A family day out in Macau: water park, virtual reality games, history, culture, street food – it’s not all casinos in the ‘Las Vegas of Asia’

Macau’s casino resorts have many family attractions – immersive art shows, a water park, virtual-reality bumper cars. There’s a zip line and indoor skydiving

For history lessons try the Macao Museum and Fire Services Museum, or a historic ice cream shop; there are cultural spaces, churches, temples and street food

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The world’s first immersive Be@rbrick art exhibition is taking place at the Galaxy Macau casino resort, one of several immersive art experiences in Macau. The casino city has attractions for all the family. Photo: Galaxy Macau

Published: 12:45pm, 18 Aug 2023

Macau has more than 40 casino hotels on a land mass that is only 3 per cent the size of Hong Kong, so you would be forgiven for not thinking of the city as child-friendly.

However, with the right itinerary, a day or two in the “Las Vegas of Asia” – made up of the Macau peninsula, Taipa and Coloane – can not only keep your family active, but also entertained.

1. Play and entertainment

Macau’s casino resorts provide a great variety of activities for children, especially during the summer months – think water parks, bouncy castles, zip-lining and more. They offer year-round indoor cultural and entertainment programmes on a scale not often seen in Hong Kong.

The teamLab SuperNature Macao at The Venetian Macao is a multimedia art show. Photo: Getty Images

Instagram-friendly, digital and immersive art is all the rage. The teamLab SuperNature Macao at The Venetian Macao is a multimedia art show that, at 5,000 square metres (54,000 sq ft), is five times bigger than the teamLab show in Hong Kong.

MGM Cotai is making use of its 900 square metre 4K LED wall system to turn Chinese artist Hsiao Chin’s abstract art into an immersive video experience. This is part of the hotel’s retrospective in honour of the Taiwanese-Italian artist, who died just before the exhibition opened.

While grown-ups will walk away from the well curated show with a better understanding of the different phases of Hsiao’s career, there are plenty of interactive elements to keep young people engaged as well.

At Galaxy Macau, the world’s first immersive Bearbrick exhibition features giant versions of the popular vinyl toy bear installations, a special edition Macau Bearbrick 1000% by local artist MCZ Thomas and – in a nod to Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s infinity concept – a Bearbrick mirror room and a Bearbrick immersive room.