This is the second installment of my two part post of our Singapore adventure. The first part contains our food trips and this one will contain our sightseeing itinerary as promised.
Tip no.1, going around Singapore is easy as almost all the places to visit are accessible by MRT or bus. In planning an itinerary, it is good to know which ones are around at the same area and visit them together. Some nice places to visit are on opposite ends and even though the MRT is convenient, the travel time will eat-up your desired schedule. Also, for convenience get an EZ-link top-up card. This will save you the hassle of queuing to get a ticket every time you use the MRT.
Our Itinerary:
We didn’t see much during our stay as we did more eating and shopping. We only had one one goal for sightseeing which is to see Singapore’s newest tourist attraction, Gardens by the Bay. And the rest just came in spontaneously as needed to fill the time.
Gardens by the Bay has 2 observatories, The Cloud Forest which is the cool-moist conservatory and The Flower Dome which is the cool-dry conservatory, the entrance fee for both conservatories is 28 SGD. I recommend visiting both conservatories, for me, the 28 SGD fee is worth it. The flower displays at The Flower Dome is seasonal so you can opt to visit it or not based on what flowers are on display. The outside premises of Gardens by the Bay are free except if you want to go up the OCBC Skyway for 5 SGD.
Tip no.2, I think the perfect time to go to Gardens by the Bay is around 4:00 PM in the afternoon. Singapore is a tropical country and it can get really hot in the afternoon, so it’s perfect to enjoy the gardens when the sun is on it’s way down. Once you get there, you can go ahead and visit The Cloud Forest and The Flower Dome first, you can spend around 1-1.5 hours on each dome, and then walk around the garden at night. For me, strolling around the garden at night is better as they illuminate the garden to create what they call Garden Rhapsody. Not to mention that the view of Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Flyer from the garden is undeniably stunning!
The Cloud Forest
The Flower Dome
Garden Rhapsody
Views at Gardens by the Bay at Night
After visiting Gardens by the Bay, we headed to Marina Bay Sands to meet our friends for dinner. There’s a walkway that connects the garden to the hotel which makes the walk convenient. Plus, it’s breathtakingly scenic, if you’re going to Marina Bay Sands from Gardens by the Bay, on your north you will see Marina Bay Sands on your east you will see the Singapore Flyer and on your south and east you will see the Garden Rhapsody. How cool is that?
After our dinner at Marina Bay Sands’ Din Tai Fung and TWG, we went outside of The Shoppes to watch the laser light illumination show and see the city lights of Singapore’s Marina Bay area.
After watching the laser light show at Marina Bay Sands, we strolled around Clarke Quay and to check-out what their having for the Mid-autumn Festival (Chinese Thanksgiving) and to cap our day.
For our last day in Singapore and since our flight back to the Philippines is still at night, we decided to visit Sentosa Island to fill our day. There are a lot of attractions and places to visit in Sentosa. There’s Universal Studios, Resorts World, Seloso Beach, Palawan Beach, iFly, The Luge, Merlion, and more. What we went at Sentosa for was to visit the spot which they say is the southern most point of continental Asia which is located at the other side of the wood bridge of Palawan Beach.
And that’s it for our sightseeing adventures in Singapore. After spending some time at Sentosa, we returned to my friends’ place to freshen-up before heading to the airport. Our flight back to Manila was around 9:00 PM via AirPhil Express. We decided to go there early to check out Changi International Airport as they said that it’s one of the best in the world, and true enough, it did not disappoint.
waltzing+wanderlust 