Singapore – 24 Hour Layover

We had planned a trip to go diving in the Maldives (post here). With the Maldives being halfway around the world, we decided to break up our very long flights by spending 24 hours in Singapore.

We landed in Singapore at night. After some much needed sleep we had almost a full day to explore before catching our flight to the Maldives. While there was much more we could have explored, it was the perfect stop and we were glad we got a little taste of what the country has to offer.

• The Warehouse Hotel: A beautiful, modern hotel (in a restored, old building) that is part of Marriott Bonvoy’s Design Hotels collection. It is centrally located in Singapore right on the river.

After a 16 hour flight, we landed in Singapore around 8 PM. Luckily the customs/arrival process was pain free and relatively quick. We were able to easily grab a taxi from the airport where there was a clearly marked spot after arrivals and a well organized taxi line. It took around 30 minutes (and ~25 Singaporean dollars) to get to our hotel. After settling in, we had a brief nightcap before heading to bed.

With a good night of rest, we woke up at 7/7:30 and set out to make the most of our short time in Singapore. First we headed to Singapore’s Chinatown, which was a 20 minute walk from our hotel. A lot was still closed that early. However, we passed by the Sri Mariamman and Buddha Tooth Relic Temples. From there we walked 10-15 minutes to Lau Pa Sat Food Court, one of Singapore’s infamous food courts. It had a lot of different food stalls selling cuisine from around the world. We had some noodles with duck and dumplings to fuel up for our day ahead. 

Relaxing at Marina Bay

With full stomachs, we walked an additional 10-15 minutes to Marina Bay. We spent a few minutes relaxing and enjoying a view of the city before walking through the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands on our way to Gardens by the Bay. We had to take an elevated walkway from the hotel there to get to the gardens. The gardens are free to walk around. However, you have to pay to visit the OCBC Skyway (an aerial walkway linking two of the Supertrees), Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. We did  the Skyway first, which had nice views of the gardens and the city skyline. Given that it was very hot out, we grabbed some gelato from a stand in the gardens before checking out the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, both of which were very neat. In total we spent 2-3 hours in there. We could have spent longer exploring more of the gardens. However, we needed a break since it was fairly hot in March.

After the gardens, we decided to check out CÉ LA VI Skybar to get a nice view of the skyline. We were torn between going there (which was a bar/restaurant) or paying to go to the hotel’s observation deck. Since they were around the same price but the restaurant’s cost counted toward food/drinks, we opted for the bar. It was a little overpriced but it was a nice way to relax after visiting the gardens. We were still hungry after our visit to CÉ LA VI, so we ate a late lunch at one of the many restaurants in the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands.

Following our late lunch, we headed back to our hotel and from there straight to the airport for our flight to the Maldives. Given more time, we would have liked to have explored more of Singapore’s cultural neighborhoods and enjoyed more of the culinary scene.