Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong

A great place to spend a couple of hours strolling around and then have dinner, hourglass-shaped Cheung Chau covers just 2.5 square kilometres but is the most crowded of all the outer islands, with a population of 23,000. Scenic but crowded Tung Wan Beach is a 700-metre-long strip of sand, with various places to rent windsurfing gear, have a snack, or just laze on the sand. You can stay here too. Historically, the island is one of the oldest settled parts of Hong Kong, being notorious as an eighteenth-century base for pirates who enjoyed waylaying the ships that ran between Guangzhou and Macau. Today, it still gives the impression of being an economically independent little unit, the main streets jam-packed with shops, markets and seafood restaurants. If you can, visit during the extraordinary Tai Chiu (Bun) Festival in April/May, when the island fills to critical mass with raucous martial-arts displays, dragon dances, and a competition to climb vast conical towers made of steamed buns.

First Ferry (www.nwff.com.hk) operates ferries to Cheung Chau from Central's Outlying Islands Ferry Pier (24hr departures, at least 2/hr 6.15am–11.45pm; 30min– 1hr).