Macau’s Top Attractions: Modern and Vintage
Casinos
Macau is known as the Vegas of Asia, and it’s easy to see why. Roughly 1/3 of this city is dedicated purely to casinos and resorts, with many of the most famous Vegas resorts making an appearance. An in depth look at the casinos is at the end of the article, but here’s a brief rundown. If you’re planning on gambling, for legal reasons casinos only take Hong Kong dollars, and will not offer currency exchange, so come prepared!
Most of the casinos are located on the Cotai strips, and all feature ample shopping, amenities, so we won’t bore you with those details. What we did notice is a general sense of quality in every casino we visited. In Vegas, many casinos are starting to look run down, but in Macau everything seemed very high-quality. While we can’t exactly speak for individual experience of hotel or food quality, we were impressed with how nice it felt between the 6-7 casinos we visited. Even if you don’t plan on gambling, it’s worth exploring the Cotai Strip for a few hours at least.
teamLab Supernature
teamLab is a Japanese company offering immersive art installations around the world. They are known for incredible displays of light beams, lasers, projections, soundscapes, and even physical features like water, bouncing floors, and hanging flowers. We have been lucky enough to visit teamLab in Tokyo and Osaka, making this our third visit. Each time it is a bit different but we always anticipate a surreal and immersive experience. Although projection museums are becoming popular, we have consistently found teamLabs delivers the highest quality and most unique installations.
The Macau installation is called Supernature, and is located permanently inside The Venetian hotel. If you’ve never been to a teamLab installation before, prepare yourself as you walk in. The first exhibit is called Valley of Flowers and People, a massive room with sloped floors, mirrors, and beautiful flower projections slowly falling and shifting in the digital breeze. From this room, you can explore and find hidden passageways. Unlike other teamLabs, there is no set path, and it’s up to you to find all of the rooms.
The Infinite Crystal Universe is an incredible room that will have your head spinning, as you walk through a massive mirrored hall covered in tens of thousands of lights. Colors shift and pulse as they appear to stretch into infinity, sometimes creating a dizzying experience. We always love this room as it’s an experience that your brain truly isn’t capable of understanding.
There were many other interesting rooms like one full of massive colored balls floating around, and the most extensive kids area we’ve seen at a teamLab exhibition. But my favorite ended up being one of the smallest exhibits, a tiny room with a laser sculpture called “plane”. It felt like looking upwards into a portal. Overall, this was our favorite teamLab experience, because of the wide variety of exhibits, open layout, and extra activities for kids. There are a few extra paid experiences like a projection cafe and a flower room, but we’ve done them at other locations and didn’t have time. Regardless, it’s easy to see why teamLab is one of Macau’s top attractions.
Senado Square
Senado Square is of of the main centers of activity on the Macau side. Here you will find many of the most popular restaurants, shops, and a few attractions. The square has been used at least 300 years, and is surrounded by classic Portuguese style architecture. It is decorated with a lovely black and white striped pattern that flows along the road for quite a while, eventually leading you to St. Dominic’s Church and the Ruins of St Paul.
Guia Fortress
Being a Portuguese settlement it’s no surprise there are many structures left over. Guia Fortress and Lighthouse was built on a large hill overlooking the east side. Although it isn’t apparent now, much of the land of Macau was artificially expanded, so this lighthouse used to be much closer to the ocean.
To get to the lighthouse is quite the hike. It took us about 15 minutes from street level. Because it’s so high, and Macau is so hot and humid we were dying when finally arrived at the top. The fort complex is quite small, but the surrounding hill is a beautiful park with lots of lovely areas to sit and hang out.
The fort consists of the outer walls, a chapel, and the light house. From the outer walls you get a clear view of the city which is stunning. Its a strange juxtaposition to see the massive casinos towering over the city from such an old building. You can go inside the chapel and see original decorations and frescoes, but you are not allowed to take any pictures. The lighthouse is very simple but beautiful. The fort is nice, but the main reason to come here is the amazing view of Macau which we definitely recommend.
Monte de Forte
This is the main fort people visit in the city. Built in 1626 this large fort was the strategic center for the Portuguese during their settlement of the city. It is at the top of the city and is one of Macau’s main attractions. Compared to the other forts in the city this one is quite large with several story high walls and large crenellations. There is a decent view around the city as well as a small museum in the center, but when we visited it was too crowded to enter.
To be honest this isn’t our favorite location compared to the lighthouse. It’s interesting, but the view is not as good and its much more crowded due to the location. The best reason to visit this fort is due to its proximity to the main areas, with the Ruins of St. Paul and Senado Square only a few minutes walk away. Then again, everywhere in Macau is within walking distance so why not visit all the forts‽
Ruins of St. Paul
The Ruins of St Paul is by far one of the top attractions in Macau’s city center. In 1640, the Church of Mater Dei finished construction at the foot of Monte de Forte. In 1835 the cathedral and surrounding area caught fire, all of which was built of wood and crumbled to the ground. The front wall of the cathedral is all that remains, being constructed of stone instead of wood. As far as I’m aware, the church itself was not known for being a massively important religious site, and it more important as a manifestation of Portuguese cultural influence in Macau.
The experience of visiting the ruins was honestly underwhelming. Since we visited during a holiday weekend, the area was absolutely packed with people, just getting to the ruins was a challenge, and we didn’t even attempt a great photo. They are quite beautiful, but even on an off day it’s very crowded because the footprint of the ruins is so small. There is not much to see besides a small crypt and the facade itself, so as long as you’re in the area and get a decent look from afar, you’ve seen most of it. If you’re like us and couldn’t get up close, the official website has a virtual tour that covers everything in detail and only takes five minutes.
Iglesia Dominic
St. Dominic’s Church is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to none other than Saint Dominic. It was constructed by Spanish Dominicans priests in 1587 and has remained there since. It is a much older building than the Ruins of St. Paul, and we found it more visually interesting as well. The interior is exactly what you’d expect from a cathedral. The strangest part is hearing Chinese, a language hardly associated with western religion, being spoken openly inside. There was a long line to get in, and once we were inside we could only stay in a small area. We’ve seen so many cathedrals that they all blend together, but this one is definitely a bit more special than the rest.
A-Ma Temple
On the less busy west side of Macau is A-Ma Temple. This ancient Buddhist temple predates the city by at least 70 years, being build in 1488. According to the temple, the name A-Ma is pronounced “Mok Kok” in Cantonese, which is where the original Portuguese settlers derived the name “Macau” from. This ancient temple is dedicated to the goddess of the Sea, Mazu, a folk god from many traditional religious practices in ancient China.
It has a very unique layout with layers upon layers climbing up a rocky peak all the way to the top. Most of Macau’s modern land area is artificial, and this temple would have originally sat at the southernmost point of Macau island, overlooking the bay. Nowadays, the temple has several layers of buildings and staircases, with platforms holding small temples of worship. A-Ma temple has an incredible atmosphere, tucked away from the high-rises and bustling city. Being able to see all of the buildings stacked on each other climbing up the hill was such a beautiful sight. Although it was a bit hard to get to, this is one of our top recommended attractions in Macau’s less travelled area.
Macau Tower
Macau Tower is one of the icons of the Macau skyline. Located on the edge of the Macau side, this tower has an amazing 360 view of the city and China across the harbor. The tower is 1110ft (338m) tall which gives it a massive height advantage over the tightly packed city. Of course there is a restaurant and other amenities, but the main attraction is the bungee jump from the top. It looks absolutely terrifying, and you can view them through the glass floors as they jump off the ledge. It makes my feet hurt just thinking about it.
This is one of my favorite towers we’ve visited, and at this point we’ve visited a lot. The view was absolutely beautiful. More importantly the windows are massive and have no warping or tint, giving it the clearest view we’ve seen in an observation tower. Even though it’s not the tallest, the rest of the buildings in Macau aren’t all that high, making it feel like it’s towering over the city.
Studio City
Now it’s time to talk about casinos, starting with Studio City. This is one of the furthest south casinos on the main strip, and has a distinct vibe from the others. It leans heavily into the Hollywood/film vibe, with a towering appearance and an Oscar-like award statue out front. Inside, the entire hotel was themed after streets, movie theaters, and backlots, and honestly it was quite well done. It really feels like a miniature city, with plenty of malls, restaurants, food courts, ice cream, and even a fully fleshed out Don Quijote!
We wanted to come to Studio City because we figured the gambling area might have a nice theme. We came to find out that the casino portions of all the resorts and hotels basically looked the same, carrying over little theming. Since we don’t gamble, we decided to play 100HKD on a slot machine and move on.
The Parisian
The main draw of the Parisian isn’t what’s inside, but what’s outside. Of course like the famous Parisian in Vegas, there is a half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower directly in front of the hotel. Unlike Vegas, there is a large grass strip across the road, which makes for a much more accurate and beautiful view of the tower. One of the first things we did after arriving was enjoy the nice weather in the grassy lawn out front of the Parisian. Having been to Paris it’s hard to say it compares with the real thing, but even though it’s fake it’s still really cool to see in person.
You can easily go up the tower, as well as enjoy a meal from the mid-level restaurant. But our favorite view is at night when the whole city lights up. Unlike the real Eiffel Tower, this one is legal to photograph at night! Meaning you can take beautiful photos from across the lawn as you enjoy the coordinated light and music show. The inside of the resort is gorgeous as well, with tons of open space and hallways that actually did remind us a bit of walking down random alleys in the City of Love.
The Venetian
The Venetian is another world famous Casino from Vegas that makes an appearance in Macau. From our experience, this was by far the busiest resort in the city with massive crowds in the main halls, and lines to get to the indoor canal street. It took us about 10 minutes to get up to the canals, but once we did we understood the hype.
Obliviously it’s not the same thing as visiting Venice in person, but we were really surprised at how cool the canals were. Of course you can get a ride on a boat but we didn’t feel like it was necessary, just seeing it was enough. There are hundreds of stores in the mall, and the casino was so opulent it was hard to wrap our heads around. If you visit one casino interior, we think the Venetian is a good one to try.
Final Thoughts
Macau is one of the most unique cities we’ve been to. The blend of new and old, Portuguese and Chinese make this a truly one of a kind city. Macau’s attractions are so varied with amazing views, incredible architecture, and plenty of history to go around. If you’re ever in the Hong Kong area, we highly recommend you schedule a visit to Macau.
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