This post may contain affiliate links. Read the full disclosure
We spent one night at The Venetian Macau, and we’re so glad we did! We had one night in Macau between Hong Kong and China, and if you only have one night in Macau, staying at the Venetian is the kind of decision that makes sense even if the price tag makes you wince a little.
Macau is best experienced at night, and the Cotai Strip is where everything happens. The Venetian puts you right in the middle of the action. Here’s our honest review of The Venetian in Macau and what it was actually like.
Check current availability and prices here
The Venetian Macau
The Venetian Macao – Quick Guide
- ✔ Best for: One or two nights on the Cotai Strip
- ✔ Location: Cotai Strip, Macau, central to everything
- ✔ Room style: Old-world Venetian theming with all modern amenities
- ✔ Worth it? Yes, especially if Macau is a short stop, the location earns its price tag for convenience
- ✔ Good to know: The complex is enormous so be prepared for a serious walk from the entrance to your room
- ✔ BOOK IT HERE
FYI: This review is not sponsored. We stayed one night and are sharing our honest experience.
Is The Venetian Macao Worth It?
For a short stay in Macau, yes. It puts you in the right spot on the Cotai Strip, which was our main priority for a short stay. When you don’t have long somewhere, you want to make it as easy as possible.
The room was comfortable, and having the shopping, food court and attractions directly downstairs means you barely need to leave the building.
After a long travel day, that was convenient… although we absolutely did go out to enjoy the atmosphere of the Cotai Strip by night.
👉 We enjoyed our stay and the only regret was not having longer to explore.
The Venetian Macau Review
We arrived later than planned. Plane delays in the morning had pushed everything back. By the time we’d made our way from Hong Kong airport via the crossborder bus to Macau and then caught the free hotel shuttle from the border, the day had already turned into evening.
It wasn’t quite the relaxed afternoon arrival we’d hoped for.
None of that was the hotel’s fault, and to be fair, arriving at The Venetian Macao after dark was no more challenging than arriving during the day.
The Cotai Strip at night is something else entirely. The lights, the scale, the sheer theatrical excess of it all. It’s Las Vegas energy but distinctly, unmistakably Asian, and it looks incredible.
What we hadn’t quite anticipated was how long the walk from the entrance to the reception would be.
The Venetian Macao is not just a hotel. It’s a casino, a shopping centre, a food court, a canal system, and what feels like a small city with hotel rooms attached.
From the front door to check-in is a real walk. From check-in to our room on the 20th floor at the end of a long corridor was another real walk.
We were placed at the far end of a hallway, which we suspect was a combination of arriving late and some renovation works that had taken a section of rooms out of service, though we had no noise or interruptions from the works during our stay.
Just a bit of extra exercise at the end of a long travel day.
Location
The Venetian sits on the Cotai Strip. Macau’s answer to the Las Vegas Strip, and the location is excellent for seeing the best of what Macau has to offer.
It connects directly to The Parisian Macao next door, which means you can wander between the two properties without going outside. It also connects to The Londoner, all via covered interconnected walkways in the Four Seasons complex.
The broader Cotai Strip has most of the major attractions within walking distance, and seeing it all lit up at night is one of the best things about Macau.
While still a substantial walk (especially if you don’t realise there are walkways connecting some of them… we didn’t realise at first), you can visit many of the other mega-resorts nearby, see the Wynn Palace fountain show and shop.
How To Get To The Venetian Macau
The Venetian runs free shuttle buses from the major entry points into Macau, including the border crossings, ferry terminals and the Cotai ferry terminal.
We took the crossborder bus from Hong Kong airport directly to Macau, which crosses via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (useful to know if you’re routing this way), then caught the hotel shuttle from the Cotai ferry terminal.
- To Macau from Hong Kong Airport: Crossborder bus via the HKZM Bridge, no customs clearance needed for this route, just hold on to your passport as there are checkpoints along the way.
- From border crossing / ferry terminal: Free Venetian shuttle bus runs regularly
Check-In
Check-in took quite a while. We think this was a combination of arriving late and the renovations meaning they had to work harder to find us a suitable room.
It wasn’t a frustrating experience exactly, just a slow one at the end of a long travel day. Once sorted, it was easy enough.
Be prepared: the walk from the entrance of the building to the front desk is long. It’s not confusing.
You can’t really miss it, but if you’ve been travelling all day and you’re arriving with luggage, it’s longer than you’d expect from a regular hotel entrance. We were grateful for the concierge to come take our luggage halfway.
The sheer scale of the complex catches most people off guard the first time.
The Venetian Theming
The whole aesthetic is inspired by Venice, Italy. Arched ceilings painted to look like sky, or with ornate paintings. Golden tones, ornate detailing and the kind of design that manages to feel both opulent and slightly surreal at the same time.
It’s fancy. Legitimately, unapologetically fancy.
My youngest’s reaction summed it up perfectly: it felt too fancy for her. We appreciated it, but we understood what she meant. It’s the kind of place where you feel slightly self-conscious about your theme park t-shirt… but we had just visited Shanghai Disneyland the day before.
That said, the theming is well done, and it’s fun to be in, particularly at night when everything is lit up, and the indoor canals are a far prettier colour than the real canals of Venice.
Here’s something to make you giggle. We arrived at night…yet walking through the shopping centre alongside the canals where the gondolas are, it didn’t occur to me for an embarrassingly long time that the roof was painted to look like a perfect daytime sky.
Our Room
We stayed in a Bella Deluxe Suite, 2 Queen on the 20th floor.
The room was on the larger side, well-furnished and comfortable, though “suite” at the Venetian is closer to a very well-appointed hotel room than a separate living area situation.
The Venetian aesthetic continues through the room design: ornate touches, warm colours, a feeling of old-world Italian grandeur. It works.
It’s not over the top once you’re inside the room. The theming is in the details rather than plastered across every surface. It’s quite beautiful with old-fashioned Italian vibes.
- Two queen beds, comfortable, with good pillows
- Two TVs (which was more than we needed but appreciated nonetheless)
- Robes and slippers provided
- Standard toiletries and amenities provided in the bathroom
- Room service available (we didn’t try it given how much food was available downstairs)
- Ornate bathroom with separate bath and shower and toilet
- The view from the 20th floor on our side of the building wasn’t particularly memorable, not a city or strip view, so we missed out on the light show from above. That was partly due to our late arrival time.
The room had everything you’d need for a short stay. It’s a proper luxury hotel room that delivers on the basics really well: beds, space, comfort.
Room Amenities
The bathroom was huge, one of the bigger hotel bathrooms we’ve had.
There’s a separate toilet, which sounds great on paper, except it’s technically still inside the bathroom, so you’re not getting the full separation you’d hope for. It’s the kind of design decision that clearly made sense to someone at some point.
The toiletries were well stocked, and the robes and slippers were a nice touch.
And there’s even a phone in the toilet… okay…
Room service is available, but we didn’t use it. With the food options directly below us, there wasn’t much reason to.
Dining Options
There are plenty of options for food when you stay at The Venetian Macau. We mentioned the food service already but if you’re happy to get out and about, there’s no
The Asian Food Court
Downstairs in the shopping centre, there’s a huge Asian food court with a wide range of options at prices that feel considerably more reasonable than the hotel restaurants. A great option for families who want something different since you can grab dishes from multiple stalls.
American Brands
For anyone who’s been travelling in Asia for a few weeks and is quietly craving something familiar, there’s also a McDonald’s and a Five Guys in the complex. We ended up going for a quick burger at Five Guys, after having been in Asia for 2 weeks already by this time.
Hotel Restaurants
The Venetian and neighbouring hotels have a number of sit-down restaurants at more premium price points. We didn’t try any of these given our late arrival and the fact that the food court suited us perfectly for a one-night stop.
Tip: I’ve heard it mentioned that if you pre-book the set menu or buffet restaurants online prior to your stay, it is typically discounted than on arrival.
Taipa Food Street
Around a 15-minute walk from The Venetian, you will find Rua do Cunha, also known as Taipa Food Street, in Taipa Village. We visited here the next morning for the famous Portuguese egg tarts, which was a nice way to see a bit of the real Macau beyond the casino strip before heading off.
I was in two minds about the egg tarts, but they are so cheap that we decided to grab a couple from Lord Stow’s Bakery and oh my… they are so good! So much better than I anticipated. Delicious!
Funny enough, it turns out there is another Lord Stow’s Bakery and Cafe within The Venetian, on level 3, and it’s open until 10:30 pm each night. If we had known, I would have gotten more to go.
The Shoppes at Venetian and The Indoor Canals
The shopping at The Venetian Macao is impressive, all the premium and popular brands you’d expect, spread across an enormous complex that flows into the casino and the canal area.
The Venice-style indoor canals with working gondolas are the headline attraction inside the building itself, and they’re worth a wander even if you don’t hop in a gondola.
The painted sky ceilings, the canal lit up at night, the gondoliers in costume, it’s theatrical and a little over the top and completely enjoyable for exactly those reasons. The kids enjoyed this part of the experience, feeling like they were in Venice since they weren’t born back when we went.
We didn’t do the gondola ride. It’s priced at a premium, and Simon and I have done the real thing in Venice, so the indoor version on a casino floor felt like it could wait.
What we did notice was that not many other guests seemed to be doing it either, which surprised us given how many people were wandering around. It looks impressive as a spectacle either way.
The whole complex also connects through to The Parisian Macao next door, which has its own Eiffel Tower replica and a similarly over-the-top European-in-Asia atmosphere. Worth walking through even if you’re not staying there.
Macau at Night
This is worth its own mention. If you only have one night in Macau and you’re wondering whether it’s worth coming at all, it is, and the night is the right time.
Honestly, I’m not sure a day trip during the day back and forth to Hong Kong would have been worth the effort to me. It was all about the nighttime along the strip.
The Cotai Strip after dark is spectacular in the most unabashedly excessive way. The light displays, the scale of the buildings, the mix of European and Chinese architectural influences all lit up at once, it’s unlike anything else in the region.
Walking the strip at night and seeing it all from the outside was one of the highlights of the whole trip.
Macau is a short stop for most people. One night is enough to see the Strip and tick off the egg tarts the next morning… or visit a casino or two if that’s how you roll instead.
Two nights would give you time to see more of Old Macau and the historic ruins area properly. We wish we’d had a second night.
Things To Do Nearby
- Cotai Strip – walk the strip after dark to see several major hotel resorts within easy walking distance
- Ride a Gondola – Cruise along the canals inside The Venetian
- Performance Lake – see the light and fountain show at Wynn Palace
- SkyCab – ride the SkyCab cable car near Wynn Palace
- Eiffel Tower Observation Deck – got up the Eiffel Tower replica observation deck
- House of Dancing Water Show – this was booked out for our visit but it’s meant to be one of the best attractions in Macau
- Golden Reel Ferris Wheel – ride the figure-eight ferris wheel at Studio City
- Studio City Water Park – cool down at an indoor water park
What We Loved About The Venetian Macao
- Location on the Cotai Strip, central to everything and perfect for seeing Macau at night
- The Bella Deluxe Suite was comfortable and spacious
- Little extra comforts within the room making it feel luxurious
- Comfortable beds
- The Asian food court downstairs at reasonable prices
- The atmosphere of the entire building complex
- Free shuttle buses from all the major border crossings and terminals
- The staff were helpful and friendly despite our very late check-in
What We Didn’t Love About The Venetian Macao
- The walk from the entrance to reception to your room is long with luggage
- Our room placement at the end of a distant hallway was frustrating, though this was partly due to renovations reducing available rooms
- The view from our 20th-floor room wasn’t of the city or the strip
- The price but it is expected
Alternatives Near The Venetian Macao
If the Venetian is out of budget, the Cotai Strip has several other large resort hotels at different price points:
Our Verdict: Do We Recommend The Venetian Macao?
Yes, The Venetian Macau was a great place to stay for a short stay. The location is excellent, the room was comfortable, the food court downstairs solved dinner without any effort, and being able to walk straight out into the Cotai Strip at night was everything we came to Macau for.
Is it the most family-oriented hotel we’ve ever stayed in? Not exactly, it’s primarily a casino resort and you feel that in the overall atmosphere. But it works well for families as long as you know what you’re booking into: a very comfortable, very large, somewhat excessive luxury complex that happens to be in exactly the right spot.
If we went back to Macau (and we’d like to, one night felt too short), we’d stay here again.
