Triangle Trip

Macau now offers tons of free transportation options thanks to all the new casinos trying to win your business. If you’re visiting Macau for the first time, paying for cabs or trying to learn their local public transit system should be the last thing on your mind. Assuming you do not mind walking (which you will do as a tourist any way), you can leverage the free shuttle services offered by casinos located on the Macau Peninsula and the Cotai Strip.

Macau is really small as it consist of the Macau Peninsula connected to two small islands: Taipa and Coloane. Thanks to the Venetian, those two islands are now connected and is called the Cotai Strip. Below is a map on what Macau used to look like before the Cotai Strip.

If you’re staying on the Peninsula (where the Sands, MGM, Wynn, Grand Lisboa and other classic casinos are), you can literally walk to all the major tourist spots and taste all the local food offerings. If you want to visit the newer casinos on the Cotai Strip (Venetian, Galaxy, etc.), simply hop on one of their free shuttles and they will take you straight to the casino.

If you’re staying on the Cotai Strip, the Venetian and Galaxy offers free shuttles to the Macau Peninsula. Cotai Strip casinos also offer shuttle services to casinos on the Cotai Strip (for example you can take a shuttle from Galaxy to Venetian). Another stop to catch the shuttle is at the City of Dreams Mall located across the street from the Venetian and Sheraton. The City of Dreams is also connected to the Hard Rock and Crown casinos.

Unlike shuttle services in the US, Macau casino shuttles are quite efficient. I have never waited for more than 15 minutes to get on a shuttle.

The shuttles schedules are 9:00am to about 11:00pm. If you’re still partying outside after midnight or feel tired after walking, there are tons of taxis so you can help the TLC economy there.

Below is a reference map telling you how easy it is to get around:

Enjoy your trip!!

In response to Captain G‘s previous post about the best Visa/Mastercard (or alternative to using an American Express card), I would like to tell you that the Chase Priority Club Mastercard is the only card in my wallet. Like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (see Terminal D‘s post), it does not have foreign transaction fees.

In addition, the Chase Priority Club Mastercard annual fee is 50% less of the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. The Chase Priority Club Mastercard annual fee is only $49 a year (first year is free). The $49 annual fee is still less than my old American Express Starwood Preferred card which was $65 a year. The Chase Priority Club Mastercard annual fee can be offset with these benefits:

1.  You get an annual free night at any Priority Club property after one year. The real translation is:  at any Intercontinental Hotel in the world which is normally ~$250 a night.

2.  Platinum Priority Club status. This perk is not as good as SPG Platinum but gives you small perks like free bottles water, free Internet, and the occasional room upgrade. Note that the American Express SPG card gives you Gold membership which is equivalent to Priority Club Platinum.

3.  A 10% discount on point redemptions for hotels which is a huge value (36,000 points for Intercontinental instead of 40,000). You should also check out our previous blog post on why hotel points are worth more than airline miles.

You can also check out my previous post regarding the British Airways and Asiana credit cards.

If you’re visiting Hong Kong without a global roaming plan, buy a CSL (used to be called One2Free) prepaid SIM upon your arrival at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). One2Free, a subsidiary of CSL has the best prepaid voice and fastest mobile plan available. This is an update from my previous post where I said Peoples offering the cheapest prepaid mobile data plan in Hong Kong).

You can pick up a CSL (One2Free) pre-paid SIM at the 7-Eleven or 1O1O (mobile phone shop) at HKG Terminal 1 Arrival Hall. The two shops are located in between Arrivals area A and B as indicated in this map:

CSL has the following prepaid mobile data plans with speed of up to 7.2Mbps (around 4G speed):

To signup for one of the plans listed above, you’ll need to know CSL/One2Free’s SMS codes. Below is a quick list of codes for your reference:

Note that you may get throttled to 3G speed once you have exceeded 1GB of data usage. However, CSL’s service will probably faster than your roaming plan. For your information, CSL’s voice rate is around HK$0.30 per minute and around HK$0.80 per SMS.

If you’re an American, you should make sure your phone is unlocked before you leave the country. Check out Big A’s tip here.