Visit Singapore: when to go, budget and itineraries

The Supertree Grove and climate-controlled conservatories of Gardens by the Bay easily fill half a day, with a free light show every evening. A fifteen-minute walk covers the colonial heritage of the city at the Merlion, Raffles Hotel and National Gallery, before heading up to the Marina Bay Sands SkyPark for a sunset overview across the bay and the container port beyond.

Three historic districts can be walked in one to two days. In Chinatown, the four-storey Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and the Maxwell Food Centre hawker stalls sit within ten minutes of each other. In Little India, the spice and flower-garland stalls of Tekka Centre precede the Sri Veeramakaliamman Hindu temple. In Kampong Glam, the gold-domed Masjid Sultan and the Haji Lane shops close the loop. Budget under 6 EUR for a hawker meal as a first taste of local flavours.

The leisure island of Sentosa is reached by cable car from Mount Faber or by monorail from HarbourFront in barely ten minutes. Siloso and Palawan beaches, the S.E.A. Aquarium and Universal Studios Singapore easily fill a full day; plan for two if the theme parks and the Megazip zipline are on the itinerary. In the evening, the Wings of Time beach show closes the visit without much extra cost.

The Singapore Botanic Gardens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015, offer a cool morning outing before the midday heat, National Orchid Garden included; the outdoor gardens are free, only the orchid conservatory charges admission. Ten minutes away, Orchard Road lines nearly two kilometres of air-conditioned malls, handy on the most humid days or for a last round of shopping before the flight home.

Away from the skyscrapers, the MacRitchie reserve offers a three to four hour hike to the TreeTop Walk, a suspension bridge above the canopy, with frequent sightings of macaque monkeys along the way. The Southern Ridges connect Mount Faber to HarbourFront over nine kilometres of elevated walkways, a lesser-known way to escape downtown for half a day without leaving the island.

The Johor Bahru border crossing takes about an hour by bus from downtown, gateway to the Desaru beaches and the UNESCO-listed colonial town of Melaka, a further three hours by road. By sea, the Indonesian island of Bintan is reached by ferry from Tanah Merah in about an hour, an easy beach add-on to an urban stay; plan at least two nights there to make the crossing worthwhile.