A day trip from Hong Kong to Macau

How to get to Macau from Hong Kong

Not long ago Hong Kong and Macau finally got connected through the worlds longest bridge that costed 17 billiards Euros to build and is 55K long. When I was in Hong Kong in December I combined the HKG trip with a day tour to Macau but we took the traditional way there – with a boat from central HKG. I wanted to try out the new bridge but it took more than twice the time so in the end it was not worth it compared to just walk down to the ferry and board towards Macau. The ticket price was about 15 USD each way and we bought the tickets at the desk just before boarding. It is wise though  to purchase a return ticket in advance since it sometimes can be rather busy and you will have to wait in a standby que if you doesn’t have a seat.

Sightseeing in Macau

We started our day in Macau to walk around in the older parts nearby the ferry. I been to Macau about ten years ago and this time it was a completely different place. At that time all casinos were located nearby the ferry and if you walked further you would reach the city center. Before you could not use HKG dollars or even cards to pay with but now both was possible. Although HKG and Macau is very nearby you can feel the difference in atmosphere. Macau feels lots more chinese and there aren’t that many western people around or they get absorbed by the locals? You can easily go around with public busses or take taxis. Or you can take free tours to all major sights offered by hotels. The main historical attractions is a square, a relic of a church and some other buildings in that area. Those places we left out this time and went to the new side.

Casinos in Macau

When thinking about gambling you may also often think that Vegas is the gaming capital but in fact Macau is bigger when it comes to revenue. The casino island is what I call the “new part” of Macau since it was under construction the first time I was in the country. Here everything was shiny and sparkling. It felt like Vegas but the atmosphere were much calmer. When I was in Vegas I didn’t liked it that much. A place you must see but it was not my cup of tea. To many “white trash” people and grown up’s in their 50’s and even older doing a repeat of their teenage years. It was fascinating to see but I would not like to get back. And I do not gamble myself.

Macau the city of dreams. Here in Macau everything looked as new as it was. The buildings were just a few years old and you could find a lot of gaming places and luxury shops where you could spend what you just won. Gambling is illegal in China for Chinese citizens so the gambling scene in Macau attracts a lot of Chinese. At the time when I was there the majority of visitors were Chinese.

The strip

Like Vegas Macau has a huge strip dividing the different casinos from one each other. The most famous one is the Venetian which is a copy of the one in Vegas. It looks almost the same like a manmade Venice. And that is the closest I been to the canals in Venice.

The Venetian Macau

It was easy to walk around outside in the area and in December the temperature is comfortable around 20 degrees. The distances can be quite long so if you are not prepared to walk you will have a challenge. This is not America so there are no golf carts taking you around if your legs are tired.

It was interesting to walk around have a look at all people trying to get rich playing at the various machines. I wonder how many people that leaves Macau with a profit?

The Venetian casino is a not just a casino. The bottom floors are for gambling but the other floors is a shopping mall and have a lot of eateries. We had difficulties to find something we liked when it was time for food but finally we found some burgers.

And when we had finished our burgers after looking for a suitable place to eat for quite a while, guess what, we found a really cool burger place where the seats were like cars. Why does that always happen? There are no places to eat while you need food and when you are full, the nice places appear just infront of you.

Evening lights in Macau

At around 7 pm it started to get dark outside so the whole place lighted up nicely. Since it was December I expected more christmas decorations than I saw but christmas isn’t that big in South East Asia.

But instead of finding nice christmas trees we randomly walked into a cable car that you could go on so you could see parts of the casinos from above. The line was very short so of course we tried it out. After a day of walking and even more walking that was fantastic. If you also wanna try it out head to the Wynn Palace. When we were finished with the cable car ride we went back to Hong Kong.

Going to Macau

Macau is not my favorite place on earth but it is a fun day trip if you are in Hong Kong. It was exciting to see how a place had developed in ten years. I suppose you like it more if you also like to gamble. It is really nothing special to see and I rather explore nice hikes in Hong Kong or go to the Ocean park or Disney in HKG than Macau for a thrill. But that is just me. Have you been to Macau? did you liked it? or was it just to get a new country to add to your “been” app?

/ Pernilla that loves to explore places in the world