The Venetian, Macao

I made a slight detour during my trip to Hong Kong, taking the hour-long ferry journey to the neighbouring island of Macau.

Macau, a former Portugese colony in China, is mostly famous for it’s legal and Vegas-style gambling culture. The Venetian, in particular, is a good bet for low cost holidays / shoestring breaks as entry is free and it’s pretty much the best example of gambling culture in Macao.

The Venetian Macao is a completely insane hotel/casino modelled after it’s sister in Las Vegas; massive, golden, rammed with people and swimming in money and cigarette smoke.

There isn’t a lot to do in Macau if, like me, you don’t know how to play card games other than Gin Rummy and 21. There was, however, one highlight: The Venetian Macao.

The Venetian Macao is a completely insane hotel/casino modelled after it’s sister in Las Vegas; massive, golden, rammed with people and swimming in money and cigarette smoke.

Here are some fun facts:

• The Venetian is a 40-story, $2.4 billion anchor for the 7 hotels on the Cotai Strip in Macau.
• It is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia, and the sixth largest building in the world by area.
• It is the largest casino in the world.
• The Venetian Macao is also home to the second largest Venice in the world, the first being the city of Venice, Italy and the third being The Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Confused by that last fact? Ladies and Gents, feast your eyes on this replica of Venice housed on one of the floors of the Venetian:

It was incredibly jarring to go walk out of a smoggy evening in China and into a sunny afternoon in St Mark’s Square, Venice (although I think the real Venice smells less like chlorine..). Take a look for yourself, they even had canals, cobbled streets and gondoliers. Filipino gondoliers singing Italian songs in god knows what accent but still, gondoliers! In China!

After a couple of hours, I think we were feeling a bit of sensory overload (it may be huge but all the shops, amusements, gold, slot machines, people, staff, announcements and noise make this place feel incredibly claustrophobic) so we spent about 20 minutes frantically looking for an exit – 30 minutes later and we were out. It was fun but… never again.