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Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Best time to visit Macau
Macau · East Asia
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Macau
Tap a month for its page
- JanJMacau in January: sweet spot
- FebFMacau in February: sweet spot
- MarMMacau in March: sweet spot
- AprAMacau in April: sweet spot
- MayMMacau in May: good
- JunJMacau in June: ok
- JulJMacau in July: ok
- AugAMacau in August: avoid
- SepSMacau in September: good
- OctOMacau in October: sweet spot
- NovNMacau in November: sweet spot
- DecDMacau in December: good, busy
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Dry season: Oct–Feb, 6 or fewer rainy days a month.
Plan this trip
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Flights from
Flights
Your city is a guess from your time zone. Choose your city
Where are you flying from? Choose your city for its flights and fares.
Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
Things to do in Macau
- The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel The Venetian is touted as the largest casino, and fourth largest building…
- Grand Lisboa A prominent, 261m tall hotel located right next to the famed Casino Lisboa…
- Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral The city's most famous landmark and is regarded as the greatest monument to Christianity…
- Galaxy Macau Building in Cotai, China
- Coloane Village Quiet and lazy, Coloane Village, the main village on the island…
- Wynn Macau On 6 September 2006 Wynn's huge casino/hotel/resort complex opened…
- City of Dreams Building in City of Dreams, China
Tours and tickets in Macau
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Macau/Coloane, Macau/Cotai, Macau/Peninsula), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 20° | 2d | 72% | 8.2h | sweet spot | 20C max, 2 rainy days |
| Feb | 21° | 5d | 79% | 7.7h | sweet spot | 21C max, 5 rainy days |
| Mar | 23° | 6d | 84% | 7.6h | sweet spot | 23C max, 6 rainy days |
| Apr | 26° | 8d | 85% | 8.4h | sweet spot | 26C max, 8 rainy days |
| May | 28° | 12d | 86% | 8.8h | good | 28C max, 12 rainy days |
| Jun | 30° | 15d* | 86% | 9.1h | ok | 30C max, 15 rainy days |
| Jul | 31° | 14d | 85% | 10.0h | ok | 31C max, 14 rainy days |
| Aug | 30° | 18d | 86% | 8.6h | avoid | monsoon: 18 rainy days, 395mm |
| Sep | 30° | 13d | 84% | 9.3h | good | 30C max, 13 rainy days |
| Oct | 28° | 6d | 76% | 8.7h | sweet spot | 28C max, 6 rainy days |
| Nov | 25° | 3d | 73% | 8.0h | sweet spot | 25C max, 3 rainy days |
| Dec | 21° | 2d | 69% | 8.1h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at Senado Square, the old centre, 7 km from the airport (MFM): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.* Rainy days in June are as the weather station at Taipa (Macao) (5 km away) counts them, where it and the model disagree on a wet month (WMO 45011, 2017–2026).
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Macau's February days now average 20.5°C, 2.1°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 12 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | 18.0° | 18.4° | 21.1° | 24.2° | 26.8° | 28.6° | 29.5° | 29.7° | 28.7° | 26.7° | 22.9° | 19.0° |
| 2017–26 | 19.7° | 20.5° | 23.0° | 25.8° | 28.2° | 29.9° | 30.7° | 30.4° | 30.1° | 27.6° | 24.7° | 20.5° |
| Change | +1.7° | +2.1° | +2.0° | +1.6° | +1.4° | +1.3° | +1.2° | +0.8° | +1.4° | +0.9° | +1.8° | +1.5° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
How far Macau is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Taipei
- from Manila
- from Ho Chi Minh City
- from Bangkok
- from Seoul
- from Kuala Lumpur
- from Singapore
- from Kolkata
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Macau, flying or not.
Before you go
| Cost of living | cheap — prices run about 55% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025) |
|---|---|
| Currency | Macanese pataca |
| Languages | Portuguese, Standard Chinese, Cantonese |
| Plugs | Type D and F and G, 220 V |
| Driving | On the left |
| Calling code | +853 |
| Travel advice | No advice against travel — UK Foreign Office, updated 2025-12-11 Exercise a high degree of caution — Global Affairs Canada, updated 2026-09-24 Level 3: Reconsider Travel — US State Department, updated 2026-09-04 |
| Health | UK Foreign Office health advice |
Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-07. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.Travel advice for American readers is the US State Department's (public domain), and for Canadian readers Global Affairs Canada's (Open Government Licence - Canada), each in its own words and written for its own citizens; entry rules depend on your passport.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB and UnionPay cards and Apple Pay are widely accepted, as are Hong Kong dollars. Most locals pay by phone, and shops also take mainland Chinese and Hong Kong Alipay and WeChat Pay.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Not expected; full-service restaurants usually add a service charge, which counts as the tip, and taxi drivers expect nothing extra.
Getting around Macau
Buses cost MOP6; pay in exact coins, as drivers give no change. A Macau Pass card (MOP130 at 7-Eleven and Circle K, including MOP100 to spend) cuts most rides to MOP3 and also opens the Light Rapid Transit gates. Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong Alipay and WeChat Pay pay the full fare by QR code.
- Apps — Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WeChat, WhatsApp. Uber, Grab and other ride-hailing apps are illegal in Macau; hail a metered taxi at a rank or call a radio taxi.
Unlike in mainland China, Google Maps is not blocked and can be used in Macau. Owing to privacy concerns, Macau's street views in Google Maps have not been updated since they were taken in 2008, so it's very outdated. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Macau, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Ferries from Macau
- 澳門 (氹仔) - 中山 (中山客運口岸) Macau (Taipa) - Zhongshan · about 1h 05m
- 九洲 - 東澳
- 九洲 - 桂山
- 九洲港 - 三角島
- 九洲港 - 九洲岛
- 深圳蛇口 - 东澳
- 深圳蛇口 - 外伶仃
- 深圳蛇口 - 桂山
Crossings within 60 km, as mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Times are typical where the map records them.
Help
- Emergency — 999 (any emergency).
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (13)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/macao/getting-help
- dsat.gov.mo/dsat/subpage.aspx?a_id=1612338099
- macaotourism.gov.mo/en/article/before-you-travel/local-transportation
- macaotourism.gov.mo/en/article/before-you-travel/practical-info
- mlm.com.mo/en/general_ticket.html
- macaupass.com/cardfaqs
- travel.gc.ca/destinations/macao
- macaointernetproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/MAlR_Internet-Usage-Trends-In-Macao-2025-Executive-Summary-1.pdf
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Macau
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/AnnualReport/PDFs/09PAYMENT290526C6588B796E664822A2BD0DEB6452CAD4.PDF
Macau in pictures
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Charlie fong, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Yumeto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Macau is like
Macau (also spelled Macao, 澳門, Oumún in Cantonese) is a former Portuguese colony, a world-renowned gambling destination, and one of the world's most densely populated places, with a population of 667,000 people (2016) in an area half the size of Manhattan Island. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- Although best known for gambling, Macau is extremely rich in attractions and oozing with atmosphere, thanks to hundreds of years of fusion between European and Chinese cultures. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Gambling is Macau's biggest industry and busloads arrive daily from mainland China to try their luck. In addition, many Hong Kongers arrive on weekends with the same aim. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Today, Macau is becoming a low-cost airline hub, and some travellers are now arriving at Macau to later go to Hong Kong. Macau has a separate immigration regime from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- Similar to Portugal and other ex-Portuguese colonies, Macau has 2 distinct police forces, namely the Public Security Police Force… More on Wikivoyage
- Staying healthy
- One unexpected cause of sickness in Macau is the extreme temperature change between 35°C (95°F) humid summer weather outdoors and 18°C (65°F) air-conditioned buildings. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Macau, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Macau
Nearby
Kind of place
Macau is in Macau, East Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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