Hong Kong takes Halloween very seriously. Visit anytime in October and you’ll find the place bedecked with ghouls and ghastliness.

It’s a great time to visit with kids. After all, what’s not to love about sweets and treats and chocolate and comic creepiness?

But Hong Kong has so much for kids all year around. Not just the big attractions like Hong Kong Disneyland and The Peak, but real stories and raw experiences guaranteed to make them scrunch up their faces in disgust and delight. This is a place brimming with history, mythology and local traditions just begging to grab their attention. So no matter when you’re visiting, here are a few ways to have them squealing in Hong Kong.

BIRDS, BUGS AND GRUBS

The Yuen Po Street Bird Garden in Mong Kok might not immediately spring to mind as a place to take the kids, but there’s more to it than pretty birds in ornate cages. It’s also a marketplace for all things a loving bird owner might need. Like bird food. But there are no bell-shaped lumps of bird seed here. We’re talking grubs and bugs. thousands of them. Writhing, seething baskets and bags ready to join their feathered friends for a meal.

You’ll often see locals arguing about whose bird sings the finest song, or on the hunt for the next bird-song superstar. Kind of like The Voice. Except there are birds. And no spinning chairs.

The Bird Garden is adjacent to the flower market which is also home to more than just beautiful blooms. Kids with a keen eye will spot vendors selling carnivorous plants, mouths agape awaiting a clumsy bug to slip inside and be slowly digested.

Squeal Factor: 4 Shock Emojis

Great for kids: The ghastly bundles of seething, wriggling creepy crawlies.

Good for grown-ups: Gorgeous birds, and birdsong coming from delicate wooden cages. Appreciating the locals’ admiration for their feathered companions.

Getting there: Take the MTR to Prince Edward Station, and take Exit B1. Walk west along Prince Edward Road towards Mong Kok Stadium for about 15 minutes.

PIRATES, BIKES, BEACHES AND BUNS

Pop Quiz: How many islands are there in Hong Kong? One? Five? 105? More?

If you said ‘more’ you’d be right. Hong Kong comprises the Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong Island and more than 250 ‘outlying’ islands. The waterfront in Central is home to a row of modern wharves from which a fleet of ferries zips people to the islands that dot Hong Kong’s waters. Back in the day, these very islands provided the perfect hideouts for pirates who plundered the trade and treasures moving through the South China Seas.

Legend has it that one notorious 19th century pirate – Cheung Po Tsai – lurked in a cave on Cheung Chau island and used it as a lair for his stolen bounty. You can still visit the cave if you dare. There’s no loot left, but there’s definitely an eerie piratey-ness about the place. Next time you visit Hong Kong, take the ferry to Cheung Chau, follow the signs to the cave and take a look for yourself. But bring a torch. And maybe a cutlass. Just. In. Case.

There’s heaps more to Cheung Chau than a creepy pirate hideout. It’s a thriving fishing community with an emerging tourism offering and home to the famous Bun Festival which takes place in late April to early May each year. There are small hotels on Cheung Chau and B&Bs with an unexpectedly European vibe, serving waffles and German beer. And being mostly fisher folk, the island is blessed with dozens of great value seafood restaurants along its waterfront.

Locals also flock to Cheung Chau for its famous fish balls. Cheung Chau’s balls are – ahem – larger than most.

The island is mostly flat and most people get around on push bikes which can be rented cheaply. You’ll be given a lock, a key, and away you go. Super fun.

Squeal Factor: 4 Shock Emojis

Great for kids: The pong of squid, fish and prawns drying in the sun; a creepy pirate’s lair; riding bikes, and sweet mango mochi desserts.

Good for grown-ups: Fantastic seafood, lovely beaches and swimming, photo opps.

Getting there: Take a Cheung Chau ferry from Central Pier 5. There are both fast and ‘ordinary’ services that take between 35 and 60-minutes respectively. Just use your Octopus Card. Couldn’t be simpler!

A ROOM WITH A VIEW

Wherever you are, there’s nothing better than opening the door to your hotel room, peeking in and drowning in an immense, iconic city view. You know the drill: You conceal the squeal, calmly enter and – once the door closes with that satisfying thunk – break into the No way! dance, and end with a fist-pump or a high-five if you’re with a significant other.

Like most great cities of the world, Hong Kong has an absolutely quintessential view.

In our experience, when it comes to Asia’s Big Apple, there are Kowloon people and Hong Kong Island people. And just like there are aisle people and window people, it’s highly divisive. But to get that view of Hong Kong Island, you must stay by the harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. To argue otherwise is pointless. Don’t even get us started.

There are a number of great hotels in Tsim Sha Tsui including the iconic Peninsula, but we can’t go past the five-star Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel right now. On Canton Road overlooking Victoria Harbour, Marco Polo Hongkong has views to die for from many rooms, direct access to the adjacent Harbour City shopping mall – Hong Kong’s largest shopping complex, and is just a short stroll to the Star Ferry wharf and the ultra-luxe boutiques right outside its front door.

For kids, being front-and-centre for Hong Kong’s nightly Symphony of Lights in a Harbour View room or suite is an absolute treat. Especially if accompanied by a Cup Noodle from the 7-11 down the road or lollies from the astonishing CitySuper in Harbour City. And watching the wonderful Star Ferries buzz across the harbour every few minutes is simply classic Hong Kong.

Squeal Factor: 3 Shock Emojis

Great for kids: Those views, lovely perks and amenities from the hotel’s Piccolo Kids Club, and a pool so deep (2.7 metres!) it’s perfect for a game of you-know-what.

Good for grown-ups: Location, location, location; views, fine dining and the Rum Bar at Lobby Lounge – recognised by Guinness World Records as the “Bar with the World’s Largest Selection of Commercially Available Rums.” Oh, and October is all about German Bierfest. Prost!

LET THEM PLAY WITH THEIR FOOD

As a kid, how often were you told to ‘Stop playing with your food!’?

Hong Kong’s ‘Dim Sum Icon’ stores have tossed that convention out the window and taken dumplings to the next level with delightful treats like puking, playful custard buns and other ghastly victuals. The restaurants decorate buns and dim sum with Kobitos characters from Japan, and encourage diners to poke them in (in)appropriate spots with chopsticks and give them a squeeze. The gooey filling squeezes out of the newly created orifice triggering hilarity aplenty. Toilet humour and dessert in a single, whimsical foodstuff. Surely the world’s greatest food for kids. Genius!

Squeal Factor: 5 Shock Emojis

Dim Sum Icon restaurants are located at:

> 3rd floor, The ONE (100 Nathan Road), Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
> Century Square, 1 D’Aguilar Street, Central

Great for kids: Puking, pooping dumplings and other unexpected treats. Baked egg quicksand bags, anyone?

Good for grown-ups: There’s a lot more on the menu than just puking, pooping dumplings.

For a more traditional experience, a home visit at Tai O village on Lantau Island can include a salted duck egg yolk demonstration. It’s totally interactive, and after a quick demo you and your little ones will be cracking eggs into your own hands, separating the egg white from the yolk, gently rinsing them and placing them on a fine net ready for salting. It’s slippery, gloopy, wonderfully fun and an utterly clever way to preserve a perishable food stuff.

Squeal Factor: 4 Shock Emojis

Great for kids: The spectacular 5.7km Ngong Ping 360 cable car ride from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping on Lantau Island; home visit and gloopy duck egg yolk separation, and pink dolphin spotting boat ride options.

Good for grown-ups: A day tour to Lantau Island typically includes a visit to Po Lin Buddhist monastery as well as the fascinating Tai O fishing village.

HALLOWEEN CENTRAL

If there’s one place in Hong Kong that totally immerses itself in Halloween, it’s Hong Kong Disneyland with a takeover by villains from 24 Disney stories called Disney Halloween Time. During daylight hours, the takeover appears relatively benign with pumpkins and Halloween decorations right across the park, and characters wearing Halloween-y costumes. But at night, things take a decidedly wicked turn as the villains crash the party bringing spine-tingling thrills.

The pick of the ghoulish attractions is The Nightmare Experiment, day or night. A mind-bending dreamscape of laboratory and labyrinth leading to the dark realm of The Princess and the Frog, the gaol from Pirates of the Caribbean, the mutant toys box of Toy Story, and Mad Hatter’s lunatic asylum in Alice in Wonderland, with only ‘The Professor’ to guide you out of the nightmare.

Squeals guaranteed.

With Disney’s famed magic, and delicious fare on special Halloween menus across the park, you know there’s just no better place anywhere for tricks and treats.

Squeal Factor: 4 Shock Emojis

Great for kids: Everything. What’s not to love?

Good for grown-ups: Hong Kong Disneyland has plenty for grown-ups and the young at heart all year round. Iconic rides like Hyperspace Mountain – the iconic Space Mountain renamed and given a fun Star Wars make over as part of the Star Wars: Tomorrowland Takeover. And recent arrivals like Mystic Manor and Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

Getting there: Take the MTR to Sunny Bay station, and change to the (pink) Disneyland Resort line. Magical.

For more handy Hong Kong information visit www.discoverhongkong.com/au

Hong Kong Tourism Board also offers Partnernet – http://partnernet.hktb.com/australia – where agents can find out more about events, latest news/deals, itinerary support, fast facts, key experiences and more.