Macau

Macau is what happens when Portugal and Las Vegas share a peninsula. You walk through old Portuguese squares with black and white wave patterns in the paving, up to the Ruins of St. Paul's, which is just a stone facade with nothing behind it, and then turn a corner and the Grand Lisboa is glowing like a giant golden flower.

I was there in 2019, and between the casino buffets, the lit-up resorts on Cotai and a giant white rabbit sculpture I still can't explain, it was a lot of fun. But the food is the real reason to go. Macanese cooking mixes Portuguese and Cantonese, and there are dishes you can't really find anywhere else, like African chicken, minchi and those famous egg tarts. Most people visit as a day trip from Hong Kong. Stay the night.