City Break in Singapore & Sentosa Island

A City Break in Singapore & Sentosa Island is incredible – friendly people, amazing food and a melting pot of culture.  You can visit the city in its own right or on a stop-over to somewhere else.

Getting there from the airport

From the airport, we caught the metro to where we were staying (near Bugis).  To get to the Metro from Changi arrivals, go to terminal 2.

The metro is easy to use and there are maps around the stations as well as online.  You can buy metro tickets at the automated machines for about 5 Singapore dollars. The machines only take coins, though they are sometimes attended by airport employees who have change. You can buy metro passes but unless you are using the metro a lot, it might be cheaper to buy individual fares.
You can re-load your travel card though, which offers discounted rates for multiple journeys. Individual journeys are cheap between 1-3 dollars.

On your return journey, there is a complimentary water fountain in the departure lounge so you can fill up any water bottles you may have and avoid paying for water at the airport.

City Break in Singapore & Sentosa Island – the fun stuff!

Singapore Zoo

By public transport

You can take the metro to Ang Mo Kio and connect to a bus from there. The journey takes about an hour.

By taxi

We chose to get a private taxi, which was 21 dollars on the outward journey and 23 back. It took about 20 mins and was a lot easier!

Admission

It was 74 Singapore dollars for two adult admissions, including the tram. In my view, the tram is a waste of money as there is still quite a bit of walking to do and wait times are long.

We didn’t go on the night safari – I had heard that it is hard to see the animals at night and quite frankly, we were all “animalled out” after a full day at the zoo. It was a cool experience and well worth it though.

Eating

We ate lunch at Meng Kitchen, which served local food and was tasty and relatively cheap for a tourist trap – about 8 dollars.

Check out my VIDEO of Singapore Zoo

You can see my video clips of Singapore Zoo here

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Sentosa Island

Things to do

Sentosa is the perfect destination if you are travelling with a family – there are lots of rides and attractions to keep the kids entertained and your wallet light.

We visited Siloso Fort which was about 6 dollars each. The history of the Fort is fascinating and we enjoyed our tour of the buildings and tunnels. Even if you are not fond of history, there is a wonderful sky walk which has superb views.

Places to Eat

Sentosa has a number of hotels and bars along its beaches and coastline. We had some tasty beach bar garlic prawns and coconut rice which was pricey at 10 dollars but much nicer than the junk food on offer.

Getting to Sentosa

We caught the cable car which was a fun experience with great views. It cost 26 Singapore dollars each and you can use your ticket to carry on to Mt Fabre and back. You can upgrade your ticket to include the cable car around Sentosa – 29 dollars. On Sentosa, free regular buses operate, so you don’t really need the upgrade.

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Mount Fabre

Mt Fabre has a nice park and a great view but food and drink is expensive – one small beer cost us 12 Singapore dollars during happy hour!

where to stay in Singapore

Singapore accomodation is quite expensive. We stayed at Hotel Adonis, which we felt was good value for money and had a central location. It had free breakfast, free mini bar and wifi. Better yet, there was a complimentary daily happy hour! I recommend the Singapore Slings! Remember that service tax will be added to your bill.

Eating out – hawker centres!!

We had amazing food in Singapore and you can’t beat the hawker centres for price and quality. They sell almost any type of food you can imagine – Malay, Chinese, Indian…..They can be a little rough and ready but the hygiene standards where the food is being cooked is excellent.

We really liked the Albert Centre market where we had incredible Laksa and fish dumplings for 4 dollars each. Google map here

The market in Little India was also excellent and had similar prices. However, I was glad that I had my partner with me as there seemed to be a lot more men than women and I was stared constantly which was a little uncomfortable.

There is a very touristy hawker centre called Lau Pa Sat which is a little more user friendly and touristy. We had a fabulous green curry at Thai Kitchen and there was almost every type of cuisine you can think of.

If you want to cool down after your meal, there markets everywhere selling fruit ices for a dollar or so. We liked the one near Bugis.

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Marina Centre

We had a trip on the Singapore Flyer which had nice views but it was pricey – about 64 dollars for two. Equally as enjoyable were our walks along the quays, randomly ducking into temples that we passed on the road, the marina side gardens and our boat trip on the river. I will update the blog with more details on this soon!

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Before you go….

I hope you enjoyed my City Break in Singapore & Sentosa Island highlights. If you’d like to check out my tips for other top travel destinations go to my Home Page.

If you’re heading to Malaysia Check out my Tioman Island Blog and VIDEO

Happy travels!