28 March 2013
I was planning for a short trip to Hong Kong and decided to include a trip to Macau as well. I realised that it was possible to take a ferry to Macau directly from the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), without first going to Hong Kong. That would save us a lot of time.
Besides, the HKIA is located on Lantau Island and Macao is nearer to it than from Hong Kong. Best time to visit Macao is on a weekday. Beside avoiding the massive weekend crowds, the rates for the hotels at the casinos are much lower on a weekday (Monday to Thursday)
Upon arriving at the HKIA, we went straight to the counter E2, without clearing the Hong Kong immigration. The ticket booths for the ferries to Macau, Shenshen, Guangzhou and other places in China are located here. For ferries to Macao, there are 2 operators – Turbojet and Cotai ferry. One way ticket cost HKD233 per person. I was informed by a man at the counter that the prices are increased to HKD246 per person the next day 29 March 2013 onwards. Tickets could be purchased online but it was better to buy the tickets upon arrival in case our flight into Hong Kong was delayed.
Note: the ferry operator will collect any checked luggage from the aircraft and load them into the ferry. 60 minutes allowance before scheduled ferry departure time is needed for this. Just need to show them the checked luggage claim tags.
For us, we did not checked in any luggage, so we could just take the next available ferry.
We arrived at 12.45 PM and booked the tickets for the 2 PM ferry operated by Turbojet. We wanted to take lunch at the airport while waiting for the ferry to depart but the Noodle and Congee restaurant (only restaurant at counter E2) was packed with people. So we went to the ferry boarding point at the SkyPier and bought some take-away food from Starbucks to consume on the boat.
The departure time was slightly delayed due to a malfunction of the crane used to load the checked luggage onto the boat. The staff had to manually haul each piece of luggage on-board. After that, the trip across the sea from the Sky-pier in HKIA to the Macau Ferry terminal was nice and smooth. No waves, no seasickness. The journey was about 30 minutes.
Upon arrival at Macao at 3.30 PM, we cleared the immigration for Macao and then walked through an underpass to the bus terminal to take the free hotel shuttle bus to our hotel, The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel located in the Cotai area. Bus journey was about 15 minutes and we got a glimpse of the MGM and Grand Lisboa casino/hotels on the way.
Note: Cotai ferry will arrive at a different ferry terminal (Cotai Ferry Terminal) which is nearer to the hotels located in the Cotai area. In any case, most or all hotels provide free shuttle bus service from the ferry points to the hotels.