Singapore travel

About

Singapore is a well developed tiny country. You can read history and culture details from other websites. One should not expect high rise buildings and man made wonders.

Be sure the points of interest are appealing to you. After all, you should not get disappointed and set right expectations. It has something or other to offer for each age group. You need to be aware of upfront as would not have any time to plan on the fly

Moreover lot of things like amusement parks, zoo, water parks in India are nicely maintained. But can plan a visit in case you want also to explore the other countries

Planning

1. Passport : Note that you have valid passport with > 6 months of validity
   
2. Visa : Indian passport holders need a Visa upfront (i.e. Visa on arrival is not available). There are agents through which you need to apply. You can google them (I went through Thomas Cook as found it resonable).
    
3. Visa documents required and checklist can be obtained from agent. But in general, following things need to accomplished for Visa)   
      
4. Air tickets :  If you want to save some bucks, continue reading further details. Else feel free to skip.
   
   You need assess various options. Normally if you fly from Chennai, the tickets are very cheap. Normally you get good deal on the airline website rather than going through the aggregator (i.e. flight booking portal). Moreover the weekend tickets are little costlier than weekday
   
   It is important that you book early (2-3 months in advance) to get a good deal.
   
   Note that some airlines allow booking of hand bag only fare and / or without meals
   
   That is catchy unless you ensure only 7kg of hand baggage per person suffices and your bag is indeed of cabin bag size. Airlines are very strict sometimes and ask you pay across counter during checkin (which is costlier than booking in advance)
   
   You can play smart here. Book luggage for only 1-2 person (say you are 4 people but can manage to have 1 checkin bag of allowed weight and others can carry hand baggage) 
   
   I had chosen Air India express flight from Chennai. The aircraft furniture was average but very helpful ground staff and cabin crew. Food served was awesome taste (compared to other airlines)
   
5. Hotel booking
   
   If it is important for you to get Indian food, then better to book around Mustafa Market area
   
   I had opted for ParkRoyal hotel (kitchener street). It is 3 star hotel, I found it good. Again, if you book in advance, get a economical deal. Here also, I rely on hotel website rather than any planner website (of course, use these websites to get some idea of budget and reviews, so be smart you know! )
   
   I found that if you register as a member of this hotel (takes only a minutes, matter of giving your name and mail id), you get additional discount.
   
6. Number of days
   
   Now this is tricky part. Solely depends on your and other traveler's preference
   
   Some people like to sweat if out and complete as fast as they can while some prefer relaxed vacation. In general, I would say 4 to 6 days are good. You can refer to next sections to check what all you want to visit and then decide upon duration  

Important information

Take a note of following aspects 

• The cost of living is very high. So be prepared to loose your purse strings 😃. Indian food is available but costly
• Like any other developed country, you need to use public transport (which means lot of walking around as well) to save money. You can enquire 
• There is a local taxi app 'Grab' (recently it bought Uber). You can use that as required. It also has 6 seater, 15 seater etc options. You can link your credit card for payments
• You should keep some cash handy (Singapore dollars). You can convert Indian rupees after reaching there as well. Overall, I would recommend to use credit cards. It costs almost same if you carry Singapore dollars from here.
• Very vital point about the entry tickets. You should buy them online or at travel agents. If you buy them across the counter (at the location as we do in India), then it is costly. I had gone to travel agent in Chinatown point mall, on the 5th floor named skyline (NOTE : ALL PAYMENTS TO AGENT SHOULD BE CASH) email : skylinetianyu@gmail.com, Ph : 6444 6368. I also heard online you need to be little careful as some people did face issues after reaching the venue. But this may be one off case as well
• It may rain anytime in Singapore. So be prepared, sometimes your plans also might get disturbed/changed

Exploring Singapore

Now here, it would all depend on your personal taste and what you appreciate. I have summarized my personal views to give some idea

FYI: can check http://www.singapore-guide.com/attractions/10mustsee.htm

Following was my itinerary

Day 1 : Start by evening flight and reach to Chennai

Day 2 : 5:30am Chennai Singapore Air India Express flight. Reached Singapore Airport at noon

Reached hotel and took rest. Evening time, had walk in Mustafa Market (its nothing great by the way) and had dinner

Day 3 : Went to the China town travel agent and purchased ticket for the Jurong Bird Park. 

You need to go by Cab or Bus (no MRT (metro) nearby). 

Jurong Bird Park :

If you are nature lover, then you enjoy this place. Its worth going if you have children in the group (ideally 7-14 years), they would like the experience. You can plan to use the available electric vehicles to move around or walk (walk is better as you can then explore it better)

There is one Indian restaurant near the entrance.

Variety wise, I believe most of the birds you would find in Mysore zoo or Bannerghatta (in Bangalore) zoo as well. But this bird park is exclusively for birds and I would say must go if you have children in the group

Quark Bay

In the evening went to Quark Bay. This is a so called 'happening' place and good place to visit in the evening. A nice calm river flows and around that some loud music, pubs, restaurants. If you like that environment, can plan to visit 

Day 4 :

In the morning, went to China point travel agent again to buy the combo tickets. 

Duck tours

This is one kind of truck which takes your some part of Singapore and then same truck operates as boat to take you to the famous Merlion statue (mind you : can only see this statue from the truck)

The complete journey takes around 2 hours. A guide accompanies you to explain the history and significance of each place during the journey

Now I found this not so great. Also there is river tour available (by ferry boat). It depends what you want to try or skip both.

Garden by the bay

Reached here post lunch. There is a flower dome (has tulip garden) and cloud forest (artificial waterfall and variety of plants). There is also a light and sound show in the evening.

All the things are artificially made. You can plan to visit this place as one of the main attractions 

Day 5 :

Singapore Flyer

This is a big flyer which moves very slowly. You can housed in a capsule (12 members capacity) and continue rotating very slowly. You get a good view of Singapore

S.E.A aquarium 

This is on Santosa island (connected by cable car/road/metro). You can take any route (we went by cab). It is very big and get to see variety of species. Again, children love it, for adults, it depends on the interest

Day 6 :

Universal Studio

If you see Hollywood movies, would know that Universal Studio has produced many animation and fiction movies. They have shaped various characters

In this studio, you can find rides, various shows running around. Each ride has a waiting time. There is a option to upgrade to premium service where there would be almost no queue. 

This studio is huge. Rides also are of various types and different adventure levels. I recommend you read about it in advance so that can plan better exploration of this studio.