cornellalum

I've just started research into doing a Macau trip next month and have some questions. First, I will arrive fly HKIA arriving early Wed morning. I'll check-in to my hotel, and spend the rest of Wednesday touring around HKG. On Thursday, I plan to visit Macau. And I'm flying out of HKIA is on Friday afternoon.

1) Should I overnight in Macau Thursday night and take a ferry to HKIA? Otherwise it will be a daytrip to Macau and I have to take 2 ferries on Thursday, and then take Airport Express on Friday morning from the Kowloon station.

2) How are the guided tours? In general, I've never been a fan of the guided group tours because it usually involves shuttling around from one place to another place and doesn't leave too much time to explore.

3) Is there anything to do/see after sunset? To be more specific, are the historic sights closed after sunset? [Answer would affect what time I leave from Hong Kong to Macau] I'm not a fan of casinos, but if I'm not tired by the end of the day I may buy a ticket for Zaia at the Venetian.

Cupart

I was in HK in Oct 2007 and took the fast ferry from HK to Macau. It doesn't take very long and is dead cheap. If you go for the "first" class service you even get a drink and a bowl of noodle soup :-) Beware that immigration on both sides can take some time, but nothing serious.

When you get to Macau, take a taxi to the southern tip of the island (by the temple) and walk back to the ferry terminal/ It will take you a couple of hours, but you get to see everything (including St Paul's ruin). Take the ferry back to HK and that's it. Macau is turning into Las Vegas and not worth staying in unless you want to gamble.

Get Lonely Planet's Hong Kong & Macau which is great as it seems like we are the same type of travelers...

bokchoi

I've just done one of these trips last week.

I have to address the "not being a fan of Casinos" first.

On my first trip to Macau last year, i was rather dissapointed but this was due to not exploring the city. Mainly due to Weather conditions.

On my latest trip i ventured around the city and had a look at the Portugese influence as well as the predominance of China.

1) Macau Hotels are cheaper. You can take a ferry from Hong Kong Island to Macau and on Friday morning take a ferry straight to Hong Kong Airport. To be honest, Macau is a day trip and Hong Kong might be a nicer way to end your stopover. Check out the Turbojet homepage.

2) I'm my own guide so i just went with the flow. As i arrived late afternoon i did not get a chance to visit the Macau Museum. I suggest you start your tour in the old town area and walk to have a look at the ruins of St Paul's cathedral. Follow this by exploring the attached Museum and climbing up to the Fort (right next to the ruins). The fort had the most amazing sunset and views. Great Place to contrast the Portugese and Chinese influences.

3) The lonelyplanet guide recommended A Lorcha, near the Maritime Museum for Portugese food. --> Pretty good. The place was packed with locals. Apart from that the eggtarts are amazing. The evening was spent observing People going broke. Bellinis at the Venetian had some good live music and people watching after 10pm. As far as i know, Hong Kong is a better call for the evening.


One final tip, Grab any of the Casino Buses outside the Ferry Terminal (MGM or WYNN are good) and they will take you to the Casino free of charge. Take a taxi once there :-).

Hong Kong $ works in Macau although the Macau $ will give you a slightly better rate.

Any questions feel free to PM me.

Cheers

rkkwan

1. You should overnight in Macau because hotels are significantly cheaper there. No need to pre-book unless it's a major holiday. Instead, go to one of the agents at the Macau ferry terminal (Shun Tak Center) on Hong Kong Island to get the best rate. They can also sell you discount ferry ticket to Macau as well.

2. Don't do any guided tours. Most concentrate on the new stuff, which is not worth seeing at all. Go to www.macauheritage.net to learn about the UNESCO World Heritage sites in historic Macau and print out a map of all the sites. And then just do a walking tour yourself.

The must sees are the St. Paul Ruins, the Monte Fortress (with the very good Macau Museum), the A Ma Temple. Add one or two other churches along the way - one of my favorites it the St. Joseph with its beautiful interior - and a Chinese house like the Lou Kau Mansion.

3. The historical sites are closed at night, but the exterior is lighted. The area around Senado Square and St. Paul's have lots of shops and restaurants. And even though you're not into gambling, the casinos are still worth a look.

Fly2LAX

You have various choices:

Maybe you can save yourself one night in HKG when you go directly from the Airport to Macau per ferry (there is a ferry terminal connected to the airport).

Though Macau is not as cheap as Vegas so it might be indeed better to just to to Kowloon (if you stay there) and then ride to Macau on the next day. The ferry fares are really cheap (150 HKD / 20 USD per way) !

I go next thursday and will probably do the same !

I let you know how it turned out !

cornellalum

Thanks for the answers.

The hotels I'm looking at tend to be around the same price in Macau and in Tsimshatsui, around 700HKD. I think I've decided to spend the second night in HKG. Even though that means more traveling, it will allow me to return to return to Hong Kong and some more time there. Most likely it will be an early start and early return to HKG since I'll be jetlagged.

Tsimshatsui to Macau: Should I catch Turbojet from the Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal (via MRT to Sheung Wan), or New World First Ferry from China Ferry Terminal (walking distance from TST)? And are there fewer people / bigger seats in their First/Super Class?

Yeah, I've been to the Bellagio in Las Vegas and observed the same behavior at the blackjack high limits tables. Fun to watch but gets old fast. But I will make at least one stop at the casinos since I'm already there.

bokchoi

Have a look at the following tour Macau Tour and also look at this sites hotel packages for macau.

I haven't personally used this company but it looks like a fair deal.

Cupart

No difference between the two services. I think the Fast Ferry Service is Macau owned while the other is HK. Both ticket offices are next to each other...

There is no difference in the seat width/size between first calls and normal class. The only difference is that first class passengers get to sit upstairs and less people. No big difference neither is the price difference.

ORDnHKG

Yes there is.

Turbojet in the Hong Kong Macau Ferry terminal offer both jetfoil,, foilcats, and catarmaran service, while New World First Ferry in China Ferry Terminal offer only catarmaran.

When there is rough sea especially when there is strong east wind, or southwest wind, better to select the departure with jetfoil or foilcats. (Jetfoil is made by Boeing and it fly above the water, foilcats are the combination of jetfoil and catarmaran, both of them offer a much stable ride).

Also the China Ferry Terminal is quite a distance from the TsimShaTsui MTR station, whereas Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal has a built in tunnel to connect to the Sheung Wan MTR station. You know better Hong Kong is a city that rain a lot, you can easily get wet during one of those spring and summer days.

Cupart

I never said anything about the difference in types of vessels used, only the service!

rkkwan

I'll take the Turbojet. It's scheduled for every 15 minutes, with extra sailings added when necessary. You can standby for a earlier sailing if necessary. New World First Ferry is every 30 minutes and basically additional sailings.

Also, occasionally, NWFF may use one of its slower catamarans that will take over an hour. All of Turbojet's vessels for the Macau route do it within an hour, and the jetfoils/foiljets (which usually covers about 2/3 of the Turbojet departures) are more stable.

Turbojet is a joint venture between Shun Tak (the Macau-based, HK-listed conglomerate run by Stanley Ho's family - his daughter is the CEO) and China Travel Service. New World First Ferry is owned by the New World Group of Hong Kong, and is sister company to the Citybus and New World First Bus in HK.

You can also take the Cotaijet from HK Island to Taipa. That service is owned by Sands/Venetian. Another service, Macao Dragon, is supposed to start 1,200-seat catamarns also to Taipa, but no firm start date yet.

Russell745

Just came back from Hong Kong yesterday.
We spent one day in Macau.

We took the 7am Star Ferry from TST and walked (10 min) to the Turbojet Ferry and got the 8:00 am ferry.
Double check the previous statement of the ferry being cheap - 2 adults 1 child in SuperClass close to US $100.00 one way. Arrived in Macau at 9:05 am, through customs in 5 minutes. We took a taxi right to St Paul Ruins and arrived before the crowds. From St Pauls there is a well marked path to Senado Square from where you can be directed to various landmarks through signage.

From there we took a taxi to the Macau tower and went up to the observation deck. From there taxi back to ferry and back in HKG by 4 pm.

Worth the overnight stay? Probably. End of the world if not? No.

Sort if a great place though, in retrospect I probably should have stayed overnight.

FWIW try to avoid eating at the street markets in TST/Yau Ma Tei/Jordan Rd area of Kowloon.
Whole family got sick and basically lost two days out of eight.

Overall fantastic once in a lifetime trip. Hong Kong really has surpassed our cities here in the US in terms of civil engineering and cleanliness.

rkkwan

Fares are here:

http://www.turbojet.com.hk/eng/schedule/prd.html

Super-class is HK$236/$244 one-way, no child discount. But I never understand the need to take super-class. HK$100 more for some lousy food and getting off first?

And whether US$20 for a trip is a lot or not depends on your perspective. There isn't a lot of comparison in the world one can compare the service to.

Russell745

After riding the Star Ferry back and forth TST to Central and the ferry to Lamma Island for practically nothing the fare to Macau seemed high - just trying to put it in some perspective.

As far as SuperClass was concerned, on the way over to Macau it was perfect for us as we had the larger ferry upstairs cabin to our self (table seat). On the way back we had the smaller ferry with the cramped front cabin - so I might agree with you there.

rkkwan

Those can't compare. International vs domestic. Different authorities regulating fares.

And the route lengths and types of vessels. The 45-knot ferries from Boeing, FBM, or Kvaerner with gas-turbine engines for Macau service cost a lot more to purchase, operate and maintain than the local-built Cheoy Lee 25- to 30-knot ferries with diesel engines for Lamma Island.

Plus, Central to Sok Kwu Wan on Lamma is just over 7 miles. Central to Macau is 40 miles.

In fact, I'll say the HK$14.5 weekday/HK$20 Sunday fare for Sok Kwu Wan is pretty expensive itself.

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Anyways, I do agree with you that a day-trip to Macau is not cheap. That's why I usually recommend people to stay overnight. With the significantly cheaper hotels in Macau (of the same class), the money saved on lodging can be enough for the ferries or more.

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What hotel you're staying in TST for HK$700? You will get a better room in Macau for HK$500 usually at most 3* and 4* there, if you just go to Shun Tak Center on HK Island (i.e. the Macau Ferry Terminal) to book with one of the agents there. I believe you can even get the Venetian, Sofitel, etc for about HK$1,000, especially on weekdays.