LUXE CITY GUIDES: A REVIEW

HELLO GORGEOUS.

LUXE City Guides have sold over 1.4 million copies of their snappy guides, covering 33 destinations around the world. Aimed at value-loving or tight-on-time travelers, these guides provide short, sassy reviews and highly selective entries. Each guide is highly curated and includes only the best of each location– so if there’s only 2 good hotels, that’s all you’ll find mentioned in these guides.

With no maps, photos or fluff, readers are fed only the most important information by people who love and live in that city. It’s this straight and to the point type of content that keep these stylish, fold-out guides small enough to fit in your pocket.

The first time I ever saw a LUXE City Guide I was a little skeptical due to their small size, but let me assure you, these guides pack a punch. Jam packed with witty recommendations on accommodation, restaurants, nightlife, activities, shopping, and more, these guides still make room to inform you of useful tidbits like emergency numbers and handy phrases in the local language.

Flipping through the accordion-style pages of my LUXE Hong Kong and Macau guide, I was quick to agree with many of their recommendations. Even as a somewhat “local”, I was able to learn bits of new information, which I am now intrigued to check out.

In all honesty, Hong Kong is a hard place to write a guide for. It’s known in Hong Kong that before you set out to visit a particular place to eat, you call and make sure it’s still in business (we’ve regrettably made the mistake of not doing so a few times now). With rent prices so high, restaurants and shops are constantly closing or moving elsewhere in the city, so how can you trust a guide that might be outdated before it even hits store shelves? LUXE just may be the answer.

Each printed LUXE guide is updated once a year, as well as regularly updated online– a web service you can check free of charge.

Other Things I loved:

• Most guide books provide a general overview of all things a destination has to offer, which can get overwhelming. On our last vacation, we wasted so much time and effort just trying to decide where to eat. With LUXE being so selective on what they include, you know that anything you pick is going to be great. Less choices + less decisions = more time enjoying.

• The guide contracts to 7 mm thin! It’s so small, it fits in my everyday wallet– perfect for carrying around a city.

• I also enjoy how the whole guide is designed, from its elegant cover designs to the fact it’s constructed on thick water-resistant paper.

Downsides:

• Not exactly a downside if you’re buying this book for a trip to Hong Kong, but there’s barely any Macau information. Out of the 22 panels of information, only 2 are dedicated to Macau. So if you’re looking for a Macau guide, I’d look elsewhere.

• As a photo enthusiast, I like to get a visual idea of what things look like at a location. Of course, part of the reason these guides eliminate all the images and padding is so they can be pocket-sized, but I still like having a guide chocked full of images. That being said, I would still end up looking up a lot of these places online before traveling, but during a trip any LUXE City Guide would be a great supplemental guide to keep in your purse while on the go.

Disclaimer: A special thanks to LUXE for providing me a complimentary Hong Kong City Guide. And as always, all opinions are entirely my own.