How We Took Our Family of 5 to Singapore, Hong Kong, and China

In our family, when a kid turns 10, they get to pick the family trip.

Our twins turn 10 this month, and they picked… Disney. 🙃 So we compromised and went to the Disney parks in Asia.

And in doing it, we crossed the finish line on something we’ve been chasing for 15 years…with this trip, all five of us have now visited all six Disney castles around the world. 🥳 We sailed the brand-new 3-night Disney Adventure cruise out of Singapore, then hit Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland back to back.

We used a truly ridiculous amount of points to pull this off, but I’ve been saving toward this specific trip for a long time, and it was worth every single one.

Here’s the whole thing for how I pulled it off from the route, to exactly how we booked it, what we did in each city, and what it actually cost.

Singapore, Hong Kong, China Itinerary with Kids

• Rochester, NY to Newark
• Newark to New York to Singapore (2 nights + the 3-night Disney Adventure cruise)
• Singapore to Hong Kong (3 nights)
• Hong Kong to Shanghai (2 nights)
• Shanghai to Beijing by train (3 nights)
• Beijing to Singapore to Newark to Rochester

We did the whole thing without a China visa (here’s how)

This is the part that makes people’s eyes go wide is that we visited Shanghai AND Beijing without ever applying for a Chinese visa. We used China’s 240-hour visa-free transit policy.

Here’s the gist. Citizens of eligible countries (the US is one) can transit through China for up to 240 hours, that’s 10 days, without a visa, as long as you’re passing through on your way somewhere else. The key rule is that the place you arrive FROM and the place you continue ON TO have to be two different countries or regions. You can’t fly in from a country and back out to that same country.

The good news for anyone doing a multi-country Asia trip: Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan all count as separate “third regions” for this.

So here’s exactly how our route satisfied it:

• We flew INTO China at Shanghai, arriving from Hong Kong (country #1).
• We traveled Shanghai to Beijing via train (both are in eligible zones, and you’re allowed to move between them).
• We flew OUT of China from Beijing to Singapore (country #3).

Hong Kong on the way in, Singapore on the way out. Two different regions, so we qualified. Our total time in mainland China was about 5 days, well under the 240-hour limit.

A few things to know if you want to try this:

• You need a confirmed onward ticket to that third country/region, with dates, before you arrive. Have it ready to show.
• You have to enter and exit through one of the designated ports (there are 65 now, and both Shanghai and Beijing’s airports qualify).
• Rules and eligible ports change, so ALWAYS confirm the current policy on an official Chinese government source close to your trip before you rely on it. This is the one area where you don’t want to wing it.

We printed our onward tickets, brought extra copies, and had digital backups. Nobody wants to be the family sorting out an entry issue with three tired kids.

How we booked the flights

This is where the points did the heavy lifting. A few of these are worth stealing.

Rochester to Newark (United): 11,000 miles + $5.60 each, using the United cardmember discount. (Cash price was around $159 each, so the points went far here.)

New York to Singapore (Singapore Airlines, currently the longest flight in the world): Premium Economy “Saver” at 80,500 miles + $5.60 each. No trouble finding 5 seats. It looked like up to 8 were available. Singapore Airlines transfers from all four major banks, so I moved points over from Capital One and Amex. It’s worth knowing that there’s no economy cabin on this flight, so Premium Economy Saver is the sweet spot.

Singapore to Hong Kong (Singapore Airlines): A promo fare at 12,400 miles + $51 each, booked directly with Singapore Airlines.

Hong Kong to Shanghai (China Eastern, booked through Flying Blue): 9,000 miles + $43 each for the adults. Flying Blue gives a 25% award discount for kids, so the girls were just 6,750 miles each. (Little tricks like that add up fast with three kids.)

Beijing to Singapore to Newark (Singapore Airlines): Premium Economy “Saver” at 104,500 miles + $35 each, with 5+ seats available.

Newark to Rochester (United): 11,000 miles + $5.60 each again with the cardmember discount.

How we booked the hotels

I doubled up on rooms everywhere (a family of 5 rarely fits in one room, especially internationally), and stacked credits wherever I could.

VOCO Times Square, NYC (2 nights): One room booked through Chase Travel with the Chase Sapphire Reserve to trigger the $250 select hotel credit. Second room (1 night) on IHG points.

Andaz Singapore (2 nights): Room 1 with 26,343 points + $250 to trigger the Sapphire Reserve “The Edit” credit. Room 2 for $408 total both nights, using the Hyatt Family Rate Plan to save about $98/night. (If you have kids and stay at Hyatt, learn this rate. It’s a quiet money-saver.)

Grand Hyatt Hong Kong (3 nights): Two rooms at 25,000 points/night, with Club Access applied to both so the whole family ate breakfast and dinner in the lounge.

Courtyard by Marriott, Shanghai Resorts Zone (2 nights): Two rooms at $179 each for both nights, or 13,000 Marriott points/night.

Grand Hyatt Beijing (3 nights): Two rooms at 15,000 points/night, with Club Access on each, again we ate both breakfast and dinner in the lounge to save money.

What we did in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing with 3 Kids

Singapore: Two nights, then the Disney Adventure cruise. The 3-night sailing was the whole reason the trip started here.

Hong Kong (3 nights): Kowloon and the Goldfish Market, dinner at Tim Ho Wan (the most affordable Michelin-starred restaurant in the world), Victoria Peak, the Big Buddha, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

Shanghai (2 nights): The Bund, Jade Buddha Temple, a silk shop where you can watch silk being made, Yu Yuan Garden, Nanjing Road (it looks like Times Square), and Shanghai Disneyland. That last one was castle number six. The final one. 🥹

Beijing (3 nights): The Great Wall at the Mutianyu section (we booked a private driver and guide for the day through Viator, which included the Summer Palace and lunch – exact tour linked), the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Jingshan Park (climb the hill for the best view of the Forbidden City), and the Temple of Heaven.

A tip that made trip planning manageable

Booking a trip like this means tracking a genuinely absurd number of moving pieces: six hotels, seven flight segments, three different points currencies, multiple credits, and prices in US dollars, Singapore dollars, Hong Kong dollars, and Chinese yuan.

For years I ran this out of a spreadsheet and a Google Doc and still lost track. So I built the tool I wished I had. In Travel Keeper, I tracked every flight and hotel above, logged what each piece cost in cash AND points, and let it convert the currencies and total the whole thing up. The app did that math, and made it so easy to track everything.

If you’re planning a family trip, that’s exactly what it’s for, and it’s free to start.

The point of all of it

We didn’t quit our jobs or pull the kids out of school to do this. We went over summer break, like always. I just planned it carefully and saved points patiently for a couple of years.

Six castles, five people, one very determined mom with a money-saving strategy. If your family has a big trip you think is out of reach, I promise you, it’s more possible than it looks. You just need a plan.

Got questions about any of these bookings? Book custom trip planning (yes, you can even use points!) or ask me anything, my inbox is always open.