It was a quick 10 minute cab ride over to the Westin Resort in Coloane. The hotel does offer a complimentary shuttle to the Venetian and ferry dock, but a cab was inexpensive so we didn’t wait for it.

The Westin is a grand older hotel on the beach, far away from the action of Macau but not really more than 10 minutes away. The property reminds me a bit of the Westin Puerto Vallarta, each floor set back slightly from the one below it and all rooms offering balconies.

It’s a beautiful, old, quiet property and seemed fairly unoccupied throughout our three day stay.

We were assigned a suite looking out on the beach on the top guest floor, I didn’t ask how many suites they had but there didn’t seem much competition for upgrades. They extended complimentary internet and various discounts at the hotel, though I didn’t take advantage of the discounts.

The hotel doesn’t have a lounge, but they offer complimentary buffet breakfast to Platinms. Only this caused a bit of confusion because we went down to the hotel restaurant and found that they didn’t have a buffet! English wasn’t well-spoken in the restaurant while we were there but we managed to sort out that the buffet wasn’t being offered due to the hotel’s occupancy, but that we could order anything we wished and as much as we wished off the restaurant menu. Service was very good, language challenges aside, and the food was all high quality. But I was surprised to find relatively little Asian fare on offer, mostly just a varity of Western options. I did have some pork buns with my eggs, et al but those were somewhat disappointing.

The gym was downstairs and perfectly nice, large, and new.

Weather was overcast for most of our stay, wasn’t really lay out weather, but it was a retreat from the hustle and bustle that Macau has become. My overall impression of the ‘strip’ area of the city is that it’s Vegas if Vegas were brand new and with a more Japanese obsession for technology. The Westin on the other hand was away from the action, much more old school.

Since the property was mostly empty, it wasn’t overly staffed. If I wanted something from the gift shop, I had to ask the front desk to open it. But I like my hotels quiet.

I was absolutely thrilled with the hotel on a value proposition basis, a large suite overlooking the beach with free breakfast and internet can’t be beat.

But then I did head into Macao proper, the next installment of this trip report, and was rather blown away by the brand new Grand Hyatt which made me reconsider whether I’d made the right choice in staying at the Westin. Ultimately I was more than happy (and also very much so because it was right next to Fernando’s for pork (also coming in a subsequent installment) but staying in Macau I’d probably opt to be more central next time.