If you have one day to devote to Macau, here’s how to fill your day trip from Hong Kong to Macau with all the eats (and a sprinkling of sightseeing)!

OneBus Hong Kong To Macau

The last time we visited Macau from Hong Kong, we rode a ferry. As of 2023 though, OneBus is a great option to get between Hong Kong and Macau… that is, for some people. Let’s dive into the details. A one way OneBus ticket from Hong Kong to Macau costs $180 HKD per person on weekends or $160 HKD on weekdays. The bus takes you across the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, which at 55km long is the world’s longest bridge-cum-tunnel sea crossing. This bridge, open in 2018, is the longest open-sea crossing in the world!

Please note that you cannot eat and drink on the bus. We purchased bakery breads for breakfast, planning to eat them on the road, but had to scarf them down outside the bus before boarding. The OneBus ride took about 2 hours from start to finish, including the required stops at customs and immigration checkpoints. It was fun to be on such a notable bridge, but opting for a bus ride between Hong Kong and Macau isn’t for everyone.

Who shouldn’t take the bus to Macau? I would recommend that families with small children, people traveling with luggage, and people with any kind of mobility concerns (meaning anyone who can’t jog for 15 minutes without issue) should plan to take the ferry to Macau instead of the bus. This is because on the bus ride, the bus passes through customs and immigration checkpoints twice: first when leaving Hong Kong and again when arriving in Macau. Our OneBus ticket instructed that we only had 20 minutes to get through immigration each time, else the bus would leave and we’d need to arrange the rest of our transportation ourselves. Most passengers on our bus, us included, had to flat out run to meet the bus before the time limit. The bus will indeed leave after 20 minutes exactly, and I witnessed parties from our bus getting left behind at both of the immigration stops. The immigration arrival and departure centers are quite large, but just follow the signs to “Cross Boundary Coach” to find your way back to the bus. The lines at immigration are the bottleneck, and the timing is difficult with international passports. It’s much more doable for people holding Hong Kong resident cards as the lines are much shorter and go quicker.

Because of the fiascos at the immigration and customs checkpoints, the bus was overall a more stressful way to get to Macau compared to the ferry. However, OneBus costs the same as the ferry and depending on where you’re starting point in Hong Kong is, can eliminate the need for a long walk to the ferry terminal which is a bit out of the way in the city.

Fisherman’s Wharf

The OneBus dropped us off close to our first stop of our day trip to Macau: Fisherman’s Wharf. The Fisherman’s Wharf felt very manufactured, with high-end shops, a food court, and a fake Roman Colosseum. It even used to have a fake volcano to complete the odd theme park feel, but this was demolished years ago. We visited in the morning so the area was pretty quiet. There are many photo opportunities but not really any other engaging areas to visit. It was very unlike any other fisherman’s wharf I’ve visited, with no nod to actual fishing or older times.

Portuguese Egg Tarts In Macau

Portuguese style egg tarts with their darker caramelized tops are a marriage between the Hong Kong style egg tart and the Portuguese pastel de nata. Pasteis de nata are baked for a shorter time and the resultant custard filling is thinner and drippier. In contrast, Portuguese style egg tarts  have a firmer yet silky soft, jiggly and delicate yet “just” solid consistency. Portuguese style egg tarts are made with puff pastry that is baked to a perfect nearly crunchy and crispy exterior. There are so many bakeries offering Portuguese style egg tarts in Macau, and you can honestly go to any store and it will be amazing.

Our first Portuguese egg tart of the day was from a random egg tart bakeshop we passed nearby Fisherman’s Wharf, and it was blow-your-socks-off amazing. You have to eat these fresh, which they always are in Macau because the turnover is so rapid for these popular treats.

Ogle At Casinos

Macau has countless luxurious casinos which are both architectural marvels and historical landmarks. We weren’t in Macau to gamble, but wandering through the elaborately decorated casino resorts is a fun part of any trip to Macau. This time we didn’t spend much time inside the casinos themselves, but we couldn’t miss seeing the famous Casino Lisboa and its newer flashier sister, the Grand Lisboa, on the way to our next food destination.

Margaret’s Café e Nata

Margaret’s is a famous egg tart bakery, specializing in Macanese egg tarts inspired by their Portuguese and Chinese counterparts. Open since 1992, Margaret’s pumps out thousands of egg tarts daily. You can smell them around the corner before you even see the shop. Margaret’s egg tart was indeed better (more creamy and umami) in custard flavor, but the crust wasn’t necessarily better than the smaller less known egg tarts. Again, any egg tart in Macau will be not just good but amazing! There’s just no comparison.

Lau Day Beef Offal

You’ll notice a theme in Macau of the same food item or category, made over and over again by either the same company or countless different companies. You’ll see countless vendors of egg tarts, almond cookies and jerky. In fact, there are fourteen locations of the Koi Kei Bakery that offers cookies, sweet eggrolls, and jerky– some of these multiple locations are right next to each other on the main tourist walkways. Another food item found everywhere in Macau is beef offal.

Lau Day Beef Offal is located right across the pedestrian walkway from Margaret’s Cafe e Nata. Service is quick and casual, and the flavor of your choice of beef organ is entrenched in a spicy savory sauce. The long stewing of meats imparts a tender yet chewy texture without any mushiness. It was a great savory snack after the sweetness of our egg tarts.

Ruins of St. Paul

The Church of St. Paul was constructed in 1580. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, only the front facade and the steps leading up to it remain. Tourists flock to this scenic spot for good reason– it’s beautiful! You might need to arrive super early or stay late for a picture free of hundreds of other visitors.

In the vicinity of the Ruins of St. Paul is the main shopping (and eating) street of the Macau Peninsula. You’ll pass countless bakeries, jerky shops, tea shops, and egg tart shops. This street is CROWDED.

I enjoyed wandering the smaller streets of Macau more than the painfully packed main tourist street. Look up and you’ll see buildings that look decrepit at first, but then the age and intrinsic beauty comes through. These walls have history.

Macau’s Famous Pork Chop Bun

A Chinese-spiced fried pork chop nestled into a Portuguese bread roll, the pork chop bun is a nod to the multicultural background of Macau. One of the most famous pork chop bun restaurants is Tai Lei Loi Kei in the older Taipa Village area of Macau, but there are lots of shops selling this dish.

Sopa De Fitas Ving Kei

I had bookmarked this little local shop for tofu pudding (dou fu hua) and it didn’t disappoint! I’ll be honest, tofu pudding is next level in just about all of Hong Kong and Macau so it wasn’t lightyears better than others we’ve tasted on this trip but it still knocks the socks off of most tofu puddings you can get in the United States.

Lou Lim Ioc Park

This classic Suzhou style garden nestled on the Macau peninsula boasts bridges over ponds of koi and lotus flowers, scenic pavilions, and is also home to the Macau Tea Culture Museum! It’s a cute stop to take a quick break and the Tea Culture Museum is air conditioned.

Free Shuttle From Macau Peninsula To Taipa

Many casino hotels offer free shuttles to take visitors around and between the Macau Peninsula and Taipa. We chose the free Galaxy shuttle that left from Starworld Hotel on the Macau Peninsula side to Galaxy Hotel in Taipa. You do not need to be a hotel guest or even a casino patron to utilize the free shuttles, so this is a great way to get around if you’d rather avoid taxis.

I Son Milk Pudding

If you come to Macau, please visit this shop! I Son Milk Pudding is located on the street named R. dos Clerigos, right off of Rua do Cunha which is the famous Taipa Food Street. The dish to try here is the “double-layered milk pudding.” We tried the cold double-layered milk pudding with peach gum and it was AMAZING. Delicately flavored, subtly sweet, refreshingly chilled, it was the opposite of when you eat a sickly sweet ice cream on a hot day and up even more thirsty. This dessert was so refreshing and light, yet creamy. It tasted rich without *feeling* rich. It was scrumptious and a taste of Macau that I highly recommend. After the unbeatable egg tarts, this milk pudding comes in at a surprising second place for favorite food item in Macau!

Wander The Scenic Taipa Streets

The best thing to do in the Taipa area of Macau is to just wander around, happen upon more things to eat and drink, and immerse yourself in the smaller more residential side streets. Taipa’s main tourist shopping area is on R. Do Cunha, and it’s smaller and cuter than the larger shopping streets near the Ruins of St. Paul on the Macau Peninsula

Ferry From Macau To Hong Kong

At the end of our day in Macau, our weary souls decided to take the ferry back instead of the bus to save some headache. We didn’t want to worry about missing the bus at customs and immigration after a long travel day.

The ferry was so much simpler and after purchasing a ticket you really don’t need to think about anything else until you dock in Hong Kong. Customs and immigration documents are processed before and after the ferry trip, so there’s no rush during the actual transport time to make it through any lines. The ferry was actually a quicker ride than the bus, too. The ferry took about 90 minutes (including customs/immigration on either end) whereas the bus option took about 2 hours from start to finish.

Other Macau Bucket List Items For Next Time

• Things To do
  • Walls of Macau, a section of the old city walls from the 1500’s
  • Miradouro de D. Maria II for views of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge
  • Crypt in the Church of the Mother of God (Mater Dei)
  • Pátio de Chôn Sau for artsy shops
  • Rua Dos Ervanarios for brightly painted/lit up shops and good photos
  • Nightly light show at The Parisian’s Eiffel Tower (every 15 minutes from 6:15pm-12:00am)
• Food
  • Koi Kei for almond cookies and other bakery souvenirs
  • Lai Kei Sorvetes for ice cream
  • Pastelaria Sao Paulo for almond cookies
  • Kam Wa for beef offal
  • Sing Lei for pork chop bun
  • Tai Lei Loi Kei for pork chop bun