Singapore travel guide

Gardens by the Bay

The Supertrees, steel towers up to 50 metres tall wrapped in ferns and orchids, look like a forest from another planet, and inside the Cloud Forest a misty, plant-covered mountain has a waterfall of about 35 metres pouring down its side. The outdoor gardens are free and open from 5 AM; the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest need tickets, run 9 AM to 9 PM, and each closes on a few set days a year, listed on the gardens’ site. Stay for the evening light show in the Supertree Grove.

Marina Bay Sands

Three 55-storey hotel towers carry a 340-metre deck on their roof, its tip reaching out over thin air, and from up there you see the gardens, the business district and the ships waiting in the strait all at once. The infinity pool is for hotel guests, but non-guests can buy a ticket for the observation deck; the bay promenade below, with views back to the city, costs nothing.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

Founded in 1859 and Singapore’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, these gardens helped start the region’s rubber boom, after their director worked out how to tap the trees without killing them. A patch of original rainforest survives inside, and in the National Orchid Garden, the one paid part (8:30 AM to 7 PM, last entry 6 PM), hybrids are named after visiting heads of state and celebrities. The rest is free and open from 5 AM to midnight every day. Mornings are coolest.

Chinatown

Pastel shophouses, clan associations and old medicine halls fill these streets. Within a few blocks stand the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, a red-and-gold hall built in 2007 to house what is believed to be a tooth of the Buddha, and Sri Mariamman, the city’s oldest Hindu temple, its gateway tower crowded with painted gods. Come hungry: Maxwell Food Centre is at the edge of the district.

Kampong Glam

The golden domes of the Sultan Mosque, built in the 1920s, have a dark band at their base made of glass bottle ends, given by poorer Muslims so everyone could contribute. Around it, the old Malay and Arab quarter has Arab Street’s batik and textile shops and the narrow shophouses of Haji Lane, painted from pavement to roof. Visitors may enter the mosque Saturday to Thursday in two short morning and afternoon windows; it is closed to visitors on Fridays.

Little India

Along Serangoon Road the air smells of jasmine and spices, stalls string flower garlands for temple offerings, and the Sri Veeramakaliamman temple, founded by Indian labourers in the 1800s, honours the goddess Kali. Around Deepavali the street is hung with lights. Tekka Centre, at the top of the street, has a wet market downstairs and food stalls upstairs, where biryani draws long queues.

Merlion Park

The lion’s head stands for Singapura, the “lion city” of legend, and the fish’s tail for the fishing village the island once was; together they make the 8.6-metre statue that has spouted water into the bay since 1972. It faces Marina Bay Sands across the water. A five-minute stop, best combined with the waterfront walk.

Jewel Changi Airport

Inside a glass dome by the airport terminals, the Rain Vortex falls 40 metres from an opening in the roof, the tallest indoor waterfall in the world, into a terraced forest of trees and ferns, with shops in rings around it. In the evening, lights and music play across the falling water. Leave a couple of spare hours before your flight out to see it.

Hawker centres

From the late 1960s Singapore moved its street cooks into these open-air food centres, where each stall makes one or two dishes, chicken rice at one, char kway teow or Indian rojak at the next, for a few dollars a plate. UNESCO recognised hawker culture as part of Singapore’s heritage in 2020. A packet of tissues on a seat means it is taken; when you finish, return your tray and crockery to the racks.

Maxwell Food Centre

Hainanese chicken rice is why most people come: silky poached chicken, rice cooked in chicken stock with ginger and pandan, and a chilli-garlic sauce, at stalls such as Tian Tian, which Anthony Bourdain praised. The rest of this Chinatown hawker centre’s hundred-plus stalls sell everything from fish porridge to fresh sugar-cane juice. Lunchtime queues are long; go just before noon or mid-afternoon.

Lau Pa Sat

Its octagonal cast-iron frame was made in Glasgow and put up here in 1894, and lunch under the Victorian ironwork among office workers from the financial district is a pleasure in itself. In the evening a stretch of Boon Tat Street beside it closes to cars and fills with satay grills, the smoke drifting between the towers; order a few dozen sticks with peanut sauce.

Tiong Bahru Market

Locals queue here from early morning for chwee kueh, soft steamed rice cakes topped with fried preserved radish, at this neighbourhood hawker centre above a wet market, best for breakfast. Afterwards walk the estate around it, Singapore’s oldest public housing, built in the 1930s as Art Deco flats with rounded corners and spiral back stairs, now full of bakeries and bookshops.

Laksa and chilli crab

Laksa is rice noodles in a rich, spicy coconut curry broth with prawns and cockles, sold at hawker stalls; the Katong version cuts the noodles short so you can eat it with just a spoon. Chilli crab, first cooked by a Singapore street vendor in the 1950s, is whole crab in a sweet, tangy tomato-and-chilli sauce thickened with egg, a messy sit-down seafood meal to share, with buns to mop up the sauce.

Best: February to early March

The drier, windier phase of the northeast monsoon, with more sunshine and fewer long downpours.

Harder: November to January

The wettest stretch: monsoon surges can bring several days of heavy rain in a row.

How do you get around Singapore?

• PaymentContactless bank cards and mobile wallets work for buses and trains; fares are based on distance travelled.
• Phone walletApple Pay and Google Pay work at the fare gates and on buses, so you can tap your phone or watch.
• Tourist passThe Singapore Tourist Pass gives unlimited travel on basic buses and trains for one, two or three days.
• TrainsTrains run from about 5:30 AM to midnight; tap in and out at the gates with the same card or phone.
• BusesMost regular buses run from about 5.30am to midnight, every 5 to 30 minutes, and are air-conditioned.
• TaxisTaxis run on the meter; peak-hour and other surcharges may apply, and you can ask the driver for a receipt.
• Arrival cardEvery visitor must submit the free SG Arrival Card in the three days before landing, on the ICA website or the MyICA app. Sites that charge for it are not official.
• Foreign cardsA small admin fee is added when you pay fares with a card issued outside Singapore.

Do you need cash in Singapore, and do you tip?

• Cards widely usedMost shops, restaurants and attractions take cards and contactless payment, including phone wallets.
• Keep some cashMany hawker stalls take cash or local QR apps that foreign cards can’t use, so carry small notes for food.
• Pay in local currencyIf offered a conversion, choose Singapore dollars rather than your home currency.
• Tipping not expectedTipping isn’t expected. Prices marked “++” add a 10% service charge and GST at the till; hawker stalls add neither.

Useful phrases

• Thank you (Malay)Terima kasih
• Good morning (Malay)Selamat pagi
• Sorry (Malay)Maaf
• How much? (Malay)Berapa?
• Delicious (Malay)Sedap
• To eat (Malay, used by everyone)Makan

Local manners

• QueuesForm a single orderly line at counters, bus stops and MRT doors, and let people alight first.
• TrainsKeep your voice low on the MRT and give up priority seats for those who need them.
• FoodEating and drinking are banned on trains and inside stations, with fines, so finish your snack before the gates.
• LitterUse the bins; littering carries a fine, and bins are easy to find almost everywhere.
• TraysReturn your tray and crockery after eating at a hawker centre, food court or coffee shop. It is required, and officers do enforce it.
• VapesVapes are illegal to buy, carry or use, for visitors too, with fines since May 2026 under a new law. Declare any at the red channel on arrival.

Useful apps

• Grab: Food Delivery, Taxi RideRides, taxis and food delivery across Singapore
• Google MapsWalking directions and MRT train routes
• Citymapper: Your Transport AppReal-time bus and train timings
• foodpanda: Food & GroceriesFood delivery to your hotel

Download links for these are in the Singapore guide in the Journey app.

Before you book

Check your government’s travel advice before you book.