Macau Hotels

Long before Las Vegas was the “Macau of the West”, however, Macau was the “Monte Carlo of the Orient”. In what was surely a pre-eminent omen, Portugal made casinos legal in the pocket colony in the mid-19th century. Fast-forward over 150 years and the likes of the Casino Lisboa, Sands, Wynn, MGM Grand, City of Dreams and Venetian now account for 50% of Macau’s economy and lure well over 25 million people a year. The fact that the vast majority of visitors come from Guangzhou province and the rest of mainland China, where the zealous adoption of pure capitalism has led to a mobile, nouveau riche tourist class, is beside the point. From a UNESCO World Heritage historic quarter to shiny new frontiers of resort glitz, Macau is a dynamo.

Macau’s Top 10

Macau Local

Macau borders the South China Sea and the province of Guangzhou. The peninsula part of the special administrative region is home to most of the population of 550,000 and absorbs the bulk of tourists as well.

The Historic Centre of Macao is a remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Site that covers 39.5 acres (16 hectares) and many significant architectural monuments. The venerable region evinces a rare East West aesthetic and cultural fusion and deserves more attention and scrutiny from tourists than any casino table game.

Taipa is the more diminutive of the two islands that join with the peninsula to form Macau proper. The island contains the Taipa House Museum, Macau International Airport, University of Macau, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau Jockey Club and Macau Stadium. Take a stroll down Rua do Cunha when hunger strikes.

Coloane, at 8 km², is the big island of Macau and has points of interest like the Museum of Nature and Agriculture, Hac Sa Beach and Bay Park, Coloane Park and a few Taoist temples.

Cotai is a product of land reclamation and did not exist in any map or atlas a few short years ago. Now, however, the Cotai Strip is a prominent hive of casino resort activity between Taipa and Coloane.

Macau Eat & Drink

If the Macau food scene was not on the highbrow epicure radar before, the arrival of Joël Robuchon, the man with a record constellation of Michelin stars and the Gault Millau "Chef of the Century", was a surefire signal. The scene was fine before the arrival of Robuchon, quite frankly, what with a singular Lusophone-Chinese blend and ensemble of humble hole-in-the-wall establishments. Now, however, the level of culinary sophistication and amount of star chefs in the city has gone up in lockstep synchronicity with the advent of billionaire casino developers. It all makes for a wildly eclectic scene.

Macau Events

Macau’s calendar of events is in a perpetual state of flux and mirrors the rise of the city as a global leisure tourism hub over the last decade.

Macau International Music Festival is a foremost culture bridge between East and West in October.

Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Festival, or Double Fifth, is a major event in Macau and takes place at Nam Van Lakes.

International Fireworks Festival, held in late September and early October, takes pyrotechnic mastery to another level.

Feast of Buddha celebrates the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama at temples all over Macau.

Macau Grand Prix is a prominent touring car, motorcycle and Formula Three event held at Guia street circuit in November. The F3 race has been won by the likes of Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard.

Mid-Autumn Festival is big all over China and the diaspora and a wonderful time to be in Macau.

When To Go

Macau has a humid subtropical climate that takes occasional orders from area monsoons. The humidity is high, between 75% and 90%, and, as such, funnels swarms of tourists into the ample climate-control confines of the casinos. The average annual temperature is a high 73°F (23°C), with very hot weather between May and September. The long summer in Macau features a temperature range of 74.5°F (23.5°C) to 89°F (31.5°C).

Rain is a problem in summer as well, especially if you like to walk outside. The wet season produces over 60% of the annual precipitation in the city, which tops out at well over 80 in (2,032 mm). Heavy rainfall bedevils over half the days of May, June, July and August.

The easy solution to avoid the high humidity, swelter and monsoon rain of course, is to time your visit from November to March - but preferably in December, January and February, when temperatures waver between 54°F (12°C) and 67°F (19.5°C).

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What To Miss

If you like to gamble on occasion and enjoy the excitement and contextless luxury of casino resorts, Macau delivers a Vegas-like hit in, of all places, the People’s Republic of China. Yet the most famous draw in the city is also a blight to some and has come to define Macau in a way that many observers resent. With the expiry of billionaire Stanley Ho’s (who has a hand in almost every aspect of Macau’s economy) casino licence monopoly in 2002, the table was set for magnates like Sheldon Adelson and Stephen Weinberg (a.k.a. Steve Wynn) to swoop in and collect on the windfall. Which, of course, is just what they did. The rest is history.

The comparison to Las Vegas is deceptive, in fact, since Macau casinos rake in far more than resorts on the Sin City Strip. Casinos have been built with heft in mind as well, in order to accommodate a new emergent middle-class in mainland China anxious to spend discretionary income on leisure and amusement. See the hundreds of thousands who cross over daily by the busload (millionaire high-rollers get VIP helicopter service). If it all seems like silly nonsense and a good way to lose your hat, if not your mind, limit your visit to temples and non-neon-lit architecture and bypass the casinos. Relax, the city cum giant siphon for offshore tax havens will not suffer long from your indifference.

One may as well point out that you can abstain from slots and table games and still have a jolly good time at Macau’s casinos. Entertainment, restaurants and shops offer other latent diversions.

Getting Around

The old modus operandi was to fly in to Hong Kong and catch a ferry to Macau. Happily, improvements to Macau International Airport have made the extra leg more and more passé and unnecessary for those who want to save some time and money. The sleek airport has become a bit of a low-cost hub and now provides service to a wide variety of destinations within the People’s Republic, as well as the likes of Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul-Incheon, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo-Narita. More than 5 million passengers now use Macau International every year.

Despite the nascent rise of the airport as a convenient transport alternative, however, many still arrive via Macau Ferry Terminal. The busy hub offers hydrofoil and ferry service to and from Hong Kong and the port of Shenzhen.

The historic heart of Macau is compact and easy to navigate on foot, though most casinos do operate complimentary shuttle bus fleets. For points of interest further afield, however, visitors can rely on a solid public bus system or simply flag a taxi.