If exploring Southeast Asia has always been on your list, Singapore should be at the top. The country is known for its phenomenal food and street culinary adventures, but you can also discover unique history and architecture along the way, and even a booming nightlife.

If you’re visiting Singapore for the first time and don’t know where to start, here are a few of our suggestions to make the most out of your time in the city.

Southeast Asia is an area I have always wanted to explore, but being a little worried about language barriers, I decided to do a cruise solo through Holland America, starting in Hong Kong, and sailing through the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and ending in Singapore.

When I realized the cruise did not include a lot to do in Singapore, with just a few sightseeing options on the way to the airport, I decided to extend my stay for a couple days. It’s a far flight from New York, and I wanted to really make it worthwhile and see what Singapore has to offer.

PART I — Where To Stay

Pan Pacific Orchard

There are so many hotels in Singapore, the amount of choices can honestly be overwhelming. Of course you can take into account where you want to stay based on things you want to accomplish during your time in the city, but since the spots I wanted to hit were scattered, I prioritized the amenities like a beautiful pool with a view.

This was definitely something important to me, especially for a city where its “cold season” is generally still in the 90s. The Pan Pacific Orchard offers another level of luxury, especially in the room I chose, which was the Beach Club Loft.

The two story suite had a sprawling, comfortable bed, a rainfall shower, a second floor loft with a seating area to relax in, floor to ceiling windows to let in natural light during the day, and private access to the pool whenever you needed to cool off. The hotel even offers a package that you can purchase to give you some extra amenities like daily laundry service, breakfast, afternoon tea, and more. If you know me, you know I love a good pool, so that private access to the pool right out of my room was enough for me to recommend this hotel, let alone the other extraordinary amenities offered. I was blown away!

Amenities:
• Direct access to the swimming pool
• Loft-style mezzanine with a sofa couch
• Pillow menu with hypoallergenic options
• 400-thread count cotton linen
• Floor-to-ceiling windows
• Energy efficient air-conditioning with intelligent technology
• Bedside control for lightings
• IT Concierge
• Turndown service upon request

Room Rate: Rooms start around $250 (the loft I mentioned starts around $575 and is worth the splurge)

BOOK HERE

PART II — Where To Eat

Mosella inside Pan Pacific Orchard

If you’re looking to indulge in some delicious Mediterranean cuisine, the restaurant inside the Pan Pacific Orchard offers fresh, creative dishes. They focus on ceviche among other light, fresh dishes like hokkaido scallop carpaccio with a light citrus dressing, grapefruit, and macadamia nuts.

I highly recommend the tender black cod with green peas, salsa verde, and asparagus, or perfectly cooked beef tenderloin.

Monster Day Tours
Singapore Street Food & Night Tour


With over 100 hawker centers, not to mention various food courts and delicious restaurants, it’s extremely difficult to choose where to eat in Singapore. I highly recommend, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, signing up for a food tour. They have a wide variety of tours based on different neighborhoods, night markets, street food, Michelin star restaurants, and anything else you’re interested in.

While exploring with Monster Day Tours, our group was able to try a variety of dishes, in addition to checking out the city. We stopped to see the light show at the Marina Hotel and went to a few different hawker centers to try some traditional dishes, and local specialties like century eggs (only if you want to). Our tour guide, Darius, was engaging and handled all of the food sampling, so we could sit and relax.

Price: $70/pax

BOOK HERE

Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice

There’s a lot of foods that you should try while you’re in Singapore, and chicken and rice is definitely one of them. Now before you stick your nose up at this like I did, yes I am aware it sounds incredibly simple, but it’s a dish that they’re known for. The chicken is poached and the fat and juices run all throughout the rice. It was served hot with a flavorful sauce and quite delicious. Side note, a way of saving a table at the hawker centers is just by putting a pack of tissues on the table. There aren’t any napkins readily available, so people bring their own tissues with them as napkins, and will set them on an entire table to save it.

PART III — What To Do

Jane’s Tours

Jane’s Tours is a great way to dive into different neighborhoods throughout Singapore. I met with my guide, Elaine, for a 2-hour neighborhood tour called the Tiong Bahru Art Deco Treasures Walking Tour. We walked around the Tiong Bahru to check out some of the pre-and postwar architecture, the residential neighborhoods, local shops, and restaurants, and ended at a hawker center to try some local food. Be sure to stop at Cat Socrates for jewelry, art, home goods, and more, in addition to Yeni Draws for her beautiful art. After my tour of the Tiong Bahru area, I took an Uber to Joi Chiat (a tour of Joo Chiat & The Peranakans: Pastel Shophouses & Rainbow Tiles is also available).

Explore the Joo Chiat neighborhood

Joo Chiat is covered in murals with blocks of local boutique shops, restaurants, and cafés. The Peranakan Houses along Koon Seng Road are the ideal pastel backdrop for photos. Check out the merchant market on the weekends in the neighborhood after grabbing a latte and a chocolate mochi donut from Kōhī Roastery & Coffee Bar (283 Joo Chiat Rd, Singapore 427535). Explore the shops like Crane Living (Joo Chiat) for home goods and decor, or A Vintage Tale to find hidden gems to spice up your wardrobe.

Makansutra

With so many tours available, it can be difficult to choose between a wide variety of highly rated companies. KF Seetoh at Makansutra focuses on sightseeing and squeezing the most out of seeing the hawker centers and markets throughout Singapore. If you’re a foodie, his tours are phenomenal and he’s considered a street food expert.

Everyday Tour Company

If you’re interested in food and street art, Singapore has plenty of both. The Everyday Tour Company is ideal for showing around some of the best neighborhoods to try local cuisine and see street murals that might’ve remained unseen if you didn’t know where to look. We started at the Little India Tekka Market to try a variety of tropical fruits, including jackfruit. We tasted Briyani with masala fish, Appam with local sugar and coconut milk, Masala Dosa, and Indian sweets. We stopped to taste Bwa kwa (aka Singapore ‘jerky’) heading to the Chinatown complex to eat steamed rice cakes, carrot cake, sugarcane juice, and so much more, ending at a café for a cup of coffee and a slice of Singapore Chiffon Pandan Cake.

BOOK HERE

Explore the waterfront

Exploring in and around the waterfront in Singapore is definitely a must while in the city. Snap some pictures of Merlion by Lim Nang Seng at the waterfront. Don’t forget to grab a sweet treat from the local hawker center before watching across the way to the Marina Bay Sands Singapore for their famous light show.

Gardens by the Bay

Very well-known in Singapore is the Gardens by the Bay, more specifically the supertrees. Visitors can see other areas like the flower fantasy section, the observatory, and the skyway for an additional price, but seeing the supertree grove is actually free if you’re just looking to come for the light show and watch from the ground. The shows are at 7:45pm and 8.45pm daily (check their website or call for up-to-date information, as this can potentially change) and they’re often changing the theme of the show. Tickets for sale for other areas like flower fantasy (generally $20), the observatory ($14), the skyway ($14).

Grassroots Book Room and Chinatown

On the way to exploring Chinatown, stop into this local bookstore. Grassroots is great for picking up books, postcards, local art, pins, and more. From there, walk about 10 minutes to get to Chinatown and search for some of Yip Yew Chong’s murals while shopping for souvenirs and snacks.

PART IV — Clubs and Nightlife

Mama Diam
Mama Diam is a fun one! It’s a local speakeasy and when you walk inside, it immediately looks like a corner bodega. Open up the magazine wall, and you’ll be escorted into a bar full of energy and creative cocktails. Their food is incredible, as well, so if you’re looking for bar snacks you can order the chili soft shell crab bao buns or the corn ribs to have with your Nasi Lemak cocktail with sake, cucumber, coconut, and pandan or the OG Kopi with whisky, banana, and cold brew.

ATLAS
If you’re looking for a 1920s atmosphere with occasional live performances and delicious cocktails, Atlas is the ideal spot. This is definitely a martini type bar, with an upscale vibe where you can soak up your surroundings.

Lou Shang 楼上
Within the same area as Mama Diam is Lou Shang, a cocktail bar and cafe for when you need to relax with a drink or need a caffeinated beverage for a little pick me up. This is a great spot to enjoy some homemade noodles like their linguine with pig trotters, chestnuts, bok choy, and mushrooms or squid ink spaghetti with prawns, veggies, quail eggs, and squid. Grab a cocktail like the Evergreen with mint liquor, wheatgrass water, whiskey, green apple cordial, and singha soda.

Zouk
Zouk is known in Singapore as being a lively nightclub in the city that has been open since the early 90s. This is the place to go when you want to dance and listen to music, get dressed up, and throw back some drinks. Located within the Clarke Quay district, Zouk is a fun night out.