The Kerry, Hong Kong

By Anthony Gallagher

Just like driving a new car, staying in a new hotel evokes excitement, especially when it is The Kerry Hotel in Hong Kong, the youngest sibling to its sister properties in Shanghai and Beijing. Owned and operated by the Shangri-La Hotels family, The Kerry is a more contemporary, younger brand of hotel. Opening its trendy doors in early 2017, the 16-storey, 546 room property is on Hung Hom Bay and is the first new hotel to be built on the Kowloon waterfront in 20 years. Everything about the design sings contemporary, with the concept by Andre Fu and award-winning architect Rocco Design. There are more than 1,000 pieces of art throughout the hotel, many specially commissioned. Well over half the rooms have views of Victoria Harbour and the Hong Kong Island skyline and luckily we are in one of them. Although the ‘wow’ Presidential Suite was occupied, we were thrilled with our elegant, classy, modern and comfortable room, and sitting looking out at that view with drinks from the complimentary mini bar was the perfect way to start the vacation. As it turned out, the tail of a typhoon kept us inside The Kerry for most of the time, but secretly, that was fine by me as we could just relax, explore the hotel’s five restaurants and bars and wind down. We tested The Lobby Lounge and Hung Ton, enjoyed the wide variety of international cuisines in Dockyard, an exciting, eclectic food market hall, tried the quick and easy Big

Bay Café and sipped delicious, organic, bespoke cocktails in the super-suave Red Sugar bar, with the huge terrace giving 270-degree views. The typhoon cleared on our final day to give us a fix of the sights, sounds and smells that this Asian powerhouse city delivers. shangri-la.com