On our way back from Australia, we stopped over in Singapore. We were meant to have a couple of days to explore the city but due to flight changes (we travelled just as Coronavirus was hitting the globe) we were limited to around 20 hours. When we arrived into the airport, there were airport scanners around to detect any people with possible fevers, and plenty of hand sanitiser – Singapore airport has got to be the cleanest and most well organised airport we’ve ever been to!
We arrived into the city at around 3pm and our flight was leaving for London the following morning at about 10am, so we really were under pressure to see as much as we could in such a short amount of time. Hopefully this can give you some inspiration for what to see do for 24 hours in Singapore!
Transport
As we weren’t in the city for long, we chose to travel by Uber as opposed to walk. A lot of the places were within walking distance, but would’ve taken up quite a bit of our time and we were in a rush; it’s really quick and easy – just download the app and pay by card so you don’t even need to exchange currency!
What to do
Gardens by the Bay – This was our first stop when we got into the city, as we’d seen so many beautiful Instagram posts here and we knew this was 100% somewhere we wanted to visit. Luckily, the area around the gardens is open into the evening so when we got there at 5pm, it was still pretty busy and places were open. We had a wander around, went up on the OCBC Skyway observation walk (which cost us £5) and sat down for a beer in the gardens to enjoy the sunset. As soon as it gets dark, the gardens fill up with lights and the most beautiful light display is performed in amongst the Supertrees. We were only here for a couple of hours, but there are so many other areas to explore such as the Dragonfly and Kingfisher Lakes, Heritage Gardens, The Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome!
Singapore flyer – We were pretty gutted that the Singapore Flyer was temporarily closed down whilst we were here (due to maintenance) so we didn’t get to go on, but the Singapore Flyer is Asia’s largest observation wheel. Similar to the London Eye, it is situated on the water’s edge and offers amazing views over the city!
Marina Bay Sands – As featured on series 1 of Race Across The World on BBC, Marina Bay Sands is the iconic landmark of Singapore. It’s a luxury hotel situated above a humongous shopping centre; it has multiple restaurants, shops and bars, as well as a spa and rooftop pool overlooking the marina. It’s quite difficult to navigate your way around as there are SO many different levels, entrances and areas, but it is definitely worth a visit to tick it off your bucket list.
Haji Lane – We were recommended (by our Uber driver) to take a walk down Haji Lane; It is a quirky and colourful street filled with street art, boutiques, hipster bars and cafes and live music! Sadly, we ran out of time, but I have seen so many amazing Instagram photos taken here and will definitely make sure we visit next time we are in Singapore!
Where to eat
As we were only in Singapore for one night, we only really had the chance to experience one restaurant – Black Knight, which was in the Marina Bay Sands shopping area. Before we found the Black Knight restaurant, we walked through the whole of the shopping centre and came across some very nice, upmarket Asian food restaurants. We attempted to enter a few, but unfortunately you aren’t allowed to enter if you aren’t dressed appropriately (smart clothing), and you absolutely couldn’t wear flip-flops! The restaurant that we ended up in served authentic Asian hot-pots (essentially soup/broth which is heated to a very high temperature that you then cook your own food in). We chose the chicken hotpot with duck, sweetcorn, quail eggs, lamb and dumplings on the side. It was a really great experience for us as it’s not something you find in many places.
We have both agreed that we would’ve rather spent more of our time in Singapore than in Kuala Lumpur, so next time we take a trip down under we will definitely make a stop here, and hopefully we will have more than 24 hours in Singapore! There are so many lovely things to see in this country that I think it’s a shame it’s mostly only thought of as a stop-over as opposed to a trip in itself; some people don’t even leave the airport when they fly through, but they are still amazed by the wonderful things in this beautiful country!