Destination Guide : Singapore
Our week in Singapore was a complete delight! We would have been so happy to add on another week, or more. Eating in hawker centers, fantastic parks, a pristine city, and clean drinking water. We felt like it was a great mix of our favorites from Southeast Asia and everything big, modern cities have to offer.
Let’s dig into how we spent 7 days in Singapore!
STAY : Singapore is expensive! We scored a great (tiny) apartment through Airbnb. Our host, Kel, was so welcoming and gave us all of the best food recommendations. It looks like the Airbnb is not listed anymore (same as many of our stays) but hopefully it will be re-listed post-Covid times. The apartment was located directly across from the Zion Hawker center (more on that later) and the Great World City shopping mall. It wasn’t walkable to most of the sights, but it was a great location for us long term travelers who prefer to travel slower.
GETTING AROUND : Singapore is a city-state and tiny! It’s only 31 miles from east to west and 17 miles from north to south. Even though it’s small and we love to walk, we still took many Ubers around the city. It was hot. Even in January! A quick Uber ride made time there more enjoyable, especially since once we arrived at our destination we were usually doing more walking (like through the massive Gardens by the Bay or MacRitchie Park). Singapore was our strictest destination in terms of carseats for the kids. We made sure to carry our inflatable booster seats with us just in case.
THINGS TO KNOW : Yes, Singapore really is clean! Although we found Japan to be a cleaner country overall. Make sure to learn the many rules in Singapore. Chewing gum, smoking in public, and feeding pigeons are all illegal, as well as jaywalking, littering, and many other actions. Also, learning a brief history of our destinations is always important to us. This video was quick, yet thorough enough to watch with the kids and keep their attention, and ours!
EAT : Singapore’s cultural diversity can be experienced through a trip to the nearest hawker center. Malay, Chinese, and Indian communities make up the majority of the population. Food from these cultures fill hawker centers and even though we ate every meal (but one!) in hawker centers, we still had so many dishes on our list left uneaten.
A full guide to hawker centers is coming soon but until then, here are the must-try dishes. Hainanese chicken rice, prawn noodles, roti, laksa, char way teow, carrot cake (nothing like carrot cake in the U.S.), oyster omelette, roast duck (Trent’s favorite), satay, dumplings, and, of course, chili crab. Plus, a fresh juice! Mandatory addition for our kids. See what I mean! Singapore is full of never ending delicious meals. And, usually, a meal will only cost you about $3-5 at your local hawker center. Unbelievable!
Our favorite hawker center was Zion Riverside Food Center. It’s very popular with locals. Every Uber or taxi driver than drove us home would comment on how great it was and then stop by for a meal after dropping us offl. We also enjoyed meals at Maxwell’s Food Center (so popular with locals and tourists alike), Adam Road Food Center (more Indian food choices), and Lau Pa Sat (best satay). We don’t recommend the hawker center in the Garden’s by the Bay because the food was mediocre and more expensive.
DO - We barely scratched the surface on things to do in Singapore with even a week there! Our favorites were all outdoor activities. Singapore’s goal since their independence in 1965 has been to become a “garden city”. And it’s well on its way. About 47% of the city is covered in gardens and parks. It was hands down my favorite part of visiting this destination.
MACRITCHIE TRAIL - An 8-mile trail through the lush vegetation, this walk was easy to love! Especially the Tree Top Walk section (currently closed until May 2021 for renovation), a suspension bridge with great views of the park! Warning: there are a lot of monkeys near the Tree Top Walk and in the park in general. It was definitely the most nervous we had been around them since the monkeys were much more adventurous here. One was even “guarding” the entrance to the Tree Top Walk. But we luckily experience it all without any money business. (Sorry, I had to!)
CLOUD FOREST & FLOWER DOME - Follow anyone on Instagram who travels to Singapore and you will see pictures of the Cloud Forest. It’s a main attraction within Gardens by the Bay. We were unsure if it was worth the price ($15/adult & $7.50/children). It was! Our flower loving children enjoyed their time and so did we (Trent loves taking pictures of flowers).
SINGAPORE BOTANIC GARDENS - Endless gardens that you will need at least 2-3 hours to explore. Playgrounds for the kids. And it’s free to enter! Right up our alley.
SEE - Singapore is a great city to walk around and take in the sights. There are so many neighborhoods to explore and great buildings and landmarks to see with your own two eyes!
MERLION / MARINA BAY SANDS HOTEL - The Merlion is the symbol of Singapore and the whole Marina Bay Sands area, where it is located, is a sight to see. Definitely has a Vegas feel (they are even gondola rides inside the mall, so Vegas!). It will give you the Crazy Rich Asians vibe you were looking for.
CHINATOWN - We visited during the Lunar New Year and Chinatown was celebrating! This area of the city is full of landmarks to visit. Sri Mariamman temple and Buddha Tooth Relic Temple to name two popular sights. Make sure to eat at the Maxwell Hawker Center just down the street.
GARDENS BY THE BAY - We made a few trips to Gardens by the Bay but it is especially fun at night. There’s a huge, light show amongst the Supertree Grove each evening. (One of our biggest mishaps was waiting for an hour before the show started, in the wrong spot! Don’t be mistaken by the smaller Supertrees near the McDonalds, like we did. The ones at the grove are much bigger where the show takes place.) The Marina Bay Sands Hotel also has a nightly light and water show on the bay. Both shows are free.
RAFFLES HOTEL - A beautiful, historic hotel famous because the Singapore Sling was invented there. And another filming location for Crazy Rich Asians.
OLD HILL POLICE STATION - I adore this colorful building. No photograph can quite capture it. A beautiful renovation to a historically important building.
SINGAPORE'S CHANGI AIRPORT - This airport is a destination unto itself! Free movie theaters, swimming pools, gardens, shopping malls. This is unlike any airport that you have ever seen. We arrived about 6 hours early for our flight just to check it out. But the best part, the Jewel, the world’s tallest indoor waterfall. It really is just beautiful to see.
Two places on my list that we didn’t see but I wanted to: Sultan Mosque in Little India and the Peranakan Houses.
PLAY
After over 3 months in Southeast Asia, our kids were thrilled to experience amazing playgrounds again! There are so many great ones around Singapore. Watch out for the monitor lizards though! We spotted one casually walking through the playground in the Gardens by the Bay. In addition to playgrounds, Sentosa islands is full of fun places for the kids, including beaches and a Universal Studios.
Our Favorite Playgrounds:
Playground at Gardens by the Bay - complete with a large, splash pad area, slides built into the side of the hills, and so many mini suspension bridges.
Tiong Bahru Playground - known to our family as the “crooked train park” is a great, standard playground
Botanic Gardens - three different play areas for kids
Jubilee Park - in the Clark Quay area, playground with multiple slides and a wooden climbing area
TREAT - After months eating not enough veggies during our travels, I would happily oblige whenever my kids asked for a juice at the hawker center. Juices filled with fruits, and veggies, were a real treat in the hot Singapore climate. The kids also enjoyed ice cream sandwiches with waffle cookies from a vendor in Chinatown. Pandan Cake is a famous dessert in Singapore but we never got around to trying it.
RUN
Singapore was a dream to run in. I loved running next to the Singapore river, stopping to take pictures of landmarks along the way. Trent had some great long runs in the city as well (see his routes above). Do be careful to watch your footing. The old, brick walkway along the river is quaint, but it’s also dangerous. I ate it big time along the path!
DRINK - While we found a lot of deals in this pricy city (hello, $3 hawker meals!), we felt the pain in the price of alcohol. Alcohol is heavily taxed in Singapore, plus the regular cost of living there makes for some expensive beer. We had read all about $10 beers before traveling to Singapore, so we decided to buy a bottle of whisky at the duty free shop before our flight there. In the end, most of the time the hawker beers weren’t too pricy. And, of course, it might be worth it to shell out some cash for a Singapore Sling at Raffles! I love when I can deem drinking a cocktail a “sightseeing experience”! In addition to a Tiger beer, made in Singapore, or a Tsingtao, chips from Cold Storage, a local supermarket, are a necessity. I loved the Mala Hot Pot, Chili Crab, and Tom Yum flavored chips! They really make a simple lager taste so much better.
Alright, we’ve done it! That was our time in Singapore. What makes you want to visit Singapore more - hawker food or exploring the green spaces? If you’ve been to Singapore, what are your favorite spots?
