Getting out of Hong Kong has rarely been trickier – so getting out of the city and heading to one of the islands has never been more tempting. Rather than staying at an impersonal hotel, it makes sense to pick an upmarket guest house, especially if it is family run, reasonably cheap and resolutely cheerful. And while there may not be a whole raft of what five-star properties dub “facilities” on offer, there’s often a great feeling of freedom and ample opportunity to indulge the imagination at Hong Kong’s “midget-budget” accommodation. Prices shown are for the smallest accommodation available and the cheapest days of the week. Espace Elastique: Tai O, Lantau (from HK$750) A heartfelt essay in sympathetic design and historical preservation, Espace Elastique (Chinese name: Return to the Country) gives a lot of the city’s larger, noisier accommodation a run for its money. It’s a family business, whose associations with the village stretch back a century. Owner Veronica Chan Wai-chi’s grandfather set up a fabric shop in the house opposite Espace in the 1920s, and it remains a classic example of tong lau architecture, perching family quarters above business premises. Small and perfectly formed, Espace echoes this premise, with just four rooms (the balcony of the top-floor, purple-hued Deluxe Suite has the best view of the nearby waterway) placed in the upper storeys and a cafe and outdoor terrace downstairs, all but steps away from one of Hong Kong’s most charismatic neighbourhoods. B&B Cheung Chau (from HK$550) B&B Cheung Chau is not so much “get away from it all” as “get into it all”. Cecilia Ko Lei-weh, who has worked at The Peninsula and other high-profile establishments, opened B&B in 2006, on Tung Wan Road, which spans the island’s narrowest point and is busy enough at times to feel like its jugular. Overwhelming demand led to an expansion, and a satellite wing – five minutes’ walk away, near Pak Tai temple – brought the room total to 17, all fitting neatly into the cute, cosy and comfortable bracket. There’s more: a stand-alone restaurant on Tung Wan Road, the Eggenberg, serves breakfast, Thai and international fare, plus an exclusive line in Austrian beer. And B&B’s very own very kid-friendly workshop, run by arts and crafts aficionados Charlotte Cheung Pei-men and Mavis Wong Chu-man, is just down the road: henna tattoos and the painting of wooden hearts are two of the most popular classes. B&B’s first artisanal weekend market is due to kick off this month. Lychee Sunset Hotel: Cheung Chau (from HK$650) Hailing from the same stable as B&B Cheung Chau, Lychee Sunset’s 19 rooms occupy a 60-year-old, three-storey block which used to be an old folks’ home. It’s very much a young folks’ haunt now, not least for the roof terrace, which is the venue for sizeable breakfasts (there’s strong demand for fish fillet and eggs), hanging out throughout the day, and – come evening – the prime spot to catch the sunset over the harbour and South China Sea while downing something cool, alcoholic or both. Plans are in hand to add air-conditioning and sliding glass panels by the end of this month. Naturally, the Lychee’s crisply designed, wood-accented rooms aren’t huge, though each of the four facing the sea has a balcony. And the corridors are like rainbows as each door is painted a different colour and marked with an ornamental carved wooden letter and number. Long Coast Seasports: Lower Cheung Sha Village, Lantau (from HK$798) Long Coast has been doing the sun-sand-sea-and-stay thing in one form or another for 16 years. Guests can take their pick from an array of safari tents sleeping two or four people, three-pax caravans (four at a push) or regular rooms that can hold up to three guests. As the name implies, there’s a host of waterborne equipment up for grabs – body boards, stand-up paddle boards, kayaks, skim boards, kite boards, windsurf boards – and most of the packages on offer embrace accommodation, breakfast and the chance to work up a sweat while getting wet. Neophytes can call upon a team of expert, reasonably priced instructors. Best of all, Cheung Sha is one of Hong Kong’s most pleasant beaches, with long stretches of sand disturbed by little more than Lantau’s unofficial mascots – semi feral but sociable water buffalo. Concerto Inn: Hung Shing Yeh, Lamma (from HK$460) Like more than a few Hongkongers, Lam Pei-ying went for a short holiday on Lamma and loved it so much she ended up staying. She opened Concerto Inn just behind Hung Shing Yeh beach 30 years ago and the property’s gone from strength to strength. The inn’s spread out over the years to include two additional wings nearby – Bellagio and Bayshore – bringing the (pet-friendly) room total to 24. A former interior designer, Lam put all her ingenuity to work to come up with some imaginative decor, not least in Concerto itself, where colourful anthropomorphic themes emblazon the walls and soft furnishings. Concerto’s Palm Tree Beachside Cafe does what it says on the tin and quite a bit more, greatly assisted by the island’s much-vaunted reputation for superlative seafood. Ping Chau Store: Tung Ping Chau, Mirs Bay (from HK$550 per head including return ferry ticket and four meals) Ping Chau is the final frontier of Hong Kong’s island escapes, and the Ping Chau Store is the last word in luxury – assuming that the last word is “zero”. So expect rather spartan bunk beds and not much in the way of fripperies, but unlimited helpings of a unique brand of solitude. Better still, the Lai family – a dozen or so multitasking siblings – lay on hearty seafood lunches and barbecue suppers, featuring grouper, snapper and sea urchins plucked from the nearby waters. The island is a vast adventure playground – forest, beach, rock formations – with a marine park lapping its shores. Generators supply electricity: once they are turned off in the evening, the sky turns on a starlit show that’s rarely found anywhere else in Hong Kong. Note that the store opens only at weekends and on public holidays. The 90-minute kaito ride to and from Ma Liu Shui could almost be a spa detox treatment. City Oasis Guesthouse: Ngau Au Village, Tung Chung, Lantau (from HK$420) One of the prime pleasures of arriving at City Oasis is the Alice-through-the-looking-glass effect. One moment you’re on the gritty outskirts of high-rise Tung Chung, the next strolling past the streams and orchards that border a village seemingly transposed from yesteryear. Run by cousins Terry Fung Kwok-keung and Ricky Wong Wai-kit and their quartet of cats, City Oasis’ seven rooms (some with a balcony, soberly yet comfortably furnished, sleeping 17 in total) are capped by a roof terrace whose panoramas stretch from the seashore past the vaguely surreal cable car line to Lantau’s loftiest peaks. Sofas, loungers, a shower and a smokers’ corner make the (partly covered) uppermost floor an oasis within the Oasis. Meals are DIY – the kitchen’s very civilised batterie de cuisine includes hotpot, bread maker and coffee machine, and there’s a barbecue pit in the garden. Alternatively, several surprisingly good restaurants straddle the main road, no more than 10 minutes’ walk away.