Singapore F1 2018

[Kanpai]

So after having been a fan of the sport since I was five years old (now 28) I've always wanted to be able to go to a circuit one day and watch the race. Since Singapore was added to the calendar it has by far become my favourite circuit of the season given the street circuit and night atmosphere.

Anyways I decided to take the plunge this year and book a holiday to Singapore/HK this year in September and I purchased F1 tickets for the race.

Anyone here been to the Singapore GP before and if so, any tips?

Ta

 

[Gaijin]

I'm been, but it was sometime ago in 2011 back when the cars sounded great - you could feel your chest vibrate as the cars went past - often only a couple of metres in front of you. Great experience, but moreso in the vein of Monaco - it's more of a great experience than a great racing spectacle.

We didn't get paid grandstand seats as to be honest, the track isn't amazing to watch and I tacked the race onto a larger trip so money was tight. General admission was good fun though and there are plenty of places to watch.

My tips:

• It's one of the most expensive races on the calendar so go in with your eyes open.
• Accommodation is very expensive around that race weekend so plan accordingly. Avoid Hotel 81 and Fragrance Hotels as whilst cheap(er), these are "rent by the hour" hotels if you know what I mean.
• We stayed in little india which was very near one of the gates. Our Hotel was budget (no windows and about the size of a large shed!) but did the job.
• I'm not sure if it still exists or is still used by F1 in singapore, but i found it very difficult to keep up with the race developments without something like Kangaroo TV.
• Overall though, Singapore is clean and safe and you should have a great time.

Singapore and Hong Kong probably my two favourite cities - i'm sure you'll have a great trip

 

[The_Abyss]

We went for the 2016 race, and had a great time. Things we found:

- access is pretty easy and not too busy on foot
- that said, for such an organised country, the crowd management is really poor. There are huge choke points at some narrow entrances / bridges, and everyone gets very frustrated in the heat
- Singapore's prices, already extortionate especially in the tourist areas, increase even more
- being a street circuit, you need to accept that you'll only ever see a small part of the track no matter where you sit
- be prepared to watch most of the race through the screens of the hundreds of mobile phones held up in front of you by other spectators
- definitely go to free practice sessions - the circuit is not as well attended
- the evening concerts can be really good. Queen did a cracking set when we were there

Otherwise, road closures aside, there's very little impact on the city and you can continue to be a tourist without too much bother.

 

[Kanpai]

I'm been, but it was sometime ago in 2011 back when the cars sounded great - you could feel your chest vibrate as the cars went past - often only a couple of metres in front of you. Great experience, but moreso in the vein of Monaco - it's more of a great experience than a great racing spectacle.

We didn't get paid grandstand seats as to be honest, the track isn't amazing to watch and I tacked the race onto a larger trip so money was tight. General admission was good fun though and there are plenty of places to watch.

My tips:

• It's one of the most expensive races on the calendar so go in with your eyes open.
• Accommodation is very expensive around that race weekend so plan accordingly. Avoid Hotel 81 and Fragrance Hotels as whilst cheap(er), these are "rent by the hour" hotels if you know what I mean.
• We stayed in little india which was very near one of the gates. Our Hotel was budget (no windows and about the size of a large shed!) but did the job.
• I'm not sure if it still exists or is still used by F1 in singapore, but i found it very difficult to keep up with the race developments without something like Kangaroo TV.
• Overall though, Singapore is clean and safe and you should have a great time.

Singapore and Hong Kong probably my two favourite cities - i'm sure you'll have a great trip

It's a shame the engines are not what they used to be back then, but I'm looking forward to the whole experience, granted there won't be a great view it's more the idea of being there that i'm looking forward to the most. We've got tickets in Bay Zone 3 for Fri-Sun.

We have a hostel booked for 4 nights in Little India which is about £18 a night, then we have averaged this out by booking the last night in Marina Bay Sands, bringing our average cost per night to £38 .

I've been to Hong Kong before and it was a convenient stopover so we decided to include that too.

We went for the 2016 race, and had a great time. Things we found:

- access is pretty easy and not too busy on foot
- that said, for such an organised country, the crowd management is really poor. There are huge choke points at some narrow entrances / bridges, and everyone gets very frustrated in the heat
- Singapore's prices, already extortionate especially in the tourist areas, increase even more
- being a street circuit, you need to accept that you'll only ever see a small part of the track no matter where you sit
- be prepared to watch most of the race through the screens of the hundreds of mobile phones held up in front of you by other spectators
- definitely go to free practice sessions - the circuit is not as well attended
- the evening concerts can be really good. Queen did a cracking set when we were there

Otherwise, road closures aside, there's very little impact on the city and you can continue to be a tourist without too much bother.

Thanks for the info there mate.

Probably going to be buying the most expensive beer I ever have in my life at the circuit . The evening concerts look really interesting and we'll definitely be going to that also.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Probably still cheaper than Silverstone.

 

[The_Abyss]

Certainly easier to get to, and probably quicker!

 

[Kanpai]

Probably still cheaper than Silverstone.

Tickets were £165 so not too bad!

 

[brendy]

Dunno if Id only go for the F1, Id make it a week if you want to see enough of the place.
Metro system is fantastic, eat/drink in China Town to save a few quid (Tiger beer big bottles are same price as smaller bottles elsewhere for example). 7 Eleven shops are the equivalent to Spar shops over here so while not the cheapest nastiest shops, they are not the most expensive neither.
While there you might as well go and see the zoo its pretty cool with the boat trips etc and night safaris. Taxis arent too expensive as they are subsidised iirc too, £30 gets you practically from one side of the island to the other.
Keep away from Raffles hotel and their Singapore slings unless you have a penchant for spending £100 for a couple of drinks, if so ask for a genuine one not a bottle poured poor alternative. I havent been in a few years now but really want to go back at some point as the kids loved being ther for almost a month and Sentosa Island etc offers plenty to keep anyone busy for a few days alone.

Bear in mind the flights are pretty long, we went from belfast to glasgow to dubai to Columbo, Sri Lanka to Singapore, the stop over in SriLanka wasnt awful (we backhanded the business lounge guy $50 to let us sleep in the lounge overnight and got a decent breakfast the next morning) but on flights in and out of there they spray some sort of anti bacterial dust over everyone once the plane is loaded up and taxiing. Awful stuff.
If you stay over for a day or two in Dubai the Premier Inn just offsite from the Airport is great and pretty cheap and had plenty of facilities, coffee bar, restaurant, attended roof top pools etc. We stayed there and commuted to the Atlantis on the Palm etc for visiting/dinner etc.

 

[Kanpai]

Dunno if Id only go for the F1, Id make it a week if you want to see enough of the place.
Metro system is fantastic, eat/drink in China Town to save a few quid (Tiger beer big bottles are same price as smaller bottles elsewhere for example). 7 Eleven shops are the equivalent to Spar shops over here so while not the cheapest nastiest shops, they are not the most expensive neither.
While there you might as well go and see the zoo its pretty cool with the boat trips etc and night safaris. Taxis arent too expensive as they are subsidised iirc too, £30 gets you practically from one side of the island to the other.
Keep away from Raffles hotel and their Singapore slings unless you have a penchant for spending £100 for a couple of drinks, if so ask for a genuine one not a bottle poured poor alternative. I havent been in a few years now but really want to go back at some point as the kids loved being ther for almost a month and Sentosa Island etc offers plenty to keep anyone busy for a few days alone.

Bear in mind the flights are pretty long, we went from belfast to glasgow to dubai to Columbo, Sri Lanka to Singapore, the stop over in SriLanka wasnt awful (we backhanded the business lounge guy $50 to let us sleep in the lounge overnight and got a decent breakfast the next morning) but on flights in and out of there they spray some sort of anti bacterial dust over everyone once the plane is loaded up and taxiing. Awful stuff.
If you stay over for a day or two in Dubai the Premier Inn just offsite from the Airport is great and pretty cheap and had plenty of facilities, coffee bar, restaurant, attended roof top pools etc. We stayed there and commuted to the Atlantis on the Palm etc for visiting/dinner etc.

We will be there for 5 full days which should be enough for us to explore everything I think.

Thanks for the other tips, 7 eleven is a store i'm quite familiar with having come across them before in HK and Japan, glad to hear they are in Singapore too!

We will be flying direct with BA from heathrow to Singapore (direct is fine with all of us so no issues there) and the flight to HK via Cathay Pacific.

I've seen that Holiday Inn when I've gone Dubai before, but when you have relatives who live in Dubai in apartments it's a no brainer

 

[The_Abyss]

One of my favourite pics from our visit. You'll have a lot of fun.

Force India at Singapore F1 Grand Prix 2016 by Greg Kingston, on Flickr

 

[Kanpai]

Wow great shot there @The_Abyss ! What camera and lens was that taken on?

I am really looking forward to this trip, not just for F1 but heard many good things about Singapore in general.

 

[The_Abyss]

I think that was my D750 and 20mm. Either that or the 24-70.

Definitely aim to spend some time at the Gardens by the Bay and the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. The latter two are stunning (and nice and cool!).

 

[Kanpai]

I think that was my D750 and 20mm. Either that or the 24-70.

Definitely aim to spend some time at the Gardens by the Bay and the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. The latter two are stunning (and nice and cool!).

Nice, I'm looking at offloading my Canon 600D + Sigman 17-85mm and going for something more compact, the A6500 is on my radar at the moment.

We've got all three locations on our to do list