48 Hours in Singapore
Singapore is a fabulous city with so much to explore. As it is often used as a stop over, many people only have 48 hours to explore….see below how we spent our 48 hour stop over.
Flight
If you are flying from the UK this is a loooooooong old flight…14 hours to be precise. Timings wise, most UK flights land in the morning therefore it is worth noting that you may not be able to check in to your hotel until later in the day.
2. Hotel
We were booked in to the Clan Hotel which was in a great location however, that is sadly where the positives for this hotel ended. Despite some wonderful marketing showing off the arrival tea ceremony and super helpful and smiley staff and the fact that I had been in contact before our arrival to say we would be arriving early and to confirm they would be able to store the bags before check in, we arrived to a somewhat frosty reception. The receptionist was quite frankly rude and very unhelpful when we asked where the bathroom was to freshen up and he just generally seemed annoyed at our 11am arrival. We also saw no sign of the promised arrival tea ceremony.
In addition to the disappointing check in experience, our room didn't get serviced the whole time we were there as the first time she came we were in the room and asked her to come back later and she never did. The restaurant also kept topping up water without asking us and then charged us for 4 bottles at an extortionate price.
The general attitude of the staff was fairly disinterested and unfriendly.
We just found it very impersonal and that in combination with small rooms, and lack of amenities and facilities means that I would be hesitant to recommend this hotel.
DAY 1
We were very aware that we would probably be a bit tired on arrival therefore, we planned to do something that was going to keep us somewhat awake. We headed to the Botanical Gardens as this meant we would be on our feet walking around therefore meaning it would be very difficult to fall asleep! Top tip for visiting Asia is to download the Grab app which is like Uber. They are efficient and cheap and it means you don’t have to worry about carrying cash around at all. We got a Grab to the gardens and walked around for a couple of hours. It is mostly free however there are a couple of sections where you have to pay a small fee (£5-£10) such as the Orchid Garden which was worth the fee. There are a few different restaurants and take away food and beverage outlets at the Gardens but none of them took our fancy and we were flagging a bit by 2pm so we headed back to our hotel to get our rooms and grab a bite to eat. As mentioned above, the restaurant in the hotel was not great, there was no atmosphere and the staff were fairly miserable. The food was ok but nothing to write home about.
After lunch we headed to our rooms and made use of the gym and rooftop pool before freshening up and heading to Raffles.
We had booked Raffles Courtyard for an early, snacky, dinner knowing we would be pretty jetlagged by this point. Once again, we got a Grab and it worked perfectly. The Raffles Courtyard is outside and has a great atmosphere. We ordered Singapore Slings which they offer both with and without alcohol, and a variety of snacky plates including sushi. It was a really lovely, chilled atmosphere with nice background music and a variety of different people to entertain us! Following our meal, we headed up to the Long Bar where the Singapore Sling was invented! A unique aspect of the Long Bar is the strange tradition of throwing peanut shells on the floor. Each table has a large bag of peanuts on the table which you crack open and then throw the shells on to the floor. This makes for a very crunch underfoot experience and is good fun.
Feeling quite proud of ourselves for having not fallen asleep, we then walked home to our hotel for a well deserved sleep!
Day 2
It was an early start on day 2 (at least…for me!) as I headed to a local spin studio which was a ten minute walk from our hotel. It was called R1OT and was a great, rhythm ride class - anyone looking to try out the fitness scene in Singapore, I would highly recommend! I then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the day and we walked to our brunch spot called PUNCH. We met some friends here and enjoyed a lovely, Aussie themed brunch with plenty of avocado and flat whites!
Well fuelled from our brunch, we headed off to do some exploring. I had identified places we wanted to see and drawn up a little self guided walking tour for us so I took on my role of tour guide and led the way. We visited the following places on our little walking tour:
CHIJMES - this is a former convent that has been beautifully restored and is now a fun lifestyle and dining complex. It is bright white and very impressive to look at from an architectural perspective. It’s also a good place to grab a refreshing drink and/or snack.
ESPLANADE - THEATRES ON THE BAY - this is located on the waterfront, and it is Singapore’s premier performing arts centre, and it hosts all sorts of performances and exhibitions including concerts, theatre and art exhibitions. It has a fabulous roof terrace offering views of Marina Bay and the whole Singapore skyline.
MERLION PARK - this is home of the famous Merlion statue with it’s water feature firing a cannon of water out in to the river. We got some pics in front of this but it was pretty busy so we didn’t hang around too long!
CLARKE QUAY - this is a riverside destination which is best known for its nightlife and food scene. There are loads of restsurants, bars, cafes and clubs so plenty of options for another refreshment break!
HONG LIM MARKET AND FOOD CENTRE - finally, we had to stop at a Hawker food market which is essentially a massive food court where locals go for their lunch. There are so many truly authentic Asian dishes for literal pennies so it is a good place to sample some local fayre!
After our little walk around the city, we headed back to the hotel as it was really humid so we were pretty tired and hot! We headed up to the air conditioned gym and the rooftop pool for a few hours before getting ready for an evening out in Singapore.
First stop was the Marina Bay Sands hotel. It is MASSIVE! There are three towers which are full of shops, restaurants, bars, accommodations etc. We headed to tower 1 and went straight up to LAVO bar which is one of the rooftop bars. We did not have a reservation however, we were easily able to get a table for pre dinner drinks based on a minimum spend of $30 per person which was not hard to meet! We had two drinks each and they give you popcorn and massive olives with the drinks which they are not shy about replenishing. I would highly recommend this as we had an amazing view of the sunset and it was a great vibe!
Following our pre dinner drink, we headed downstairs to Blossom which was a Chinese restaurant on the ground floor of tower 1. It was a very traditional Chinese restaurant with a lazy susan in the middle of the table and the usual classics on the menu. The staff were a bit too efficient and it had quite a frenetic atmosphere as they literally threw the food at us. The food was delicious but we didn’t feel at all relaxed and it wasn’t a particularly experiential meal, definitely more functional. Due to this, we decided to go and get dessert elsewhere to take full advantage of everything on offer at Marina Bay Sands. We walked through the massive shopping centre and headed to Venchi which had a big queue (always a good sign!). We got our delicious ice creams to take away and headed outside just in time to see the start of Spectra - the light and water show. This was great to watch whist we enjoyed our dessert, I would definitely recommend heading to the waterfront to watch this if you can. We then strolled back to the hotel for our last night.
DAY 3
Another early start for me as I headed to spin which was another great class! We then packed up our bags, ordered a Grab and set off for the airport for the next step of our adventure!
Singapore is a fabulous city with so much to see and do, we weren’t there for long on this occasion so fitted in what we could but there are so many more things to see. Luckily, we were also coming back on our return leg so made a list of a few more things to tick off before we headed back to the UK!