Often referred to as the Vegas of Asia, Macau is so much more than a gamblers paradise. Rather, hidden between the casinos is an assortment of gourmet gems, markets, adventure activities and some rather plush stays… By Chanel Gallen
Eat
Budget:
The Red Markets Avenida do Almirante Lacerda
This is where to come to extend your palate with local delicacies for sale such as live crabs wrapped in grass and 1000-year-old duck eggs.
There’s also your more conventional market finds including dried meat, fresh vegetables, fruit and seafood. It’s easy on the pocket too – you can fill a shopping basket for pocket change.
Mid range:
O’Manuel 90 Rua de Fernão Mendes Pinto
Authentic Portuguese cuisine doesn’t come much more tasty than at O’Manuel restaurant in Taipa.
Manuel himself will welcome you through the door, pour you a glass of Vinho Verde and slice ribbons of black leg ham that has been winded (hung in the wind) for three years.
Top end:
Antonio Restaurant 7 Rua dos Clerigos
You can expect to pay $21 for a starter and up to $50 for a main here, but this Michelin-recommended restaurant is definitely worth the price tag.
Signature dishes include gratinate goat cheese with acacia honey and Portuguese duck rice.
Be sure to ask for a taste of their homemade cherry wine.
Drink
Lions Bar Avenida Dr. Sun Yat Sen
For a spot of dancefloor action, Lions Bar is a favourite haunt for all age groups, renowned for its live soul, jazz and pop music performances.
Old Taipa Tavern 21 Rua dos Negociantes, Taipa Old Village Taipa, Ilhas
An endearing English-style pub, this is a great place to chat to local expats over a pint and simple pub grub.
Sky 21 Aia Tower, Avenida Comercial
A somewhat more chic bar option, Sky 21 is ideal territory to glam up and sip cocktails beneath the stars.
The open-air roof bar has live music nights and performances by guest DJs.
Things to do
Adventure:
Bungy Jump Macau Tower
A truly bucket-list challenge, this is the highest bungy jump in the world.
With a jump height of 233 meters and free fall of six seconds, you can watch on as even the brave squirm, or take the plunge yourself.
Sky Walk
If strapping a rope around your legs and launching into space isn’t for you, then experience Macau Tower by strolling around, leaning off or sitting on the edge of it.
At 233 meters high it’s easier said than done.
Culture:
Ruins of St Paul
Built by the Geswicks in the early 1600s, the Ruins of St Paul is the earliest evidence of European construction in all of China.
As Macau’s most famous landmark it can be a bit of a jostle for prime selfie-snapping position here, especially since it’s a popular wedding photo backdrop for Chinese lovers.
That said, standing beneath this towering façade is well worth the crowds.
A-Ma Temple
Breathe in wafts of incense as you wander the leafy layers of the temple.
There is no cost to enter and you are allowed to take pictures within the temple, as long as you don’t interrupt people praying to the Goddess of Fishermen.
Entertainment:
House of Dancing Water Show
This is a MUST. High diving acrobatics, a kidnapped princess and a dashing prince – it’s a love story of epic proportion.
Avoid sitting in the first three rows though unless you’re prepared to get a little wet.
Shrekfast
Fun for kids and big kids at heart, here you can meet your favourite DreamWorks characters like Shrek, Puss in Boots and the Madagascar crew.
Just be prepared to sing Circus, Afro, Circus, Afro for the rest of the day.
Take time out in a park
Twenty percent of Macau is gardens and park; little oases scattered throughout the city.
It’s a Chinese tradition for men to walk their birds here and you will spot them sitting in parks under the shade of a tree.
Shopping:
Senado Square Open Air Markets
Bustling market lanes jut from the main Portuguese piazza selling a variety of clothes, shoes and vintage trinkets.
Prices are very honest but you can barter for a small discount.
Souvenir Street
Located at the base of the Ruins of St Paul, this is a great place to pick up cheap t-shirts, caps, trinkets and yummy treats to take back to family and friends.
Avenue Almeida Ribeiro
Shop high fashion brands such as Escada and Cartier, quality children’s wear, duty-free cosmetics, jewellery and inexpensive electronic goods.
Weekly travel news, experiences insider tips, offers, and more.
Stay
Conrad Macau
If you can find time to climb out of your marble bath and float down to breakfast, the Conrad puts on a killer spread of Chinese, Japanese and American cuisine.
The in-room Nespresso machine is also worth a workout.
King deluxe suites start from approximately $400 per night.
Holiday Inn
The Holiday Inn shares The Conrad complex, so Mum and Dad can soak up a five-star stay while the kids can shack up nearby for a more affordable price tag.
Shrekfast is included in most packages.
The DreamWorks package starts at approximately $300.
Banyan Tree
If you want to splash out, Banyan Tree suites have an in-room pool, as well as a full menu of delicious creature comforts.
The Grand Cotai Suite is yours (pool and all) for approximately $550 per night.
You should know
Take the morning flight to China with Cathay Pacific or Qantas and there is an easy connection to Macau with Turbo Jet.
You can buy a ferry ticket for around $30 one way before you leave through immigration, and Turbo Jet staff will collect your bags from the arrival hall.
If you are visiting Hong Kong as well as Macau on your travels, be aware you can use Hong Kong dollars in Macau however the Macanese pataca is not accepted in Hong Kong.
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After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?
In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.
Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)
Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?
Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?
How tourism is changing in Nepal
Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.
Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.
“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.
Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”
Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”
CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.
A new generation demanding more
Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”
We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”
Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)
In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…
Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.
Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.
A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.
Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.
Life unfiltered in the Terai region
Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.
Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.
Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.
Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.
On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.
A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.
The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.
In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.
Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.
The power of community homestays
Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.
“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”
The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.
An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.
Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.
CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.
“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.
Elephant watch. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.
Gathering greens. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”
Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”
Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.
How to see Macau’s best bits - International Traveller
