Airport hotels Hong Kong – Regal Airport Hotel
It’s rare we contemplate staying in airport hotels but a couple we’ve tried in Asia recently have given us pause for reflection. There are a few hotels close to Hong Kong airport but only one is walking distance from the arrivals hall – just what you’re looking for after a long flight.
The Regal Airport Hotel is about 10 minutes’ walk from arrival hall A at Hong Kong terminal 1. Having got off a flight from Taipei, we had to look closely to see the signs and were a little alarmed to be treading the corridor with a lot of other people. It turned out this is also a service corridor heading to the car parking.
This is a large hotel with a cavernous foyer; on a hot Saturday afternoon we arrived at check-in to find a very long queue. There are 1171 guest rooms and it felt like everyone was trying to check in at the same time. Annoyingly, a member of staff stood in the centre of the floor just directing people to the queue.
We were literally getting hot under the collar – the air-con was no match for the sun, the huge expanses of glass and the open front entrance. Watching the staff member do nothing was a red rag to a bull for my partner in life and travel; marching up to the hapless team member he instructed her to either get behind the desk and start helping people or find staff to come clear the backlog. Scowling, she complied. Not a fantastic start, but better than dying of heat stroke in the foyer.
Given we’d already enjoyed the delights of the Langham earlier on this trip, we opted to stay out at the Airport for our final night and just use the excellent train to head in the next day for our champagne brunch at the Ritz-Carlton. As such, we opted to upgrade to the executive club floor here, figuring we’d find a quiet spot and a few drinks and nibbles for less than it would cost us to head into Kowloon or Hong Kong Island for dinner. Had we booked that outright, we could have gone straight to the lounge to check-in and avoid the zoo that is the lobby. Ah well, a note for next time.
This is a reasonably old hotel and certainly our room looked somewhat dated. Many of the rooms have a view over the runways at Hong Kong airport, but we were allocated one at the back of the hotel, nearer to the roadway. It had no view to speak of, but it was at least quiet. We figured we’d have enough of the view from the executive lounge anyway, and here it is.
View from executive lounge
And so we parked ourselves for the evening enjoying a selection of nice wine and spirits and some better than run-of-the mill snacks. All the while, we gazed at the water and the seemingly endless procession of planes coming in to land.
The lounge itself is comfortable enough, if also a little dated in terms of decor. Happily everything was replenished well into the evening so it was a very pleasant place to sit, snack, chat and sip. All good. We were particularly taken by an excellent vegetable soup – more than enough to keep us satisfied.
Yummy chocolates
Some snacks
The room was comfortable enough although the bathroom was very small. For an airport hotel, the rooms were certainly spacious with a huge king-sized bed and separate double sofa.
Huge bed
Seating area
Desk and chair
Good quality products
Tiny shower over bathtub
But still, everything was functional and quiet. We couldn’t complain about the sleep quality.
The next morning, we fronted up for a light breakfast, given we were heading out for the decadent brunch. This was a note of sunshine …
Cute fried eggs
A spread for everyone …
With some time to kill, we thought we’d try to go sit by the pool for an hour. This was a bit weird. The pool area can only be accessed through the spa changerooms and it’s expected you’ll change into a swimsuit before you leave there, because you can only get through to the pool by walking through a rain shower. Given we were both fully clothed and only wanted to sit under an umbrella with our iPads for a time, this didn’t work for us at all.
Pool area
We were, however, given a quite late check-out, so we were able to head into the city, have an enjoyable day and then come back and change before we walked into the airport terminal to catch our flight home to Melbourne.
If you don’t need to go into the city (or even if you do, it’s not a difficult commute), this is a good option for a night in Hong Kong but do upgrade to the executive lounge – the benefits are manifold and not the least of them is avoiding the chaos in the lobby.
Regal Airport Hotel
Next to Arrival Hall A, Terminal 1, Hong Kong Airport
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