This Could Be The World’s Most Stylish Weekend Destination

• Hong Kong is home to some of the world’s most exclusive hotels, boutiques, and whisky bars, where luxury is both lifestyle and performance.
• From K11 Musea’s art-led design to LANDMARK’s haute horology, shopping here feels more like curation than consumption.
• The city’s after-dark scene turns elegance into theatre, with Foxglove, DarkSide, and Ozone redefining what it means to unwind.

Hong Kong may have a reputation for being one of the busiest transfer airports in the APAC region, but look beyond baggage claim, outside of Arrivals, and you’ll quickly discover one of the world’s most exclusive destinations for a weekend away. One where indulgence isn’t ever frowned upon; it’s encouraged.

As you’d expect here, hotels are the real introductions to Hong Kong, and this city, where vast fortunes are parked, traded, and flaunted, is home to some of the best accommodation in the world.

The Upper House is still one of my favourites in the city: a design-led sanctuary above Admiralty, serene and uncluttered, where the city feels a world away.

Across the water, Rosewood Hong Kong is bold and contemporary, plugged into K11 Musea and dripping with art and power. The Mandarin Oriental remains the grand old dame, service as sharp as ever, suites that still command the harbour like a captain’s bridge.

St. Regis offers a quieter luxury, André Fu interiors and butlers who mix martinis in your room, while K11 ARTUS is for travellers who want to move like residents, with private balconies over Victoria Dockside framing the skyline like IMAX.

Breakfast represents the first opportunity to deal in decadence, with Madame Fu at Tai Kwun offering a weary traveller velvet banquettes and restored colonial walls; croissants and champagne if the night before was heavy on the head. Guests of The Upper House won’t have far to travel for the morning, with Salisterra serving Mediterranean plates and a continental breakfast with spectacular views across the harbour.

Getting around Hong Kong, the city’s taxis are fine if you’re haggling over markets, but if you’re staying with The Peninsula, this 5-star institution boasts the largest hotel-owned fleet of Rolls-Royce cars in the world, with 14 Phantom extended wheelbase limousines in Hong Kong, plus vintage models in Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Once you’ve sorted your wheels, head to Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, where you’ll find the Asian flagships of Louis Vuitton and Hermès.

This stretch is Hong Kong’s answer to Fifth Avenue or the Rue Saint-Honoré, and in a city where wealth is overtly on display, these flagships are among the nicest boutiques in the world.

The Louis Vuitton here is one of the brand’s largest worldwide, its windows refreshed as often as a gallery exhibition. Hermès sits nearby, selling scarves and leather, inviting its best clients upstairs for private viewings of objects you’ll likely have to wait years for.

Money moves differently here. Unlike Paris or Milan, where shopping can feel performative, Canton Road is pure transaction.

A chauffeured Maybach idles at the curb, a sales associate recognises a client before they cross the threshold, and within minutes, shopping assistants are carrying armfuls of boxes out to the car.

As of 2024, the city ranked second in the world by number of billionaires, housing around 107 ultra-high net worth individuals. This influx of wealth is like a magnet effect: low taxes, open capital flows, and a financial infrastructure that sits just behind London and New York make Hong Kong the premier port for global capital.

Shopping in Hong Kong feels less about buying a belt or a bag than witnessing luxury functioning at its highest level. One that’s fast, precise, and entirely normalised.

A short glide away in your chauffeur-driven car is LANDMARK in Central, the horological Disneyland in Hong Kong, exhibiting some of the rarest watches and fine jewellery.

Here, the names read like a roll call of timekeeping royalty – Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre – with appointments that are hushed, private, and often involve a glass of Champagne or Single Malt while a tray of unobtainable references is quietly presented. So pick a reference, pick a year, and get comfortable.

And for the true insiders, watch collecting in Hong Kong isn’t confined to boutiques at all, but rings around to the addictive sound of the auctioneer’s gavel.

Sotheby’s and Phillips transform the city into the global stage for horological theatre. Catalogues drop like manifestos, glossy tomes filled with Pateks, Daytonas and Richard Milles that will hammer for the price of Sydney penthouses.

In the days leading up to the sale, previews are held in hotel ballrooms or galleries, where collectors and curious onlookers alike slip on white gloves and cradle pieces they’ll likely never see again. If you’re in HK for one of these, they’re surprisingly accessible, and a must-see for serious enthusiasts.

Now, all that shopping can bring on quite the thirst in a city like Hong Kong. And naturally, cocktails here demand your full attention.

Artesian at The Langham takes its cues from London (so, think gin) but adds a routine Hong Kong swagger to its offering, with premium drinks served in porcelain dragons and menus shifting as fast as the markets.

For something more intimate, head to Foxglove, a cocktail bar that’s tucked behind an umbrella shop; all brass, leather and live jazz. The sort of place tycoons come to disappear, not be seen.

But in a city where whisky auctions can reach seven figures and rare bottles are traded like blue-chip stocks, the bar is as much a trading floor as it is a lounge.

What sets Hong Kong apart isn’t just its ability to host luxury, but the way luxury and capital are fused.

In Deep Water Bay, billionaires live within a few blocks of one another, quietly competing on the waterline. In Central, property has long been the city’s biggest asset class, a wealth engine so strong it once made Hong Kong the most expensive office market in the world.

Spend a weekend here and you’ll easily find yourself slipping into a steady rhythm of a city that celebrates success. One that deals out chauffeured cars, rooftop terraces, flagship boutiques and Michelin stars for all its guests.

And for the traveller who understands that real luxury can be found in belonging, few cities in the world deliver with more precision.

DMARGE readers will have exclusive access to July’s upcoming giveaway, an all-inclusive $7,500 journey to Hong Kong, complete with July’s signature Classic Checked Set. Competition runs until 31 October, so if you want to experience our selected Hong Kong picks, enter now. You don’t want to miss this.