great pics....really changed since i was last there...must go back i guess...

Thanks for sharing the pics - really great.
As you all no doubt know we are going to SE Asia Dec/ Jan for 5 weeks, and with the "get back to HK from BKK via Macau" advice we now arrive in Macau on a Friday about noon, and can stay there until Sunday afternoon when we have to head for HK airport for a midnight flight to South Africa.
Now I understand that weekends are not the best for Macau but I cannot change this and I am really struggling to get my head around going to Macau. I read such mixed reports- sleazy gambling areas/ old cultural areas? So unclear and even the hotels on trip advisor are not rated - sorry having a moan

I guess what I am asking is if you had this time in Macau with your husband, mother and 2 teenage children what would you do? Where would you go? Where would you eat and shop?

Well, I only can go to Macau on weekends because I work weekdays and can say a few encouraging things. First, you aren’t arriving by ferry on a weekend, which is really some of the worst bit and where the most crowds will be. You are arriving by plane and departing by the airport ferry, which will be quite different than the mobbed Hong Kong ferries. Secondly, you are not going on a pubic holiday, when things are really jammed. You will have people spread out over a weekend. The most crowded day is probably going to be Sunday (although Saturday will have a lot of people don’t get me wrong) and on that day, I would stay down in Coloane and Taipa if you can and then head for the airport from there. Do your sightseeing in the old town/historic core on Friday evening and Saturday.

Thirdly, you have already indicated you are interested in gambling, which means you will be avoiding the casinos anyway which is where most of the crowds are. You can stay at a casino hotel without being bothered too much, I think, with the crowds in the casino. I would NOT stay at any of the new casinos on the Cotai strip (only 2-3 are even open anyway), but I think I have already give you reccos for hotels, none of those are on the Cotai strip. (The Cotai Strip is a strip of land outside the old city and between it and the lovely old villages on Coloane and Taipa that is strictly for casinos and casino hotels, it is what I imagine Vegas is like: a long highway lined by high-rise casino hotels. These are mega-hotels, like 1,000 rooms each. Most of this is still under construction. You will see what I mean when you drive by it.)

Finally, in the historic core, you will in my experience find that the crowds are generally very large in the Senate Square and the street leading up to and around the facade of St Paul’s church. Once you get away from those streets, however, you will find that the little back streets here are quite deserted and you can ramble a lot undisturbed. I would strongly recco that you buy a copy of the Luxe Guide for Hong Kong which also includes a guide for Macau and which has an excellent and a very concise walking tour that will take you away from the most crowded areas and gives the very best restaurant and shopping reccos. A street map will also be helpful, there is not one in the Luxe Guide. I know you can get maps at the tourist office at the regular ferry piers in Macau, and you may also be able to get one at the airport. Most larger guidebooks for Hong Kong/Macau (like Fodors, also have city maps of Macau in them as well. It only costs like US$8. (Go to http://www.luxecityguides.com/) It is tiny and folds almost into your pocket. If you can't get where you live, you can buy it here when you arrive. You can find them at Dymocks or Bookazine, two local bookstores here (go to http://www.dymocks.com.au
www.bookazine.com.hk for locations), your hotel shop may have it as well.

The shopping in Macau is very good for antique furniture and reproductions (cheaper than Hong Kong and they ship to Hong Kong for free), which you may not be looking for; but also for junk antique stuff and souvenirs in street markets and shops. You can also find things like ancestor paintings. The Luxe Guide gives details on finding these areas, but generally you want Rue de Sant Antonio and Calcada do Embaixador and the areas around those streets. There are also a few interesting shops down in the village of Coloane and a nice Tin Hau temple.

If this were my trip I would stay either down in Coloane at the Westin or up at the Mandarin or possibly the Wynn hotel. I might consider the de Sao Tiago as well, that is just a bit out of the core area and you will end up taking taxis so IMO you may as well just stay out at the Westin, esp as you have 2 nights. It’s on the beach and as a nice pool areas (and a golf course). I also just love the Coloane end of Macau, it is so sleepy and peaceful. You can get up to the historic core for the day quite easily by taxi or bus, but then you can get away when you want. The core is quite tightly packed and can be noisy and very hectic (and there is a ton of construction going on around it). If your kids were not interested in going up to the core with you, you could leave them to go Coloane village on their own to shop and have lunch (they could even bike it but could take a bus very easily as well) which would be perfectly safe (I assume they are like 15/16 or so and not 13). There are several very good restaurants down in Coloane for dinner either night:

Espaço Lisboa
Rua das Gaivotas
Coloane Village
Tel: 853- 882 226

This is really excellent Portuguese food in a very pretty setting, they have two floors and an outdoor terrace. I found this through a Patricia Wells review in the IHT and she was right as usual. A reservation for dinner would probably be a good idea, esp on a weekend.

Fernando's
9 Hac Sa Beach
Hac Sa, Coloane
Phone: (853)-882-531)

This is a Macau institution, absolutely packed on weekends you will need a reservation for sure. This is basically walkable from the Westin.

Cicerone is spot on about the crowd issue. If you look at my pictures, you'll find that outside the areas from the Senate Square up to St. Paul, the other historic sites are very very quiet. And my most recent visit was during China's "Golden Week".

Chinese visitors go to the casinos. They may also need to have their pictures taken in front of St. Paul's, they may need to buy pork jerky at Kui Kee, and they may go up the Macau Tower. But you won't find them visiting the churches and most of the temples.

Thanks for the photos - it's great to see the changes over the years!

Thank you Cicerone for taking the time to write all of this. I had noted your hotel reccos earlier. The Wynn sounds good and the Westin sounds good, but some of the trip adv reports are a worry - eg the Westin is now very run down. I shall read some more.

It is Thursday evening here - a very wet Cape winters evening and i am going to show my husband Rk's photos - I am convince and will now book a hotel and both the reccomended resturants.

Very gratefuk to you all and if ever you need to know anything about Cape Town...

For those who may be interested, here are photos of lots of ferries between Hong Kong and Macau. You'll see all types operated by Turbojet and New World First Ferry on this route.

Sorry, forgot the link:

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p384013685/

Nice pictures...

Also, I'm taking down notes for a possible Hong Kong/Macau trip later this year, so thanks, Cicerone.

Nobody wants to look at Jetfoil pictures? I'm quite proud of them!

Like this one:

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p384013685/?photo=124816808

rkkwan, did you take them while riding one? The windows are pretty dirty. I don't think you could see clearly from the inside looking out.

As for Macau, the Macau government needs to solve the traffic congestion issue and pollution. All those mopets gotta go. Need to dump the current old buses and replace them with more environmental-friendly buses.

j_4tay - I surely did take those pictures from a Turbojet. The Chinese-built PS-30 "Balsa" jetfoil, more precisely. It was a rainy day, but the speed of the ferry blew away the water on the window.

And the windows on the jetfoils and foilcats are generally fine for taking pictures. Need some processing to add back contrast and saturation, of course. But on my way to Macau, I got a Tricat, and the windows on those were so scratched up I couldn't see anything.

And for those who wants to take pictures of passing ferries, make sure you line up early for seat assignments and ask for a window seat on the left side.

Wow, Macau sure has changed! I lived there over 20 years ago. I love Macau...I can't believe how much it has changed.

Thanks for the pictures!

macauchick - There are huge changes coming in the next few years. One of the main event is the opening of the Venetian on the "Cotai Strip" later this year. With 4,000 suites, it's even larger than the one in Las Vegas. And then every major hotel chain in the world has something planned.

In a way, it's pretty scary.

But the central and historical part of Macau really hasn't changed much at all, and most of the changes positive - churches have been restored and open to the public unlike 20 years ago.

I just posted photos of Macau during my trip in January. Went with my parents, my sister yk, and my BIL. Great weather:

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p500104653/

Photos of various highspeed ferries on the return trip, including shots of the foilcat "Barca" in action:

rkkwan.zenfolio.com/p179634432/