Weather:

What's the best season for traveling Macau?

Usually autumn and winter (Oct-Feb) are considered as the best time for touring Macau.

The weather of Macau is subject to the East Asia Monsoon system, which makes for rainy summers and relatively dry winters. The coldest time comes to January with average temperature 14.6 °C and just a sweater and a coat is sufficient for winter. The summer from May to September is tourism off season for it is hot and high humidity. Even sometimes typhoons even put into a total halt all transportation between Hong Kong and Macau as well as some bridge and road in Macau.

October through early December is lovely, with sunny, warm days and lower average humidity. Spring is also nice, though the humidity begins to spread in April and rain falls quite frequently.

Tips: Try to avoid tourist flock weekends and holidays when you go.

Transportation:

How to get around Macau?

Buses:

There are two bus companies operating. Fares on Macau peninsula are MOP$2.50. It costs MOP$3.30 to Taipa, MOP$4.00 to Coloane village and MOP$5.00 to Hác-Sá.
Buses 21, 21A, 25, 26, and 26A operate around Macau, Taipa and Coloane.

Taxis:

Taxi fare starts from MOP$11.00. A taxi ride from the airport to downtown Macau costs about MOP$50.

Cuisine:

Are there any good suggestions for foods in Macau?

Different worldwide tasters at different budget can be satisfied in various Macau restaurants of Chinese cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Korea cuisine, Thai cuisine, etc. But the most famous one is the Portuguese local food and special snacks. The noted Portuguese dishes are: African and Goan's chicken, piquant prawns, Bacalhau, Caldo Verde (green vegetable soup), sardines, etc.

You can find good Portuguese restaurants near the A-Ma Temple along Rua do Almirante Sérgio, in the city centre on Rua Central and Travessa de S.Domingos, and in the NAPE area near the Kun Iam Statue. On the islands assemble many nice Portuguese restaurants: on Rua do Cunha and Rua Fernando Mendes (in Taipa) and on Hac-Sa beach and Coloane Village.

Excellent Chinese restaurants are easily available in the city and on the islands. So, for fresh seafood are recommended Rua do Almirante Sérgio and Rua das Lorchas along the Inner Harbour. For Cantonese food you can hunt it in the NAPE area, and city centre (Avenida da Praia Grande, Avenida Infante D. Henrique, etc.).

Food from other parts of the world is, readily available in Macau excellent restaurants of serving Italian, French, American, Brazilian, Japanese, Korean and Mozambique cuisine as well as dishes from Southeast Asia, such as Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

There are also the restaurants serving Dim Sum that is served from dawn till about midday in many Chinese restaurants. Here only small amounts of food are served, in small round bamboo baskets or in porcelain plates, which are circulated around the restaurant in trolleys. You only need to stop the trolley and choose what you want. Here are the names of some Dim Sum favorites: Há Kau (steamed dumplings filled with shrimp), Shiu Mai (steamed dumplings stuffed with pork and shrimp), Tsun Guen (shrimp fried rolls, stuffed with pork, chicken, mushrooms, bamboo sprouts and beans), Char Siu Pau (steamed buns stuffed with pork), Ngau Iók (little beef balls seasoned with ginger), Tchau min (fried noodles) and Tchau fan ( fried rice).

Dim Sum is accompanied by tea, usually jasmin tea (Heong pin t'chá) or red tea (Pou lei).

Accommodation:

What shall we pay attention to when we choose a Macau hotel?

There are many excellent hotels in Macau from 5 star hotels to economical one, or from villa to condo for your reference. But one thing that should be paid attention to is that Meal is excluded in the Macau hotel room fee. And usually toiletry goods like body wash, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste and slippers are not provided in the hotel.

Usually a luxury hotel charges from MOP$1,000 to MOP$2,000 per night while common level hotel prices from MOP$100 to MOP$180. Extra 10% service fee and 5% government tax of the room rate are also charged.

Hotels are usually fully booked up at a rise price during festival days like Chinese Lunar New Year, Easter, Grand Prix Macau or tourism peak season. It would be wiser to make a reservation in advance to ensure accommodation availability.

And during the off season, cost of accommodation falls and some hotels even offer discount as far as 20% off to the guests in workdays.

Sightseeing:

What's fun to do in Macau?

Once Macau is mentioned, casino will absolutely become the first talk about this city, after all it is a destination backed with the gambling business. The casinos are in two main areas: downtown (MGM, Starworld, Wynn, Lisboas) and on the purpose-built reclaimed land known as Cotai (City of Dreams, Venetian), together with smaller hotel casinos scattered all over. The Venetian Macao Resort and the Hotel Lisboa Macau have the grand hotel casinos which give you an excellent experience if you want to try your luck.

Besides, many other leisurely spots would feast you with colorful holiday like Historic Centre of Macau, Fishman's wharf, Cathedral of Saint Paul in Macau, and lots of museums in Macau. Usually tourists can make one day for touring the Historic Centre of Macau, another day for various museums in Macau.

If you want to make a whole day's museum tour, then a museum pass (MOP$25) is recommended because with it tourists can visit museums including Grand Prix Museum, Macau Wine Museum, Maritime Museum, Lin Zexu Memorial Hall, Macao Museum of Art and Macau Museum during pass' valid period.

Others:

Are there any special things we have to pay attention when we are at the customs?

Visitors are usually subjected only to routine inspections at the customs. The inbound passengers can bring about some legal goods that are free of the importation duties like one liter of alcoholic liquor and grape wine, 250 grams of tobacco or 200 cigarettes. And the outbound visitors enjoy the free export duties in the item of antiques, jewelry, radios and cameras with only a departure fee of MOP$19, which is normally covered in the ferry ticket fee.

Can we use Chinese RMB in Macau?

Afraid not.

Just some certain places like some tourist-frequent shops accept RMB. So do the credit cards. They only take Hong Kong dollar and the local Macau pataca in most areas like transportation and shopping and so on.

How is the telephone situation in Macau?

Area code of Macau is 00853. Fixed phone is all free for making Macau local calls while the public telephone charges MOP$1. Tourists can consult the 1000 (CTM), 1118 (3 telecommunications) or 1628 if they want to use the mobile phone service.

Emergency hotline: 999

24-hour Tourists urgency hotline: 110 (Chinese tourists) and 112 (foreign tourists).

About Macau visa

Many nationalities can obtain visa free entrance for 30-90 days. UK passport holders get 6 months while Hong Kong permanent residents get one year.

Macau is separate to Hong Kong and Mainland China in the aspect of visas; you will reach your visa limit if you leave China to visit Macau and your Chinese visa is a single entry one.

Further detailed info can be searched in Macau Government Tourist Office.

How is the Macau currency system?

The currency in Macau is the Pataca (MOP$).The Pataca is linked to the Hong Kong dollar (HK$) which is accepted as currency in Macau. The exchange rate is MOP$103.20 = HK$100.00. 8 Patacas is about 1 US Dollar.