Travel diary · Singapore
A Week in Singapore
Seven days of glittering skylines, incense-filled temples, late-night hawker feasts and the best $2 you'll ever spend. Here's exactly how I'd do it again.
Travel diary · Singapore
Seven days of glittering skylines, incense-filled temples, late-night hawker feasts and the best $2 you'll ever spend. Here's exactly how I'd do it again.
Singapore is one of those rare cities that somehow does everything at once, it's futuristic and ancient, polished and street-smart, calm and buzzing, all within a single train ride. I spent a week there and barely scratched the surface, but I came home with a phone full of photos and a very specific list of things I'd tell any friend to do. So consider this your friend telling you. Here's how to spend a perfect week in the Lion City.
In this guide
Singapore knows how to make an entrance. Changi Airport is a destination in its own right, indoor gardens, art and so much greenery you forget you've just stepped off a plane. But the moment that truly stopped me in my tracks was standing at the foot of an enormous indoor waterfall: a wall of water thundering down through a misty glass dome wrapped in jungle. Crane your neck, get a little damp from the spray, and just take it in. It's the kind of only-in-Singapore spectacle that tells you you've arrived somewhere special.
Obligatory "look how big it is" photos, worth every single one.
For a city this modern, Singapore's temples are a beautiful reminder of how many cultures live side by side here. Spend a morning in Chinatown and Little India and you'll go from a towering, technicolour Hindu gopuram covered in hundreds of hand-painted figures, to a hushed, gold-drenched Buddhist hall that smells of incense and feels a world away from the traffic outside.
Dress respectfully (shoulders and knees covered), take your shoes off where asked, and keep your voice down, these are working places of worship, not just photo stops. The quiet is half the magic.
The detail inside is unreal, every surface has something happening on it.
If you only do one thing from this list, make it this. Singapore is laced with park connectors and waterfront paths, and renting a bike turns a sweaty city walk into the best afternoon of the trip. Roll along the Marina, weave past the skyline, stop whenever something catches your eye. You'll cover three times the ground and feel the breeze the whole way.
Flat, shaded and scenic, the easiest way to fall for the city.
This is the recommendation that made all my friends roll their eyes, until they tried it. Dotted all over the city are little vending machines that squeeze real oranges in front of you and pour out a cup of fresh juice for around two dollars. In that heat, it is genuinely one of the best things money can buy. I had one almost every single day. No regrets.
Two dollars, ice cold, freshly squeezed in front of you. The unofficial mascot of my whole trip.
Forget fancy restaurants, the soul of Singapore's food scene lives in its hawker centres. These open-air food halls pack dozens of stalls under one roof, each one perfecting a single dish for decades. Chicken rice, char kway teow, satay skewers, laksa, chilli crab, you point, you pay a few dollars, you sit at a shared table and you eat like royalty. Come hungry and order more than you think you can finish.
A few dollars a plate and some of the best food of my life.
Nowhere captures Singapore's "garden city in the future" vibe like this. By day, duck into the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, climate-controlled glasshouses bursting with colour and a literal indoor waterfall. Then stay for sunset, because when the giant Supertrees light up after dark and the music starts, the whole grove turns into something out of a sci-fi film. Genuinely jaw-dropping.
The Supertrees at night, go for the free light show, "Garden Rhapsody".
Right by the gardens, Hortus is the kind of leafy, light-filled cafe you'll want to linger in. After a few days of go-go-go, it was the perfect place to slow down with a flat white and a proper plate of food surrounded by greenery. Order a coffee, take your time, and let the morning stretch out before the afternoon's adventures.
Good coffee, greenery and zero rush, exactly what a mid-week reset should be.
Over on Sentosa Island, Universal Studios Singapore is the big, unapologetic, theme-park day out, and it's a blast. Pose at the spinning globe, scream through the rides, wander the movie-set streets, and say hi to far too many characters. It's compact enough to do properly in a day, and the perfect high-energy contrast to all the temples and gardens earlier in the week.
You're legally required to get the archway photo. I don't make the rules.
Honestly? It's the perfect amount of time to fall in love with the place without burning out. A week lets you mix the big-ticket stuff, Gardens by the Bay, Universal, the temples, with the slow, simple joys: a bike ride by the water, a hawker plate shared at a sticky table, and a $2 orange juice that you'll be weirdly emotional about for months afterward.
Going soon? Save this, steal the itinerary, and tell me which day was your favourite. 🧡
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Planning your own trip? Save this guide, and tell me which stop you'd add.
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