Hong Kong

A floating piece of Hong Kong heritage and a sightseeing bargain, the legendary Star Ferry was founded in 1880 and plies the waters of Victoria Harbour in the service of regular commuters and tourists. At only HK$2.70, the 15-minute ride with views of Hong Kong's iconic skyline must be one of the world's best-value cruises. While the vista is more dramatic when you're Island-bound, the art deco Kowloon pier, resembling a finger pointing at the Island, is arguably more charming.

Rising above the financial heart of Hong Kong, Victoria Peak offers superlative views of the city and the mountainous countryside beyond. Ride the hair-raising Peak Tram – Asia's first cable funicular, in operation since 1888 – to the cooler climes at the top, as skyscrapers and apartment blocks recede into the distance. Escape the crowds by striking out on little-worn paths that encircle the mountain. At dusk Victoria Harbour glitters like the Milky Way on a sci-fi movie poster, mysterious and full of promise, as the lights come on.

Hong Kong is a city that lives and breathes seemingly just to eat and drink. It's also one of the only cities in the world where Michelin-starred meals can be had for a song. You could be ripping gourmet roast goose with your bare hands in a humble street cafe one night and dining on fusion delicacies with harbour views the next. Ease into the day with 'pantyhose' milk tea at a cha chaan tang (teahouse) then roll your sleeves up for a dim sum bun fight at lunch.

Experience Chinese folk religiosity in Soho. Permanently wreathed in sandalwood smoke from the hanging incense coils, this famous temple is dedicated to Man (god of literature) and Mo (god of war) and the gods who govern them. Formerly a cultural and political focal point for the local Chinese, the temple now commands a following beyond conscientious students and the martially inclined, as locals and tourists come to perform age-old rites and have their fortunes told.

Beneath the glare of naked bulbs, hundreds of stalls sell a vast array of booty, from sex toys to Nepalese daggers. You can browse for handy gadgets or quirky souvenirs, and test your bargaining skills. Nearby, fortune-tellers beckon in English from dimly lit tents, and Cantonese opera singers strike a pose. If you're hungry, the many open-air stalls offer snacks or a seafood feast. Sure it's touristy, but its mesmerising and impenetrable aura makes everyone – including locals – feel like a welcome visitor.

Surreally nestled under an imposing arc of apartment towers, this 61-hectare ecological park in crowded Tin Shui Wai is a swampy haven of biodiversity. This is urban/nature juxtaposition at its best and, curiously, most harmonious. Precious ecosystems in this far-flung yet easily accessible part of the New Territories provide tranquil habitats for a range of waterfowl and other wildlife. Try to forget the human-made world for a moment and delve into a landscape of mangroves, rivers and fish-filled ponds.

Every Wednesday night the city horse-racing track in Happy Valley comes alive, with eight electrifying races and a carnival of food and beer. You can try your luck at betting or simply enjoy the collective exhilaration and the thunder of shod hooves. Races were first held here in the 19th century by European merchants who imported stocky stallions from Mongolia, which they rode themselves. Now there are races every week except in the sweltering months of July and August.

Almost a village within a city, the reimagining of the former Central Police Station at Tai Kwun on Hollywood Rd is the biggest heritage project to open in Hong Kong in more than a decade. Vocal silhouettes of former inmates (including Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh) leap about in unlocked cells, and confronting art consumes visitors in the startling Herzog & de Meuron–designed JC Contemporary block. Dedicate several hours to exploring the maze of heritage blocks crammed with exhibitions and artsy musings; then process what you've seen in the complex's bars and restaurants.

A favourite with local day trippers and foreign visitors alike, the world's biggest outdoor seated Buddha lords over the western hills of Lantau Island. Visit this serene giant via the Ngong Ping 360 cable car. Negotiate the 268 steps to the three-platform altar on which it is seated and check out the three halls along the way. Reward yourself with some monastic food at the popular vegetarian restaurant in Po Lin Monastery below. Buddha's Birthday in May is a colourful time to visit this important pilgrimage site.

Soho's old married police quarters is one of Hong Kong's greatest heritage reinvention successes. This buzzy lifestyle arena is where small Hong Kong designers hawk their wares in modernist units punctuated by artisan coffee bars, restaurants, a world-class sake education centre and sweet treats galore: it's Hong Kong's most diverting shrine to commercialism, and with bagloads more local character than you'll find in the luxury megamalls of Central. Pop-up creative events and flashes of street art fill the central courtyard; a cathedral-like gallery in the rafters crowns the complex.

Nicknamed 'ding dings' by locals, trams have been sedately chugging back and forth between the Eastern and Western districts of the Island since 1904. A century later the world's largest fleet of still-operating double-decker trams continues to negotiate pathways through the city's heavy traffic. This is low-carbon transport at its finest, and there's something fun and just a little bit Harry Potter–esque about these ultraskinny, creaking gliders. Board in Central and watch the city unfold like a carousel of images as you relax and ponder tomorrow's itinerary.

Gleaming skyscrapers lined up between emerald hills and a deep-blue harbour with criss-crossing boats – Hong Kong's best-known imagery is of the Island but, like a hologram, its beauty only shimmers into view when you're looking from the Tsim Sha Tsui East Promenade in Kowloon, especially after sundown. Home to windswept museums and a world-class concert venue, the promenade offers pockets of culture as you stroll its length, as intimate with one of the world's best views as you can get without falling into the water.

If there were a soundtrack for the island of Lamma, it would be reggae. The island's laid-back vibe attracts herb-growers, musicians and New Age therapists from a rainbow of cultures. Village shops stock prosecco, and island mongrels respond to commands in French. If you hike to the nearest beach, your unlikely compass will be three coal-fired plants against the skyline, looking more trippy than grim. Then, in the glow of the day's final rays, head back for fried calamari and beer by the pier.

Once you've made it past the windy Dragon's Back ridge, the Hong Kong Trail sweeps you into rolling hills, secluded woodland and lofty paths that afford sumptuous views of the rugged south and its wavy shore. Starting from the Peak, the 50km route snakes across the entire length of Hong Kong Island, past beautiful reservoirs, cobalt bays and WWII battlefields. Spread over five country parks, this wonderful trail invites both easy perambulations and harder hikes.

Let Yuen Long's walled villages take you back over half a millennium to a wild and windy time when piracy was rife along the South China coast. Isolated from China's administrative heart, Hong Kong, with its treacherous shores and mountainous terrain, was an excellent hideout for pirates. Its earliest inhabitants built villages with high walls, some guarded by cannons, to protect themselves. Inside these walls today you'll see ancestral halls, courtyards, pagodas, temples and ancient farming implements – vestiges of Hong Kong's precolonial history, all carefully restored.

Macau's most famous landmark is a dramatic gate perched on a hill 26m above sea level, smack in the middle of the city. A sweep of stairs with landings and balustrades takes you to it, and then to nowhere. Once part of a 17th-century Jesuit church destroyed in a fire, the facade, with fine carvings and detailed engravings displaying Christian, Chinese and Japanese influences, is a captivating historical fragment and a document in granite of Macau's unique 'Mediterrasian' culture.

With its eclectic speciality markets Mong Kok makes for a rewarding shopping crawl. Ladies' Market has a 1.6-km-long wardrobe covering everything from 'I Love HK' rugby shirts to granny swimwear. Exotic seeds and gardening tools sit next to buckets of fragrant florals in the flower market. Stalls displaying colourful aquatic life in softly humming, UV-lit tanks line the streets of the goldfish market. There are vertical markets too – a buzzing computer mall, and a multistorey gadget-lovers' heaven.