Customer Reviews

Frommer's Hong Kong (Frommer's Complete Guides)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If there is a hell for travel writers, I hope Beth Reiber will burn in it. The useful information in this book could be condensed into a postage stamp size guide: One good Dim Sum Restaurant, one good Macanese Restaurant and one walk in The Western District. I recently traveled with this book to Hong Kong. I had a Hong Kong resident as a companion and still got lost using this book. Ms. Reiber recommends a walking tour of Kowloon, but does not bother to place the last four destinations on the included map. Nor does she say that you will encounter two rivers of humanity flowing in both directions that will turn a fifteen minute walk into a half hour hike. It is easier for salmon to swim upstream to spawn than it is to find the Bird Market in Kowloon. She also recommends a Kowloon park that is not even on the visitor map! (Just hop on the bus, she says. It stops across from the park. Hah!) We took the bus to Stanley after seeing Victoria Peak. The bus ride is interesting but time consuming. First time travelers on a three day holiday will never be able to complete her suggested three day tour. Taxis speed things up at night, but get snarled in traffic during the day. I was there six days and saw most of the things on her list, including a side trip to Macao, but only by the grace of God did my Hong Kong friend and I find the ruins of Saint Paul's Cathedral, so inadequate were the included maps. As for the unnecessary words: Anyone can walk into a four star hotel and find a great restaurant. If you follow Ms. Reiber's restaurant suggestions you'll be eating either Very Expensive or Expensive (her categories) most of the time. If you like to shop, which I do not, I'm sure you'll find Ms. Reiber's book helpful; she drags you through every major complex of shops on her walking tours. Rick Steves she ain't. So if you are planning a trip to Hong Kong you can buy this book, but get some good maps as a supplement and draw out your routes in advance. A few things Ms. Reiber doesn't mention: The locals seem to think that tea is a disinfectant for chop sticks and soup spoons. Bring a pack of Kleenex with you to a neighborhood restaurant, because napkins are not provided. And forget about breathing clean air while you are in Hong Kong. However, the city is full of delights and I intend to return, now that I know my way around.

What have the frommers done is Just duplicating the old edition with a new name. This so called 2001 edition " frommer's hong kong 6th eddition" has so many names I could not look up on the internet mainly because they were sold to another company with a different name. The air lines they suggested dont even fly to hong kong any more. Many restaurants were nonexistant. Things are changing rapidly in Hong Kong. Frommers has not kept up with those changes. Seems like a [price] rip off scam to me.

Good luck.

Just got back from a quick jump over to HK and Macau for business and I brought this book along. Contrary to some other readers reviews, I found the book absolutely invaluable! The walking tours were quite insightful and with good directions and time estimates -I never got lost. Some of my most memorable experiences were from the walking tours in HK. The information was accurate and concise. It provided everything I needed to know about getting to the outlying islands on my free day, getting to the airport and getting around town. Nightlife recommendations were great for the foreign visitor on business. I compared the recommendations to that in Lonely Planet and my own experience and I thought the Frommer's was a lot more true to the scene than Lonely Planet. I didn't run into any snags while using the Frommer's book. I also took a side trip to Macau with the book and had a great time. Info was accurate, although the maps a little inadequate, but nothing a quick stop into the tourist office couldn't solve. I'd highly recommend the book and I'd pass it along to any colleagues or friends who might be going to HK since it never failed me once.

This guide book was excellant. It was spot on for shopping, dining and site-seeing. There is a section on the history of Hong Kong that is great, it enabled us to be better equiped to deal with the different types of people we encountered. The information on the hotels was perfect also, we stayed with some friends house but visited some of the hotels to gage the prices and they were very accurate with the exception of a few hotels that changed the prices. I reccomend the Frommer's guide books for everyone.

I have gotten at least four Frommer's guidebooks before and it's always been quite good. Until I got this one, the first ever NOT in the Day-By-Day series. What a huge mistake. First, this book doesn't have a street level view of the entire area. You know, the one they always have in the Day-By-Day book? Then everything is pink. Not exactly color map, but pastel pinkish maps. It is so hard to look at it. I don't think I have ever gotten pissed off from a guidebook before, but this one definitely got to me. Finally, there is no picture... of anything. Just lots of words. I don't want a guidebook with words! I'd get a history book in that case. I don't want to look for words in a paragraph when I'm lost in Hong Kong! I want pictures, maps, characters that'll help me find things ASAP. I'm done venting about this book. Just don't get this book. I'm returning it right now.

I just returned from a March 2008 week-long visit to Hong Kong. I used the 2007 Frommer's Hong Kong and found it worked out just fine. Good descriptions of sites, handy public transit tips (especially of how to purchase/use/return the essential Octopus card), reasonable reviews of hotels and restaurants, and decent Macau information. The book is easy (and enjoyable) to read; I feel it prepared me well for my first trip to Hong Kong. Combined with pamphlets and maps from the Hong Kong and Macau tourists boards I picked up at the airport and ferry terminal, I had all the information I needed for a great trip!

I just got back from Hong Kong and used Frommer's as my main guide for getting around. This version is a good start to understanding and orienting yourself to your travel to Hong Kong. I found it very informative for the basics but also did a lot of research on the internet prior to my trip to ensure the latest info on open times and available restaurants. Additionally, just getting a map from the hotel and info from the Hong Kong Tourism Board was equally helpful.

The book's walking tour and site seeing info is spot on especially since these things are easy to keep consistent! If you are more adventurous with your food and are looking for interesting restaurants, I would avoid the recommendations in the book since they are very touristy (we're all reading the same book). It's really easy to find many good places to eat in Hong Kong.

The Macau guide was out dated but mostly due to Macau's constant casino growth. This city was more difficult to navigate but again the guide was good for the basics of site seeing. Definitely do your research online for the latest info before venturing out.

In October, 2008, the head of valet/taxi assignments at the enormous new Venetian in Macau did not know a recommended restaurant, the Cozinha Pinocchio, p. 277. We were put in a taxi and then showed the driver the address in Frommer's Guide. Alas, he dumped us in the middle of a neighborhood that was approximately 2 miles from the listed street address, Rua do Sol. The taxi driver obviously did not know the address either. After quite a walk, we finally located a very detailed map and the street as listed in the Guide. There was no restaurant at that address and no sign of there ever having been one. Frankly, the Rua resembled an alley.

After 30 more minutes of wandering, we finally happened upon the restaurant. Yes, it was completely shut down for remodeling and the new address and entrance are at a different address.

Frommer's simply did not check their information. As veteran travelers we were not distressed but we will never trust a Frommer's Guide again.

One of the reviews below declares that the author of the Frommer's guide to Hong Kong should burn in a hell for guidebook writers. I don't find this funny. In fact, I find this to be a pretty mean thing to say, and I doubt the author of that review would say such a thing to Ms. Reiber in person. The author of that review should be ashamed of himself, and apologize here in a follow-up to his original review.

I am very familiar with the guidebook scene to Hong Kong, though I've never met Ms. Reiber, and I happen to think that her guide is one of the better ones out there. Her book has an honest and thoughtful tone; it also offers some of the more astute observations about Hong Kong to be found in the current crop of guidebooks. If there is a weakness to her guidebook, it is that it does not cover the more far-flung regions of Hong Kong--Tap Mun, Tai Mo Shan, and so on. But in a way this omission reflects well on Reiber and her book. Most guides to Hong Kong cover places like Tap Mun or Tung Lung Chau, but they provide such sketchy information that I doubt the author ever went there. Of course, authors never admit this. Reiber, on the other hand, has the integrity to only include in her guidebooks the places in Hong Kong that she has actually visited. In any case, Reiber's book covers all the locations that 99% of all visitors to Hong Kong go to. If you are that 1% of travelers who want to hike in the more remote areas of the New Territories or explore some of the more hard to get to islands, this is not the book for you. Otherwise, I can certainly recommend this guide.

It's a great book, but the fold-out map is useless. The map is basic and almost generic looking. Buy it for the book, not the map.