Tai Long Wan is a stretch of coastline consisting of three beaches that goes for about 3 km’s along the east coast of the Sai Kung Peninsula. It’s one of my favourite places in Hong Kong but a little bit difficult to take younger kids because it takes a bit of effort to get there. There’s a few ways to get in so let’s explore them here.
Firstly, the hard way but most rewarding way and that’s up and over Sharp Peak. The views are almost epic, they don’t come much better than this in Hong Kong. Drive to Pak Tam Chung Public Car Park and walk to Pak Tam Au. Head up Sharp Peak, it’s steep for a few hundred meters but that’s it. You’ll have, if you get a rare clear day, brilliant views of the coast. Head down to Tai Long Wan, the northern most beach is Tung Wan. There’s most likely to be nobody here, especially weekday. It’s small bay and if you don’t fancy that, hike over to the next long beach (south) which is also likely to have nobody around. Beautiful. If you’re hungry, then take short walk to Ham Tin Beach, there’s a couple of smaller restaurants serving up some gross fried rice. The beach there is also nice, but there’s likely to be a few more people. From there, you can either head back over to Pak Tam Au, avoiding Sharp Peak, or head over to Sai Wan Beach, about a 2-30 minute walk, then up to Sai Wan Pavilion where you might be able to get a taxi. Taxi back to Sai Kung.
The easiest way is from Sai Kung, get a taxi to Sai Wan Pavilion, walk down to Sai Wan Beach, then over to Ham Tin Beach. There’s minibuses they don’t go everyday or very often. In the middle of summer, when the sun is beating down, it’s 35 degrees and 85% humidity, it’s brutal and you’ll need litres and litres of water. This way is what most people do, and hence why Ham Tin Beach tends to have more people. I’ve never been there in a weekend, nor would I want to, as it’d ruin the experience.
There’s another way, and that’s up near Pak Tam Au, through Sai Kung East Country Park. There’s no real markers so you’ll need to email me if you want to know the way. It’s something in between Sharp Peak and the previous way I described above in terms of difficulty. If it’s not hot, it’ll be much easier, but when there’s not much cover from the sun so again, in the summer you need to bring plenty of water, and have your Google Maps out. Most of the trails are marked, but sometimes you can lose signal and if you’re not great at maps or directions, you could get yourself into a bit of trouble, especially with not enough water.
You could take older kids, but they’d have to be fit and love the beach. I don’t think I’d attempt to take Grobbler now (5 years old) even though he’s pretty fit. He could get in, but it’s a bit of a long uphill walk anyway you go back. If you want to get away from it all and get away from the city, Tai Long Wan is the place to go, especially weekdays when there’s very few people out there. If this were anywhere else in the world, it’d be filled with luxury resorts and probably be one of the best beach resorts to go to in Asia. I’m glad it’s not, it’d ruin it.
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