Customer Reviews

Hong Kong (Insight pocket guides)

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

 

 

I found the guide to be quite good and conveniently compact. My one criticism is that information for a given area is in several different places in the book. For example, there is a section on Wan Chai as a tour, another for Wan Chai at night, another section under excursions, and then Wan Chai restaurants are listed in a fourth section, altho some are included in the previous sections. This made for a lot of page flipping back and forth. This should all be consolidated into one section on Wan Chai. I thought the info was very good, just a lot of page flipping ("Now, where did I see that?")

(The photo shown here is the 2008 version, but I got the 2009 version.) Wish there was the 2010 version! Loved the colorful photos on every page. The book is divided into different sections such as areas of interest, top sights and attractions like horse racing, casinos, HK Disneyland, nightlife, parks, Star Ferry, museums, temples, and even street dining and bargaining at nighttime. The book also talks about early history of HK, the arts, Chinese Medicine, places to dine and to have fun at night, and a section on Macau too. I like the section near the end where it gives A-Z travel tips like transportation and how to get around, things to consider before you book your hotel (accommodations), best places to shop, sports, activities and festivals, street atlas maps that includes hotels and restaurants, and even how to pronounce some basic Cantonese phrases to get around! Would recommend the book when traveling and is worth to buy.

Aimed at the vacationer or business traveller, the strength of this guide is its guided walks/day trip itineraries...and in for a place whose coastline and skyline is forever changing, not to mention its complete change of sovreignty, the more up to date your guidebook the better!

I took the "fully updated" 2011 version of the guide on a trip to Hong Kong in December 2011 and found numerous errors or places the guide is already out of date. For instance:

1) The book twice states that the city trams cost HK $2 and that exact change is required (pages 123 and 259). The fare is actually HK $2.30

2)The guide indicates that the Hong Kong Discovery Centre is not open on Saturdays (page 157), but it is open then.

3)The guide states, "From Fanling station, it's a short ride on the 64K minibus to the Leung Yuk Tau Heritage Trail (page 190). You actually need to take the 54K minibus.

4)The guide states that there are Star Ferry routes from Hung Hom to both Central and Wan Chai (page 258). That service was canceled as of April 1, 2011.

The book is attractive and has a lot of information--unfortunately,too much of the information is unreliable. Needless to say, this is not a guidebook you would want to rely upon to navigate or tour Hong Kong.