Hong Kong, China

The Fleming

Price per night from$210.70

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (HKD1,650.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

The Fleming Photos

Style

Porthole onto the past

Setting

The World of Suzie Wong

Explore

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Inspired by the city’s iconic Star Ferry, The Fleming captures the Hong Kong of yesteryear with a faultless blend of art moderne, maritime and retro-industrial design. On the outside, it stands out over its neighbours thanks to a Broadway-esque bulb sign and tall, factory-style windows that nod to Hong Kong’s postwar glory days. Cross the threshold, however, and you’ll be swept into nautical nirvana by streamlined curves, porthole mirrors and brushed brass lamps – details borrowed from the hotel’s harbour-crossing muse. As if it weren't culturally engaged enough, the Fleming's also in Wan Chai, the district immortalised in Richard Mason’s 1957 bestseller, The World of Suzie Wong. Mason's Wan Chai was louche and gritty, but this melting pot of a district has since gone up in the world, becoming one of Hong Kong's hippest hangouts in the process.

Smith Extra

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A bottle of Shen Nong room fragrance, made bespoke for the hotel

Facilities

Photos The Fleming facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Sixty-six.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £190.02 (HK$1,815), including tax at 10 per cent.

More details

Rates don’t include breakfast at Osteria Marzia, where you can start the day with bruschetta decked with 24-month aged Parma ham, panino grilled sandwiches and torta pasqualina, a savoury tart made with ricotta, parmesan and spinach.

Also

Ferrying passengers across Victoria Harbour for more than a century, the Star Ferry is bound up with the city’s history and culture. Largely the same as they were 100 years ago, the green and white vessels still transport millions of people each year.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout, laundry service (at an extra cost). In rooms: flatscreen TV with Apple TV and music; smartphone; minibar; tea and coffee making kit; air-conditioning; Shen Nong bath products made exclusively for the hotel.

Our favourite rooms

Whether you swing for a Small or Extra Large room, you’ll have Star Ferry-inspired interiors with art deco furniture, green wall panelling, industrial brass details and maritime stripes. That said, Hong Kong’s famously strapped for space, so we’d go for one of the larger rooms.

Spa

The Fleming doesn’t have a spa or fitness equipment of its own, but guests do get free access to Goji Studios, a state-of-the-art gym 300 metres down the road.

Packing tips

Save valuable packing space by leaving your shower gel at home, lathering up with the hotel’s luxurious Shen Nong products instead. Their signature scent is a blend of sandalwood and amber, evoking the exotic cargos that used to waft across the harbour.

Also

All of the common areas are wheelchair accessible and there are two specially-adapted rooms.

Children

All ages are welcome, but the grown-up ambience and lack of children’s facilities make the hotel better for adults. The largest rooms have sofa beds and some can be connected to make them more family friendly.

Food and Drink

Photos The Fleming food and drink

Top Table

One of the banquettes by the tall, industrial windows.

Dress Code

Borrow from the icons of 1960s cinema – think Sophia Loren and Alain Delon.

Hotel restaurant

Osteria Marzia may have the South China Sea on its doorstep, but Italian chef Luca Marinelli has chosen to return to the cuisine of his childhood, channeling the coastal towns of Puglia, Amalfi and Sicily instead. That’s not to say he hasn’t taken advantage of Hong Kong’s own connections, serving dishes like Hokkaido scallops and hamachi (yellowtail) alongside Palermo swordfish and red prawns drizzled with Sorrento lemon and olive oil. Diners are helped on their Mediterranean journey by the cerulean tiles, bleached white timber and buoy-shaped lanterns that recall the prow lamps on old fishing boats.

Hotel bar

The bar is made of the same teakwood and ocean-blue tiles found in the restaurant. There’s a wide range of fine Italian wines and a cocktail list that’ll give you that by-the-beach feeling – particularly the Capri, a zesty medley of Plantation 3 Star rum, lemon juice, limoncello, yuzu and homemade lemon jam. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, opt for something with an Aperol, Campari or Disaronno base.

Last orders

Lunch is from noon to 3pm, dinner from 6pm to 11.30pm.

Location

Photos The Fleming location
Address
The Fleming
41 Fleming Rd
Wan Chai
China

The Fleming is in Wan Chai, a vibrant district on Hong Kong Island’s north shore.

Planes

Hong Kong International is one of Asia’s biggest airports, so it’s well serviced by direct flights from European hubs and larger US airports. Depending on the traffic, it takes around 35 minutes to drive to the hotel; one-way transfers are available for HKD1000. Our Smith24 team are on hand to arrange your flights and transfers.

Trains

If you’re travelling light, you can catch the Airport Express to Hong Kong Station, walk two minutes to Central Station, then hop onto an MTR train on the (blue) Island Line, riding two stops to Wan Chai. If you’ve got anything more than a carry-on, you’ll be better off in a cab.

Automobiles

You won’t need your own set of wheels in Hong Kong – most locals will tell you that it’s a better idea to take public transport, which is fast and efficient.

Other

The hotel’s muse, the iconic Star Ferry, has been plying the route between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island since the 1880s.

Worth getting out of bed for

Wan Chai was once synonymous with its infamous after-hours scene, but it’s since cleaned up its act, turning into one of Hong Kong’s hippest ‘hoods. It’s also one of the city’s oldest, so it’s got generations of history and culture packed into its dense streets. One of the best ways to get a feel for things is the Wan Chai Heritage Trail, a free walking route that takes you past many of its important sights, including the Blue House, Old Post Office and Pak Tai Temple. Once you’re done, go for a wander around the Star Street Precinct, made up of five bustling commercial streets. Hong Kong is nothing if not cosmopolitan – it’s branded itself ‘Asia’s world city’ in recent years – but few areas rival this one for sheer variety. Full of fashion and design boutiques, Vietnamese restaurants, French cafés and New York-style dive bars, this modern melting pot whisks you halfway round the world and back again. Stop in at any one of them and you’ll likely hear half-a-dozen languages being spoken at once. For another modern culture shot, don’t miss the Hong Kong Arts Centre, which has been flying the flag for the homegrown art scene since the 1970s. Last but certainly not least, take the Star Ferry across the harbour to Kowloon. You’ll recognise many of the details that inspired the Fleming’s design.

Local restaurants

If you’re looking for more than a simple caffeine fix, try hyper-minimalist coffee shop Omotesando Koffee, which unites pared-back Japanese design with some of the best baristas anywhere in the city. For lunch, hit local favourite 22 Ships, a stylish tapas bar helmed by renowned chef Jason Atherton. It’s a small place – most diners sit on the swivelling stools set around a bar decked in white subway tiles – so there’s often a queue; try arriving before or after the main rush. For a laid-back dinner, try Thai–Chinese eatery Samsen, a 35-seater shophouse with bare walls, wooden stools and potted plants dangling from the ceiling. Chef Adam Cliff might be Australian by birth, but his rigorous training in all things Thai means the dishes are as authentic as they are innovative.

Local bars

Cocktail spot Back Bar is hidden down an alleyway next to Ham Sherry’s, the sister restaurant to 22 Ships. There’s a bold mural on the outside and tattoo-esque illustrations of exotic flowers within, but it’s the drinks that are most bewitching of all. Known as one of the most creative cocktail spots in the district, Back Bar is where other bartenders go after they’ve knocked off for the night.

Reviews

Photos The Fleming reviews
Jules Pearson

Anonymous review

By Jules Pearson, London insider

The two fashionable young men posing outside gave us a clue we were in the right place – that and the huge sign spelling out ‘The Fleming’…

When we booked the hotel, a travel editor friend who’d spent the last five years as an expat in Hong Kong had told us the area was home to hip restaurants, bars and shops frequented by city dwellers and, if there’s one thing we like, it’s staying in a local’s neighbourhood.

The hotel’s design is inspired by the city’s iconic Star Ferries and, thus, the room doors look like cabin doors and the interiors have a touch of Wes Anderson aesthetics to them. Every last detail has been made beautiful – even the door signage is Instagrammable. (Just remember to look up at the lights to find the room numbers – Mr Smith went full escape room and tried the key in every door…)

Once safely inside the room we marvelled at the picture-perfect interiors: the striped headboards, leather chairs, wall tiles and mirrors – lots of mirrors. The bathroom has three: one hanging straight in front (gold rimmed and floor length), one to the left and one to the right. You can see yourself from all angles, perfect for, erm, ‘freshening up’ and thoroughly recommended after a long flight. 
 
Lured by the views of skyscrapers and neon signs from our window – a Hong Kong scene if ever we saw one – we set out to explore our surrounds (well, we head straight to our favourite roast goose spot in town, Kam’s, just a four minute walk away). Suitably stuffed, we jumped on the metro to Tai Kwun: the old police compound and prison that has been transformed into a cultural hub after a 12-year conservation-cum-reonvation project. The prison that once housed Ho Chi Minh is now a cluster of low rise buildings – a rarity in this city, as is the calming atmosphere that envelops it.  

When we got back, the Fleming’s restaurant and bar were still buzzing with hot young things but jetlag called us to bed…and then promptly woke us up well before the crack of dawn. Mr Smith made full use of the room’s cafetière and fresh coffee, popping out for fresh egg tarts as a pre-breakfast snack from the famous Tai Cheong Bakery nearby – doing what the locals do he said.

At 9am we headed down to (a second) breakfast at the Osteria Marzia, the hotel’s Italian restaurant run by Blacksheep, Hong Kong’s hospitality group responsible for some of the city’s best restaurants including Ho Lee Fook – the one you’ve seen on Instagram with the wall of gold waving cats. The restaurant interiors are just as photogenic as the rest of the hotel and as the morning light hit the tables we leisurely grazed on eggs, avocado, fresh juices and more coffee. 

We needed to be on high alert we had bets to place, having decided to spend our final night at Happy Valley racecourse. Probably the most fun you can have in the city, watching the horses race home under the city lights. Needless to say, we didn’t win anything; choosing horses based on their names rather than credentials, but we left merry all the same.

Call us old fashioned but we like comfy beds and the Fleming didn’t disappoint, so comfy was it that we slept through the next morning’s breakfast (clearly nothing to do with the previous night’s beer consumption…) 

As we made a mad dash to the airport, we stopped by the front desk to snap that picture of the hotel reception which looks straight out of The Grand Budapest Hotel and jumped in a taxi to the airport, causally mentioning to the driver that we were late. 

A note to self and anyone else who might ever be taking a cab in Hong Kong: never tell them you’re running late. That’s a story for another time, but let’s just say we were thankful for skipping breakfast…

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