Search results for

With fascinating history and art, multicultural cuisine, and several new hotels, this bustling city in Asia makes for a rewarding dream trip.

AFAR chose a destination at random and sent writer Danielle Henderson on 24 hours’ notice to a casino capital with hidden charms.

If you’re an architecture buff and tired of glitzy spanking new casinos, talk a walk around taipa, right at the round about of ICBC bank at Rua de tai lin, you’ll find this circular curious building.

Simple blank notebooks with black covers curl with moisture to create a textured wall here. Desserts are fabulous (run by a Macanese couple, one half trained in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu) as are the pastas and sandwiches.

Pousada de Coloane is set just back from Cheoc Van Beach on the south of Coloane Island—which is fused to Taipa Island and attached to the Macau Peninsula proper by bridge. In other words, it’s the perfect place to stay for anyone who wants to explore Macau but doesn’t want to be stuck in the thick of the city. Rooms at the hotel are large, if a little run down (and with scary-looking air jets in the bathtub), and all have a small balcony with superb views over the curving beach and forested hills. If that’s not enough, the hotel has an outdoor patio with an even better view over the bay, perfect for sipping on a Macau Beer or grabbing a bite from the restaurant, which serves up Portuguese specialties. The pork spare ribs and the traditional chicken stew are both good, and if the service is a little slow, who’s in a hurry? Breakfast is included—a serviceable cooked buffet which will be cold unless you arrive right at the start—and the staff at the hotel are friendly and accommodating. Best of all is the location. It’s just a 15-minute walk (on the road) to the pretty Coloane village, or you can hop a bus from right outside the hotel. Most of them continue on from the village to the Cotai Strip and then to the Macau Peninsula itself, so although you feel isolated (in a good way), you aren’t.