Sometimes, very expensive hotels are cheaper than cheap hotels. This is one of those cases, the 5 star Grand Hyatt Macau where you would usually pay £300+ a night, for £105 a night.
Location
Located in The City of Dreams complex you really are in the thick of it. If you’re flying into Macau International Airport, when you look out of your room window you may even consider walking there when you check out as its that close. Surrounded by the likes of St Regis, Wynn Palace, MGM, Venetian, Parisian, Et Al.
If you’re flying into HKG you have a few options. You can get the internal ferry from the SkyPier direct to either Macau Ferry Terminal or Taipa Ferry Terminal then get the hotel’s own shuttle bus. That will run you about £27 for economy or £40 for first class 1 way. Alternatively, you can get a taxi or bus (B4) from Hong Kong airport to the HZMB terminal then take a shuttle bus across the world’s longest sea crossing to Macau then pick up the free hotel shuttle bus. This will cost you around £7 each way and is far more frequent than the ferry. Plus, if you’re into your engineering, it’s an interesting spectacle.
The Room
Checking in was a bit of a nightmare. Most hotels let you check in a few hours before the given time, this wasn’t the case here. I had a 3 hour wait followed by 4 hours of work before i could check-in. Fortunately for my stay, I was upgraded to a King Deluxe room. A decent sized room that a lot of other hotels would probably miss label as a suite.
As you’d expect in a King Deluxe, a king size bed. I wasn’t too keen on the mattress as it felt like it was made in 2 parts. It had about 2 inches of comfort on the top then the bottom bit of the mattress was like a cinder block. They’ve tried to go down the comfy but firm route and failed. You won’t lose sleep over it but it isn’t the high quality you’d expect.
The TV was plenty big enough and mounted to the wall on a bracket should you need to pivot it round to the sofa area. No Netflix, and a list of bog standard news channels. You could, however, mirror your mobile device and you could also plug a laptop in at the sofa area.
No office as such, however a large sofa area. Super comfy, so much so that I spent a night on it editing photos. The table is moveable, it weighs as much as a baby cow, so good luck with that.
The Bathroom
A his and hers high quality bathroom. Heavy taps, solid counters be it glass or stone, a thought out layout and plenty of lighting all give it a luxurious feel. However, the lack of soft closing on anything soon brought it down a notch.
Though not the focal point, laid away in the corner, it’s what makes the bathroom. The walk in wet room with a high powered, high flow rate shower in the centre of the room.
Set back from the centre of the room, close to the exterior wall is the bath. Taking a solid 10 mins to fill it doesn’t half make a racket throughout the room when you try to do so. I’m not sure if it was a little vertigo from all the constant flying but when getting in the bath all I was thinking was “I hope this doesn’t plummet through the below ceiling”. Its a champagne (or in my case a cocktail) bath, perfect for being in a seated position and having a drink. The obvious oversight though is a table to hold your drink, there isn’t one. That and the fact they placed the tap where they did, you can’t sit in that side to look out the window properly.
The thorough selection of toiletries are supplied by Balmain.
The Lobby
As grand as the lobby area is, with it’s 2 floor super high ceiling, high polished floor razmataz, it’s actually a disaster.
It ticks all the boxes of giving a great impression and welcome to the hotel however as soon as you start to scratch away it all becomes apparent. There are no seats, anywhere! Which is fine if you’re checking in on time or not planning to meet anyone or you don’t have to wait for a taxi. Not in my case. A 3 hour wait before I could check in, 3 hours with nowhere to sit thinking “F**k your grandeur, give me a seat”.
The Pool
Having only time to access the pool first thing in the morning when it opens at 06:00, I did find it a little cold when getting in. Once you were in it was fine and I’m sure though by midday it was probably beautiful, just something to bear in mind.
Whilst we’re on the subject of midday sun, I’d imagine these sun loungers built into the pool would be incredible. I tried one out and it was very comfortable however it was only 19 degrees at 06:30 so a little on the cold side.
If you’re a more cocktail by the pool person with a group of friends or family then there are several semi-private areas with cabanas, sofas, sun loungers and TV’s.
For the locker rooms, you collect a free key from the main bar on entrance. Think the changing rooms of a nice golf courses clubhouse.
You’ve got a hot tub, steam room, sauna, showers. Pretty much everything you could need or want. They even look after the smaller things such as each shower always has a towel, all the toiletries are provided, in your locker you even have a towel and some sandals with nice coat hangers.
The Lounge
Some hotel lounges are an afterthought, sometimes in the basement or even shoehorned into a small room somewhere random. That isn’t the case here, forgoing are the penthouse suites on the top floor. Their Grand Club lounge is almost treated as their crown jewel.
As you walk down the high ceilinged, solid wood lined hallway from the elevator you’re met by a host who takes your name and or room number, then guides you to a sofa to relax whilst they check you’re on the guest list.
Just like in the pool changing rooms, that high-end country golf club feel transcends floors and still rings true.
There is a main dining room with both formal and informal seating arrangements. The sofas are comfy but to dine from they aren’t the best, having to perch to be able to reach the table.
The lounge has a well-equipped private boardroom should you need to host a meeting.
There is a nice room with a few sofas and seats in. Due to it almost being hidden it’s quiet there, coupled with the size it makes for a cosy setting.
The rooftop terrace is a nice place to spend a bit of time at any point of the year. It a city with as much pollution as Macau, being fenced in by bamboo and shrubbery whilst looking over the city transports you. It’s a beautiful area filled with snug wicker furniture.
The Gym
Open exclusively for hotel guests 24 hours a day their gym is well kitted out. a plethora of cardio equipment such as treadmills, spin bikes, rowing machines, stair mills.
There’s plenty of machines but if you prefer to keep it simple there are some god old fashion kettlebells, dumbells and barbells across a vast weight scale.
In a nutshell, if you’ve got a bit of money or find a room on offer it’s a quality hotel, the kind you’d expect from Grand Hyatt. Plenty of competition within close proximity which keeps their standards high. I wouldn’t spend the extra for lounge access but if you do theirs a constant supply of quality food.