4 Best Sights in Macau, China

Twice the size of its namesake in Las Vegas, The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel offers ample opportunities for gaming, shopping, dining, and sleeping. Expect faux-Renaissance decoration, built-in canals plied by crooning gondoliers, live carnival acts, plenty of sheer spectacle, and more than a touch of pretension. The 374,000 square feet of gaming areas have more than 1,500 slot machines and around 600 tables of casino favorites. The sprawling property also includes nearly 3,000 suites, plus performance venues like the 1,800-seat Venetian Theatre and 15,000-seat Cotai Arena. It's no wonder the Venetian Macao is the must-see megacomplex that everyone's talking about.

The water theme is immediately apparent here, thanks to giant screens flashing images of mermaids swimming to and fro. Cotai's glitzy entertainment complex boasts a 39,020-square-meter (420,000-square-foot) casino with about 500 gaming tables and around 1,400 gaming machines, plus more than 20 cafés, restaurants, and bars. Kids will love the multimedia show "Dragon's Treasure," as well as the Kids' City playground. "The House of Dancing Water", an aquatic-based spectacle that cost HK$2 billion to mount, is the main event. Once you're tired out, you can choose to stay at one of its three hotels: the Grand Hyatt, the Hard Rock, or the Crown Towers.

It's impossible to miss the six 24-karat gold cupolas of the Galaxy complex towering over the northwestern end of the Cotai Strip. This 2,200-room palatial resort is home to three hotels—Banyan Tree Macau, Galaxy Hotel, and Hotel Okura Macau—as well as the world's largest wave pool, a 10-screen cinema, and a huge foot reflexology center. Smack in the center is a brightly lit casino floor packed with gaming tables, surrounded by high-end shops and restaurants where you can actually hear yourself think.

This huge hotel, shopping, and casino complex opened across the street from the Venetian Macao in 2012: its jungle-themed shopping center is flanked by the Holiday Inn Macao, the Conrad Macao, and the Sheraton Macao Hotel. The whole thing is perhaps the most child-friendly of the resort complexes, with budget-friendly prices, children's pools, and an array of colorful family suites. The enormous 3,863-room Sheraton—the largest in the world—even offers free popcorn and games near reception.