Chances are, you’ll have a 24 hour stopover in Singapore at least once in your life. Here is how you should spend your day in this cracker of a little city.
7am
It’s strange to walking around a metropolis that’s so eerily empty, enjoy it while it lasts. The sun is rising, and the air is still cool, and go the the marina for a morning walk or run (if you are a health nut), before the heat sets in. A 15 minute walk around the gardens by the bay for your Instagram feed should be enough.
On the other side of the marina is the famous Merlion, someone please tell me why this statue is famous???
8am
Asian breakfast can be strange to the western palate. If you don’t have hotel breakfast, go to one of the hawker centers (Hawker center explained below), there are plenty around chinatown, and tryout some typical breakfast dishes.
One of the strangest breakfast dishes is the Bak Kut Teh, which is essentially bone broth, which I guess is not much weirder than having black salty vegemite paste for breakfast.
Check out this website for where to go.
http://sethlui.com/best-breakfast-places-singapore/
9am
As the heat is still bearable, I recommend visiting arab street and little India. The stores will just be opening, and the coffeeshops will be a nice place to people watch.
The Sultan Mosque is the centerpiece of arab street, from which there are numerous charming laneways packed with restaurants and shops. Little india indeed a little India, it’s a hotchpotch of fruit and veg shops, clothings store, flourists, electronics, small goods all packed together.
Noon
Your choice of having a fancy meal or more street food. I would personally go for more Hawker meals. There are so many Hawker centers with so many varieties of yummy foods that I can spend a year eating and still not tried everything. There are even a couple of stalls in Singapore with Michelin Stars!!!!
My wife and I usually go to a Hawker center and find a table first, and one of us will go and buy food while the other keeps guard of the table. The servings are usually really small and the food are delicious, we often have 4 to 5 meals before we leave! It is so fun!!
Checkout this list below and plan what you want to eat before you go!!!
http://sethlui.com/best-local-famous-foods-to-eat-singapore/
1pm
It really heats up now. So now you can fill your mind with knowledge or fill your suitcase with stuff. I really enjoy going to the singapore national museum, it’s one of my favourite museums in the world, mainly because it’s very small and easy to see in 1 to 2 hours, and it give you a great insight into Singapore.
Otherwise, head to Orchard street and go nut on your credit card!!! Singaporeans love eating and shopping and you’ve already ate yourself silly, you might as well spend silly too!!
5pm
Ironically, despite the dirty cheap hawker centres, food and drinks can be very expensive in Singapore in upmarket places. A pre-dinner drink can cost 40 dollars at a fancy bar if you’re not careful. So consider my next advice carefully. You should consider going to the Raffles Hotel and get a Singapore Sling Cocktail, it is very expensive, but hey, you’re paying for the experience! When you’re at the Raffles, you should also walk around the grounds, it’s a lovely hotel, one of the Grand Dames of South East Asia.
7pm
A trip to singapore is not completely without a feast of chilli crabs. Go to Jumbo at riverwalks and you’ll get a nice river view too. Make sure to order some buns to lap up all the yummy chilli sauce at the end. Whoever came up with Chilli crab deserve a medal. Sweet sweet crab meat with beautiful creamy and sweet chilli sauce that just is just so moreish. I can’t get enough of it!!!
9pm
Time to end your day on a high note. Head up to 1-Altitude bar or CE LA VI bar and see Singapore from the air, both come with a 30 and 20 dollar cover charge respectively, but you get a free drink.
Look over singapore and point out from the air all the places you went to today, and reminisce on the amazing day you’ve had.
Where to sleep?
Raffles is the most well known historical hotel in south east asian and one of the best in the world, it’s expensive even for singapore standards.
Marina Bay Sands is that strange looking triple building with a boat on the roof. Stay here for the massive infinity pool! You might never want to leave the pool and do any of the stuff I mentioned above.
Fullerton Bay Hotel is new and impressive. You will definitely get your money’s worth here.
Special mention of the Park Royal on Pickering. It’s got floating gardens and a floating pool!!! How cool is that!!!
The Pointed Traveller 