Vacation in Central

With weather forecast suggesting there’s going to be severe thunderstorm and rain throughout the weekend, we seriously thought about postponing our staycation plan til some other time, but at the end we went on with our original plan, and proved that weather forecast cannot be more wrong this time (much to our delight). Last year at the hotel media party, I was lucky to win the lucky draw prize of a 2-night weekend stay at the Four Seasons Hong Kong, and so we thought we should take advantage of that and have a little staycation at the end of August to spend some time lying by the pool and chill or something.

Check-in was a bliss as we arrived right after lunch on a Friday and they arranged for us a harbor-view room in middle floor. With the hotel sitting right by the harbor with nothing in front, you don’t really need somewhere high up to get a gorgeous view of the Kowloon skyline. During our stay it did rain a little from time to time, but when the rain stopped and the sky cleared up, we got an unobstructed view of the West Kowloon district across the harbor right in front of us, something we never grew tired of just glancing through. The room was of decent size and comfortable, and more impressive was the spacious bathroom completed with L’occitane toiletries. The in-room facilities were on par with other high-end properties in Asia, so no complaint about that. (and extra credit for carrying all football channels on TV so I didn’t miss a live match broadcast away from home)

We hit the pool soon after we settled in and glad we had almost the whole place to ourselves – that’s hardly surprising given most people are still at work on a Friday afternoon (and there’s no denial that there were less visitors in town these days given the situation in Hong Kong). The infinity pool is of good size and it actually feel like it’s leading all the way up to the edge of the harbor, unlike some which only looked that way in pictures. More serious swimmers can use the lap pool at the back instead so I guess that would come handy when the pool was packed with kids and families. A couple of times during the weekend we just enjoyed ourselves lying on the pool terrace, spending time reading and let ourselves off glancing through the blue sky and moving clouds, and momentarily took ourselves away from reading the news and seeing what’s going on around our city. And we also enjoyed the ice-pops and shots of cold drinks frequently passed around by the staff.

The spa, gym and swimming pool shared the same changing room so I got to use some of the spa facilities without having to pay extra for a package – steam room and sauna were fine as what I expected from one of the top spas in town, and what I love most was the “Vitality Pool” , temperature-controlled at 38C and came with strong hydro-jet and loungers to lie down and relax. It’s almost surreal having that resort-feel far far away but right in the middle of our vibrant city. Well, my only complaint was the pool was not heated the time we were there, but it’s nice and chilled which is still fine, and there’s an outdoor heated jacuzzi available too.

Overall I am super impressed by the service from their fine staff team. Love the personal touch and appreciate the attention to details in many areas. Everywhere we went we were met with staff with a smile and always eager to help, so kudos to everyone from the restaurant front staff to housekeeping to poolside attendants who took care of us throughout the weekend.

So everything for our weekend staycation turned out to be just perfect despite our initial worry of weather condition – we definitely should do this more often, especially realizing a weekend getaway to somewhere nearby probably cost just the same and we ended up doing the same thing anyway with the extra time needed to travel. This is definitely the highlight of our summer this year and best lucky draw prize ever!

Four Seasons Hong Kong: www.fourseasons.com/hongkong/

(Hong Kong Weekend Staycation  - Part 1)