Best of Hong Kong by Lonely Planet

When E and I went to Asia this April, we spent three days in Hong Kong. We had with us the Lonely Planet Best of Hong Kong, which was the perfect resource for this short stay. I can’t tell you how happy I was with this book. It is the first time I have used a book from Lonely Planet’s Best Of series, and I will definitely consider them in the future.

It could be that because Hong Kong is such a small place to cover in a guidebook, the Best Of format works well. The book is fairly thin at only 128 pages, so it fit easily in my purse or E’s pocket. This was almost unnecessary, as we would be practically fighting over who would get to carry it. At any given moment, one of us would have our nose stuck in the book, either examining the very helpful maps, reading a walking tour aloud, or looking for our next destination.

I found almost all the sections immensely useful, especially the chapter of highlights that offered a full-page description of each major sight in the city. With not even three days to sightsee (we were there for my cousin’s wedding and much of our time was already planned), the highlight sections was not only a practical way to choose which places to visit, but the lengthy descriptions were all little sales pitches, making us want to see everything, and excited to do things even before we arrived.

We also found many interesting tidbits in the more traditional chapter on sights and activities, and followed one of the walking tour suggestions. We used the shopping guide to find the interesting antique shops that we exploited as museums rather than places to purchase things.

We didn’t have too many opportunities to eat on our own (when Chinese families get together, well, you can imagine), and we got a taste of the nightlife with my cousins and their friends, so we didn’t use those sections of the book as much.

Looking back, I am amazed that we were able to pack so much sightseeing into what little free time we had. We took the tram to the top of Victoria Peak, we took a walking tour of the Central district, rode all the way up the world’s longest chain of escalators (designed for hillside dwellers commuting to and from work in the financial district on lower ground). We rode the double-decker trams, went shopping, took the ferry to Kowloon and had high tea at the Peninsula Hotel. We accidentally took a wrong turn into a suddenly peaceful and quiet park where old men sat at stone tables playing Go. We visited the tea museum and got foot massages.

E keeps talking about going back to Hong Kong. I hadn’t thought much about it, but now that I’m looking through my Best of Hong Kong again and writing about our trip, it’s starting to sound pretty good.

Best of Hong Kong by Lonely Planet

Tags: travel+guides Hong+Kong Lonely+Planet