Backpacking Macau: A 2-Day Guide

This two-day plan suits first-time visitors crossing from Hong Kong for a weekend who want Macau’s old Portuguese-Chinese city without spending half the trip in casinos. The pace is brisk but entirely walkable, since nearly everything sits within 2 kilometers of your bed. Your feet do most of the work, with one city bus (or a 25-minute walk) to reach the southern tip of the peninsula.

Day 1: Senado Square and the Jesuit Hill

Book one night close to Senado Square so you can see it twice: once in the afternoon crush and once after 10 pm, when the black-and-white wave cobbles empty out and the colonial facades are lit up. Start with a bowl of wonton noodles in the side lanes, then follow Rua de São Paulo uphill, past dozens of shops piling almond cookies and sheets of pork jerky.

At the top stands the Ruins of St. Paul’s, the stone facade of a 17th-century church that survived an 1835 fire, with carvings that mix Christian saints with Chinese lions and a Japanese chrysanthemum. Climb the steps … read more 👉

This two-day plan suits first-time visitors crossing from Hong Kong for a weekend who want Macau’s old Portuguese-Chinese city without spending half the trip in casinos. The pace is brisk but entirely walkable, since nearly everything sits within 2 kilometers of your bed. Your feet do most of the work, with one city bus (or a 25-minute walk) to reach the southern tip of the peninsula.

Day 1: Senado Square and the Jesuit Hill

Book one night close to Senado Square so you can see it twice: once in the afternoon crush and once after 10 pm, when the black-and-white wave cobbles empty out and the colonial facades are lit up. Start with a bowl of wonton noodles in the side lanes, then follow Rua de São Paulo uphill, past dozens of shops piling almond cookies and sheets of pork jerky.

At the top stands the Ruins of St. Paul’s, the stone facade of a 17th-century church that survived an 1835 fire, with carvings that mix Christian saints with Chinese lions and a Japanese chrysanthemum. Climb the steps beside it to the Macao Museum inside Mount Fortress (MOP 15, about US$2, closed Mondays). Its walk-through rooms on Chinese and Portuguese daily life make every street you have just walked easier to read.

Day 2: A-Ma Temple and Macao Tower

Head south early, before the tour buses, to A-Ma Temple, a cluster of halls stepping up a rocky hillside, with huge incense coils hanging from the roofs. The temple is older than Portuguese Macau, and the city’s name is usually traced to it. From there it is a 15-minute walk along the waterfront to Macao Tower. The observation deck at the 338-meter tower costs roughly MOP 165 to 200 (US$20 to 25) and lays out the whole territory, from the peninsula’s tight streets to the casino towers of Cotai across the water. Catch the ferry or the bridge bus back in the afternoon.

On your way south, detour into Lilau Square and the nearby Mandarin’s House, a quiet 19th-century courtyard mansion that is free to enter.