A Day Trip to Macau from Hong Kong

My trip to Macau lasted  from roughly 10 AM to 5 PM. I wanted to arrive early to avoid the crowds, so I took the 9AM ferry from the port on Hong Kong Island. Crowds were inevitable though; it was a holiday in both China and Japan, so I expected the throngs of tourists as well as the apparent absence of locals who were likely on their own vacations. Still, at first Macau felt eerily empty of its residents. It wasn’t until around 2 or 3 PM that I felt like the city really came alive. I had no interest in gambling or partying, and had already bought my ticket for an early evening ferry ride back to Hong Kong. But for the first few hours of being there, it almost felt like a Portugal-themed amusement park, especially by the ferry port at the Fisherman’s Wharf, which is essentially a Europe-themed restaurant and entertainment complex. 

Once the city woke up, the atmosphere felt much more lived in. More people were jogging around the reservoir and out running errands. On the bus to Lou Lim loc Garden at the end of the day, I saw crowds outside near the casinos walking around, chatting and laughing, as if waiting for the sun to set and the casinos to light up. I felt a twinge of regret. I was tired and ready to nap on the ferry back to Hong Kong, but regretted arriving early and wish I would have stayed a little longer to witness the city’s nightlife. I feel like I missed an important facet of Macau. So the moral of the story is if you go to Macau on a day trip from Hong Kong, take a later ferry.