‣ Hey there – happy summer! I just got back from my first trip of the summer; I spent about two weeks in Singapore, getting to visit family and explore one of my favorite countries again after three years. In this post, I’ll be sharing everything you need to know for your trip to Singapore.
What to See & Do
Marina Bay
Gardens by the Bay
Gardens by the Bay is a beautiful man-made nature park and is part of the country’s greater effort to convert itself to a City in a Garden. It is comprised of Cloud Forest, a huge greenhouse filled with lush vegetation and a towering indoor waterfall; Floral Fantasy, a walkthrough garden with a 4-D ride; Flower Dome, another greenhouse with exotic plants from around the world; and the Supertree Grove, an orchard of metal trees that has a spectacular nighttime light show. You can walk across the OCBC Skyway, a pathway in the air that connects the trees. Click here for ticket and pricing information.
I would highly recommend visiting Gardens by the Bay. It’s a great way to cool off in the humid Singapore weather. There is a food court onsite near the Supertree Grove, but my family likes to take the 5 minute walk to Satay by the Bay, a nearby hawker center.
Singapore Flyer
The Singapore Flyer is an observation wheel that has stunning views of the city. I definitely recommend going at night because you can see everything lit up! Each capsule fits up to 28 people, but when we went, they were only putting four to six passengers inside. There are packages to enjoy dinner or cocktails, or even do yoga or pilates, inside the capsules, too.
Marina Bay Sands
Marina Bay Sands is the iconic boat-shaped hotel with the world’s largest rooftop infinity pool. It is right around the corner from Gardens by the Bay. Only hotel guests can use the pool; my family stayed there for a night during our last trip, and I thought that this was one of the coolest things I’ve done! However, everybody can head up to the Sands SkyPark, an observation deck 57 floors high that offers an amazing panoramic view of the city. There are even morning and evening yoga classes there.
Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade
You can walk along the Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade. The walkway takes you over the Helix Bridge, by the water, and to the iconic Merlion statue. It’s a wonderful place to take a quick walk during the day, or even at night, because Singapore is an incredibly safe country. There is a free light show in the evenings that is quite the sight to see. You can also go into the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands for some shopping (or window shopping)!
ArtScience Museum
The ArtScience Museum, located in the lotus-shaped building, features exhibits that combine art, science, and technology. They have a series of temporary exhibits (in the past, these have included Andy Warhol, Harry Potter, and mummy-themed ones) as well as Future World, an interactive installation. We explored the Future World exhibit, which different rooms with digital displays meant to inspire us to reflect on our place in and relationship to the world. Parts of it can feel like a made-for-Instagram museum, but there are also some really beautiful shows and cool interactive exhibits inside.
Merlion
One of the iconic spots is the Merlion statue, which has the head of a lion and the body of a mermaid and represents Singapore’s national mascot. The statue is indeed touristy—I would compare it to the Trevi Fountain in Rome in terms of “number of people crowded around it for a picture”—but it’s something that is fun to check out if you are in the area.
Chinatown
Singapore’s Chinatown, a former immigrant enclave, has much to see and do. You can explore Ann Siang Hill, an area known for its restaurants, colorful shophouses, and nightlife; visit historic religious buildings like the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Sri Marimman Temple, and Masjid Jamae (remember to follow their instructions re: clothing and noise); shop for souvenirs and street food at the Chinatown Street Market; and find a bite to eat at Chinatown Complex or the Maxwell Food Centre (or head to Eight Treasures Vegetarian Restaurant, which had one of my favorite meals of the whole trip!). The history of Chinatown means that its buildings are different from the rest of the city; I really enjoyed seeing the unique style of architecture.
Orchard Road
For your shopping fix, check out Orchard Road, Singapore’s prime shopping district. Complete with everything from luxury brand stores to those that sell souvenirs for $1, exclusive restaurants to fast food joints, and more, it’s a nice area to walk around and shop. It is also a popular place to stay as a tourist because of its centrality and buzz.
For a delicious meal and fun vegetarian/vegan fine dining experience, I definitely recommend Joie which is located on the 12th floor of Orchard Central. It is a fully vegetarian restaurant that is also incredibly accommodating of food allergies and dietary restrictions; they have menus available for people who don’t eat dairy, eggs, nuts, alliums, etc.! They offer a six-course lunch set for about $40 SGD and seven-course dinner set for about $70 SGD. We went for lunch, and some of my favorite dishes were the chef’s platter (included a vegan salmon sashimi), charcoal-coated tempura, and red bean and yam dessert with chocolate sorbet. The view from the rooftop is also beautiful!
Little India
Admittedly, I went to Little India on a mission to find appam, one of my favorite dishes. It is a South Indian pancake made from fermented rice batter and coconut milk. (I tried it once at a hawker center near my family’s place, but for some reason, it was a lot harder to find this time. We ultimately got some at Ananda Bhavan in Little India; we also ordered thosai and prata, which were all fresh and delicious!).
Little India also has many things to see, from religious sites like the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple, and Temple of a Thousand Lights; the colorful House of Tan Teng Niah (owned by a former Chinese businessman, it uniquely combines architectural styles that demonstrate its role as a Chinese villa in an Indian enclave); the Indian Heritage Centre; and Tekka Centre, a market, food centre, and shopping complex. You can also walk around the streets and shops to find everything from flower garlands to food to henna.
Sentosa Island
Aptly dubbed “Asia’s Favorite Playground” and “The State of Fun,” Sentosa is an island off the southern coast with no shortage of things to do. From Universal Studios Singapore to indoor skydiving to Adventure Cove Waterpark to the Skyline Luge, there is something for everybody to enjoy. There are also beaches, spas, restaurants, and more. If you can’t cover everything you want to in a day, you can book a hotel for a night or two!
From Sentosa, you can ride the cable car, which provides spectacular views of the city and carries you to Mount Faber, a hill that overlooks the Central Area of Singapore. I’d recommend riding the cable car from Sentosa to Mount Faber (or vice versa) if you have the chance!
Mount Faber & Southern Ridges
Mount Faber is a hill in Singapore with scenic viewpoints of the city. You can ride the cable car to the peak from Sentosa Station, Harbourfront Station, or Mount Faber Station. Once there, check out the “award-winning washroom with a view” (yes, seriously!), dine at one of the restaurants, check out the colorful Happy Steps or add a wishing bell to the railing, or walk the Southern Ridges. Henderson Waves, part of the Southern Ridges, is the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore. There are also other connecting trails and walks nearby and around Telok Blangah Hill Park. The Alkaff Mansion, a heritage building in the park, has a cafe and frequently hosts weddings, too.
A cute nearby area to check out is Tiong Bahru, about a 5-minute drive from the Henderson Waves. While I loved my meal from the Bodhi Vegetarian Foods stall in Tiong Bahru Market, there are also lots of popular cafes and bakeries, as well as cute bookstores and record shops, murals, parks, and more.
Singapore Botanic Gardens
The 163-year-old garden, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a beautiful place to explore and walk around. It features both free and paid exhibits, including the Singapore Botanic Gardens Heritage Museum, Learning Forest, and Children’s Garden. My favorite place to visit was the National Orchid Garden, the largest display of tropical orchids in the world. You do have to pay to enter the National Orchid Garden but there is a lot ot see inside, from the Sembcorp Cool House (gorgeous displays of tons of orchids that I’d never seen before) to the VIP Orchid Garden (which has orchid hybrids bred and named after dignitaries who visit Singapore, like Jacinda Ardern, Margaret Thatcher, the Bidens, and many more).
CHIJMES & Raffles City Singapore
CHIJMES (pronounced “Chimes”) is a former Catholic convent and school that is now a hub for dining and entertainment. It is also where the amazing wedding scene of Crazy Rich Asians was filmed!
A few minute walk away is the famous Raffles Hotel Singapore (known for its colonial-style architecture and for being the birthplace of the Singapore Sling cocktail) and Raffles City Singapore, a shopping mall with a top-floor food court that has a really cool view of the crosswalks connecting the hotel and the Carlton Hotel Singapore. My family likes to get dessert in the food court, then people watch for a bit.
Malls
Singapore has tons shopping malls, and they can be a fun experience even if you’re not a big shopper. They’re all huge and packed with a wide variety of shops (from luxury brands and boutiques to electronics and department stores). Some popular ones are VivoCity, Plaza Singapura, ION Orchard, Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, and Paragon Shopping Centre. Personally, I think visiting the mall in Singapore is a cultural experience in and of itself—and it’s also a great place to cool off from the heat.
Changi Airport
Yes, I really am putting the airport on this list! While the airport is rarely anyone’s favorite place to be (especially in the age of COVID-19 travel with all the delays and cancellations we’ve been having), Singapore’s airport is truly one-of-a-kind.
Jewel Changi Airport, which is open to the public, is famous for the Rain Vortex, the tallest indoor waterfall. There are also shops and restaurants, the Canopy Park (with a suspension bridge, sky nets to climb on, slides, and more), and the Changi Experience Studio to learn about aviation and the airport.
In the terminals, there is a sunflower garden, butterfly garden, koi pond, free movie theater, jacuzzi, and food court mimicking Singapore’s famous hawker center. (Some of these amenities are currently closed, unfortunately, but the ones I have been to are really, really cool—especially for an airport).
Beyond the attractions, everything at the airport is extremely efficient. From automatic immigration lines to security checkpoints at every gate, I’d say there’s a reason why the airport has consistently been voted the best in the world!
Where (& What) to Eat
Singapore’s local food uniquely combines several different Asian styles, including Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian, and Chinese. It’s always easy to find a delicious bite at any time of the day. Singapore is also considered one of the most vegan-friendly countries in Asia!
My family often eats at mall food courts and hawker centers because they’re fast and convenient. In hawker centers, many of the stalls serve only a few dishes, but they have been perfecting those recipes for years. Singapore’s hawker culture is even UNESCO-recognized, newly added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2020. Also, the food scene in Crazy Rich Asians was filmed at Newton Food Center. I will say that they are not the most allergy-friendly because the close quarters mean that cross contamination is likely, but if you find a stall that serves none of your allergens, I definitely recommend trying it out, if not for the experience!
The dessert stalls are usually a safe bet. Many local desserts are free of dairy, eggs, nuts (except coconut), gluten, and soy. Examples include:
- Ice kacang: Singapore’s version of shave ice, usually topped with sweet red beans, grass jelly, tea jelly, attap seeds, and flavored syrup—ask for it without condensed milk and creamed corn
- Tau suan: made of split mung beans, and it usually has pieces of fried dough but you can ask for it without if you’re gluten-free
- Pulut hitam: made of black glutinous rice and topped with coconut milk
- Red or green bean soup: made of red adzuki beans or green mung beans
- Tau huay: not soy-free, this soybean pudding can be topped with taro, mochi balls, tapioca pearls, sweet red bean, attap seeds, and/or grass jelly
- Kueh: meaning “cake,” kueh are bite-sized desserts that can be found in many different forms, including ondeh ondeh (rice cake balls filled with liquid palm sugar and coated with coconut flakes), kueh lapis (colorful layered rice cakes that are sort of like mochi), kueh tutu (steamed rice flour cakes filled with coconut sugar or palm sugar), getuk ubi (tapioca with coconut flakes and sugar). Bengawan Solo, a chain of stores found in every mall and even the airport, is a common place to buy most kueh, though I always get kueh tutu from Daun Pandan Rice Dumpling.
For savory food, some common options are prata (Indian-style flatbread served with curry or sugar), Hainanese chicken rice (chicken and seasoned fragrant rice often served with Chinese vegetables, a bowl of soup, and chili sauce), congee, nasi lemak (a Malay dish that includes deep-fried fish or chicken, fragrant coconut rice, eggs, fried anchovies, and more), yong tau foo (customizable soup with tofu, fish paste, vegetables, and more), laksa (spicy noodle soup with seafood), satay (skewered grilled meat that is seasoned with a variety of spices). And yes—there are vegan versions of all of these foods!
Places where you can find them (of course, if you’re not vegan, you can find these all over):
- Prata: automatically vegan (as long as you don’t order egg prata and double check that it’s not made with ghee), some great spots are Casuarina Curry and Ananada Bhavan Vegetarian
- Hainanese chicken rice: 33 Vegetarian Food
- Congee: Rice House Vegetarian, Daily Green
- Nasi lemak: Tian Yi Vegetarian
- Yong tau foo: Veggie House, Greendot
- Laksa: Greendot
- Satay: Eight Treasures Vegetarian
Other popular Singaporean dishes are chili crab (national dish of Singapore, crab served with a thick tomato and chili sauce), hokkien mee (fried noodles with oysters, prawns, and squid), char kway teow (stir-fried noodles with prawns, eggs, Chinese sausages, bean sprouts, and shrimp paste).
There are literally places to eat everywhere in Singapore, and you can get almost any kind of food! For sit-down restaurants, I think Joie is one of my favorites, but my family also always goes to Din Tai Fung (I know they have this in the U.S., but Singapore’s menu has some different options and I think the food tastes better there!) and Sushi Tei.
Another thing that we always love to eat in Singapore is the fresh fruit! From lychee to mangosteen to rambutan to soursop, there is an abundance of delicious tropical fruit. While you’re at it, you can try durian, too—known as the “king of fruits,” it has a particularly pungent smell that has gotten it banned from public places and subways in Singapore. Personally, I don’t like it, but it’s something that you should try at least once if you can (to check it off your list, you know?).
How to Get Around
Public transportation in Singapore is amazing: it’s clean, efficient, convenient, on-time, and expansive. I would recommend buying a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) card for $5 SGD (+ minimum $5 stored value) and using the train and/or bus for most travel. You can also buy a Singapore Tourist Pass for a flat rate depending on how many days you will be traveling. Taxis are popular and easy to hail (and relatively inexpensive); Grab, Singapore’s version of Uber/Lyft, is another option.
COVID-19 Status: What to Know
Ah, our favorite topic, right? Note that this information is accurate as of June 2022. While Singapore’s COVID-19 regulations were previously very strict (i.e. strict travel quarantine, limits on gatherings, stringent contact tracing), the country is now open to travelers who are fully vaccinated. You’ll have to get a SG Arrival Card a few days before you arrive; make sure you do this before you go! Those ages 13 and above who are not fully vaccinated (please take a break from reading now and go get vaccinated/boosted if you’re eligible) need to take a COVID-19 test within two days of departure and serve a two-week quarantine. Click here for more information and a travel checklist from the Singaporean government.
The U.S. recently eliminated its entry test requirements for returning, so you don’t have to worry about this for now.
You have to wear your mask at all times indoors while in Singapore. The indoor mask mandate applies to hawker centers and coffeeshops, even if they may be technically outside. We found that most people wore their masks outside, too.
Final Thoughts
My family always jokes that everything in Singapore is the first, best, tallest, or largest—which, to be honest, is not too far from the truth. Although the city/country is only 281.3 square miles (roughly the size of the island of O‘ahu), it has so many things to see and do. I hope this post has given you a small glimpse into all that it has to offer! My next post will be about some of the filming locations in Crazy Rich Asians…so stay tuned 🙂
Thank you so much for reading!
Angeliki says
Perfect guide! Thanks for sharing! I am planning to visit for 4-5 days but not sure if enough!
Amanda says
Thank you so much for reading! I think that 4-5 days is enough time to see the highlights. I hope you have a wonderful time 🙂