Phenomena occurring during epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) of semiconductor structures by liquid phase epitaxy are reviewed. Examples are shown to illustrate why, how and which parameters of the growth procedure must be controlled to obtain ELO layers with a large value of width/thickness ratio. Based on available experimental data, comparison of various epitaxial growth techniques will be presented, showing that liquid phase epitaxy is the most suitable for epitaxial lateral overgrowth, so if possible it should be chosen to grow the ELO layers.