Disclosure: there are affiliate links on this page. If you click on a link, find something you like and buy it, I may get a small amount of commission at no extra cost to you. Sometimes you might even get a discount!

Singapore Changi Airport is at the edge of the city, and it only takes a few minutes by taxi (or Grab car – the Asian equivalent of Uber) to be amongst its skyscrapers. Despite being one of the most densely populated countries in the world, tropical trees and plants intersperse the buildings with plenty of lush greenery, giving the impression of being in a forest city. This impression continues as you approach Marina Bay and get your first sight of the Supertrees in the Gardens by the Bay.

I’ve been to Singapore twice before: once in 2012 for a week during the Chinese New Year holiday, and once in 2014 on a ten-hour layover on my way to Myanmar from Shenzhen, China. Being back in Asia gave me a wonderful sense of familiarity after nearly five years of living in the UK.

My Spouse and I stayed at Lyf Funan Hotel, which is part of Funan Mall, very close to City Hall metro station and walking distance from Clarke Quay. After checking in and freshening up from the 13-hour flight from London Heathrow, we met one of my friends who I’d worked with in Shenzhen.

The last time I’d seen Nicole was in 2020 at the end of our holiday in India together. The pandemic began while we were there and we ended up going to stay with friends in different countries until the situation in China got better, and we hadn’t seen each other since. It was really lovely to catch up, although one meal together was definitely not enough time to fill each other in on everything that had happened in our lives since we last saw each other! It was also great to be able to introduce Spouse to one of my friends from my time in Shenzhen; as most of them live in other countries I don’t get to see them very often.

We had dinner at Sauté, a restaurant in the mall which had plenty of veggie options and interesting drink choices. We tried the butterfly pea iced tea (which is blue) and lemongrass and pandan iced drink, both of which were delicious, along with vegetable noodles with tofu and tofu vegetable hot pot. It was just what we needed after a long day and a longer journey. Dessert had to follow, and we tried mango rolls and mango pomelo sago from a dessert restaurant in the mall’s food court.

After we said our goodbyes to Nicole (hopefully not for so long this time!), Spouse and I took a lovely walk down to Boat Quay and along the waterfront to end our first evening in Singapore.

When we were planning our Southeast Asia trip, we’d decided to spend only two or three days in each city so we could have longer in the other places we were visiting and make sure we had time to relax as well as see and do things. Arriving in Singapore on Friday and leaving Monday to go to Bali, Indonesia, meant we had two full days in the city – and we made the most of them!

The main thing I wanted to do in Singapore was visit the Gardens by the Bay. It didn’t exist last time I was there, and both Spouse and I love looking round gardens at all the different trees, plants and flowers; added bonus if there are birds too. After a quick breakfast of pastries and tea at a nearby bakery, we went straight there on Saturday morning by metro. Singapore is really easy to get around, either by walking or metro, and you can pay really easily by tapping your card (or phone if you have Google or Apple wallet set up) at the turnstile, the same as on the underground in London.

The Gardens themselves are free to visit, but a few of the attractions within the gardens are ticketed. It’s best to get tickets for the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome either online in advance or at the ticket office at the entrance, and you can get a joint ticket for both which costs SGD$59 (about £34.70) per adult. Tickets for the Supertree Observatory and OCBC Skyway (SGD$14/£8.25 each per adult) are best bought when you get to the Supertrees as they close when it rains, and there are no refunds if you’ve bought tickets in advance.

The views from the OCBC Skyway and the Supertree Observatory were stunning, and the Supertrees themselves were a sight to behold. It’s definitely worth the entrance fees. Even the elevator ride is part of the experience. Watch the ceiling while you ascend – it looks like you’re surrounded by the plants and flowers in the middle of the Supertree as you emerge into the sky.

Before we went into the Flower Dome, we stopped for a small lunch of cheesy fries and white pepper fries at Shake Shack. Although we weren’t really hungry due to the heat and time difference, I knew it would be best to eat at lunch time as this would help our bodies adjust more quickly and reduce jetlag. Food definitely helped and gave us the energy we needed for the afternoon.

The Flower Dome is the opposite of a greenhouse. Being just one degree above the equator, Singapore has a tropical climate. It doesn’t need greenhouses like we do in the UK. Instead, the Flower Dome is a ‘Cooled Conservatory’ which provides a Mediterranean-type climate for the plants it houses. It has several different climate zones, from arid desert with cacti and baobab trees to balmy temperatures for centuries-old olive trees. Its vast size won it the Guinness World Record for the largest glass greenhouse. An additional treat was the interactive Monet Exhibition inside the dome, similar to the Van Gogh one we went to in London a couple of years ago.

We had dinner at Satay by the Bay which is on the edge of the gardens next to the lilypond. Disappointingly, there wasn’t any vegetarian satay options, so Spouse had Thai-style bean curd with mixed vegetables, I had sweet and sour fish, and we shared boiled rice and baby kailan (a leafy green vegetable) with garlic. As it was getting dark by the time we finished eating and started walking back through the park, we saw the Gardens’ Christmas display as well as the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands all lit up.

We walked through the Marina Bay Sands, admiring the indoor canal and gondolas (very similar to those in the Venetian Hotel and Resort in Macau), to look at the bay. Luckily, the fountain light show had just started, so we watched it before getting the metro back to the hotel.

Our second full day in Singapore began, after breakfast in our room, with a walk through Fort Canning Park. The park contains many smaller gardens and historic buildings, such as Raffles House, a historic lighthouse, Raffles Garden, Spice Garden, and the First Botanic Garden in Singapore. We stopped for drinks (and air conditioning!) at Le Jardin café in the Fort Canning Centre, before continuing through the park to Orchard Road. We had lunch at Tim Ho Wan, a dim sum restaurant from Hong Kong that used to be the cheapest Michelin starred restaurant in the world, and had a look round some of the many shopping malls that line the road along with random sculptures, artwork, and Christmas decorations.

Hey Tea was our next stop and Spouse tried Grape Cloud – the cheese tea that was a big craze in Southeast Asia for a while. It sounds odd, but is quite nice: iced tea, fruit flavoured if you want, topped with a light cream cheese topping. You can drink the tea through the cheese layer or mix it all together. I went for Mango Grapefruit Boom, which is made with coconut milk and fruit juice.

After a quick hop on the metro to Chinatown, we went to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Unfortunately it had closed at 5pm and we hadn’t kept track of the time, so we could only admire the outside. Dinner was rice and Chinese-style vegetables from Maxwell Food Centre across the road, with a dessert of bubble waffle with kaya sauce from a stall on Chinatown Street Market.

We strolled through Chinatown, past Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple, down to Boat Quay and along Singapore River to Merlion Park. It was really busy, but we managed to get some good photos and views of the bay, Marina Bay Sands, the Singapore Flyer, and the Merlion all lit up. There was even a bright orange full moon to add to the effect.

The final thing I wanted to do in Singapore, after a quick freshen up and change back at our hotel, was to enjoy a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel. Luckily, we were there early enough in the evening (around 8:30pm) to be able to get a table straight away without a reservation, but by the time we left there were quite a few people waiting.

The Singapore Sling was invented at Raffles in 1915 by Hainanese bartender Ngiam Tong Boon. At the time, etiquette dictated that ladies could not drink alcohol in public, so Ngiam invented a cocktail that used clear liquors, fruit juices, grenadine and cherry liquor to make it look like a fruit punch, making it a socially acceptable drink for women. It was an instant hit, unsurprisingly, and has been the cocktail of choice at Raffles for over 100 years. They also still have the century-old tradition of throwing peanut shells on the floor while you enjoy your drinks, making it the only place in Singapore where it’s acceptable to litter.

Enjoying a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel was the perfect way to end our whistlestop visit to Singapore, and it’s definitely something I’d recommend if you visit Singapore.

Our next stop on our month-long trip was Bali, which you can read all about here.