Singapore
A city worth the journey, and the stop that makes a longer journey better.
Singapore is a city, an island and a country at once, and it fits a remarkable amount into a small space. In a single day you can eat breakfast at a hawker centre, walk through streets of Chinese shophouses, past Indian temples and into a Malay quarter built around a mosque, and end among the giant steel trees of Gardens by the Bay.
It is also one of the great crossroads of air travel, about thirteen hours from the UK and on the way to Australia, New Zealand and much of Asia. That has given it a name as somewhere to change planes. It deserves more: two or three days here is a holiday in miniature, and a longer stay is easy to fill.
Auria Travel is an independent UK travel agency, and we arrange holidays to Singapore in both ways: as a city break or a holiday in its own right, and as a stopover built into a longer journey, with the onward flights and the rest of the trip arranged to match.
How Auria can help with Singapore
Singapore is easy to visit, so our part here is mostly about fit. How many nights suit your trip? Which part of the city should you stay in: by the bay, near the river, among the shops of Orchard Road, or by the beach on Sentosa? Our travel professionals will match the stay to what you want from it.
If you would like Singapore for its own sake, or with a beach afterwards, there are ready-made holidays from tour operators with flights and hotel together. If one suits, we will find it and book it for you.
If Singapore is a stop on the way to somewhere else, we can put it together as part of the whole journey: flights that arrive and leave at sensible hours, a hotel in the right place for a short stay, and the onward leg to Australia, New Zealand or wherever you are heading, planned as one trip.
Singapore needs little arranging on the ground: taxis are plentiful and the underground railway is simple to use. Where it adds something, we work with trusted local experts for a private transfer after a long flight, a guide for a morning in the old neighbourhoods, or a food tour with someone who knows which stall to queue at. For most stays, a good hotel and a few suggestions are all that is needed.
Ways to do Singapore
- A stopover
- Two or three nights on the way to or from Australia, New Zealand or elsewhere in Asia. Long enough to see the city and arrive rested.
- A city break
- Four or five nights with Singapore as the whole holiday: food, gardens, museums, shopping and a day on Sentosa.
- City and beach
- A few days in Singapore, then a beach somewhere within a short flight.
- Family holidays
- Easy to get around and well set up for children, with a zoo and a night safari, an aquarium, a theme park and plenty to do indoors on hot afternoons.
- Luxury
- Grand hotels old and new, from a colonial landmark to towers with rooftop pools, and restaurants to match.
- Before or after a cruise
- Singapore is a home port for cruises around south-east Asia, and a few nights ashore fit naturally at either end.
Singapore as part of a longer journey
This is where Singapore earns its place in so many itineraries. It lies roughly two-thirds of the way from the UK to Australia, so a stop here turns one very long journey into two manageable ones, with a few days of good food and warm evenings in between.
Tailor-made need not mean complicated. Often it is simply the right number of nights, in the right hotel, on the right leg of the journey.
On the way to Australia
Two or three nights in Singapore, then on to Perth, Sydney, Melbourne or Queensland. Perth is around five hours away, and the east coast seven to eight.
On the way to New Zealand
A stop in each direction breaks the longest of all journeys. Singapore to Auckland is around ten hours.
Out one way, back another
Singapore on the way out, and a different stop, or none, on the way home.
Singapore and a beach
The city first, then an island or a stretch of coast in Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand, a short flight away.
Longer in Singapore
Four or five nights as the main event, with day trips and time by the pool.
Combines well with: Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, Bali
Neighbourhoods and experiences
The city is a set of distinct quarters, close together and easy to move between.
Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay
The modern face of the city: the Supertrees, two vast glasshouses and a waterfront of striking buildings, lit up after dark. A walk around the bay in the cool of the evening is one of the city’s pleasures.
Chinatown
Restored shophouses, tea houses and busy hawker centres, with a Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple and a mosque within a few streets of each other.
Little India
Garlands, spice shops, sari stores and brightly painted buildings, with temples and plenty of good, inexpensive places to eat.
Kampong Glam
The old Malay and Arab quarter, around the golden dome of the Sultan Mosque: textile shops, cafés and the narrow, mural-covered Haji Lane.
Hawker centres
Open-air food courts where each stall has cooked one or two dishes for years, often for generations. Singapore’s hawker culture is recognised by UNESCO, and it is how the city eats. Chicken rice, laksa and satay are places to start.
Katong and Joo Chiat
A residential district in the east known for its Peranakan heritage: pastel terraced houses, tiled fronts and a cuisine of its own.
- The Botanic Gardens
- A World Heritage Site and a green escape from the city, with an orchid garden at its centre. At its most pleasant early in the morning.
- Museums and heritage
- The National Museum, the National Gallery and the Asian Civilisations Museum tell the story of the city and the region, in air-conditioned comfort.
- Sentosa
- An island of beaches, resorts and family attractions, linked to the city by road, cable car and a short railway.
- The airport
- Changi is worth a little time in itself, with gardens and an indoor waterfall at Jewel, beside the terminals. Allow an hour at the start or the end.
When to go
Singapore lies almost on the equator, so it is hot and humid all year, with daytime temperatures in the low thirties and warm nights. There is no cool season and no dry one: rain can fall in any month, often as a heavy downpour in the afternoon that clears quickly. The practical advice is the same whenever you come: do your outdoor sightseeing in the morning and the evening, and keep museums, shops and long lunches for the middle of the day.
- November to January
- The wettest months, with more frequent and sometimes prolonged rain. Still warm, and the city is ready for it, with covered walkways almost everywhere.
- February to April
- February is on average the driest month, and this is often a comfortable time, though showers still come.
- May to September
- Hot, with short showers and thunderstorms, more often in the afternoon. In some years smoke haze from fires elsewhere in the region affects the air for a time.
- Festivals and events
- Chinese New Year, Deepavali and other festivals bring the neighbourhoods to life, and big events fill hotels and raise prices. Tell us your dates and we will check.
Planning your trip
A few things that make a short stay go well.
- How long
- Two nights gives you one full day, which is tight. Three nights is a comfortable stopover. Four or five suits a city break. These are suggestions, not rules.
- Where to stay
- By Marina Bay for the views and the gardens, near the river for restaurants and nightlife, around Orchard Road for shopping, or on Sentosa for a resort and a beach. For a short stay, location matters more than anything.
- Flight times
- Flights from the UK take around thirteen hours direct. For a stopover, arriving in the evening and leaving late on your last day gives you the most from each night.
- Getting around
- The underground is quick, cool and simple, taxis are easy to find, and much of the centre can be walked in short stretches.
- The heat
- Allow for it. Two or three things in a day, with a break in the middle, is a better plan than five.
- Onward travel
- If Singapore is part of a longer trip, the whole route is planned together, so that the stopover fits the flights and not the other way round.
Related holiday types
Thinking about Singapore?
Tell us whether you have Singapore in mind for its own sake or as a stop on a longer journey, how many nights you would like, when you are travelling and who is going. If it is part of a trip to Australia or New Zealand, tell us about that too, and we will plan the whole route together.
