10 Untouched Things to Do in Hong Kong: Secret Local Gems Most Travelers Never See
10 Untouched Things to Do in Hong Kong: Secret Local Gems Most Travellers Never See
There are two versions of Hong Kong.
Version one is the one you already know. It's on every postcard, every travel guide, every "Top 10 Things to Do" listicle that Google serves up. It's The Peak at sunset with 400 other people holding selfie sticks. It's Disneyland on a Saturday. It's the Star Ferry, which is lovely, but let's be honest — it's also just a commute. It's dim sum at a restaurant chain that has outlets in six countries now.
Version one is fine. It's perfectly fine. But it's not the real Hong Kong. It's the Hong Kong that was packaged and gift-wrapped for mass consumption. It's the version you get when you let the algorithm plan your trip.
Then there's version two.
Version two is the Hong Kong that most travellers never see. It's not on the first page of Google. It's not in the guidebooks stacked at the airport bookstore. It's not sponsored, not optimised for clicks, not reduced to a 15-second TikTok.
Version two is a coastline made of hexagons. It's snorkelling with wild clownfish. It's jumping off volcanic cliffs into turquoise water. It's a 130-year-old fishing village where they still dance a traditional kirin dance that most Hong Kongers have never witnessed. It's beaches with no road, no crowds, and no evidence that anyone else has been there all day.
Version two is untouched. It's secret. It's local.
And once you've seen it, you'll never look at version one the same way again.
Here are 10 untouched things to do in Hong Kong — the secret local gems that will make you feel like you've discovered a completely different city.
1. Step Inside a 140-Million-Year-Old Volcanic Wonderland
Forget The Peak. The most spectacular natural attraction in Hong Kong isn't a viewpoint over the skyline. It's a coastline made of hexagons.
The Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark in Sai Kung is home to the world's largest and most well-preserved hexagonal volcanic columns. These columns formed 140 million years ago when a supervolcano erupted and the lava cooled so rapidly it cracked into near-perfect geometric shapes. They rise from turquoise water like nature's own skyscrapers — some of them 30 metres high, stretching for kilometres along the coast.
This isn't a theme park. It's not a museum exhibit behind glass. You can touch these rocks. You can swim beside them. You can kayak through the sea arches they form. You can even jump off them into the ocean.
And here's the part that keeps it untouched: most of the Geopark is only accessible by water.
Splitdyboat is the operator that gets you there. They run yacht tours, speedboat tours, snorkelling trips, kayaking expeditions, and island-hopping adventures throughout the Geopark. Their guides know every cave, every current, every safe jump spot, and every geological story behind the rocks you're looking at.
While everyone else is queuing for the Peak Tram, you could be floating on your back in a sea cave carved by waves over millions of years.
👉 Explore all Splitdyboat Hong Kong Geopark tours
2. Snorkel with Clownfish in the Wild (No, Really)
Most people don't associate Hong Kong with snorkelling. That's exactly why this makes the list — and exactly why the spots remain untouched.
The waters around the Sai Kung Geopark are astonishingly clear in summer, with visibility regularly hitting 10 metres. Beneath the surface, there are coral communities, parrotfish, sea urchins, and actual clownfish — the Nemo kind, orange and white, darting through anemones in sheltered bays.
Splitdyboat's snorkelling tours take you to spots that are only reachable by boat. No crowds. No murky water stirred up by hundreds of feet. No ticket turnstiles. Just you, a mask, and an underwater world that rivals what you'd fly to Southeast Asia for.
👉 Book a Hong Kong snorkelling experience
3. Jump Off a Volcanic Cliff Into the Open Sea
This one isn't for everyone. But if you're even slightly curious, it might be the best thing you do all year.
It's called coasteering — a sport that combines rock scrambling, open-water swimming, and cliff jumping. You wear a helmet and a life vest. You follow a guide along the volcanic coastline of the Geopark. You climb where you can, swim where you can't, and jump when the water below is deep enough.
The first jump is terrifying. The second is exhilarating. By the third, you're laughing so hard you forget you were ever scared.
Splitdyboat runs coasteering tours in the Geopark with certified guides who know every rock and every safe landing zone. Jumps are always optional. The route adjusts to your group's ability. You don't need experience. You just need the willingness to step off the edge.
👉 Book a Hong Kong coasteering experience
4. Find a Beach with No One on It
You've heard of Repulse Bay. You've heard of Shek O. You've seen the photos — and you've also seen the crowds that ruin them.
Here's what the travel guides don't tell you: any beach with road access in Hong Kong will be packed. The solution is simple. Find a beach with no road.
Splitdyboat's private speedboat and yacht tours take you to beaches that are only reachable by water. White sand. Turquoise shallows. And nobody else. You can spend hours there — swimming, snorkelling, sunbathing, picnicking — and the only footprints in the sand will be yours.
These beaches aren't secret because they're ugly. They're secret because most people never get on a boat.
👉 Book a private speedboat beach experience
5. Kayak Through a Sea Arch Carved from 140-Million-Year-Old Volcanic Rock
Kayaking changes your relationship with the landscape. You're not looking at it from a boat. You're at water level. Every ripple, every current, every barnacle on the rock is inches away.
Splitdyboat's kayaking tours take you through the Geopark's sea arches and caves — places that even speedboats can't enter. You paddle through tunnels carved by waves, drift under arches that frame the sky, and float beside hexagonal columns that rise from the sea like ancient cathedral walls.
No experience needed. The guide teaches you everything. You just have to show up and paddle.
👉 Book a Hong Kong Geopark kayaking tour
6. Visit Islands That Even Most Hong Kongers Have Never Heard Of
Hong Kong has over 260 islands. Most people — including most locals — visit maybe three of them.
Splitdyboat's island-hopping tours take you to the outliers. The remote, uninhabited islands that have no ferry service, no piers, and no crowds. The Ninepin Islands (果洲群島) offer the Geopark's most dramatic hexagonal columns. The Red Coast (赤紅海岸) on Port Island is a completely different world: iron-rich sedimentary cliffs in shades of rust, orange, and crimson, set against blue-green water. The rocks here have been oxidising for 400 million years.
Each island has its own geology. Its own colour palette. Its own story. And the boat ride between them — wind in your hair, islands appearing and dissolving on the horizon — is an experience in itself.
👉 Book a Hong Kong island hopping tour
7. Witness a Traditional Kirin Dance in a 130-Year-Old Fishing Village
Hong Kong isn't just skyscrapers. It still has villages where traditions have been passed down through generations, largely unseen by the outside world.
Kau Sai Village (滘西村) on Kau Sai Chau is one of them. This small Hakka fishing community is home to the Hung Shing Temple, a 130-year-old declared monument dedicated to the god of the South Sea. Every year during the Hung Shing Festival in May, the village comes alive with a kirin dance (舞麒麟) — a Hong Kong intangible cultural heritage performance unique to Hakka communities. It's not a tourist show. It's a living, breathing tradition that has survived for over a century.
Splitdyboat's UNESCO Global Geopark Four Caves Yacht Tour includes a stop at this village. You'll walk from the pier to the temple on flat, paved paths (wheelchair and stroller friendly), explore the village story house, and if you visit during the right season, experience the kirin dance in person with a guide who can explain every symbol and movement.
This is the Hong Kong that doesn't make it onto the standard itineraries. This is the Hong Kong worth discovering.
👉 Book the Four Caves Yacht Tour
8. Take a Speedboat Through a Sea Arch at Full Throttle
Sometimes you don't want a slow, educational tour. Sometimes you want to feel the wind, taste the salt, and experience the Geopark like an action sequence.
Splitdyboat's speedboat tours deliver exactly that. In two hours, you'll blast through the Geopark's most dramatic sea arches and volcanic formations, getting close enough to the cliffs to see every hexagonal joint and mineral stain. The boat is nimble — it can enter caves and channels that larger vessels can't. The pace is fast. The views are constant. And you don't even need to get wet.
It's the untouched Geopark, seen at full throttle.
👉 Book the Geopark Speedboat Tour
9. Have a Michelin-Recommended Seafood Feast After a Day on the Water
This blurs the line between activity and reward. But it belongs on this list because it's the essential post-Geopark ritual — and because most travellers never make it past the tourist traps on the Kowloon side.
Sai Kung's waterfront is lined with seafood restaurants where you pick your dinner straight from the tanks. Garlic prawns. Salt and pepper squid. Steamed fish with ginger and spring onion. Clams in black bean sauce. Cold beer. Salt still drying on your skin from whatever you did on the water earlier that day.
Restaurants like Sing Kee (勝記) and Chuen Kee (全記) have held Michelin recommendations for years. Splitdyboat even offers combo packages that pair your Geopark tour with a meal at one of these institutions — so you step off the boat and straight into dinner. No research required. No queue. Just fresh seafood and the satisfaction of a day well spent.
👉 Explore Geopark food combo packages
10. Do It All in One Day with a Combo Package
Can't choose between snorkelling, coasteering, island hopping, and sightseeing? You don't have to.
Splitdyboat's combo packages are designed to pack multiple untouched experiences into a single day. Coasteer in the morning, snorkel in the afternoon. Cruise the sea arches, then kayak through a cave. Visit the remote Ninepin Islands, then cool off with a swim at a secluded beach.
These combos exist because the Geopark is too rich to experience just one way. And they're priced better than booking each activity separately.
👉 Explore all Geopark combo packages
Why These 10 Things Stay Untouched
Let's address the obvious question. If these experiences are so incredible, why doesn't everyone know about them? Why aren't they on page one of Google?
The answer is simpler than you think.
Travel content runs on convenience — for the writer, not the reader. It's easier to write about The Peak because The Peak has an MTR station and a ticket counter. It's easier to recommend Disneyland because Disneyland has a marketing department that does half the work. It's easier to list Victoria Harbour because you don't need to explain tides, boat access, or the difference between a sea arch and a sea stack.
The UNESCO Global Geopark doesn't make it easy for lazy travel bloggers. It requires a boat. It requires a guide who understands currents and weather and geology. It requires working with a local operator who actually knows the area — like Splitdyboat. It requires more than copying and pasting the same itinerary that's been circulating since 2010.
And that effort? That barrier?
That's exactly what keeps these places untouched. That's exactly why you won't find crowds here. That's exactly why these experiences still feel like discoveries.
The algorithm sends everyone to the same places. You just have to be willing to go somewhere the algorithm doesn't know about.
The Hong Kong You Know vs. The Hong Kong You Haven't Met
| What Everyone Does | What You Could Do Instead |
|---|---|
| Queue for the Peak Tram with 500 people | Float through a 140-million-year-old sea cave |
| Elbow through Temple Street Night Market | Watch a kirin dance in a village most locals don't know exists |
| Swim at a packed Repulse Bay | Have an entire beach to yourself — no road, no crowd, no noise |
| Ride a mechanical coaster at Ocean Park | Jump off a real volcanic cliff into turquoise water |
| Eat dim sum at a global chain | Eat Michelin-recommended seafood with salt still on your skin |
| Take a selfie with the skyline | Snorkel with wild clownfish in coral that rivals Southeast Asia |
| Ride the Star Ferry (it's a boat, yes, but it's a commute) | Take a speedboat through a volcanic sea arch at full throttle |
Version One Will Always Be There. Version Two Won't Wait Forever.
The Peak isn't going anywhere. Disneyland will still be there next year, and the year after that. So will Victoria Harbour, the Star Ferry, and every other stop on the standard tourist itinerary. Those things are permanent. They're institutions. You can do them anytime.
But the untouched Hong Kong — the version with hexagonal volcanic columns, secret beaches, kirin dances in ancient fishing villages, and clownfish darting through wild coral — that version requires something from you.
It requires a decision to leave the algorithm behind. To get on a boat. To go somewhere that hasn't been written about a thousand times.
The UNESCO Global Geopark has been here for 140 million years. It's not disappearing tomorrow. But the feeling of discovering it — of standing on a volcanic cliff with no one else around, of floating through a sea cave in silence, of realising that this was here the whole time and you almost missed it — that feeling only happens once.
You came here looking for things to do in Hong Kong.
You found a different Hong Kong entirely.
👉 Explore all Splitdyboat Hong Kong Geopark tours and experiences
📱 Questions? WhatsApp the Splitdyboat team directly.
Stop reading the same list everyone else reads.
Go find the Hong Kong that most people never see.
