Macau Side Trip: Venetian Hotel, City of Dreams, Grand Lisboa

September 04, 2010
Macau Side Trip: Venetian Hotel, City of Dreams, Grand Lisboa

A tour around Macau’s Hotel Casinos.

I’m having a hard time separating this entry as there’s just so many places in Macau that we visited even if we spent it only for a day. That’s why I’m probably going to have to break the Macau Trip into other blog entries to cover the places we’ve gone to.


The Venetian Macau

Woke up early in order to prepare for our trip to Macau. We decided to push through with our plan as we needed to cover as many destinations and tourist spots in Hongkong while we’re still there. Although it rained the previous day, we were bent on at least getting to a good place in order to scratch of one of the locations in our itinerary.

The weather was humid but we proceeded to taking the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau. We ate breakfast first in order to fill ourselves for the day. We visited a Burger King store near the Tai San Guesthouse. Cindy and Logan ordered a bagel meal while I ordered a sandwich at half the price – really had to cut down on my costs – hehe.

burger king hongkong trash bin burger kin
Burger King breakfast in Hongkong

Places we visited in Macau:
The Venetian Hotel
City of Dreams
Grand Lisboa

How To Go To Macau from Hong Kong

I think there are 2 ways to go to Macau from Hong Kong. What we did was ride the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui station to Sheung Wan Station. Then we headed to the Exit D in Sheung Wan station as it was already the HK-Macau Ferry Terminal.

We then rode a Cotai Jet ferry, a one-hour fast craft vehicle ride from Hong Kong to Macau. We bought our tickets ahead c/o Ate Yolly so we didn’t have to worry about lining up passes. It was good because we were able to catch the 9am schedule. We still had to fill out the departure and arrival cards to and from our destination since this was another region; and this was another stamp on our passports.

cotai strip
tickets to Macao

TIP: Our ticket was good for 10am; meaning we could ride any schedule before that time. Beyond that, the ticket would be forfeited.

I got a little seasick during the one-hour ride and had to take a nap because I could puke any second. It was a good thing that the ferry wasn’t full so I had to switch to another seat that had more space

cotai jet macausleeping and looking for warmth

I was wearing long-sleeves beneath my shirt but I still felt cold. It rained pretty hard so that explains the temperature. When we got out of Cotai Jet, and after passing through Immigration, we waited at the port for awhile because of the rain. We met a Filipina friend in the name of Ate Eva who offered her services to tour us around Macau. We hesitated at first since we didn’t know her but we soon gave in since we only had a day in the place and we didn’t want to waste any time.

free shuttle bus wasn’t able to take a better shot at the shuttle buses in Macau

We were greeted by different shuttle buses from the Macau Casino Hotels… and they’re all FREE! Yeah, we were told that this was part of the casinos’ way of attracting visitors to check out their establishments. Of course, since we were still tight on a budget, we made the most of the free buses.

venetian hotel
Venetian Hotel! the third pic is a self-portrait – using a DSLR! haha. that’s how far my other hand can go.

venetian macau
Macau Venetian Hotel: paintings, murals, structures, ART!

the venetian macau
big, big casino – and this was just one of the many casinos!

First stop was the Venetian Hotel, which is a 40-story, hotel and was modeled on its sister casino hotel resort which is The Venetian in Las Vegas (source: The Venetian Macao – Wikipedia). When we went in, I didn’t know what to expect; I’m not really fond of museums and paintings and such. However, I couldn’t help but be amazed at the structures and murals – the time it took in order to create masterpieces in every corner was just a sight to behold. I had to start snapping away in order to capture the different angles of the resort.

sights and sounds in venetian hotel
sights and sounds inside the hotel

gondola
still at the Venetian Hotel

We went to the City of Dreams next. While on the bus (another free shuttle ride), we saw so many buildings that were still in construction. We again wondered how these people are able to occupy

shuttle bus
shuttle ride

We were told that the best free show was located at the City of Dreams casino. The Bubble Show features a supernatural realm of four Dragon Kings wherein guests are immersed in a visual spectacle with elements unique to each region that swirl on a 360 degree dome screen (City of Dreams Bubble Show – Wikipedia). The show is FREE however, we didn’t watch it as we thought that we were pressed with time. Will probably check Youtube to see what we’ve missed.

city of dreams macau

What we did is just drop by the City of Dreams Casino Hotel to check out the place and we saw this giant screensaver-like wall where you would see a simulation of a giant aquarium with a mermaid swimming in the background. The mermaid then turns into a shark, which turns into something else I can’t recall – hehe.

city of dreams

screensaver effect

city of dreams lobby

We got out of the City of Dreams and rode a free shuttle bus (again) going to the city. We dropped by the Casino Lisboa and the Grand Lisboa where Ate Eva gave a brief history about the building and about Stanley Ho who was nicknamed as “The King of Gambling” (Stanley Ho – Wikipedia).

grand lisboa
Grand Lisboa, Cindy jumping for joy.

I was amazed at the Grand Lisboa and it’s design. I thought it looked like a giant pineapple when I first saw it. We got inside and saw a number of special structures and displays that were enclosed in glasses. To me, the hotel was already enough an amazement.

casino lisboa
inside Casino Lisboa

We also noticed that the hotels smelled really nice. We wanted to know what perfumes were used that permeated the air inside these casino resorts.

I will be posting the next part of our trip in Macau. It seems that this blog entry is going to be overloaded with pictures if I keep on writing more so I’ll cut this for now.

Expenses:
Food: 25 HKD – Burger King Sandwich with Drink
Transportation: Cotai Jet 290 HKD – back and forth Hongkong and Macau

Check out my other posts on our Macau Side Trip:

Total Expenses:


Enter your email address to subscribe for updates.
 
Please don't forget to confirm your subscription by checking your Inbox.



soloflightEd.com is a travel blog by Edcel Suyo. He enjoys performing headstands and crazy stunts during his trips in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Now based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and working to earn a living, he takes time to enjoy the city and travel during weekends.
For updates, Like his page on Facebook or Follow him on Twitter.
For questions, advertising, and other concerns, shoot an email to ed@soloflighted.com.


18 thoughts on “Macau Side Trip: Venetian Hotel, City of Dreams, Grand Lisboa”

  1. hello ed, saw your blog for the first time yesterday and I was really impressed. you are a nomad!!!!hahaha. I love your travels. And sine we have already booked tickets for Macau-and HK early next year, I think I will be following your blog more closely now. Fun to see you enjoy Macau here. keep the articles coming man. cheers~~~~

    Reply
  2. @pusang-kalye: ey thanks a lot for dropping by!  also dropped by your site, will be checking more posts as I want to explore the other places in Luzon. Still writing my entries about the trip. long over-due na. hehe thanks!

    Reply
  3. recent travel right? lucky you there weren't many people in the venetian the day you were there. during our time so many people were hogging the sides by the canal that i'm kinda sure there would be overlapping of faces in everyone's photos. 

    Reply
    • @remote controller: Yep, this was a recent travel. there were already a lot of people but i didn’t know it could be more. at least we had some space to ourselves. thanks for dropping by.

      Reply
  4. This post made me miss Macau more! I want to go back! Hehe 😀 Natatawa ako nung nasa City of Dreams kami. Nagpapa-picture kami nina Ada tapos sabi namin maganda yung pics kasi mukha kaming nasa abroad. Wala nga pala kami sa Pinas nun 😛
    If i have enough money, i want to book sa Venetian kahit overnight lang. Maganda daw sabi nila hehe. Hindi pa pala ako nakasulat about this. I will write my Macau trip after i finish KK, GS and Boracay. Whew Lolz goodluck :))

    Reply
    • @micamyx: haha. lol. ako kahit sa aling hostel or guesthouse lang. basta kelangan talagang makapag-overnight sa macau to see it’s beauty at dark. haha, andami pa talagang pending articles, gud luck sa’tin! 😀

      Reply
  5. hello, how did you go back to taipa terminal bus from the city of macau(casino lisboa)? is there a free shuttle bus from the city going to taipa ferry terminal too? thanks, we will be in macau by tomorrow..=)

    Reply
    • hi mitchie. we were at the fisherman’s wharf and we got back to the Tai Pa Terminal through a free shuttle bus at the City of Dreams.

      Reply
  6. hi!
     
    Thank you so much for the inputs, it's such a great help!
    Btw, I would like to ask what time is the bubble show in the city of dreams? is it really free? how about the prosperity tree and dragon show in wynn hotel? what time is the show and is it also free? we're planning to have a day trip in Macau on feb 4.
     
    thanks and looking forward to your response.
     
    sonie 

    Reply
  7. Hi!
    It's me again, I forgot to ask in my previous inquiry, if you know what time is the performance lake show in wynn hotel?
     
    thanks very mucho!   : )
     
    regards and more power!
     
    sonie

    Reply
    • Hi Sonia: I’m not entirely sure about the time of the different shows in the different hotels. It’s our Pinoy tour guide who immediately said that we had to go to this hotel to check it out. The shows occur on a regular basis like probably a 30-minute interval. Sorry if I can’t remember it all. But Yes, the shows are FREE. good luck!

      Reply
  8. Hi, Your website is fantastic.  I have been preparing for a 4 day vacation this
    april 2012 in macau for my family for the past 10 months and I got the most informative tips from your blog.  I have discovered more places to go to aside from the house of dancing waters show that I booked. I know the bungy jump gives a different high but with my kids aged 12-14, I might suffer from stroke just thinking about them doing a bungy.  Good job.

    Reply
  9. naexcite ako lalo sa macau trip ko.. 😀 do you think 2 days is enough para mapuntahan ko lahat ng attractions sa macau? by the way, i like your photos..:) lalo na sa Venetian..:)

    Reply
  10. hi, pwdi ho ba mag tanong, kaya vah ang 1 day trip from hk to macau, like u go der in macau at 9am din go back to hk for 5pm?.,,thanks

    Reply

Leave a Reply