We have been in Singapore for two and a half months now. As a travel agent, I used to have trouble with Singapore. I didn’t think there was much to see or do and felt it was right for a stopover but not amazing for a holiday. Now I know how wrong I was.
Here are my first 5 reasons for you to visit Singapore.
Everything is ridiculously easy to get to
You may have to change trains or buses but you can get to just about anywhere in an hour or less. Two changes maximum on public transport and that is only if you can’t be bothered to walk to the MRT stop an extra 100 meters away.
Taxi’s are cheap
Everything in Singapore is close and if you can’t be bothered with the MRT you can get from one side of the island to another in about half an hour (when the roads are clear)
Traffic isn’t real Traffic
When we arrived we were told about the peak hour and traffic jams. With the exception of the fireworks on New Years Eve. We watched them cause a very slight traffic jam on the ECP. Generally your looking at 30-40 minutes of peak hour traffic, in the downtown/city area in the morning. At night, you may get an actual peak hour. To be clear, this isn’t adding an additional hour of travel to your trip. It is an hours worth of slower moving traffic. Outside of that hour and a half per day, your run will be pretty clear.
You don’t have to go outside
If you are in a hotel, you are generally connected to an MRT station. Once you are in an MRT station you don’t have to see the light of day to shop until you drop. This is helpful if you have a stormy day. You can go eat lunch, play pool, catch a movie, hang out in a time zone, shop, play darts, sing karaoke and thats likely all in the MRT stations shopping centre so you don’t even need to get on a train.
You can eat in a hawker centre or elite dining. The options are endless. If the shopping centre you are at doesn’t have what you want, you can just go to the next centre. Either back on the MRT or in some places you can just walk through one shopping centre to another. You may need to walk to the MRT station to the next shopping centre.
But..
There are so many amazing things to see outside
Gardens by the bay, the botanic gardens, Marina Bay including the Esplanade theaters and Spectra the laser and light show. The original Merlion and the Merlion at Sentosa. Sentosa itself, home to Universal but offering so much more like a free waterpark for kids and it has a few beaches. There are so many fun and interesting things to do outside in Singapore. Most have a free element if they are not completely free.
I will be posting more reasons to visit Singapore as time goes on. If you are thinking about visiting Singapore and want some tips, please just let me know. I will be happy to help where I can.