I visited Singapore in October 2022, on the way back from spending two-weeks in Bali. Singapore is a major gateway to the rest of Asia with flights and an array of locations – the airport itself is a must-see. Khaled and I went during the F1 weekend so we arrived on a Friday and left on the Monday evening. So even though we were technically in Singapore for 4 full days, we spent half a day watching the final race (which I would also recommend if you are an F1 fan!).

Summary

This is the ideal 4 day itinerary:

Day 1 – Colonial District and Marina Bay Sands

1.      China Town
Stop #1) See Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Stop #2) Eat at the Maxwell Food Centre
Stop #3) See The mural by Yip Yew Chong on Thian Hock Keng Temple
2.      Marina Bay Sands
Stop #4) Explore Gardens by the Bay – visit Flower Dome, Cloud Forest Dome and Supertree Grove
Stop #5) Watch a free light and sound Garden Rhapsody show at 7.45pm/8.45pm
Stop #6) See Spectra Light Show at 8pm/9pm/10pm
Stop #7) Dinner at Marina Bay Sands Food Court/ Makansutra Gluttons Bay hawker stall market
Stop #8) Have a drink at Ce La Vi – Marina Bay Sands Rooftop bar
Stop #9) Walk along Marina Promenade

Day 2 – explore Singapore multicultural neighbourhood 

1.      Colonial District
Stop #1) Take metro to Fort Canning Park.
Stop #2) Explore Colonial District – National Museum, Peranakan Museum
Stop #3) Cross Eslanade Bridge to the Merlion Park and see famous Merlion Statue
2.      Little India
Stop #4) Take MRT to Little India Station and explore the colourful wooden shophouse
Stop #5) Shop at the lively Tekka Centre (try a masala dosa (rice flour pancake stuffed with curry) or a thali
where mounds of rice and curries are served on a banana leaf)
Stop #6) See architecture of Indian Heritage Centre
Stop #7) See the rainbow-coloured Tan Teng Niah’s former house, only surviving Chinese villa in the area
Stop #8) Visit extravagant Sri Veeramakaliamman Hindu Temple
Stop #9) Shop at the Mustafa Centre
Stop #10) Visit Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple
3. Kampong Glam
Stop #11) From the temple, walk down Haji Lane
Stop #12) Visit Sultan Mosque and see its golden domes
4. Go to Clarke Quay

Day 3 – Orchard Road, Visit Future World Exhibition at ArtScience Museum  

1.      Shopping in Orchard Road
Stop #1) Walk along the famous Orchard Road and go into ION Mall
Stop #2) Explore Emerald Hill
2.      Visit Future World Exhibition
3.      Explore Marina Bay Sands Shopping Centre
4.      Singapore Night Safari
Opens at 7.15pm. take shuttle bus to the zoo. Don´t miss the Creatures of the Night show at 19:30, 20:30,
and 21:30 + 22:30 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Day 4 – Botanic Garden/ Sentosa Island, Changi Airport

1.      Botanic Garden/ Sentosa Island  
Depending on the time of your flight, you could visit the Botanic Garden or Sentosa Island.
2.      Explore Changi Airport!

Getting Around

We used Singapore’s efficient and extensive train network – MRT. I would highly recommended that you take the MRT to most of the attractions in Singapore as it is very efficient, easy to understand and cheap! We also took the MRT from the airport to Chinatown, where our hostel was based. A single journey ticket is 1.78 SGD.

Day 1

We walked 5 minutes from our hostel to get to the Maxwell Food Centre – this is one of those rare hawker centres in Singapore that are cherished by locals and is also highly popular with tourists. It is home to a myriad of age-old street stalls that originally plied the area around China Square and they tend to have been around for 80 or more years and continue to be managed by the same family, albeit the 2^nd or 3^rd generation.

Khaled and I were starving and so we went to the most well-known stall at Maxwell, Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice. There was a long queue outside (which is always a good sign) and I later found out that it gained worldwide fame when it was featured by Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsey and they commented at how fragrant the chicken rice was. It was a delicious dish. We also tried the refreshing sugar cane juice where there was someone squeezing out the juices from the sugar cane – very cool.

After getting our energy back, we walked through the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple which is tucked into a block in Chinatown. This temple is relatively new, only being inaugurated in 2007. It is built in the old Tang style and built in four stories of wood, with lacquered red roofs and green shutters. We then walked past a group of elderly men playing board games such as checkers and Chinese chess in the public area. This is a popular pastime among old folks in Singapore and we would often see crowds of spectators watching the two players challenging each other.

If you have time, check out the Thian Hock Keng Mural on Amoy Street, Chinatown. On the rear wall of a 177-year-old template is this beautiful 40-metre long painting that tells the story of early Hokkien immigrants to Singapore. It illustrates the dreams and struggles of the early Hokkiens. Unfortunately, we couldn’t actually find it (but we were just really humid and tired that we didn’t actually try that hard!) but I’d love to have seen it.

We then too the metro to Marina Bay Sands. As soon as we stepped out, we were blown away by the iconic building that we only ever saw pictures online of. It was tempting not to keep stopping to take pictures! We made our way to Gardens by the Bay to visit the Flower Dome, Cloud Forest Dome and the Supertree Grove. You can read about my experience here.

We then watched the free Gardens by the Bay light show – which is a must see for anyone visiting Singapore. Is it corny? Yes. Shuld you still watch it? Yes. It sums up the small, quasi-futuristic country perfectly and makes you feel like you are in the set of Avatar. There are two shows every night – one at 7.45pm and the other at 8.45pm.  You don’t need to buy tickets, but make sure you get there early to get a good place (grass area in front of the supertrees). From there, we went to watch Spectra – the free light and water show that take place every night at 8pm, 9pm or 10pm. This side of the bay will give you a view of the colourful laser beams projecting from Marina Bay Sands.

At this point, we were getting hangryyyyy – so we went to the closest food mall which was the Marina Bay Sands Shopping Centre Food Court and grabbed some really good Thai food that someone recommended to us.

After dinner, we walked past a club in Marina Bay Sands and the entry cost was a whopping £100 – so we skipped it. We were also about to have a drink at Ce La Vi, but we were exhausted so we decided to just walk along the Marina promenade to the metro and go back to the hostel.

Day 2

If you look at the summary itinerary above – it says that on Day 2, you should visit Little India, Kampong Glam and then go to a Night Safari. I am going to keep it real with you guys – we didn’t do any of that. We wanted to! But we didn’t.

Why? IT. WAS. SO. HUMID. My husband and I are Arabs, we can deal with heat. We can even deal with desert heat – but this humidity in Singapore was something else. So, we decided to appreciate the photos online of what we could have seen inside an AC shopping mall. It is what it is.

As soon as we stepped outside the hostel, we made a plan to go to Orchard Street and visit the prominent ION Orchard mall for some retail therapy session. We spent the morning doing window shopping in the huge, air-conditioned malls. This street holds glitzy malls like ION and then to the retro maze of Lucky Plaza. There were quite a few F1 exhibitions going on which we explored. We also tried the iconic ice cream in a sandwich – was so delicious!

Just across the street from all the malls and traffic, sits a quiet Emerald Hill which beckons low rise heritage houses painted in delightful hues.

As it started pouring down with torrential rain, we decided to take cover in the National Museum of Singapore. What started off as just a shelter, turned into our day’s highlight. We bought tickets and learnt about the intriguing history of Singapore (which we admittedly did not much about). The museum takes you through a journey where it pieces together the past and the present in a really compelling narrative. The building itself is a wondrous structure that has seamlessly fused the old with the new and which has now become one of the city’s architectural icons. Its history dates back to 1887 and is the nation’s oldest museum.

Formerly the site of 14^th century palaces before becoming the headquarters of the Far East Command centre and location of the British Army Barracks, Fort Canning Park still has plenty of historical artefacts that us history nerds will enjoy. We walked around the park and took a picture at the Fort Canning Tree Tunnels which is an underground crossing the hides what is fondly known as the Fort Canning Spiral Staircase.

We had dinner and then made our way to Clarke Quay, a historic riverside in Singapore and one of the main tourist attractions on Lion Island. The area is one of the busiest entertaining districts overlooking the water. It has a unique design with big umbrellas covering restaurants and bars so that when it rains and is sunny, visitors do not have to worry about the weather affecting their walks.  

Even though I can imagine it being a beautiful place to visit during the day, the best time to go is from evening to late as that is when the restaurants and bars open. We went to a sports pub here and watched the F1 Saturday Race, so that we are well-equipped for the next day. The atmosphere and the vibe are bustling and electric. After the race, we continued our stroll around the Quay and saw a few pop ups from different car companies hosting free concerts and competitions etc. It was really fun just singing along and just enjoying the F1 atmosphere.

Day 3- F1 Race Day!

We were super excited about Day 3 as this was the F1 race day! As it started around 2pm, we wanted to make sure of the morning so we took the MRT to MBS. We walked past Charles and Keith shop and Khaled spoiled me with a handbag and some heels.

We then spent an hour going to the ArtScience Museum which has the Future World exhibition. This is the permanent display which takes visitors through its breath taking and vibrant animations.  My two favourite parts of the museum were Sketch Aquarium and Crystal Universe. Sketch Aquarium is a virtual underwater world loaded with different kinds of aquatic specials. You draw and personalise these sea creatures through and then digitally bring them into life so you will see your creation swimming on the screen! It was so clever.  I think Khaled and I were the oldest ones there, but we had so much fun!  

The second part is Crystal Universe – this is a sparkling sanctuary that is powered by more than 170,000 LED lights. It creates a jaw-dropping illusion of moving stars.

Khaled was unimpressed with the museum, but I loved it! From here, we grabbed coffee from Starbucks and then walked to the entrance of F1, which was by the Grand Fullerton hotel and Merlion Fountain. This iconic statue has the body of a fish and the head o a lion, which shoots water from its mouth. The body symbolises Singapore’s humble origins as a fishing village and the head represents its original name Singapura, or Lion City in Malay.

We had dinner at Mos Burger and then went to the queue to watch the F1 race. I made a separate blog post about our experience, which you can find here.

Day 4

We woke up pretty late as we were exhausted from the amazing day before. Once we showered, had breakfast and checked out it was already midday. We planned to go to Sentosa Island but the humidity was just too much, so we thought to eat at Liao Fan Hawker Chan, which was right next to our hostel.

The Michelin guide which famously rates the quality of restaurants all over the world ignored street food. However recently, hey have been pushing for expanding their views beyond traditional restaurant. They gave this stall in Chinatown a Michelin star due to the quality of the food. The owner, Chan Hon Meng started cooking when he was a child and perfected his recipe through the years.  Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long and we ordered the famous Chicken and Rice dish. It was only around £3 a dish which was amazing for Singapore standards.

If you do have more time, I would recommend you visit Sentosa Island or the Botanic Gardens as I read great reviews about them – this is one of the reasons why I have to pay another visit to Singapore!

Well fed, we picked up our suitcases and went to Changi Airport. Singapore Changi Airport in itself is worthy of being a tourist destination. It was the most beautiful and over-the-top airport I have ever seen. We came in 3 hours before our flight (which is early for us) but there was still not enough time to see even a quarter of what there is to offer. It is one of the largest transformation hubs in Southeast Asia with over 4 terminals that all have duty-free shopping, FREE foot massages on OSIM machines, movie theatres, entertainment centres, city sightseeing buses that arrive every 15 minutes and rest areas.

And of course… there is the Jewel Changi.

All in all, we really loved our time in Singapore. However, we didn’t stick much to the itinerary above because the humidity is no joke. It is worth doing some of these things in the late afternoon/evening when it is less humid. We went in first weekend of October but there may be better times to go.

Budget Accommodation

We arrived around midday and took the subway form the airport to Chinatown where we arrived at our accommodation – ‘Cube Boutique Capsule Hotel’. Cube Boutique Capsule Hotel branches looks as if they are luxury hostels as it felt like you’re staying in a hotel except for the fact that you’re paying a minimal fee for a smaller private space. The cubes here are well ventilated and we have our socket, USB charging ports, mirror, tray, cabinet/vault and hanger. We got a Queen Bed in the upper bunk so both Khaled and I can stay together – which is a nice surprised as I haven’t seen hostels accommodating 2 people per bed. We paid around £30 per night for the bed and it also included breakfast. It was hard to find something reasonably priced as it was F1 weekend, but this was perfect! I would definitely recommend staying here as it was close to the metro and of course, the Maxwell Food Centre.

Souvenirs to pick up from Singapore!

• Ya Kun Kaya Coconut Jam
• Chilli crab snacks
• RISIS Orchid Necklace
• laksa paste
• Prima Taste Laksa Fried Rice Sauce
• TWG Tea – Orchid Red Tea
• laksa noodle dish – meal sauce kit
• Singaporean cook book
• Tiger Balm Red Ointment
• Irvins Salted Egg Fish Skin
• Charles & Keith brand – clothes and accessories