The ultimate guide to Singapore travel – my recommended itinerary and tips

I was asked by a few friends on the recommended places to go in Singapore. It seems like it is high time for many people to plan for this year’s travel again!

Since the last time I blogged about Singapore travel was a quite some time back, I thought it was timely to present a refreshed version of Singapore travel recommendations again. With the rate that Singapore is changing, I guess I have to do this every year!

My humble opinion on travelling to Singapore

• Firstly, get set for the hot weather. It is not just the heat, it’s the humidity that suffocates. (Of course this is a lesser evil compared to bone-piercing cold winters.). You will come to understand why we are qualified as a tropical island J
  
• Singapore is a small island and only takes about 1 hour to travel from east to west and north to south by car.    
  
• Both English and Chinese are spoken in most places      
  
• You can choose to commute by taxi, train or bus
• Taxi - costs about $3 to start the trip, comes up to about $10 travelling within the city per trip
• Train - recommended, goes to almost everywhere, $2 per trip, can be crowded though
• Bus- used in situations when train does not go to the place you want to go
  
• Singapore's train network is called the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit)            
  
• Purchase a "ezlink"(MRT payment card) from the staff at the control station at the airport or any MRT station. This will help you save a lot of time and money versus buying individual train tickets by cash

The MRT network is not as complicated as it looks. You will get used to it in no time. 

List of things to do and places to go in Singapore

==This is where things get general and personal. People are motivated by different things, and I am sure you have your own set of interests and travelling style. I want to qualify here that my list is purely for reference for your leisure planning, and not meant to be the absolute (though surely this is supposed to be an ultimate guide). There could be things I missed out, feel free to add them to the comments section below.==

For those who are having a hard time deciding, I have also included my recommendation ratings, based on feedback from my friends from foreign lands.

Category	Attraction name	Description	Nearest MRT	Recommendation
Sightseeing (Nature)	Night safari	World's first night-time wildlife park. Take the tram and see animals in the dark	Mandai (taxi recommended)	5
Sightseeing	Merlion park	Take picture with Merlion spewing water into the marina bay with MBS is the background!	Esplanade	5
Cultural	Kampong Glam	Nice neighbourhood, learn about the Malay community,  some arabic shopping	Bugis	4
Sightseeing (Nature)	Gardens by the bay	$1Bn spent in building this garden, you wont miss its iconic supertrees	Bayfront	4
Nightlife	Clarke Quay	Dine beside the river at night!	Clarke Quay	4
Cultural	Chinatown	See some temples, chinese shops and products	Chinatown	3
Cultural	Little India	See Indian temples, walk down their street	Little India	3
Sightseeing	Sentosa	Theme park and island with lots of attractions such as marine life park	Harbourfront	3
Fun	Universal studios	Inside sentosa, mini version of Universal studios in the States	Harbourfront	3
Shopping	Orchard Road	Street of shopping malls	Orchard;Somerset	3
Sightseeing (Nature)	Botanic Gardens	Singapore's first world heritage site. Not as mindblowing as yosemite or the scenery in chile, but worth a visit if you are interested in plants or just want to take a walk. There is a national orchid garden	Botanic gardens (yellow line)	3
Sightseeing (Nature)	Jurong Bird park	Come see the birds and bird show	Jurong (taxi recommended)	3
Sightseeing (Nature)	Singapore zoo	See the panda and some other animals	Mandai (taxi recommended)	3
Culture	National Musuem of Singapore	Walk through of the history of Singapore	Bras Basah/ Dhoby Ghaut	3
Sightseeing (Nature)	River Safari	Take a river down and see animals. My friends tell me is the animals are quite lethargic, night safari is better	Mandai (taxi recommended)	3
Sightseeing	Singapore flyer	A ferris wheel to see the city. Icon in our skyline but better to see the city from Marina Bay Sands Observatory	Promenade	2

Tips on choosing the Hotel

• Getting from Changi airport to your hotel
• From the airport to hotel, I recommend taking the taxi for a stress-free ride at reasonable price.                                              
• Instructions:
  Once you exit of immigration, follow the "taxi" sign and join the line for taxis.
  No need to go to the booth to purchase any taxi services. There will be no hagglers and Changi Airport is very safe.        
                        
• My 2 recommendations are:                      

Hotel Recommendation	Description	Location	Comments
Marina Bay Sands	Iconic hotel with casino, frolick in the skypool on the top of the building and look out to Singapore's skyline	Bayfront	Either this or raffles hotel if price agnostic
Swissotel the Stamford	Great location and view of the marina bay area	City Hall	Not as expensive as MBS and one of the best areas

                                               

Of course, there are tons of other very good hotels also, here I am just highlighting my personal favourites.            

You can also choose to stay at Orchard to be close to the shopping.                        

Singapore food!

Food is very much a speciality of Singapore, being at the confluence of so many cultures around us. We have michelin star restaurants to very cheaply priced and delicious local food at our hawker centres (i.e Singapore style food court)

Must try local food	Where	Comments
Chicken Rice	Maxwell market	Ridiculously cheap for its quality and taste
Chilli Crab	Jumbo seafood	Ridiculously expensive but must try
Laksa	328 Katong Laksa	Noodles serve in a spicy coconut gravy
Satay	Telok Ayer Market (Lao Pa Sat)	Malay-style bbq meat franks
Bak Kut Teh	Ng Ah Sio Pork Ribs Soup: 208 Rangoon Road	Delicious pork ribs in peppery herbal soup
Carrot Cake	Various places	My personal favourote
Dim Sum	Tim Ho Wan	Though not authetically Singaporean, but still good food
Kaya Toast and Soft-boiled Eggs	Killiney or Ya Kun or Coffee & Toast	Our Traditional breakfast
Roti Prata	Jalan Kayu or Thomson	My sinful breakfast or supper food
Durian	Geylang/ Balestier/ Chinatown	You either love or hate it. If you love it you can be truly singaporean.

Actually I found this list which is quite comprehensive and pictures should convey better: 

               

Budget for Basic Necessities 

(All currencies in SGD)  

Food – A meal in the air-conditioned food court is around $5-$7. A Macdonalds value meal is also around that price! - $20 per day

(If you choose to eat at the casual diners it can set you back about $20/person)

Drinks - Given the hot climate, you might want to get drinks during the day, which can cost up to $2 per bottle in the city. - $6 per day          

                                       

Transport- Most Places are accessible by train and cost around $2 per trip. Assuming you go to 3 places a day , - $8 per day.

Allocate more if you want to take taxis, which starts at $3.60 and typically cost about about $10 for areas within the city and $20 to far areas such as the zoo

Accommodation - MBS is about $500 per night, Swissotel is about $200+ per night. Let me know if you want a more budget choice at around $100+, I'll help you find.

So excluding accommodation, $100 per day per person is quite reasonable for basic necessities.

               

Fun and More  

And now to the things that matter. I mean, whats the meaning of a vacation if you do not enjoy right?? According to your fun appetite, set aside a reasonable amount of budget.

Alcohol - Alcohol is more expensive  in Singapore ( way too expensive IMO). A pint of Erdinger is around $12-16 in bars in clarke quay. Look out for happy hour!!

Casino - The few things that are free.. Locals have to pay $100 to enter though (to discourage gambling).

Sentosa  - An island within our island dedicated for tourist attractions. Universal Studios Singapore is also here, with tickets at $68-$74 for a one day pass. You should be able to cover the entire USS in one full day. Besides the USS, there are also other attractions in sentosa that will require admission fees. 

Gardens by the Bay - Our proud $1 billion investment to inject greenery in the city. Some areas require a entry pass which costs $28.

Movies - Tickets are around $10 at local cinemas. Remember to book online to get good seats.

Clubbing - entry fee which comes with 1 free drink usually costs around $28-$32. 

               

Shopping: For American brands like Coach, Abercrombie, CK,etc. You can get them for really much cheaper in the premium outlets store in the US. Really, they are overpriced here... For cheap and decent styles, head over to bugis village. 

Singapore 3-day itinerary for reference

To top it off, this was my recommended 3-day itinerary I did for a friend

Day	1	2	3
Breakfast	Kaya toast and soft boiled eggs (Available in many places)	Bak Kut Teh at Ng Ah Sio	Carrot cake at hawker centre in harbourfront
Morning	・Merlion park and take picture with merlion!	Walk around little india	Sentosa
Lunch	Chicken rice at Maxwell market	Mee Rebus / Nasi goreng at Kampongglam	Sentosa
Afternoon	・Gardens by the bay ・Chill at MBS Skypool (residents only)/ or your own hotel pool	・Walk around kampong glam ・Walk around chinatown	Sentosa
Dinner	Chilli Crab at Jumbo seafood restaurant at Clarke Quay (Reservation a must)	Assorted local food at Hawker centre at Chinatown	Satay at Telok Ayer Market
Night	Walk around clarke quay or have drinks beside the river	Night Safari	Rest/Casino
Supper		Roti Prata at Jalan Kayu or thomson

Of course, there's always 101 other ways to explore our little island. 

To sum it up, I think Singapore has its tourism niche in Southeast Asia, with our unique city characteristics. 

As my friend who visited puts it aptly, "I was sold when I could breeze through the immigration and pick up my luggage with 0 wait time. Nowhere else in the world I could do that."

Come and witness the level of efficiency and developments a small and well-managed city can achieve in a space of 50 years. 

Hope this was useful for you

EUFASS