Visiting Macau during a trip to Hong Kong? Follow me to see how to explore the city: the peninsula and Taipa Island.
ITINERARY - HONG KONG & MACAU: here is the full itinerary for a tour of these 2 cities.
Macau can easily be explored on foot, but if you need to take the bus, you’ll see that it’s cheap and easy.
If you just want to visit the historic district and the founder casinos of the peninsula, 1 day will be enough. But if you want to go to the south island, Taipa, whether to go to visit the new casinos or to go to see the temples or to go to the beach, you will need a second day.
The special thing about Macau is that you’ll see the Portuguese influence everywhere, on the architecture, on the streets’ name that are written on earthenware …
But the weirdest thing about that is that citizens don’t know anything about the Portugueses influence, it looks like they don’t really know why the country looks like that. And no one understands a single word of Portuguese.
With that being said, let’s go to see the details of the schedule:
Day 1: historic district
To start your first day, you’ll have to take a ferry to go from Hong Kong to Macau. To go to the Macau Peninsula, in order to visit the historic district, you’ll have to choose the Turbo Jet company (Cotai Water Jet goes to Taipa). And you can take the ferry whether from Kowloon or from Hong Kong Island. Normally, you won’t need to book your ferry tickets in advance because ferries leave every 30 minutes (there are more details about ferries in the Tips section of this article).
Tip: for the ferry, don’t forget to take a sweater because the air condition is freezing!
Once you’ve reached Macau’s harbour, you can take any hotel-casinos’ free shuttles to go to the city. If the hotel you’ve booked doesn’t have its own shuttle, just take the shuttle from another hotel but one that is located close to yours.
Once you’ve checked-in at your hotel, it will be time to go to explore the city! Let’s start with Senado Square and the visit of the Instituto para os Assuntos Cívicos e Municipais, which is located right at the entrance to Senado Square. It is a kind of house and a garden that can be visit.
Then, go through Senado Square and at the end of the road, at the crossroads, turn right, keep going a little bit and then turn left, before continuing straight. You will then come across the Ruins of Saint Paul’s (and don’t worry, the path is well indicated). Only the facade of the church remains, but you can walk around it to go to the back of the church.
Tip: in the Sao Paulo Street (facing the Ruins of Saint Paul’s), you’ll see that all the shops will make you taste dried meats!
Once you’re done with the visit of the church, take the path located on the right side of it in order to go to visit the fort. You’ll see a lot of cannons! But it’s quite steep to go up there.
Facing the cannons, there is the Macau Museum.
Tip: it’s open from 10 am to 6 pm every day, but closed on Mondays. Admission is MOP15 but free on Tuesdays and on the 15th of every month. It is also free for children of 12 years old or under and seniors of 65 years old or above.
And for the end of the day, you can go to visit the city founders casinos, in particular the Grand Lisboa!
Day 2: Taipa
For your second day in Macau, it’s time to go to Taipa Island!
During my trip, I have only visited the new casinos because I wanted to compare them to those in Las Vegas.
Some are just copies (like the Venetian) and others were built only for Macau (like The Parisian or Studio City). To get there, just take casinos’ free shuttles.
Tip: if you are not interested in casinos, you can either go to visit the A-ma temple or you can go to the beach. But you’ll need a taxi then.
Tips
Ferry
To take the ferry, you won’t need to make a booking in advance because ferries are leaving every 30 minutes. You’ll just need to go to the ferry terminal to buy a ticket.
Tip: there are two main companies:
- Cotai Water Jet who travels to Taipa Island where all the new casinos are located. The company is blue colour.
- Turbo Jet who travels to Macau Peninsula. The company is red colour.
Choose the company according to the place you want to reach. My preference is Turbo Jet because it travels to Macau Peninsula where there are more things to see and do.
To take the ferry you have two options, you can either take it from Kowloon or from Hong Kong Island:
- from Kowloon: you must go to the « China Ferry Terminal ». To do so, get off at the « Tsim Sha Tsui » MTR station (exit A), and then turn right. At the end of the road turn right again and you should be on Canton Road. Keep going and you should see the « China Ferry Terminal ». Once inside the building, go to the first floor using the lift and search for the ticket booth of the company you’ve chosen.
- from Hong Kong Island: you must go to the « Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal » which is located in the « Shun Tak Centre ». To get there, take the MTR and get off at « Sheung Wan » station (exit C) and you’ll be right in front of the building. Once inside, go to the third floor and search for the ticket booth of the company you’ve chosen.
Whether leaving from Kowloon or from Hong Kong Island, the fare is exactly the same.
Once you’ve bought your ticket, go to the check-in counter where you’ll be given a seat number, and then go to the boarding dock to wait for your boat.
Tip: for HK$25, you can also check your bags in if they are too big or too heavy.
Money
The local currency is the pataca which is pegged to the Hong Kong dollar. So in Macau, you won’t need to go to the currency exchange office because you’ll be able to pay in Hong Kong dollars everywhere ! However, if someone give you change in pataca (also known as MOP), the best thing to do is to spend it before returning to Hong Kong, because overthere you won’t be able to spend it or to change it.
Hotels
In Macau, there are a lot of hotel and casino resorts, so I recommend taking the opportunity to spend a night there. Especially since it’s not necessarily that expensive.
Back then, I stayed at the Rio Hotel that was comfortable and welcoming. It’s good value for money.
Description: rooms are quite large, clean, comfortable and functional. The bathroom is provided with a bathtub. There are also quite a few facilities in the hotel: swimming pool, gym …
Price: about $50 per night for 2 people.
Location: the hotel is located close to visit areas.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| big and comfortable rooms | - |
| good value for money | - |
| convenient location | - |
Thanks for reading :)
