Macau

Macau has two real beaches, both on Coloane at the quiet southern end of the territory. Hac Sa is a long curve of dark sand backed by pines, and Cheoc Van is a smaller cove with a lifeguarded stretch in summer. The water is warm through the summer months, but the Pearl River pours into the sea here, so it is brownish and silty rather than clear.

Locals use the beaches for barbecues and weekend strolls more than serious swimming, and most visitors never go. If swimming matters to you, the resort pools in Cotai are where the bathing happens.

Eating is one of the best reasons to come. Macanese cooking, a Creole cuisine born from four centuries of Portuguese, Chinese, Malay and Indian influences, exists almost nowhere else: minchi, African chicken, curry crab and duck-blood rice. Alongside it run Portuguese bacalhau, grilled sardines and wine in old-fashioned dining rooms, and serious Cantonese cooking from dim sum halls to roast-meat counters.

On the street, the famous things are the custard egg tarts, pork chop buns, almond cookies and beef jerky sold around the lanes near St Paul's and along Rua do Cunha in Taipa Village. At the other end, the casino resorts of Cotai hold a concentration of high-end Cantonese, Japanese and French restaurants unusual for a place this small. Coloane's seafront village is the place for a slow lunch.

The Historic Centre of Macau is a UNESCO-listed chain of churches, temples, squares and fortresses that records over four centuries of Portuguese and Chinese life side by side. The façade of the Ruins of St Paul's stands at the top of a grand stairway, the wavy black-and-white mosaic of Senado Square leads past pastel colonial buildings, and A-Ma Temple, older than the Portuguese settlement itself, climbs a rocky hillside at the harbour mouth.

Around these sit Monte Fort with the Macau Museum, Guia Fortress and its lighthouse, the Lou Kau Mansion, Mandarin's House and quiet chapels, plus the colonial houses of Taipa Village. It is a rewarding but compact heritage, comfortably seen in a day or two, with the casino skylines of Cotai and the peninsula providing a spectacle of a very different kind.

Night-time in Macau means the casinos, which never close, and the glossy lounges, cocktail bars and occasional large clubs inside the resorts of Cotai and the peninsula. If gambling is not your interest, the choice narrows quickly. There is no real bar district with its own character, a few Portuguese wine bars and small pubs aside, and the historic centre is quiet by late evening.

It suits a visitor who wants a polished drink with a view of the lit-up towers, less one who wants to wander between neighbourhood bars.

Macau offers very little in the way of landscape. The territory is small and almost entirely built up or reclaimed, and the main outdoor relief is Coloane, where wooded hills carry a few short walking trails and Seac Pai Van Park offers some green space. Guia Hill in the city gives a pleasant loop walk with harbour views.

Anything more ambitious, from mountain hiking to island walks, means crossing into Hong Kong or mainland China.

The obvious day out is Hong Kong, about an hour away by fast ferry or by bus over the long sea bridge, and big enough to fill many days on its own. Across the land border lies Zhuhai, a modern city with seafront promenades, and beyond it Zhongshan, birthplace of Sun Yat-sen, and Guangzhou, reachable by fast train in a little over an hour from the border.

Every outing involves passport control, and entering the mainland can require a visa depending on your nationality, so check before planning. The choice is short but includes one of Asia's great cities.

Macau is safe and compact, and families find more here than its casino image suggests. The Macau Science Center on the waterfront has hands-on galleries and a planetarium, the Giant Panda Pavilion in Seac Pai Van Park on Coloane is a gentle half day, and the large resort hotels in Cotai have elaborate pools and indoor entertainment.

Still, the city is built around gaming, children are kept off casino floors, and the historic centre's stairways and crowded lanes are hard work with a pushchair. Summer heat and humidity are draining. It works best as a short stop on a Hong Kong trip rather than a whole family vacation.

Distances are short, and the old peninsula is best explored on foot, although its hills, stairways and narrow pavements take some effort in summer. Between the peninsula, Taipa and Cotai, visitors rely on a mix of public buses, the light rail on Taipa and the free shuttle buses the casino resorts run from the ferry terminals and border gates.

The buses are cheap but crowded, with routes that take some working out, and taxis can be scarce at busy times. A car is never needed, and nothing is more than half an hour away.

Shopping in Macau is dominated by the huge indoor malls attached to the casino resorts of Cotai and the peninsula, where international luxury houses, watch and jewellery dealers and mainstream brands line air-conditioned arcades, some styled as Venetian canals or Parisian streets. For buyers of luxury goods it is a serious stop.

Beyond that the range is narrow. The lanes below St Paul's and Rua do Cunha in Taipa are mostly almond cookie, egg roll and jerky shops, with some Portuguese tiles and tinned fish to take home. Independent boutiques and real local crafts are thin on the ground.

Macau is mid-priced with sharp swings. Walking the historic centre costs almost nothing, buses and resort shuttles are cheap or free, and egg tarts, noodle shops and Cantonese cafés are inexpensive. Hotels are another matter: rooms in the big resorts can be reasonable on weeknights but climb steeply at weekends and during the mainland's festival weeks, such as Chinese New Year and the October Golden Week, and restaurants inside the casinos are expensive.

Timing a stay for midweek, outside those festival periods, makes a large difference to the bill.

Macau has a modest performing arts life. The Macao Cultural Centre and the Dom Pedro V Theatre, one of the oldest Western-style theatres in China, host the Macao Orchestra, Chinese orchestral music and touring productions, and the long-running autumn International Music Festival and spring Arts Festival bring visiting companies. The resort arenas in Cotai stage big pop concerts, often Cantonese and Mandarin stars, and boxing nights.

There is no theatre district or live-music circuit to drop into on an ordinary evening, so check what is on before you go.

Macau has no bathing tradition of its own, but the luxury resorts of Cotai and the peninsula hold an unusual concentration of large, polished hotel spas with pools, saunas and long treatment menus, plus foot massage parlours throughout the old town. A day of pool, spa and room service is easy to arrange.

Outside the resorts the pace is anything but restorative, with crowded lanes and gaming halls. The calmest corners are Coloane village and the quiet streets around Taipa's old houses.