Singapore, Singapore

A city-state that treats hawker food as a UNESCO heritage and gardens as skyscrapers. Hot every single day.

cityfoodfamilyluxurystopover

Best time to visit

Month	High	Low	Rain	Season
Jan	28°	24°	220 mm
Feb	29°	24°	135 mm	prime
Mar	30°	25°	214 mm	prime
Apr	29°	25°	259 mm	prime
May	29°	25°	237 mm	prime
Jun	29°	25°	209 mm	prime
Jul	29°	25°	179 mm	prime
Aug	29°	25°	199 mm	prime
Sep	29°	25°	187 mm	prime
Oct	29°	25°	265 mm
Nov	29°	24°	338 mm
Dec	28°	24°	316 mm

30-year averages (1995–2024) from ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo. Rain is the monthly total.

Serves travellers at Budget→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $200 a day on the ground.

Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.

Cards and phone payments work almost everywhere, including hawker centres, though a few older stalls still want cash or a local stored-value card. Tipping is not expected; a service charge is usually already on the bill.
money · editorial
The rules are real and enforced: no eating or drinking on the MRT, no durian on public transport, and fines rather than warnings. It is hot and humid every single day of the year, so plan indoor hours into the middle of the afternoon.
know before · editorial
The northeast monsoon around the turn of the year brings sustained afternoon downpours. Regional haze can settle over the city in the second half of the year. The grand prix weekend closes roads and fills every hotel.
when not to go · editorial
Marina Bay for the skyline and the gardens. Chinatown and Kampong Glam for shophouses, food and a shorter walk to nightlife. Little India is cheaper and busier. Tiong Bahru is residential and quiet. Orchard is shopping. Sentosa is a resort island for families who want to stay put.
where to stay · editorial
The MRT reaches almost everything and buses fill the gaps. A car is pointless and deliberately expensive to own here.
getting around · editorial
Changi, with an MRT line into the centre in around half an hour and taxis that take twenty minutes. The causeway from Malaysia is the other way in and can be very slow.
getting there · editorial

Marina Bay Sands
Three towers with a 340-metre boat on top. The view from the roof terrace costs money.
Supertrees, Gardens by the Bay
Fifty-metre structures covered in real plants. The show is free.
Merlion
Half lion, half fish, from 1972. Smaller than you imagine.
Sri Mariamman, Chinatown
The oldest Hindu temple in the city, on a Chinese street. That is the country in one place.
Little India
The loudest and most colourful quarter of the most orderly city in Asia.
Jewel Changi
A forty-metre waterfall inside an airport. No need to fly anywhere.
Botanic Gardens
A UNESCO site, open from five in the morning to midnight, free.

Eat Hainanese chicken rice at a hawker centre, in the longest queue
Hainanese chicken rice at a hawker centre
Rice cooked in the broth. A long queue here means something.
Laksa
Coconut broth with prawns and thick noodles, cut short so a spoon does the work.
Kaya toast with soft eggs
Breakfast: thin toast, coconut jam, two soft-boiled eggs with soy sauce.

Walk through Tiong Bahru at eight on a Saturday
Claim a table with a packet of tissues
It is called choping and it is a real social rule. Do it once.
A whole night without the weather changing
Thirty degrees and eighty per cent humidity, at one in the morning, all year round.

TreeTop Walk, MacRitchie
Eleven kilometres of primary forest and a suspension bridge 25 metres off the ground.