Macau Primer

Macau is also spelled as Macao and was a former Portuguese colony. It is composed of the Macau Peninsula itself, islands of Taipa and Coloane which connects to Cotai Strip. Majority (around 95%) of Macau’s population is Chinese, while around 2% is Portuguese or mixed Chinese and Portuguese, known as Macanese. The official language in Macau is both Portuguese and Cantonese and for the forex rate, approximately, 1 MOP = 5.20 PHP, but you can always use HKD in Macau having forex rate of 1 HKD = 1.03 MOP.

With my extensive research, these are the places the I have included in my itinerary:

1. Sands Hotel
2. Fisherman’s Wharf
3. Grand Lisboa
4. Senado Square
5. Ruins of St. Paul
6. Wynn Hotel
7. Venetian Hotel

Getting Around

Most common to tourist is the free shuttles offered by the different hotels. For the main reason of attracting customers to their casino, most of the establishments offer these shuttles to get to their hotel. These free rides give tourists to roam around the country, for free.

Tips and Things to Do

• Ride the free shuttles.
• Visit the different casinos to get free water
• Walk around Senado Square and indulge yourself on the free cookies and free dried beef offered on your way to Ruins of St. Paul
• Watch the free shows offered by Wynn Hotel – fountain show (best at night), tree of life, dragon show

• If you are coming from Hong Kong, don’t bother changing your HKD to MOP because HKD is widely accepted in Macau
• Eat the famous egg tart on your way to Ruins of St. Paul
• Enjoy gondola ride in Venetian Hotel.