Premium Deal Alert: 27 January 2025
If you take the ferry past Lantau Island in Hong Kong, keep an eye out for a huge, Art Deco-style luxury resort—something out of a millionaire's Hawaiian vacation.
Look a little closer, and you'll realize it's weirdly empty.
This place is called Sea Ranch, and it's one of the eeriest spots in Hong Kong. Originally built in the '70s as a swanky getaway for HK's richest citizens, the resort ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own ambition. The construction process left the owners with millions in debt, forcing them to sell it to its own residents for a paltry $1.
Today, Sea Ranch is an impossibly luxurious ghost town. A few stubborn occupants remain, but most moved away, leaving the private clubhouse, high-end restaurants, and enormous pool (once the largest in Hong Kong) to slowly fade into ruin.
It's still private property and trespassing is technically illegal, so we can't recommend that you try avoiding security by, for example, hiking over from a public beach to do some urban exploration. We're definitely not recommending that, no way.
Alternatively, you might get lucky and snag a night at Sea Ranch's one surviving hostel :-)
