Macau
Portuguese stonework, Cantonese kitchens
Attached to the Hong Kong trip because it would be strange not to, but it earns its own guide. Macau is small enough to cross in an afternoon and layered enough that you can spend a week on it, with four centuries of Portuguese administration sitting directly on top of a Cantonese city.
- Trip length
- 4 days
- Language
- Cantonese and Portuguese
- Getting around
- Buses and walking
- Arrive from
- Hong Kong by ferry
Six that earn the time
Things to see and do
Walk the historic centre in one continuous loop
The old town is a UNESCO-listed collection of squares, churches, fortifications and civic buildings that are best understood in sequence rather than as separate sights. Start early from Senado Square, work uphill, and let the pastel facades and calçada paving carry you between them. It takes a morning at a slow pace.
Stand at the ruins of St Paul’s before the tour groups
What survives is essentially a stone facade and a staircase, which sounds thin until you are in front of it. Arrive within the first hour after sunrise and you get the carving to yourself, along with a view back down over the rooftops that disappears completely once the steps fill up.
Eat Macanese food, not Portuguese or Chinese food
Macanese cooking is its own cuisine, built over generations from Portuguese technique, Cantonese ingredients and the trade routes in between. Minchi, African chicken, bacalhau treated locally. Look for the small family restaurants rather than the hotel dining rooms, and expect portions built for sharing.
Cross to Taipa and Coloane
The islands hold the version of Macau that the skyline hides. Taipa Village keeps a run of colonial-era houses and a working market street; Coloane is quieter still, with a small waterfront chapel, hiking trails and a beach. Both are a short bus ride and a different pace entirely.
Climb Guia Fortress and its lighthouse
The highest point on the peninsula, with a seventeenth-century fort, the oldest lighthouse on the China coast and a chapel with surviving frescoes. It is a genuine climb or a short cable car, and the reward is the only vantage point from which the geography of the territory makes sense.
Give the casino floor exactly one evening
Gaming is why most visitors come and ignoring it entirely would misrepresent the place. Walk through, look at the scale of it, understand that it funds much of what you saw during the day, then leave. One evening is enough to have seen it; more than that and you have not really visited Macau.
Air and rail
How to get there
General guidance rather than specific fares, because fares change and this page does not. Check the current position before you book anything.
By sea from Hong Kong
The standard approach, and the one I am taking. High-speed ferries run frequently across the Pearl River Delta from terminals in Hong Kong to both the Macau peninsula and Taipa, with the crossing taking around an hour. You clear immigration on both sides, so treat it as an international departure, arrive well ahead, and keep your passport accessible rather than packed.
By road
A long sea crossing links Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau by road, served by shuttle buses that run around the clock. It is generally cheaper than the ferry and less affected by rough water, though you change vehicles at the border posts. There is also a land frontier with Zhuhai on the mainland Chinese side, used heavily by day visitors.
By air
Macau International sits on Taipa and handles mostly regional routes across East and Southeast Asia rather than long-haul traffic. Most visitors from further afield fly into Hong Kong and continue by ferry or bus, which is usually faster and better connected than trying to route directly.
Planned for November 2026
When to go
October to December
Dry, comfortable, clear
The same window that works for Hong Kong, for the same reasons. Humidity drops away, the old town is walkable at midday rather than punishing, and the light on the stonework is at its best. This is when I am going.
March to April
Mild but often foggy
Pleasant temperatures and fewer visitors, offset by a persistent sea fog that can sit over the territory for days and occasionally disrupts ferry crossings. Worth it if you want the squares quiet and do not mind soft grey light.
June to September
Hot, wet, typhoon exposed
Heavy heat and the same tropical storm season as the wider delta, with the added complication that ferry services suspend before an approaching signal. If your dates land here, allow a spare day at each end of the crossing.
Learned the hard way
Erica's tips for Macau
Book the ferry both ways before you land
Sailings sell out on weekends and around public holidays, and the return leg is the one people forget. Fixing both crossings in advance costs nothing extra and removes the only genuine logistical risk in the trip.
Take the free hotel shuttles seriously
The casino resorts run frequent complimentary buses between the ferry terminals, the airport, the border and their own properties, and nobody checks whether you are a guest. Used sensibly, they cover a large share of the routes you actually need.
Wear shoes with grip, not style
The old town is paved almost entirely in calçada, the traditional Portuguese mosaic stone. It is beautiful, it is uneven, and it is genuinely slippery in the rain and after a run of humid days. This is not the destination for a smooth sole.
Six frames
The Macau shot list
The six photographs I am going there to take, written down before departure so I have something to hold myself to. Each one gets replaced by the real frame once I am back.
Calçada paving running in waves across an empty square before the shops open
Senado Square, early morning
The surviving facade of St Paul’s with the staircase still clear of visitors
Santo António, first light
A Macanese kitchen mid-service, minchi going out to a shared table
Taipa Village, lunch
Pastel shutters and a hand-painted street sign on a lane behind the main road
Taipa, late afternoon
The lighthouse at Guia with the whole peninsula laid out underneath it
Guia Fortress, midday
The waterfront chapel and the quiet end of the island, looking towards the water
Coloane, golden hour
