5 Best Sights in Taipa, Macau

Taipa’s narrow, winding streets are packed with restaurants, bakeries, souvenir stores, temples, coffee shops, and heritage buildings defined by their traditional South Chinese and Portuguese design elements. All roads lead to perpetually busy Rua do Cunha, Taipa’s famed food street. This little lane is lined by shops selling everything from matcha ice cream to pork chop buns and stewed offal. Be sure to get some egg tarts from Lord Stow’s here. As you wander around the neighborhood, you’ll find several Macanese and Portuguese restaurants—almost all worth a visit—alongside popular Thai, Chinese, and Western options. Come hungry, come curious. Taipa village is best explored street by street, and you’ll have no shortage of tasty options to refuel.

After Dr. Stanley Ho bought the Macau Jockey Club (MJC) in 1991, he transformed what was a quiet trotting track into a lucrative high-stakes racing facility. However, horse racing is now a more retro gambling option in Asia's rising casino hotspot of Macau, and the local MJC pales in comparison to the truly world-class Hong Kong Jockey Club. Nonetheless the MJC continues to operate year-round, hosting more than 100 races and entertaining a majority of local middle-aged men, along with some younger spectators who come to see the horses close up in between races. If you're game, you can place bets at a number of stations throughout Macau and Hong Kong, as well as by phone and online.

In the mid-2000s, this homegrown brand planted itself on the map when the property, then the Crown Hotel, became the busiest casino in the world in terms of betting volume. Since those heady days, gaming action has pivoted away from VIPs to focus on the higher end of the mass market. Now, that action takes place on the ground level and first floor, leaving the rest of the property at peace. Since the whales have left for the newer casino-resorts, the Altira Macau is much more accessible and offers great value, as well as sweeping views of the peninsula.

Macau’s largest temple is part of a functioning monastery with several dozen monks. The classically designed structure has an ornate, three-story central pavilion that houses a nearly 18-foot (5.4-meter) bronze statue of the Buddha—the tallest in Macau. Throughout, you’ll find beautiful wall murals, ornamented ceilings, red wood columns, and peaceful fishponds and banyan trees, as well as resident monks who tend vegetable plots that supply the popular on-site vegetarian restaurant.

These five sea-green, Sino-Portuguese buildings sit conspicuously at the edge of Taipa's man-made wetlands, surrounded by cobblestones and towering banyans. Built in 1921, they once served as residences for senior civil servants, back when they faced out over the mangroves and water toward Coloane. Today, they house rotating exhibitions and Casa Maquista, a beautiful, heritage-oriented restaurant serving exquisite renditions of lesser-known Macanese dishes. Nearby paths lead into the beautiful adjoining Carmel Garden, where palm trees provide welcome shade. Within the garden stands the brilliant white-and-yellow Nossa Senhora do Carmo (Church of Our Lady of Carmel), built in 1885 and featuring a handsome single-belfry tower.