Take A Day Trip Across To Macau On The Ferry

Last updated on 24 June 2024

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Macau is one of the coolest places I have ever been.

On my recent trip to Mongolia, we stopped off in Hong Kong on the way back home to New Zealand for a few days. One of the days we spent across in Macau, which is officially called Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (but who are we kidding, that’s a mouthful). It’s an autonomous territory of China, so while it falls under China officially, it’s basically its own little country, with its own government and snazzy green flag.

Until 1999, Macau was run by Portugal (much like Hong Kong was run by England once upon a time). Because of the heavy Portuguese influence on the country, wandering around Macau is this incredibly odd experience. Stunning, columned stone buildings in pastel colours sit along cobbled pathways, but the alleyways between the European buildings are definitely Asian, with higgledy-piggledy storefronts, signs in Chinese characters everywhere you look, washing drying out the windows of top stories, carts sitting along the footpath, pork buns steaming in the windows. Macau is Europe and Asia‘s love child, and it’s the coolest place.

Getting to Macau

We got to the ferry terminal in Hong Kong quite early on the Friday morning, bought tickets, scanned our passports (it’s an international journey), and hopped on the ferry. The trip took about an hour, and while we could have got the turbo jet, these ferries ran every 15 minutes and were just easier to catch.

You arrive in Macau on the east side, and outside the terminal are taxis, buses, and casino shuttles you can jump on. We grabbed a local bus which was headed in the generic direction of where we wanted to start out, then jumped off and miraculously found our way from there.

Ruins of St Paul’s Church, Macau

One of my favourite spots was the Ruins of St Paul’s. Walking up the cobbled streets, you see it towering over the courtyard from the top of a hill, it’s facade the last thing standing.

The Ruins of St Paul’s are exactly what they sound like: the remains of what was once an incredible 17th-century church in the heart of Macau. It was built between 1602 to 1640 by the Jesuits, and was one of the largest Catholic churches in Asia at that time. Then, on the 26th of January, 1835, St Paul’s was destroyed in a horrendous fire.

The ruins were left there, the stone facade standing precariously, alone on the hill. In the early 90’s, the restoration of the facade began, and an excavation of some of the ruins.

Today, the facade stands strong, and the space behind where the church once stood has been adjusted to suit the visits of tourists and history buffs. Beneath glass floor panels you can see into the remains below the surface (which, granted, is mostly just stone walls), and right at the back you can walk down into the space which would have once been the sanctuary at the far end of the building. There are a few items, museum-style, down there too.

If you’re visiting Macau, then a wander to the Ruins of St Paul’s is well worth it. Also, the site has free WiFi, so I managed to Facebook Live for the first time in my life. Slightly unsuccessfully, but that’s another story.

The streets of Macau

We had some lunch at a restaurant (which was air conditioned – we had been walking around in 29°C heat with like 300% humidity for hours), and ate noodles and dumplings. After a substantial break (and a cool down in air con), we had a good wander through the streets after lunch, and up to the Guia Fortress and Lighthouse at the top of the hill.

While we didn’t head south to explore ‘the Vegas of the East’ (the island which holds a vast amount of casinos), if you were to visit Macau for more than a day, then exploring the casinos would definitely be a fun afternoon. You can get an idea of what it’s like by checking out Sarah’s blog post at Sarah Sees the World, where she shares her own adventures around Macau. The casino below was just near the ferry terminal.

So that was my day trip to Macau! If you’re visiting Hong Kong and have a day spare (or even a full morning or afternoon), I highly recommend the trip. It’s such an interesting place, and, like I mentioned, the juxtaposition of Europe and Asia is amazing.

Have you been to Macau? What did you think?