While living as expats in Vietnam we had the chance to visit Singapore a view times. It is an excellent hub city for flights and we always enjoyed Singapore Air flight service.

Singapore is a beautiful, walkable and modern city! There’s a lot to see and do and getting around is a breeze. Singapore is also a perfect stop-over and connection hub for many airlines through the beautiful Changi Airport. We visited for a couple of days on each of our visits. We also used Singapore’s marine port in 2018 to board a short cruise.

Getting Around

We navigated the SMRT (Singapore Mass Rapid Transit) from the airport to our hotel in Little India. We used Expedia to book our hotel called the One Farer It was easy to get to our hotel from the airport and it was a beautiful spot for cheap -our two favourite things! There are many places to stay in Singapore at many price points. We enjoyed using the SMRT tourist card to get to our sights. Most of the city is quite walkable so bring comfortable shoes because you will walk a lot every day!

Things to do

With advice from friends, we spent our days sightseeing the Gardens by the Bay, the Museum, the Botanic Gardens, Chinatown, Little India, Arab Street and Sentosa.

Gardens by the Bay

This is the iconic area of Singapore. Many tourists flock here and take their photos like we did! It is nice to come here in the evening so the high steel trees are lit and it’s a cooler temperature. We climbed up above the trees to get the best views.

While visiting the Garden by the Bay make sure to take an elevator ride up to the bar at the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel to appreciate the views and marvel at the architecture.

The Singapore Botanic Gardens are relaxing and beautiful. It is free to walk around unless you wish to enter the orchid area. We marvelled at how much nature this small compact city has despite its high-density population. They are a shining example of how cities can incorporate nature into a thriving city. The artificially made island of Sentosa, is another thoughtful construction to ensure that residents have places to relax and a nearby beach to enjoy. It’s worth a walk around but it is more touristy than the other neighbourhoods, so we spent less time there.

Food and Drink

Singapore cuisine is diverse as it reflects the citizens. We enjoyed our Singapore noodles from the food court. Near our hotel, we enjoyed Indian dishes and our favourite meal was on Arab street. All street food areas are inspected for cleanliness so it is safe to eat! This was the best city for food quality and safety in our travels.

Except for the Singapore Sling cocktail ordered at our hotel, prices for food and drink are about the same as Canadian cities so it did not seem expensive.

Shopping

Our first visit to Singapore was while we were living in HoChiMinh City and we got excited to find clothes and footwear that fit us! We also found that they were also a great price. There are several brands, malls and unique shopping buildings, especially in Little India, to browse. Our second visit to Singapore coincided with the demise of my phone. I was able to buy a reliable and reputable phone at a reasonable price. There is no shortage of shopping in Singapore and I see why the city is so popular with Australians and Canadians.

Singapore is clean, organized, beautiful and everyone speaks English so travelling there is very easy!

If we get a chance to visit again I would book a free walking tour with a local through Guru Walk to learn more about the history of Singapore. It is amazing how the city has evolved.

Viator also has many options for great tours of the different neighbourhoods and check out the food tours! 

The reasons we use Viator are:

• The app is easy to use
• It’s easy to see tour options and make bookings
• We always choose the free cancellation tours in case our plans change
• We can book ahead and prepay
• We always get a knowledgeable tour guide

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