Singapore Trip Memories

Hey there,

How is your day coming along??? As promised in my HAUL post (read HERE), I am posting some of the pics from my recent singapore trip.

First a few things about singapore, it's a very clean and green city from whatever I saw of it. Next would be that it is an expensive city. Third, it is the most comfortable and well-planned city I have seen (considering that this was my first international trip).
We were there for 5 nights, the first day was just the flight and some local trip to a mall nearby. We stayed at Ibis Novena in Singapore, a three star hotel. The room was not very big but comfortable with all the amenities you would require. It had an MRT station at just 5 minutes walk, which we never got around to using, cause we had found all about free shuttles to all tourist destinations.

Day 1: We went by Singapore Airlines, as my son was 2+ when we were boarding the flight, so we got a separate seat for him as well. The staff is super friendly and couteous, the kids also get a kit for playing before take off. There are special Child meal in the flight as well. Simply love Singapore airlines :) Most of the tourist attractions have a discount (10-15%) if you show SIA boarding pass. This came in handy for us at many places. Read for details below.
Reached Changi airport and were cruising on our way to hotel in a taxi in less than 30 minutes after touchdown. talk about efficiency.

We stayed at Ibis Novena Hotel, it's a relatively new budget hotel but extremely clean and efficiently maintained. The hotel staff is extremely helpful and will help you with all things you require at any time of the day. The only negative point was that their only restaurant would close down before 10pm and there was no room service. We settled for this hotel as we wanted to save money yet be close to Orchard Road from where there were free shuttles to most of the tourist attractions.

Day 2: We had planned for Full Day City Tour, there are many tour operators running these kind of services and we chose FunVee HopOn HopOff City Tours. For most of the attractions we visited entry for children below three years was free. It was fun, a double decker bus with open top allowing you to visit all major locations in Singapore with ease.

The tours start from Singapore Flyer and there is a shuttle, which picks you up from your hotel. all major hotels are covered so it should not be a problem, wherever you decide to stay. We went about in the Flyer as well, some pics below.

The Marina Bay Sands:

The famous Singapore Skyline:

Last stop of the day was Merlion for us (though it is not emitting any water), it was cool and fun besides the river. Saw the Marina Bay Sands show from there and came back to hotel in a taxi itself. In fact, for most of the days we were using taxis for coming back, though a tad bit expensive it was way better than travelling in MRT with a two year old (who refused to walk by the way).

Merlion (at night):

Day 3: This was the day for Jurong Bird Park, a must visit place (though I was not too keen on visiting it initially). There is a shuttle for tourists from Orchard Road (SGD 4.5 for adults) and our hotel has a free shuttle to Orchard Road every hour so that is how we coordinated it. The bird show is superb (twice a day only) and the bird park houses a variety of birds and the largest man made waterfall in an aviary.

Next stop was  Sentosa (Singapore's Playground), again a shuttle from Jurong Bird Park takes you to VivoCity Mall at Harbourfront for SGD 4.5 (for each adult). From Harbourfront, there are three ways to enter Sentosa, via broadwalk, via sentosa express (from the 2nd floor of vivocity mall), and via cable car. We opted for the last option and believe me the view was just so awesome, unbelivable and I was so scared. This was because the cable car travels at the height equivalent to a 15th floor building. 

In Sentosa, we saw "The Underwater World and The Dolphin Show" followed by some eating and then the laser and fountain show named "Songs of the Sea". This left us with enough time to catch the last cable car back to harbourfront. My status: Happy and Tired....Time for some zzzzzzzs.

Day 4: We had planned on visiting Universal Studio, as it was the National Day of Singapore, Universal Studio has a "Hollywood Dreams Parade" which involves all your favorite characters and the artists dressed up as Hollywood Celebs there.

A must visit place if you are in Singapore, it would be the experience of a lifetime, there are rides, awesome food, and of course the charm of Hollywood in the place. Some of our pics below:

 The New York Public Library (replica of course):

Street Dance (LIVE!!!):

Day 5: Since this was our last day, we wanted to keep it exclusively for Orchard Road and visit "Sephora", a paradise for makeup lovers like me. There was everything, loved to see al the brands under one roof. It was simply awesome....

Loved the malls, infinitely huge and you tend to travel a lot in the malls, losing track of miles walked in a day.

Evening time was the time for "Night Safari". A major tourist attraction and the only place where we saw huge queues happening, yet it was all well managed by the excellent staff. The place opens up at 7:00 pm and tram ride is compulsory, or included in the ticket. You get to see many nocturnal animals, up close and personal. A must watch is "Creatures of the Dark" show. The place is open till midnight and if you can wait for the crowds to subside, you would be better off and less exhausted.

Day 6: It was time to pack our bags and come back home, but wait there was one more place to explore, any guesses...

"Changi Airport", one of the best airports I would visit in my lifetime, it is heaven and we spent almost 6 hours there shopping, eating, watching our son play and more... The haul shared with you guys (read HERE) was totally done here, and rightly so, they had all the brands and what's more, it was all duty free.

All in all, a first trip with my baby, exhausting but super-fun, we managed to visit each place we had planned for, and we spent every last penny remaining. A good place if you want to travel with kids and very safe even though expensive. Your trip would be one of the good memories, which you would be cherishing throughout your life.

Take care...