The Lonely Planet `Best of' series are small pocket-size city guides and generally good, though occasionally contain mistakes and out-of-date information. They are slim-line soft-cover books typically containing around 100 pages and are high print-quality, full-colour publications.
Authored by veteran LP travel writer Steve Fallon, at 128 pages this "Best of Hong Kong" guide is a little more substantial than most others in the series. The front cover folds out as a street map of the Kowloon Peninsula and the rear cover as the northern shoreline of Hong Kong Island from Central to Wan Chai, with smaller maps of Causeway Bay and Lan Kwai Fong.
The book is then divided into colour-coded sections:
* Introducing Hong Kong, Districts and Islands, Itineraries
* Highlights
* Sights and activities
* Out and about
* Shopping
* Eating
* Entertainment
* Sleeping
* About Hong Kong (history, environment, government etc)
* Directory
* Index
Every page is lavishly illustrated with colour photography and has mini-articles inserted into the main text in coloured text-boxes (for example do-do's and no-no's for visitors, a detailed examination of dim sum, or where and when to see the best Chinese Opera). The layout is user-friendly and the information accurate and useful.
For a visit of up to a week or so there is no point in buying and lugging around a bigger, heavier guide book when this LP `Best of' guide contains everything you need in a handy pocket-sized volume. The only down-side might be that due to its brevity it is a little short on detail for the visitor with specialist interests, such as the temples or some specific aspect of Chinese culture, and such a visitor might be advised to seek out a guide more focussed on his/her specialist interests.
Caution: the MTR maps in this edition are not up-to-date i.e. they miss out some of the newer stations on recent line extensions.