I arrived at Hong Kong airport a little worried about getting to my hotel. However, if you follow the signs to the airport express, there is an official Hong Kong tourist board desk. They advised me to get an Oyster Card, which gave me one trip on the airport express to "Central" station and then 3 days of unlimited use on the MTR (underground/subway).
The cost was ---- .
There is an option for a return journey back to the airport, but this only makes sense if you are only staying for 3 days. As I am here for 7 days, I will buy two of the above cards and a one day for the middle day.
The airport express is an amazingly efficient and relaxing journey, in many ways it is similar to the Heathrow Express in London.
The MTR is a little confusing until you get to grips with it, but its not that difficult. When you travel on a particular line, make sure you know the final destination of the line, because that is what the signs are marked up with. One thing I like about the signs on the MTR is that they grey out the stations which the train is not going to, so you can immediately see what direction the train is travelling in; I wish they did that on the London underground.
The corridors of the MTR stations are quite humid (in late September anyway), if you are carrying a heavy pack, you may want to consider taking the airport express to central and then taking a taxi to your hotel. I found travelling across the MTR with a pack was a little tricky, Hong Kong is a busy commercial centre and I got a few dirty looks of the commutors and also found due to the humidity it wasn't the most comfortable journey with a large rucksack. But for day to day sightseeing it is ideal and the airport express is definately ok with a large pack.
One tip is that if you find yourself getting hot on the MTR, the area of the carriage where it joins onto the next carriage is a great place to stand, as it seems to have a nice breeze.
