Singapore compresses an extraordinary amount into a small footprint, Chinese, Malay, and Indian neighbourhoods each with their own character, hawker centres serving Michelin-starred food for a few dollars, and a skyline that keeps adding architectural landmarks that shouldn't be structurally possible.
Hawker Centres and Neighbourhoods
Maxwell Food Centre and Chinatown Complex are the best-known hawker halls, but the food quality bar across the city is uniformly high, look for stalls with the longest local queues, a reliable indicator regardless of the guidebook rankings.
Little India and Kampong Glam (the Malay quarter, home to the Sultan Mosque) offer a different texture from the glass towers of the central business district, spend a half day in each rather than treating them as a quick photo stop.
Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay
Gardens by the Bay's Supertrees and climate-controlled domes are worth the entry fee, especially the nightly light show timed to music, go at dusk to see the trees transition from daylight silhouettes to lit structures.
The infinity pool atop Marina Bay Sands is reserved for hotel guests, but the observation deck (Sands SkyPark) is open to all visitors for a view over the whole bay, including the hotel's iconic surfboard-shaped rooftop from below.
Recommended Stay · Singapore · Civic District
Raffles Hotel Singapore
The colonial-era landmark that gave the world the Singapore Sling, meticulously restored with tropical courtyards and butler service for every suite, a short walk to the Civic District and the bay.
