Hong Kong & Macau: Two Cities, One Pearl River

Grace meets you at Hong Kong International Airport — around twelve hours from London — and transfers you to your hotel directly on Victoria Harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui. The flight is long and the afternoon is yours: a first walk to the harbour promenade, a cup of Hong Kong milk tea, and a gradual adjustment to the energy of the city. In the evening, Grace joins you for a welcome dinner of roast goose, char siu and steamed fish at a classic Cantonese restaurant in Jordan, followed by the Symphony of Lights harbour show.

The Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island, then the antique shops and incense smoke of Hollywood Road, where Man Mo Temple has stood since 1847. The Graham Street wet market. A Cantonese lunch at an unremarkable-looking restaurant with a remarkable kitchen. Then the Peak Tram — riding up through the Mid-Levels as the city tilts increasingly sideways — and the 360-degree harbour panorama from the top. A walk through the Botanical and Zoological Gardens on the way back down, then the Mid-Levels Escalator through the evening market stalls.

The MTR to Tung Chung, then the Ngong Ping 360 cable car over forested mountains — a 25-minute, 5.7km aerial journey with extraordinary views of Lantau's green hills, the South China Sea and, on a clear day, as far as Macau on the horizon. At the top, Ngong Ping village and the Tian Tan Buddha: a 34-metre seated bronze figure above a lotus-flower base from which the whole Pearl River Delta spreads below you. The climb to the base (268 steps) is optional and easily skipped — the Buddha is equally magnificent from the lower level. Then the old stilt village of Tai O: the Cantonese Venice, where houses perch on wooden piles over tidal channels and the fishing boats come and go with the tide. Fresh seafood lunch at a waterfront restaurant and the private car back to the hotel.

A full Kowloon day, beginning with the cha chaan teng breakfast ritual: pineapple bun, egg sandwich, Hong Kong milk tea. Wong Tai Sin Temple — the great Taoist complex where fortune tellers sit in small booths around the forecourt and the kau cim sticks rattle in their cylindrical containers. The Jade Market: an arcade of stalls selling jade in every shade from pale lavender to rich imperial green, and Grace who tells you exactly what to look for. A long, slow dim sum lunch in Yau Ma Tei. An afternoon rest. Then the Temple Street Night Market — food stalls, fortune tellers and Cantonese opera after dark.

The Turbo-Jet high-speed ferry from the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal — an hour across the Pearl River Estuary — arrives at the Macau Outer Harbour in time for a morning in the historic old town. The Senado Square, paved in black-and-white Portuguese mosaic, is the heart of colonial Macau — surrounded by pale yellow civic buildings and the archways of the Leal Senado building, where Portuguese Macau administered itself for four centuries. The UNESCO-listed Historic Centre extends in all directions: the A-Ma Temple from which Macau takes its name, the Mandarin's House, the São Lourenço Church. A Macanese lunch of African chicken, Portuguese sausage and caldo verde soup at a family restaurant in the old quarter that Grace has known for years. Check in to your Macau hotel and a quiet evening.

A final full day in Macau, beginning at the Guia Fortress and lighthouse — the highest point on the Macau peninsula, reached by a cable car through a wooded hillside — where the nineteenth-century military chapel inside still has its original frescoes. Then the iconic façade of São Paulo (St Paul's): the baroque stone front of a Jesuit church destroyed by fire in 1835, which now stands as a triumphal arch to the sky, and behind it the Museu do Monte with its remarkable collection of Macanese ceramics, maps and artefacts. A walk through Rua do Cunha for Lord Stow's egg tarts — the world's most famous Portuguese custard tart, baked in the village of Coloane by the English bakery that started the craze. An afternoon of leisure in Macau before dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Mandarin's House gardens.

A final morning at leisure in Macau — perhaps a last walk through the Senado Square in the early quiet — before Grace accompanies you on the Turbo-Jet back to Hong Kong. Depending on your flight time, there may be a few final hours in Kowloon before Grace transfers you to Hong Kong International Airport for your flight home.