Going to Hong Kong next month with a 2 and 3yr old on Virgin, flying at night, anyone got any tips PLEASE? Will they sleep? How do I keep them occupied? And what about jet lag? (they are 8hrs ahead)

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Going to Hong Kong next month with a 2 and 3yr old on Virgin, flying at night, anyone got any tips PLEASE?
Will they sleep?
How do I keep them occupied?
And what about jet lag? (they are 8hrs ahead)
Also I'd really appreciate tips for while we're there. thanks in advance

Helloo

Our family moved to Hong Kong when I was 3 (1975) - the flight apparently took AGES - my parents bought me a fisher price school to play with! I suggest lots of toys and things to keep them busy, even though its a night flight! Favourite cuddly toy, blanket, etc...

Lucky, lucky you. I love it there. Good things to do with children - go to Ocean Park - big park with marine shows, roller coasters (ok, not so good for little ones perhaps) and lots of fun things. Also, I think there is a Disney world there now too? A lovely place to eat is the Jumbo - big floating restaurant our at Aberdeen, fab chinese food, very welcoming of children. Check out the HK website too:

www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/things-to-do/family-vacation.html

As for the jet lag - try to get onto HK time as soon as possible on the plane - it will be a bit tricky though! Once you are there, it should only take a day for them to snap out of it.

Have a great time

There is a whole thing about long haul in the top tips section www.mumsnet.com/bigissues/travel.html

We went to Hong Kong last year for a week. The jet lag affected me badly but I was pg at the time. Dp was ok with it.

It is a great place to go. The people are friendly and there is loads to do. Disney is great, the Peak tram is good, the avenue of stars is good and they do a light show every evening and the shopping is good.

We were walking round at 11pm at night and there were still families out walking their dogs - I am very jealous, have a great time x

We spent Xmas fortnight in Hong Kong with our 5 yr old and 2 yr old. You can book an infant seat which works like a child car seat which we had for our 2 yr old. Lots of snacks & small toys if they are not satisfied by the on board entertainment which is excellent. My 5 yr old took his own headphones - the ones with a volume limiter on them. If you go to Disney for the day, make sure that you get there early and do the book your rides thing to cut down on the queues. The same with Ocean Park - get to the dolphin show at least 30 mins before the show starts to get a seat! We also took the cable car to Lantau Island plus Ocean Park. What the kids liked best was renting bicycles for the day in the Northern Territories to ride near the reservoir/dam. Good luck - I was dreading the flights but they turned out better than I had anticipated!

A bag of new toys, individually wrapped (anything to prolong the surprise) and produced one at a time. Stickers could be a big hit.

Virgin have very good entertainment so they will probably watch telly the whole way in the unlikely event that they don't sleep. If being in the car puts them to sleep, they will probably have no problems sleeping on the plane. A friend who travels a lot swears by taking the kids' own pillows. She says it's well worth lugging them through the airport.

Jetlag is worse when you fly east than when you fly west so however bad it is when you go out, at least it will be better when you come home.

Hong Kong is brilliant and very friendly (I lived there for seven years, hence the name - Nine Dragons is what Kowloon means). The taxis don't have any sort of child restraints, so if you think you will be travelling by cab, take your own booster seats.

Macau is good value for a day out and you don't need a visa. There are two or three ferries an hour from the Shun Tak Centre.

I second he big bag of individually wrapped toys...small cars, books, play doh if you can get it on the plane, jigsaws, crayons...anything quiet and entertaining...oh, and medised!

Are you going to be out there over Chinese New Year? (around 26th January this year)

Be warned, the whole city closes down for a couple of days so keep the activities that don't involve facilities being open for those days. A lot of Hong Kong is actually national park so there are many beautiful walks you can do - the Dragon's Back is the best but far too long and mountainous for toddlers, I should think. It's not impossible that you could get good beach weather (not for swimming, but certainly warm enough for sand castles) so head to the beaches in Sai Kung. They're cleaner than the beaches on Lantau or Lamma.

Thanks to all of you for your help, we're going to be in Hong Kong in February so will miss chinese new year unfortunately, but I imagine we'll still have a great time!

Just hoping they'll we won't be too jet lagged-got myself some Pro Plus in case I do!-can't really snooze with 2 little ones to look after. I'm hoping they'll get worn out from all the activities during the day and sleep easily at night as when it's evening in Hong Kong it's afternoon over here in England.

If you have a night flight, things should be easier. We flew with our 3 year old from Taiwan - Germany in 2006 on a night flight. He was very excited at first but then slept about 7 hours non stop after we changed planes at Hong Kong.
So before giving out the pressies (and getting them possible over-excited) I would see if you can get them to sleep after the first hour or so has gone by.
With Cathay we found that the seat was too uncomfortable to sleep in (I think our son was a bit too small to fit properly in the seat) so we put a blanket on the floor, put him on the blanket and then another blanket on top of him. He slept like a log! (I'm aware that this is outside of safety rules, but it worked well for us.)
Good luck!
davidla