Macau Trip Part 7: Sands Cotai Central (金沙城中心)

[Introduction]

I traveled to Macau in mid December. I went around the World Heritage sites in Macau Peninsula in the first half and mega resorts in Cotai area in the latter half. In this article, I will write about Sands Cotai Central as part of Day 3.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1: Go to Macau via Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge
* Day 1: Around Lisboa (Light-up)
* Day 2: Penha Church etc.
* Day 2: Senado Square etc.
* Day 2: Ruins of St. Paul’s, Mount Fortress, St. Lazarus District etc.
* Day 2: Ruins of St. Paul’s, Senado Square etc. (Light-up)
* Day 3: Sands Cotai Central [This article]
* Day 3: The Venetian Macao
* Day 3: The Parisian Macao (Light-up)
* Day 3: Studio City Macau (Light-up)
* Day 4: City of Dreams
* Day 4: MGM Cotai, Wynn Palace
* Day 4: Galaxy Macau
* Day 4: The Venetian Macao etc. (Light-up)
* Day 5: Macau Tower
* Day 5: Return Home

[Travel Date]
2018.12.14-18

[Main Part]

Breakfast in Grand Lisboa

The third day of my Macau trip started. To begin with, I will have breakfast.

While I had breakfast at “Noite e Dia Café (不夜天Café)” in Hotel Lisboa, where I was staying, on the previous day (see the related article), I will have breakfast at “Round-The-Clock Coffee Shop” in Grand Lisboa which was adjacent to Hotel Lisboa this time.

I visited “Round-The-Clock Coffee Shop” for dinner on the previous day (see the related article) and liked its cuisine and atmosphere, so I decided to revisit it.

“Round-The-Clock Coffee Shop” does not have buffet for breakfast, which is common in other hotel restaurants, and instead provides course meals such as “American Breakfast”, “Continental Breakfast” and “Chinese Breakfast”, and several a la carte menus. Among them, I chose “Chinese Breakfast”.

Considering hotel’s room rates, the price of breakfast was relatively reasonable and their service was good, so I was satisfied with breakfast at “Round-The-Clock Coffee Shop”.

Check-out Hotel Lisboa

On the third day, I will move to another hotel, so I will check out Hotel Lisboa.

Macau is famous for casino and Hotel Lisboa has its own casino, but in the end, I didn’t visit it at all, as my purpose was taking travel photos 🙂

I checked out Hotel Lisboa.

To recap Hotel Lisboa, I think Hotel Lisboa would be one of the best options in terms of location and cost-effectiveness, if you are looking for a hotel in Macau Peninsula. First, Hotel Lisboa is conveniently located for walking around the world heritage sites – for example, it takes about 10 minutes to Senado Square on foot. Second, the room rates in Hotel Lisboa is affordable – about half the price of Grand Lisboa.

Move to Cotai Area

While I have stayed in Macau Peninsula in the first half, I will stay in Cotai area, which has been developed recently, in the latter half. I will move to Cotai area by relaying free shuttle buses.

First, I will take a shuttle bus of Hotel Lisboa. When I waited for the bus, I enjoyed conversation with this doorman.

After 10 minutes ride, I arrived at “Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal (外港客運碼頭)”.

Then, I transferred to another shuttle bus bound for “Sands Cotai Central (金沙城中心)”, where I will be staying.

Sands Cotai Central

After 20 minutes ride, I reached Sands Cotai Central.

Sands Cotai Central is a casino resort opened in 2012. As the name suggests, it is operated by Las Vegas Sands.

Several casino resorts were built side by side around Cotai Strip, the main street in Cotai area, and Sands Cotai Central is located at the center of the area.

In addition, Sands Cotai Central has four hotels, which are Conrad, Sheraton, Holiday Inn and St. Regis. Among them, Sheraton and Holiday Inn set relatively reasonable room rates, and I chose to stay at Sheraton, as it was less expensive than Holiday Inn in my itinerary.

I checked with a hotel staff about the check-in time and was told that check-in would be available from 1 p.m., so I will go around Sands Cotai Central until then.

Sands Cotai Central had a shopping mall called “Shoppes at Cotai Central”.

There were two casinos in Sands Cotai Central and the below was one of them.

An Apple store has recently opened in Sands Cotai Central.

I will take a look at other hotels than Sheraton where I will be staying. This is Holiday Inn.

Conrad.

St. Regis.

There are several souvenir shops in Sands Cotai Central, so I will visit one of them during my stay.

This McCafé was cool, wasn’t it?

There was also a theater.

Lunch at Koufu

I will have lunch at “Koufu (口福)”, a food court on the third floor.

Koufu is a Singaporean food and beverage company operating a chain of food court, coffee shops and casual eateries. The food court in Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is also operated by Koufu.

The food court was made up of mainly Asian food stalls. For example, Singapore cuisine.

Taiwanese cuisine.

Chinese dishes.

Drink corner.

And Macanese Portuguese cuisine.

Among them, I chose the Macanese Portuguese stall.

As time passed, the food court became crowded.

Check-in Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel

Then, I will check in the hotel, as it was around 1 p.m. “Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel”, where I will be staying, has 4,001 rooms, which is the largest number in both hotels in Macau and Starwood Hotels that manage Sheraton hotels.

I had a “Starwood Preferred Guest*” account and booked my stay through its official website, so I was able to use “SPG Lounge”.
* Starwood group went under the umbrella of Marriott group in April 2016 and the Starwood Preferred Guest program has been integrated into Marriott’s guest reward program since August 2018. In January 2019 when I am writing this article, the reward program’s name was unified into “Marriott Rewards”. In addition, the name will be changed into “Marriott Bonvoy” from mid February 2019.

I chose the least expensive room, but it was enough for me.

Then, I will go around Venetian Macao.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about Sands Cotai Central as part of Day 3.

Compared with Venetian Macao and Parisian Macao, which I will visit later, Sands Cotai Central may lack in appeal from entertainment perspectives. However, Sands Cotai Central is conveniently located for hopping around casino resorts in Cotai area. In addition, Sands Cotai Central has a wide variety of hotel selections from luxury ones (Conrad and St. Regis) to reasonable ones (Sheraton and Holiday Inn), so travelers can choose their hotels based on their needs and preferences 🙂

In the next article, I will write about the Venetian Macao as part of Day 3.

[Map]

1 Hotel Lisboa
2 Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal
3 Sands Cotai Central

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