopping streets and the shore that faces Hong Kong Island.
What is the history of Kowloon?
Kowloon, formerly Kaulung, is one of the three parts of Hong Kong, joined later than Hong Kong Island. The peninsula came second. British administration reached the mainland shore after taking the island, adding the Kowloon Peninsula and, in time, the ground of New Kowloon that stretched the built-up land toward the New Territories.
From a strip of harbour-front settlements the peninsula filled in to become one of the most densely built places anywhere, the smallest and most crowded of the three parts of Hong Kong.
Where is Kowloon?
Kowloon is an urban peninsula on the mainland part of Hong Kong, facing Hong Kong Island across the harbour and joined to the New Territories to the north.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in Kowloon?
Kowloon harbour tip: shopping-street stays by the Kowloon waterfront. Ho Man Tin and Hung Hom: quieter stays back from the Kowloon shore.
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Updated September 2026