In short
Macao was Portuguese from 1557 to 1999. Its historic centre, a World Heritage site, mixes baroque churches, Chinese temples and pastel façades, and Portuguese remains an official language alongside Chinese.
The Cotai, a strip reclaimed from the sea between two islands, holds the casinos. Gaming revenue there far exceeds Las Vegas.
What it really costs
Housing is expensive — Macao has one of the highest population densities in the world — but the casinos subsidise a great deal: free shuttles from the borders and the airport, and cheap food outside the branded outlets.
Macanese cooking, a Portuguese-Chinese crossing, is unique and eaten nowhere else. Pastéis de nata here are a local institution, not a tourist import.
What nobody tells you
Macao is a special administrative region: entering from Hong Kong or mainland China is a border crossing with checks, even though you stay in China.
The currency is the pataca, but the Hong Kong dollar is accepted everywhere, often at parity. Paying in patacas is slightly better value.
The historic centre is walked in a day and is saturated at weekends by visitors from the mainland. On weekdays it is nearly empty.
