Cotai Strip History

(Last updated: August 3, 2026)

One of the first decisions people need to make before visiting a place is where to stay.  For those journeying to Macau, the choice often boils down to the older, more historic Peninsula or the city’s new wild child, the bombastic casino driven Cotai Strip. 

Like all decisions of this nature, it’s largely dependent on personal taste and what you want out of your trip.  Most of this website already details what to do and see on the Peninsula, while this article focuses entirely on attractions, activities and hotels in Cotai. 

Hopefully by the end, you’ll know if staying there is right for you, whether dropping by makes more sense, or if you’ll want to avoid the area altogether!

I’ll begin by talking about the history, then move on to what the Strip does best and finish with a quick overview of the individual hotels. 

History

The story of the Cotai Strip began in 2004, when the Macau government completed the arduous task of uniting two islands (Taipa and Coloane) into one connected land mass.  The reclaimed area was originally earmarked for industrial purposes, but those plans were quickly shelved after the gambling industry exploded in the mid 2000’s.  With space on the historic Peninsula running out for new casino projects, the government designated Cotai as the home of Macau gaming moving forward.

Two years later in 2006, Cotai welcomed its first hotel and casino, the Grand Waldo.  An inauspicious start to say the least, the Grand Waldo was a commercial failure, a vast complex characterized by excessive amounts of unused space.  An entertainment centre without any entertainment, it was like a theatre without a show, and most of the huge hotel remained empty before closing down in 2012. 

Galaxy subsequently bought the property and brought it back in 2015, rebranding it the Broadway Macau.  Much more successful in its new incarnation, Broadway is notable for its 3000 seat theatre, interesting food street and Roadhouse Bar, one of the only venues in town where you can still hear live music.

The next property to debut was the one everyone was waiting for, and it not only met the enormous expectations, but crushed them.  Opening to massive fanfare in August 2007, the Venetian Macao put the Cotai Strip on the map, and is still generally considered the most successful casino/hotel in Macau.  A rousing rendition of Italy, complete with canals, gondolas and singing gondoliers, it’s also home to the largest casino in Asia and 3000 suites.

Packed with visitors every day, the majority of whom are walk in guests, the Venetian Macao is a tourist destination in itself and has been since the day it opened.

The Four Seasons came next in 2008, but it didn’t move the meter very much.  A lavish, low key property with fantastic rooms, pools, gym and spa, it’s a luxury quarter that wants to be left alone and basically is.  For travellers, maybe the only reason to visit would be to see the Shoppes at Four Seasons, the highest-grossing luxury mall in the world.  Impeccably appointed and decorated in very high style, many of the sections inside the mall are definitely camera worthy.

The next game breaker arrived one year later when the City of Dreams opened in June 2009.  Melco Crown’s signature property set up shop right across the road from the Venetian and was the polar opposite of its arch rival.  On the one hand, you have the old money, the Papacy, the Establishment, the institution that thinks in centuries.  Pompous, rich, bloated, and completely full of itself, the Venetian broods over the Cotai Strip like a miser over his stack of money, confident to the point of condescension. 

Then on the other side, there’s the City of Dreams, the new kid on the block, the punk, the upstart, Mr Rock N Roll, party central with its racy pool parties, bitching nightclub and risque mermaids.  Flaunting moxie, energy, passion, and youth, or all the things that make us young forever, the City of Dreams is where I’d go if I only had 6 months to live… because I wouldn’t last 6 months anyway.

Sadly, much of that energy disappeared over the following decade. City of Dreams lost the Hard Rock hotel, the Hard Rock pool, the mermaids, the Tasting Room and the live music at Soho, while the House of Dancing Water went dark for almost five years.

With all due respect to the dead, a morgue had more life and purpose than the City of Dreams for a while.

Reports of its demise turned out to be premature, though. Para Club still runs late, Morpheus remains one of the most striking buildings on the Strip, and the House of Dancing Water finally returned in 2025 with a completely reworked production. City of Dreams may never recover the reckless swagger of its youth, but at least there are reasons to visit again.

All was quiet in Cotai for two years before the Strip underwent another seismic shift when the Palace of Asia, Galaxy Macau, debuted in May 2011.

The property expanded dramatically in 2015 and then again through its third phase, adding more hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and the enormous Galaxy International Convention Center. What began with Galaxy Hotel, Banyan Tree and Hotel Okura has since grown to include JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Broadway, Andaz, Raffles and Capella.

The crown jewel remains the stunning Grand Resort Deck, an attraction reserved for hotel guests and the best reason to stay at Galaxy. With great restaurants, interesting bars, a full cinema and the 16,000-seat Galaxy Arena, Galaxy is no longer merely on the same level as the Venetian and City of Dreams. It surpassed them years ago.

They shouldn’t have called it a galaxy, but a universe instead.

The good times had to end eventually, and all of the fantastic momentum the Strip had built since the Venetian opened came crashing to a halt when Sands Cotai Central arrived in 2012.
A colossal bust from Day One, the only thing it added to the Strip was a whole lot of hotel rooms, almost 6,000 of them to be exact, headlined by what was then the world’s largest Sheraton. For a few years, it was the most child-friendly resort in town thanks to a fun collaboration with DreamWorks Entertainment, a productive partnership that sadly ended in 2017.

In an attempt to turn around the property’s flagging fortunes, Sands China transformed it into the Londoner Macao, beginning its phased reopening in February 2021.

A massive step-up on Sands Cotai Central, they packed it with so much selfie stick indulgence that it’s overrun daily by mainland visitors, some of whom even pay professional photographers to snap their pics outside, then Photoshop them later on for some pretty obscene fees.  Credit Sands China for tapping into that market, as it has immediately vaulted the Londoner Macao to the top of the Cotai Strip food chain.  With various replications of Big Ben, the Crystal Palace, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee carriage and Buckingham Palace, it’s a fun hotel to swing by and take a look at, as great British rock pumps through the sound system 24/7.  An awesome save by Sands China, it’s a shame they didn’t come up with this idea 10 years ago when they needed it most.  

After Sands Cotai Central, there were no major resort openings for three years. This was when the casino operators caught their breath in anticipation of the second wave of properties that debuted between 2015 and 2018: Studio City, Wynn Palace, the Parisian and MGM Cotai.

Studio City came first in November 2015 and immediately branded itself the entertainment capital of Asia, bringing us the House of Magic, 4D Batman ride, Golden Reel and the most happening nightclub in town, Pacha Macau. Fast forward to 2026 and nearly all of those original attractions are gone, save for the Golden Reel. In their place are a world-class indoor and outdoor water park, Legend Heroes Park, Super Fun Zone, a skatepark, Club MOP and Nickelodeon Town, Macau’s first Nickelodeon-themed indoor playground.

For families with children, it’s undoubtedly the most attractive property on the Strip. Adults still have fewer reasons to wander around than they do at the Venetian or Galaxy, but the water park, nightclub, and cinema have substantially improved the situation.

Beyond all that, Studio City retains one of Macau’s most memorable building designs, showing the world what a hotel might look like if a meteor crashed straight through it.

As for Wynn Palace, the best description I’ve ever heard comes from yours truly: a panoply of pointless.  Large and somewhat luxurious rooms are the best the hotel has to offer, but I don’t even think they’re that nice.  Unlike Studio City, which gave walk in guests reasons to visit, Wynn Palace didn’t do anything to bring people in. 

The most disappointing property to debut on the Strip since Sands Cotai Central, Steve Wynn’s fairy-tale foible looked like a flop, one that I did not see coming.

The situation has improved since then. The Performance Lake and free cable cars remain worthwhile, while the Illuminarium finally supplied Wynn Palace with a proper attraction. Chef Tam’s Seasons has collected two Michelin stars, and SW Steakhouse still stages the closest thing Macau has to old-school Vegas restaurant entertainment. The giant flower sculptures are attractive as well, although I’m not sure they justify building an entire casino around them.

Wynn Palace is no longer completely pointless, then. Let’s call it a partial recovery.

Cut from the same cloth as its sister hotel the Venetian, the Parisian is another smashing success, this time bringing all of the snob and swagger of the City of Light to Macau.  With a mock Eiffel Tower stealing the show outside and a whole lot of bread, garlic, mimes, jugglers, living statues and opera singers inside, the Parisian has already become a tourist attraction in itself, the same way the Venetian did a decade earlier. 

Sure you can call it tacky and kitsch, but it’s even won me over, and I’m one tough sell when it comes to copying landmarks and building them halfway across the world. Basically, if you’re in Macau, you’ve got to visit the Parisian, especially when the Eiffel Tower is lit up at night.

The second to last resort to open was MGM Cotai, which commenced operations in February 2018.  A personal favourite of mine, the jewellery box marvel is awash in art and artifacts, so much so that free guided tours are available upon request, the only hotel in Cotai to do so. 

With its prized collection of carpets, crystal, paintings, sculptures and lacquerware, MGM Cotai deserves credit for being the most beautiful property on the Strip. Art lovers should explore both lobbies and the Spectacle, the enormous glass-roofed atrium sitting at the centre of it all. The addition of Macau 2049 finally gave MGM the major residency it had always been missing. Directed by Zhang Yimou, it throws Chinese folk traditions, dance, robots and large-scale digital stagecraft into the same production. Nothing else in Macau looks remotely like it. 

The final resort to open in Cotai was Grand Lisboa Palace, which debuted in July 2021.  Besides the huge Lagerfeld rooms, which easily rank top 3 on the Strip when you take cost into account, the rest mostly underwhelms. 

SJM had a good 5 to 6 years on their competitors to give the Strip something truly groundbreaking and innovative, but it’s nothing but the same old, same old for them (and us).  It’s a sad truth that their best hotel by far remains the original Lisboa, which everyone visiting Macau needs to stay in at least once.

With most of Cotai’s prime land already spoken for, the age of a brand-new megaresort opening every few years appears to be over. Future growth will probably come from later phases and additions to the properties already standing rather than another Venetian-sized arrival. After two decades of cranes, Cotai may finally be approaching something close to a finished product.

With this little historical overview out of the way, let’s turn to the main reasons you’ll want to visit Cotai.