recommendations for things to do in Singapore

Associate
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I'll be on holiday there with my wife and 5 year old boy for 2ish weeks in August. Any recommendations for places to go, things to see?
 
Permabanned
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My wife is off to Singapore on business on Sunday 'til Thursday so I would be interested in hearing what she can do so she doesn't bother me every 5 minutes of her down time because she is bored!
 
Soldato
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Singapore is such a busy yet tranquil place to stay, my wife, 3 daughters and myself went for 3 weeks a couple of years ago and have to say it was probably the best place we have ever had the pleasure of travelling to. No grafitti, no homelessness and alcohol abuse is very very limited on the entire island.
The Singapore Zoo is a full day out, the boat trip and night safari in the zoo are both well worth it too.
Chinatown has some fantastic eateries and souvenir shops. Chinatown is by far the cheapest place to eat and drink, anywhere else is pretty much twice the price. Alcohol is extremely expensive everywhere else too.
Universal Studios and Sentosa Island as a whole is pretty good also and again you could take the boy on most of the rides and take most of a day to get round Universal Studios alone.
They celebrate their National Day on the 9th August iirc, we were there for that and the jets flying in round the high rise offices in the business district is just awesome, the noise and vibration is frighteningly intense along with the chinooks and other aircraft, they also parade all of their tanks and heavy moving army gear.
Raffles Hotel is a must just to sample the Singapore Sling cocktails, they are ****in expensive though, around 100 quid for 7 drinks, 3 were alcohol free.
The Marina Bay Hotel is simply fantastic to behold, it really is a work of art and while you are there you can see the F1 track being laid out at some parts.

Are you going via Dubai and Sri Lanka? If you go through Dubai and have a load of hours or a night lay off, you have to go to the Atlantis on the Palm hotel, the restaurants and massive, and I mean MASSIVE water aquarium is simply staggering.
This pic is only a small part of the thing, something like a dozen restaurants back onto the tank and they have something like 6000 fish in it.
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I took hundreds of pics on the 3 weeks we were there, heres a few.

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J.B

J.B

Soldato
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Four Floors. Every taxi driver will know it ;)

Singapore is a great place for shopping and I quite enjoyed just wondering round exploring too. If you are into your tech there is a mall that is just seven floors of electronics which I enjoyed :D
 
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a quick online and electronics looks within 5 to 10% of the £ price. I figure it's not worth risking any warranty hassle
 
Soldato
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Four Floors. Every taxi driver will know it ;)

Singapore is a great place for shopping and I quite enjoyed just wondering round exploring too. If you are into your tech there is a mall that is just seven floors of electronics which I enjoyed :D

Lol we walked past that with the kids too, never even realised. :D
Clark Quay etc is a great wander along the Singapore river, we stayed in the Frasers Robertson Walk apartments overlooking the river and walking to the city centre wasnt that far. (We were put up by family rather than pay the short term rental, I checked afterwards...6k for just under 3 weeks.)
 
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Soldato
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a quick online and electronics looks within 5 to 10% of the £ price. I figure it's not worth risking any warranty hassle

Keep your spare money for food and drink, it is insanely expensive though you must go to sentosa island as I said earlier.
 
Associate
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There's an infinity pool on the top of that which is definitely worth a visit. Quite a surreal experience looking out at people in offices while hanging off the side of a boat in the sky. There's also a casino on the hotel where the only card game is £25 a hand and you sit next mad Chinese gamblers with racks of chips. I've never felt so poor in my life. Some good restaurants in there too but can be mega-pricey, naturally.

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Man of Honour
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I love Singapore - the food, the weather, it's all clean and just fantastic!

Pretty much all has been covered.

You need to try ALL the food. Including Durian (but it might not be the season for it), and definitely chilli crab. Try and go to the street food halls for a more authentic experience.

Visit some of the temples.

Gardens by the Bay.
Raffles and have a Singapore sling and chuck peanut skins on the floor (the only place you can litter in Singapore)
Use the MRT and realise how rubbish the tube is, and go and visit all the malls at EACH stop.
Have a wander around the Geylang district and be amazed at the most beautiful women selling themselves for minutes/hours and the trannies that are hard to spot! However it's also got lots of character and it's a cool place to visit.
Sentosa is a fun resort to visit near Universal studios - with some lovely beaches.
Go and visit the Casino even though I hate gambling, it was a fun experience.
Go to new asia bar at Swisshotel and 1 altitude bar for some cracking views, and a chilled cool night out.
Go to the marina bay sands if you can get upstairs (you have to wear trousers, no shorts for the sky park)
Visit Chinatown
Walk across the bridge towards the marina bay sands
Watch the water show near the marina bay sands


And just have a wander around and get lost and absorb the amazing country. :)

Have a great time.
 
Caporegime
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a quick online and electronics looks within 5 to 10% of the £ price. I figure it's not worth risking any warranty hassle

The good old days of getting fantastic electronics at amazingly low prices are long gone. We go either to or through Singapore once or twice a year and it's basically price parity, almost to the cent. Not sure how the pound stacks up but a conversation I had with a couple of the sales guys strongly indicated that they're heavily restricted in the offers they can make you.

When you factor in the fact that your global cover is arguably less useful than a local warranty it becomes hard to make a purchase.

As an aside, my wife and daughter loved Universal and the $50 'jump the queue' option is definitely worth it.
 
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