The Perfect Singapore Vacation – Things to do in The Garden City

There are so many things you can do in Singapore : from playing golf, taking a good spa, satisfy your appetite, shopping or just enjoying a simple night.

As Singapore is a melting pot of many different Asian cuisine, you can find almost any favourites Asian cuisine here.

Singapore is a great combination of the skyscrapers and subways of a modern, affluent city with a medley of Chinese, Indian and Malay influences and a tropical climate, with tasty food, good shopping and a vibrant nightlife scene. This Garden City makes a great stopover or springboard into the region.


 

Sightseeings
Accommodation
Restaurants
Pubs and Nightlife
Traveling Tips

 

Sightseeings

Start with the beaches and tourist traps. You can head to one of the three beaches on Sentosa or its southern islands. Other beaches can be found on the East Coast.

Then you can go to see Chinatown for Chinese treats, Little India for Indian flavors, Kampong Glam (Arab St) for a Malay/Arab experience or the East Coast for delicious seafood, including the famous chilli and black pepper crab.

Don't miss popular tourist attractions at Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park and the Botanical Gardens are all in the North and West. Finding "real" nature is a little harder, but the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in the same area is Singapore's largest. Pulau Ubin, an island off the Changi Village in the east, is a flashback to the rural Singapore of yesteryear. City parks full of locals jogging or doing tai chi can be found everywhere.

For the shopping maniacs, the heaviest shopping mall concentration is in Orchard Road, while skyscrapers are clustered around the Singapore River.


Accomodation

Accommodation in Singapore is expensive by South-East Asian standards. Particularly in the higher price brackets, demand has been outstripping supply recently and during big events like the F1 race or some of the larger conventions it's not uncommon for pretty much everything to sell out. Lower-end hotels and hostels, though, remain affordable and available throughout the year.

Budget

Backpackers' hostels can be found primarily in Little India, Bugis and East Coast. Around $20 for a dorm bed.

Cheap hotels are clustered in the Geylang, Balestier and Little India districts, where they service mostly the type of customer who rents rooms by the hour. Prices start as low as $15 for a "transit" of a few hours and $40 for a full night's stay. A few budget hotel chains of note include:

* Fragrance Hotel +65-63456116. Chain of 13 affordable hotels and one backpackers' hostel. Rooms from $58, discounts on weekends and for ISIC holders.

* Hotel 81 +65-67678181. A chain of 18 cheap, functional hotels that are not a bad option for backpackers willing to pay a small premium for privacy, with rates starting at $49 for two.

Mid-range

Much of Singapore's mid-range accommodation is in rather featureless but functional older hotels, with a notable cluster near the western end of the Singapore River. There has, however, been a recent surge of "boutique" hotels in renovated shophouses here and in Chinatown and these can be pretty good value, with rates starting from $100/night.

 

Restaurants

Singapore offers a wide variety of full-service restaurants as well, catering to every taste and budget.

As the majority of Singapore's population is ethnic Chinese, there is an abundance of Chinese restaurants in Singapore, mainly serving southern Chinese (mostly Hokkien, Teochew or Cantonese) cuisines. As with Chinese restaurants anywhere, food is eaten with chopsticks and served with Chinese tea.

While Chinese restaurant food is certainly closer to authentic Chinese fare than hawker food is, it too has not managed to escape local influences and you can find many dishes little seen in China. Depending on where you go and what you order, prices can vary greatly. In ordinary restaurants, prices usually start from $20-30 per person, while in top end restaurants in five-star hotels, prices can go as high as more than $300 per person if you order delicacies such as abalone, suckling pig and lobster.

One British import much beloved by Singaporeans is high tea. In the classical form, as served up by finer hotels across the island, this is a light afternoon meal consisting of tea and a wide array of British-style savoury snacks and sweet pastries like finger sandwiches and scones. However, the term is increasingly used for afternoon buffets of any kind, and Chinese dim sum and various Singaporean dishes are common additions. Prices vary, but you'll usually be looking at $20-30 per head. Note that many restaurants only serve high tea on weekends, and hours may be very limited: the famous spread at the Raffles Hotel's Tiffin Room, for example, is only available between 3:30 PM and 5 PM.

Pubs and NightLife

Singapore's nightlife isn't quite a match for Patpong, but it's no slouch either! Some clubs have 24-hour licenses and few places close before 3 AM. Any artist touring Asia are pretty much guaranteed to stop in Singapore, with superclub Zouk in particular regularly clocking high on lists of the world's best nightclubs. Two new additions to the night scene - St James Power Station and Ministry of Sound give party animals even more reason to dance the night away. Singapore's nightlife is largely concentrated along the three Quays — Boat, Clarke and Robertson — of the Riverside, plus nearby Mohammed Sultan Road. Drinking age is 18, and while this is surprisingly loosely enforced, some clubs have higher age limits.

Friday is generally the biggest night of the week for going out, with Saturday a close second. Sunday is gay night in many bars and clubs, while Wednesday or Thursday is ladies' night, often meaning not just free entrance but free drinks for women. Most clubs are closed on Monday and Tuesday, while bars generally stay open but tend to be very quiet.

Traveling Tips

Singapore is one of the safest major cities in the world in terms of crime and personal safety. Most people, including single female travellers, will not face any problems walking along the streets alone at night. But as the local police say, "low crime does not mean no crime" — beware of pickpockets in crowded areas and don't forget your common sense entirely.

Singapore's squeaky cleanliness is achieved in part by strict rules against activities that are tolerated in other countries. For example, jay-walking, spitting, littering, and drinking and eating on public transport are prohibited. Locals joke about Singapore being a fine city because heavy fines are levied if one is caught committing an offence. Look around for sign boards detailing the Don'ts and the fines associated with these offenses, and heed them. Enforcement is however sporadic at best, and it is a common sight to see locals openly litter, spit, smoke in non-smoking zones, etc.

For some crimes, most notably illegal entry and overstaying your visa for over 90 days, Singapore imposes caning as a punishment. Other offenses which have caning as a punishment include vandalism, robbery, molestation and rape.

Please aware that under Singapore law, having sex with a girl under the age of 16 is considered to be rape, regardless of whether the girl consents to it and would land you a few strokes of the cane. This is no slap on the wrist: strokes from the thick rattan cane are excruciatingly painful, take weeks to heal and scar for life.

There are several crimes that will be punished with a dead penalty such as murder, kidnapping, unauthorised possession of firearms and drug trafficking.