If you get motion sickness, take some medicine ahead of time at the hotel. On my own behalf, I can recommend Dramamine - this is the Croatian analogue of the American Bonin. The action is the same, but cheaper. The only thing is that the Croats could not get rid of strong bitterness.
If bad weather is expected, check the company's website to see if flights have been cancelled. Once again, make sure you bring your passport, Hong Kong travel permit, ticket, and completed Hong Kong Departure Card (this can also be completed when you check out). Upon arrival at the terminal, check the board to ensure that your flight has not been cancelled. If so, then you will accordingly go on the next one.
Gate to departure area
On the third floor (where the ticket offices are) there are two exits to the piers: one by TurboJet, the other by Cotai Water Jet. You choose yours and walk along the viaduct, at the end of which they will check your ticket and tear off its stub.
Baggage
If you have luggage, you can check it in. On this page of the official website you will find out all the conditions. In short, hand luggage is anything less than 20 kg and within 60 x 20 x 35 cm. Anything larger is checked in, checked in and paid for (from 25 to 45 HKD depending on weight). You need to check in your luggage 45 - 20 minutes before the flight departure; if later, your luggage will go on the next ferry.
But my travel experience has shown that they don’t want to accept luggage from foreigners. I decided specifically for the site to check in my suitcase, which exceeded the size of hand luggage, but they didn’t accept it, saying that everything was fine. A foreigner guy tried to check in my suitcase with me - they didn’t accept him either, although his suitcase was simply gigantic. On the other hand, all the Chinese, whose suitcases were clearly smaller than ours, were turned in to check in their luggage. The advice is simple: go to the baggage check-in counter and ask. If they tell you to hand over your things, hand over; no means no.
You can also leave your luggage in the storage room, but this pleasure costs 20 HKD per hour.
Decor
Next, you need to go down one floor to the immigration area, where you need to fill out a departure card (if you haven’t done so before). Then you need to queue up at the VISITORS counter, where you will present to the border guards your passport, departure card and permission to stay in Hong Kong (you can keep it).Viaduct to the departure area
After immigration formalities, we go down even further to the waiting room. Here, look for the Check In counter, where you will be assigned a seat in the cabin, and a tag with the corresponding number will be affixed to your ticket. Remember, check-in is for the next outgoing flight, and not for all flights that day.
Waiting hall
Note for those who want to sit in a specific place (near the window or in the aisle). There is a girl at the reception desk with a floor plan of the salon in front of her. She peels off the seat stickers from this plan and pastes them onto the passengers' tickets. She does this very quickly, so first go to the front desk from the side, study the layout, availability of seats, and then get in line so you have time to intercept her hand and point to the seat you need. Tip: Of course, a window seat is great, but if you have large suitcases, it is better to sit in the forward part of the cabin in front of the wide central aisle.
Landing
After check-in, go to boarding. The gate number can be found on the scoreboard. If it has not started yet, wait for the announcement on the same board. When you enter the ferry, show your ticket and you will be assigned to different cabins depending on your class. There, near the entrance, there are shelves for luggage, but, as a rule, they are already full, so you continue to look for your place. In 50 percent of cases, your seat will be occupied - show your ticket and, smiling politely, ask to give up your seat.
Seating
- 15 minutes by helicopter
- Another alternative is to take the Hong Kong Island Express Train (terminus) and then cross the MRT to Shun Tak Ferry Terminal. Follow the signs as you navigate the long maze. At the end of the path you will go up the levels (about 5 in total) on escalators to the departure halls and there along the wall you will find the TurboJet ticket office for Macau. Enter the restricted area via the pedestrian bridge, take the escalator down to passport control, and then take the escalator down again to the ferry gate.
- It will take 1 hour 15 minutes on the ferry, plus 1 hour or more to board the train and go through all the procedures at the ferry terminal.
- Most ferries arrive at Macau's main terminal, Inner Harbor. Some new routes go directly to the casino in Cotai, which is not recommended for general tourism purposes unless your hotel is located right there.
- Please note that you may encounter “agents” standing in front of the respective ferry ticket offices offering tickets for your next or upcoming crossing. Their tickets are legally secure (offered at a nominal price), since the tour operator repurchases for their group. You can buy a ticket for the next sailing, but use it for a later ferry. Or you can buy a ticket for a later ferry, but you can usually present the ticket at the gate for the next sailing if the ferry is not completely full.
- A taxi from the airport to the nearest ferry terminal in Kowloon will be very expensive - up to 300 HKD for approximately one hour of travel. If you must take a taxi, try to find an English-speaking taxi driver and try to negotiate down to a fixed amount.
- An alternative is to take the ferry directly from the Hong Kong Airport Ferry Terminal. Before going through passport control, you will need to find the information desk and find out when the next ferry leaves. With only a few departures per day, you may miss your ferry and will then be forced to proceed as described above. If you catch the ferry, ask about passport control and baggage claim.
- If you have a lot of luggage, assistants at railway stations will help you carry your luggage onto the train and later remove it from the train. You'll have to handle it yourself if you take the shuttle (Kowloon) or go to the ferry terminal (Hong Kong Island).
- On the ferry you can relax, buy food and drinks and use the toilet. Many people are sleeping.
- In general, Hong Kong is safe at night; you don't have to be afraid to leave the airport or train stations.
Today we will talk about how to get from Hong Kong to Macau by ferry and what is interesting in the gambling capital of China. Most tourists come to Macau for one day from Hong Kong, walk around the city and go back to Hong Kong. One day is enough to see all the main places of the former Portuguese colony, so today we will briefly go over the main attractions and look at photographs of the city at night.
How to get from Hong Kong to Macau by ferry
In Hong Kong there is three piers Ferry departures to Hong Kong and Macau: Macau Ferry Terminal(Hong Kong Island), pier in the Kowloon area And at Hong Kong airport. We will not consider the option of how to get from Hong Kong airport to Macau; we will focus on the first two. They are used by the vast majority of Hong Kong residents and visitors.
- If you plan to get to Macau from hong kong islands, you need the Macau Ferry Terminal. The nearest metro station is Sheung Wan.
- If it is more convenient to take a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau from Kowloon, the required berth is located at the address - Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal, 33 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.
I recommend leaving from the pier located in the Kowloon area. Finding the ticket office and departure point from Kowloon Pier is not easy the first time; to do this, use a special map of Hong Kong attractions. Instead of the standard pier and ticket office, you will need to look for a building called China Hong Kong City, located on Nathan Road. The ticket office is located on the second floor.
Hong Kong-Macau ferry. Prices and travel times
Ferry schedules and prices can be found on the websites of the carriers - Turbo Jet and Cotai Water Jet. As a rule, they use the services of Turbo Jet. Ferries of this carrier travel from Hong Kong to Macau every 15 minutes around the clock. For night ferries that depart from 12 midnight to 7 am, you need to check the schedule, they run less frequently.
Prices vary depending on the class and day of departure. Turbo Jet's Economy Class Hong Kong Ferry ticket will cost from 164HKD to 200HKD. The price depends on whether you go on weekdays or weekends, and whether you plan to sail during the day or at night. All information is provided on the official websites. Travel time approximately one hour. Important nuance, if you depart from the pier from Hong Kong island. I couldn’t find the ticket office, there are only offers from travel agencies selling tickets to Macau for 310 HKD. This is almost twice as much as if you buy from a pier in the Kowloon area. Perhaps I just couldn’t find the ticket office, but it’s better to play it safe and go from Kowloon.
Crossing the border simple formality. You are given exit stamps in Hong Kong and entry stamps in Macau. If there are few people, it only takes a few minutes. Eat caveat when boarding the ferry, which can be useful to many. If you immediately buy a ticket for the Hong Kong Macau ferry and back for a specific time, but it turns out that you saw the city earlier than planned, there is no point in waiting for the departure time indicated on the ticket. You go to the pier, show your ticket and you are put on the nearest ferry. Very comfortably.
How to get to the city from the pier
Directly at the exit from the pier building, after passing through border control, there will be a bus stop in front of you. From this stop buses run to all popular places in Macau. If you don’t know the number of the bus you need, just check it at the information desk located in the pier building. Travel, as well as all other expenses in Macau, can be paid in Hong Kong dollars. The course is almost identical.
Macau sightseeing map
Below you can see a map of Macau attractions:
What to see in Macau
A short overview of places that are popular with tourists.
Macao TV tower
The famous Macau Tower, which not only offers excellent views of the city, but also a place from which you can go bungee jumping. By the way, the second highest place in the world from which you can jump is 233 meters! Below is a video of my jump, and in a separate article I’ll tell you about the prices and sensations. It was worth it, it was amazing)))
Ruins of St. Paul
Business card of Macau. As a rule, it is very crowded and people go here first. You can get there by bus from the pier upon arrival from Hong Kong.
There is a fort in the immediate vicinity of the ruins of St. Paul, which offers a pleasant panoramic view.
Another very popular tourist spot. Here you can buy souvenirs and try local cuisine. Always very crowded.
Old Quarter of Macau (Rua da Felicidade) and local food area
The most famous street of old Macau is visible in the photo below. Do you see the red casement windows on the second floors of buildings? Many years ago, the street was very popular, especially with visiting sailors. This is not surprising, because in each of the windows one could see representatives of the ancient profession. Now times have changed and the street has become one of the attractions of Macau. The area where you can taste local cuisine is marked. I haven’t dined there myself, but my friend from Hong Kong recommended this place to me.
From here Macau is at your fingertips. If time permits, the place is worth a visit. You can get there either by cable car or on foot.
A very unusual hotel. Its trick is that inside the hotel there is a pavilion decorated to resemble the famous Italian city. If you arrive at the hotel in the late afternoon, it will be interesting to walk the streets of Macau to appreciate with your own eyes the scale of China’s gambling zone. The casinos and hotels are really huge and very beautiful when illuminated at night. To get to the place you need to cross the bridge and end up in the Taipa area
Don't be afraid to get lost in Macau. The city where it will be nice to just walk and gaze at the colonial architecture. If you're here for one full day, you'll have plenty of time to explore at a leisurely pace.
The best way how to get from Hong Kong to Macau, there will be an hour-long voyage on the ferry. Ferries to Macau depart from both Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula.
On Hong Kong Island, the pier is located next to the Sheung Wan MRT station and is called Hong-Kong - Macau Ferry Terminal and is located in the Shun Tak shopping center. And if you want to get to Macau from the Kowloon Peninsula, then you need to get to the Hong-Kong China Ferry Terminal pier, which is located between three metro stations Jordan, Austin and Tsim Sha Tsui.
There are two shipping companies that can take you from Macau by ferry - TurboJet and Cotai Water Jet. The ferries themselves are large double-deck high-speed catamarans. Now the most important question is which shipping company to choose. Ferries dock in Macau at two piers - the first is on Taipa Island near the airport, and the second is on the Macau Peninsula. If you want to get to Macau and immediately fly from the airport in another direction, or you want to leave your luggage in the airport storage room, then you should choose ferries to Taipa Island. If you are going on an excursion to Macau, then you should choose the route that follows precisely to the pier of the Macau Peninsula.
If you choose Taipa Island, then among the two shipping companies it is better to choose Cotai Water Jet, since their ferries in this direction go much more often than TurboJet. These ferries are easy to distinguish by color. TurboJet ferries are red and Cotai Water Jet ferries are blue.
If you decide to go straight to the Macau Peninsula, then you can choose from two proposed companies, especially since their prices for transportation are approximately the same. Ferry tickets from Hong Kong to Macau can be booked online, but the websites of these companies do not accept payment using payment cards from most banks in Russia and Ukraine, so you will have to buy them on the spot. Also in Macau, there may be a problem with withdrawing money from cards through ATMs. You should definitely notify your bank that you are traveling to Macau.
To avoid getting into trouble, buy ferry tickets from Hong Kong to Macau a few days before departure, since Hong Kong is overpopulated and there are a lot of people traveling in this direction. At the last moment there may not be a ticket. If you are visiting Hong Kong for just a few days, then immediately upon arrival, go to the pier and buy a ticket.
A weekday ticket in economy class will cost you 150-160 Hong Kong dollars, and on weekends 162-172 dollars. And at night it’s 185-196 dollars.
First class tickets will cost a little more: on a weekday - 203-2013 dollars, on weekends 206-216 dollars, at night - 239-250 dollars.
VIP cabin for 8 seats: weekday - 1624-1704 dollars, weekends - 1728-1808 dollars, night time - 1912-2000 dollars. All prices are indicated in Hong Kong dollars.
The most expensive and memorable way to get from Hong Kong to Macau is a 16-minute helicopter flight. The cost of such pleasure is 1700 Hong Kong dollars. The helipad is located on Hong Kong Island next to the pier to Macau in the Shun Tak shopping center. The company is called HeliExpress and flights operate every 30 minutes from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
