If you are considering exotic international travel to Hong Kong, be sure also to take in the environs of Hong Kong, such as Zhongshan, Macao and Tai Mo Shan. Although Hong Kong itself is a wonderful place to visit, these other attractions offer you an alternative view of China that is less frenetic, and more akin to the China most people have in their minds.

The best way to see this part of China, and it is part of China because the British handed Hong Kong over to Chinese control in 1997, is by means of a personalized tour that only the best international vacation packages can offer. This enables you travel at your own pace, with your own driver, without the encumbrance of a group of others who might have different views than you as to how long to spend at each attraction.

Good planners arrange tours to suit their individual customers and their partners, and although the cost of these might be higher than you would pay for general vacation group packages, it is worth it if you are looking for luxury international trips as opposed to just an ordinary vacation. At least one travel company states that if you can't live better away from home than at home, then why bother going? A good sentiment.

Back to Hong Kong as a destination for exotic international vacation tours. Its capital is the island of Victoria, which to many is synonymous with Hong Kong. Victoria sits in Hong Kong harbor, and Kowloon is the mainland part of the district. At night you can enjoy the magnificent laser light show from around 8 - 9 pm, when you can see a magnificent display of thousands of lights from the various tall buildings, including the laser beams that shoot across the sky. This show is accompanied by music. The Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade is great place from which to watch this display.

Make sure you also visit some of the fishing villages in the district, such as Aberdeen and the Sok Kwu Wan fishing village on Lamma island that is famed for its excellent Chinese seafood restaurants. You should also visit the Chinese border, out past Kowloon into the countryside. However, there is more to exotic international travel to Hong Kong than just that.

The first Europeans to settle in the Far East were the Portuguese, and the oldest settlement was at Macao, also known as Macau. This was also handed back to the Chinese, but you can still visit Macao, especially the Grand Prix circuit and the casinos: Macao is not nicknamed the 'Monte Carlo of the Far East' for nothing. It also has a unique combination of Portuguese and Chinese culture that is found nowhere else in the world.

Make sure that you also take a tour to Zhongshan, on the Pearl River delta. This is an 800 year old village covering some 20 square miles, inhabited by traditional fishermen and farmers. Also in the area is Tai Mo Shan (Big Hat Mountain), the highest mountain in the district, and providing magnificent views of the Lam Chuen valley and the Shek Kong Airport.

Hong Kong is not all high rise buildings and people dashing frenetically about talking to cell phones. There is also the peaceful part that comprises nine tenths of the district. Places such as the Chuk Lam Shim Yuen Buddhist Monastery and the Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall, with its delicate wood carvings and built in honor of Tang Chung Ling who founded the Tang clan. Close by is one of five famous walled villages, Lo Wai, built in the 13th century.

Make sure, if you can, that the Hong Kong packages you look at include trips to these places of interest that show the real China, as opposed to the westernized influences of Hong Kong as most people know it. Good vacation planners should include tours outside the environs of Victoria island and Kowloon and into the Chinese mainland and surrounding district.

It's a long way to travel just to visit the skyscraper city that is just like any other modern day city, and miss the real flavor of the Orient that can be found just a few miles away. Real exotic international travel to Hong Kong must involve some element of the mystery of the Orient, and that is what you will find once you get away from the modern parts of the city. Take in a tea plantation, and perhaps a local traditional Chinese market, and try some of the more traditional fare as opposed to the very westernized food of Victoria.

That way you will see and taste the real China of this area, and have a truly exotic vacation to Hong Kong that you will be able to talk about for a lifetime.