Macau

Macau is where Portuguese colonial heritage meets Asia’s most spectacular resort city. The churches, squares and tiled streets of its historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stand minutes from the integrated resorts of Cotai — a destination of contrast, gastronomy and theatre.

Portuguese traders settled Macau in the mid-sixteenth century, and the territory remained under Portuguese administration until 1999, when it became a Special Administrative Region of China. The legacy is everywhere in the old peninsula: the wave-patterned paving of Senado Square, the façade of St Paul’s, Baroque churches beside the A-Ma Temple, and street names in Portuguese as well as Chinese.

It is also one of Asia’s distinctive kitchens. Macanese cooking blends Portuguese, Chinese, Indian and African influences, from African chicken to minchi, and the egg tart is a local institution. Across the bridges, the village lanes of Taipa and the quiet beaches of Coloane frame Cotai, the reclaimed strip where the resorts, theatres and shopping arcades now stand.

October to December is the best season: dry, sunny and comfortably warm. November brings the Macau Grand Prix to the Guia street circuit, and the Macao International Music Festival fills the autumn calendar. The International Fireworks Display Contest lights the bay on several evenings in September, a long-standing local tradition.

Spring is mild but often humid and misty, and the Chinese New Year brings lion dances and crowds from across the region. From June to September the weather is hot and wet, with typhoons possible; it is then that air-conditioned Cotai, the museums and long lunches in Taipa village come into their own.

Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip offers the calmest, most residential stay in Cotai, and Wynn Palace, with its lake and gondolas, its most theatrical. Raffles at Galaxy Macau brings an all-suite tower and the Raffles tradition to the Galaxy complex, while The Karl Lagerfeld, designed by the late couturier, is the most fashion-minded address on the strip.

LVXVRY books Four Seasons through Four Seasons Preferred Partner and Raffles through Accor Preferred — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay. For Wynn Palace and The Karl Lagerfeld, LVXVRY advises on and arranges the stay directly, including transfers by road or ferry from Hong Kong.