RTW Trip Day #15: Visiting the Big Buddha on Lantau Island

13 October 2025

Steps: 23,966

We visited the Big Buddha on Lantau Island about twenty years ago when we were travelling after university. It was one of our favourite experiences from that trip, so we really wanted to take the girls this time so they could see it for themselves.

Maybe we’d built it up too much in our heads, but it ended up being a a slight disappointment. If we were to go again, there are definitely a few things we’d do differently - I’ll explain below.

Getting There

We took the tram, which was a fun new experience for the girls, to connect with the MTR, before catching the train over to Lantau Island. The whole trip from our hotel took about an hour. I think the tram might be my favourite way to get around Hong Kong. It’s cheap, convenient, and easy to hop on and off, and it adds so much character to the city’s old-world charm.

Booking Tickets for the Lantau Island Cable Car

When we arrived at the Lantau Island cable car, there were a few different lines, and we joined the “buy tickets” queue, assuming it would move quickly. That was our first mistake.

After standing still for about ten minutes, I ended up buying our tickets online while we waited and then joined the main queue. I wish we’d known that if we’d pre-purchased tickets beforehand, we could have skipped that entire first line altogether.

There were three types of tickets that offer a slightly different experience at different prices: Standard Cabin, Crystal Cabin, and Crystal+ Cabin.

They all take the same route, the only difference is that the crystal cabins are slightly nicer, have a glass floor and you get to skip the queue.

Since the tickets were already quite expensive, we chose the Standard cabin. Unfortunately, so did pretty much everyone else! This was our second mistake.

The cable cars seemed to run in a pattern of two Standard cabins followed by one Crystal and one Crystal+, but if no one was waiting for the Crystal ones, they just went around empty.

We ended up queuing for about an hour before finally getting into our Standard cabin, whereas the wait for the Crystal or Crystal+ cabins was only around five minutes.

Our third mistake was that we could have saved between 10-20% off the tickets by ordering through klook, rather than buying directly with the official website.

If we had have known this, we would have opted for the crystal cabins, and I’d definitely recommend paying a bit extra if you can to skip the line, especially if you are there at peak times.

Riding the Cable Car

Once we got on the cable car, it was a pretty smooth ride, and the views were great. You could see the mountain in front of us, the airports and small islands behind us and even the city of Shenzen in China in the distance. The ride to the top took about 25 minutes.

The Big Buddha on Lantau Island

The Big Buddha on Lantau Island was even more impressive than I remembered. You can spot it from the cable car as you climb up the mountain, and once you’re standing at the base looking up, the sheer size of it is jaw dropping.

I’m not going to lie, the climb up the 268 steps to the Big Buddha was brutal, especially in 30°C heat and almost 80% humidity. But once you reach the top, it’s totally worth it. You can actually go inside the Buddha, and it’s ice cold air-conditioned, which was a welcome break after that climb.

The view from the top floor balcony is incredible, with sweeping views of the surrounding mountains and ocean.

Po Lin Monastery

After visiting the Big Buddha, we wandered over to Po Lin Monastery, which is just across the courtyard. The main hall is stunning! Everything inside is covered in gold, and the Buddha statues lined up along the back wall were amazing.

The Hike Down to Tung Chung

Twenty years ago we hiked down to the train station from the big Buddha, and it was wonderful. I still remember passing monasteries and hearing Buddhist monks chanting as we went by.

This time we decided to hike down to Tung Chung again - plus it was a lot cheaper for a one way ticket. It was hot and humid, but at least most of the route was shaded by trees, which gave us some relief. We stopped by a small waterfall that made for a nice break, but there was quite a bit of construction along the trail and it didn’t have quite the same charm as I remembered it.

To pass the time, we played a hangman-style game where we asked the kids questions about the trip so far. If they got the answer right, they could guess a letter in a hidden phrase. The final answer was “Disneyland,” which was the surprise activity planned for the next day that we promised we would reveal if they didn’t complain about the hike! Bribery always works!

By the time we reached the bottom, we found ourselves walking through an active construction site, following “pedestrians this way” signs between tower cranes and scaffolding. Not exactly how we remembered it, but it was still a fun experience all the same..

Nathan Road Shopping and the Avenue of the Stars

After a quick (you guessed it - another swim in the pool), we hopped on the MTR and headed over to Nathan Road for some shopping, dinner, and a visit to the Avenue of the Stars.

We went into Uniqlo and found some really cool clothes. We picked up a shirt for Evelyn that has pandas and Chinese writing on it. It was super cute and unique to Hong Kong.

For dinner, we stumbled across a small local restaurant that served pork char sui, and Evelyn absolutely loved it.

After eating, we walked down to the Avenue of the Stars, which is a promenade lined with handprints of famous actors and filmmakers. We didn’t recognize many of the names since most were Chinese stars, but the view across the Harbour was incredible.

To wrap up the evening, we caught the Star Ferry back to Kowloon. The girls had a great time, it’s such a classic Hong Kong experience, as it's been running since 1888, plus it’s still only 4 HKD (less than 1 CAD).

We got back to our hotel later than planned as we'd wanted the girls to get a good nights sleep so that they were well-rested for Disneyland in the morning... but let’s be honest, the girls will probably find some energy once they see Mickey.

Previous Day #14: Bottomless Dim Sum and the Peak Tram

Next Day #16: Hong Kong Disneyland

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