Macao confuses first-time visitors in the best way. One hour from Hong Kong by bus through the sea bridge, and suddenly the street signs are in Portuguese, the churches sit on cobblestones, and a bakery on every corner sells egg tarts that would not be out of place in Lisbon. It was a Portuguese territory until 1999, and the old centre is a UNESCO site that most visitors sprint through on their way to the casinos. Slow down. 48 hours is enough to see it properly.

Saturday: the historic core

Start early at the Ruins of St. Paul's, the stone facade of a 17th-century church that burned down and left its front wall standing like a film set. By 10am it will be shoulder-to-shoulder, so 8am is the move. Walk downhill through the Rua da Felicidade, past the red shutters of the old red-light district now full of tea houses, to Senado Square's wave-patterned tiles. The Grand Lisboa casino is worth ten minutes for the architecture-as-fever-dream experience; gambling optional and, if you take my advice, skipped.

Saturday night: Taipa village

Cross to Taipa for the old village streets: Rua do Cunha is five minutes long and an hour wide if you eat your way down it. Almond cookies, pork chop buns, and Portuguese restaurants that have been run by the same families for generations. A proper cataplana or African chicken dinner with vinho verde costs a fraction of what it would in Europe.

Sunday: choose your pace

• Coloane village: the quietest corner, Lord Stow's original bakery for the famous egg tarts, and a beach that is modest but real.
• The Cotai strip: Vegas-scale resorts if you want spectacle, gondola rides included, all viewable for free.
• Guia Fortress: a hilltop lighthouse and the best city view, reached by a tiny 19th-century cable car.

Practical notes

Most Western passports get visa-free entry to Macao separately from mainland China, which makes it a handy add-on even if your Chinese visa is a single-entry one. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge bus costs about HK$65 and takes 40 minutes; ferries run too. Currency is the pataca but Hong Kong dollars are accepted everywhere at par. And the egg tart argument, Lord Stow versus Margaret's Cafe e Nata, has no correct answer. Do the research yourself, twice.

We include Macao as a day trip or overnight in several Hong Kong itineraries. It is the easiest international-feeling detour in East Asia.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.