Hong Kong Airport (HKG): Airport Express, the new T2 & the mainland door

Four ways. The Airport Express is the default: Hong Kong Station (Central) in 24 minutes or Kowloon in 22, every ~10 minutes from 05:54 to 00:48 — HK$130 single / HK$120 by Octopus to Central, and the gates also take contactless Visa/Mastercard and QR e-tickets. Citybus A11 (~HK$42, Central/Wan Chai) and A21 (HK$34.6, Jordan/Tsim Sha Tsui) take 50-70 minutes with proper luggage racks. A red urban taxi runs ~HK$250-300 to Tsim Sha Tsui or ~HK$300-350 to Central plus HK$12 per bag, about 30-45 minutes. The budget trick is the S1 bus to Tung Chung station plus the MTR — under HK$35 all-in, about an hour.

Since the June 2025 fare revision: Hong Kong Station HK$130 single-journey / HK$120 Octopus; Kowloon HK$115/105; Tsing Yi HK$80/73. You rarely need the walk-up fare: e-tickets bought online sell at a standing discount, the platform QR ticket machines apply an automatic group rate (two people to Hong Kong Station ≈ HK$170 total), and a taxi-interchange promo (taxi receipt HK$50+, same day) halves the Octopus fare until 11 September 2026. The gates accept Octopus, contactless Visa/Mastercard/UnionPay tapped directly, Alipay/WeChat transit QR, and e-ticket QR codes. Octopus riders also transfer to the regular MTR free within an hour of exiting at Hong Kong or Kowloon station.

Check the boarding pass, but the 2026 logic is simple: T2 reopened as a departures-only terminal — check-in, bag drop, security and immigration for 15 budget and leisure carriers (HK Express, Hong Kong Airlines, the AirAsia group, Cebu Pacific, Jeju Air, IndiGo, VietJet, Bangkok Airways, Greater Bay Airlines, Hainan and others, phased in from 27 May 2026). Everything else checks in at T1. T2 has no boarding gates until its concourse opens around 2027 — after T2 security everyone rides the automated people mover to the T1 gates (1-80) or the Midfield Concourse (201-230). And ALL arrivals land at T1: T2 has no arrivals facilities until roughly late 2027, so never arrange a pickup at T2.

Three real options. ① Cross-border coach from the T2 Coach Hall (L3): ~HK$150-200, 1.5-2.5 hours via Shenzhen Bay or the 24-hour Huanggang port — you step off with your bags at the border, clear both sides on foot, and re-board. ② High-speed rail: Airport Express to Kowloon (22 min), walk ~10-15 minutes to West Kowloon station, then the HSR reaches Futian in ~14 minutes or Shenzhen North in ~19 — fastest on paper, but allow ~2 hours for the border-plus-security transfer at West Kowloon. ③ For Shenzhen airport specifically, the SkyPier ferry to Fuyong sails direct from the transfer area — transit passengers only, without entering Hong Kong.

Rail is the clean path: Airport Express to Kowloon station, the signposted ~10-15 minute walk through Elements mall to West Kowloon, then the high-speed train to Guangzhou South in ~47 minutes to an hour — about 2.5-3 hours and ~¥310-340 all-in, with Hong Kong exit and mainland entry co-located inside West Kowloon station. The direct cross-border coach from the T2 Coach Hall (~HK$210-250, 3-3.5 hours) wins with heavy luggage — it drops at city hotels like the Garden Hotel rather than a rail hub. A sparse third option: the SkyPier ferry to Guangzhou Nansha or Pazhou (transfer passengers only, 2-3 sailings a day).

Yes — that is exactly what SkyPier is for, but ONLY as a flight transfer. Arriving passengers with a same-day onward ferry ticket follow Transfer Area E2 signs without clearing Hong Kong immigration; checked bags can be tagged through on international connections. Seven Greater Bay Area routes are live in 2026: Shenzhen Shekou, Shenzhen Fuyong (the Shenzhen-airport ferry port), Dongguan Humen, Guangzhou Nansha, Guangzhou Pazhou, Zhongshan and Macau's Maritime Ferry Terminal — Zhuhai Jiuzhou and Macau Taipa are suspended. Two catches: sailings are sparse (Nansha runs ~2-3 a day), and once you have entered Hong Kong you cannot use SkyPier at all — you would leave from the city ferry terminals or cross overland instead.

The S1 bus (HK$4.8) to Tung Chung station plus the MTR Tung Chung line — under HK$35 and about an hour to Hong Kong Station, the long-standing backpacker standard. The catch: the S1 is an ordinary city bus with no luggage racks. With a big case, the E-series buses (E23 to Kowloon, HK$18.9) split the difference — same corridor as the A-buses, more stops, ~20-30 minutes slower, half the price.

The airport customer-service counters and 7-Eleven sell the Tourist Octopus for HK$39 (yours to keep, no deposit) and the standard On-Loan card for HK$150 (HK$50 refundable deposit + HK$100 stored value). iPhone users can skip the queue entirely: the free 'Octopus for Tourists' app issues a digital card straight into Apple Wallet, topped up with a foreign Visa/Mastercard. Strictly speaking you can now ride the Airport Express and most MTR lines by tapping a contactless bank card — but Octopus still wins for buses, trams, ferries and convenience stores, so most visitors get one anyway.

Comfortably enough. Airside T1 has free recliner clusters at several gates and in the Midfield Concourse, free showers on arrivals level L5 near gate 22, and two 24-hour Plaza Premium lounges (gates 1 and 60) for a paid bed-adjacent reset — note the once-popular free rest zone near gate 23 is currently suspended. For a real bed, the Regal Airport Hotel connects landside to T1 by a covered ~4-minute walk. Landing after the last Airport Express (00:48)? The N11 (Central) and N21 (Tsim Sha Tsui/Mong Kok) overnight buses run roughly 00:20-05:00 for HK$23-34, and the taxi ranks never close.