Getting around Macao: transport and apps

The free network nobody explains

• Every casino resort runs free shuttle buses between itself, the airport, the ferry terminals and the Border Gate. They are comfortable, frequent and free.
• You are not required to be a guest or a gambler. Nobody checks. Chaining two shuttles gets you across Macao for nothing.
• They are genuinely faster than the bus at peak times, because they use different routes.

Buses

• A flat MOP 6.00 anywhere, and the network reaches everything including Coloane.
• No change is given. Carry coins, or use a Macau Pass, the local stored-value card, which also works in convenience stores and vending machines.
• Route signs at stops are in Chinese and Portuguese, not English. Have the route number and the stop name written down.

Light Rapid Transit

• The LRT runs on Taipa with the Seac Pai Van and Hengqin lines, and an East Line under construction.
• It does not yet reach the historic centre on the peninsula, which is where most visitors want to be, so for now it is useful for the airport, Taipa and the Cotai resorts and not much else.

Taxi, and what not to use

• Black with a cream roof, metered, MOP 21.00 to start. Drivers may not speak English - have the destination in Chinese, which every hotel will write for you.
• Uber is illegal in Macao. The FCDO is explicit that police act against the passenger as well as the driver in an unlicensed car. Do not use ride-hailing here.

Walking

• The peninsula is walkable end to end and the historic centre is a UNESCO site best seen on foot.
• Cotai is not. The resorts are enormous and the distances between them are longer than they look; use the shuttles.