Heaven for modern architecture and food lovers, Singapore was our first and then last stop on the first trip through Asia. There aren't many historic spots to visit so however many days you're planning to stay, your experience will be evolving around long walks and trying the local food.

Singapore, a tiny city-state, is one of the safest places on earth and one of the smallest and youngest countries. In only 50 years they became one of the wealthiest countries as well, so don't expect it to be cheap. Some would argue that it’s the least Asian place out there and it seems quite right when you land at the best airport in the world and drive through an urban jungle of its famous social housing and skyscrapers downtown.

Everything in Singapore is about modern architecture and food, which is (also) what we’re all about! We have landed there on our first wedding anniversary, so to celebrate and make use of both city’s most famous treats, we headed to Marina Bay Sands for a too expensive yet excellent dinner at Cé La Vi on the top, 57th (sic!), floor of the most iconic building in Singapore. The view is spectacular indeed, but we were happy to realise that we were on the edgy part of the building only when back downstairs.

The next day we spent wandering around the city and discovering its cultural diversity in Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam of the Malays. There’s plenty of museums to choose from if that’s your thing, but they are quite expensive. We got tempted by the National Museum of Singapore which was a nice way through the country’s short history. Many recommend the National Gallery, too. A swing by the Gardens by the Bay is a must when in Singapore, beware of the crowds though!

We also had to do right by Michał’s love for zoos so that’s where we spent the last, whole day of our Asian trip. The zoo is following a modern trend of open exhibitions where you can be among the animals without any barriers dividing you. You can expect mostly the species from the region.


The accommodation in Singapore is very expensive and there are barely any decent options for less than 100€ a night. The cheapest ones are so called capsule hotels where what you get is not a room but - you guessed it - a capsule to sleep in. When it comes to hotels, we are trying to find a consensus between Magda wanting to stay in the nicest places and Michał trying to spent as little as possible ;) On our first stop in Singapore we slept in Mono hotel, a really nice place with beautiful minimalistic modern design. If you don’t care about a breakfast in the venue (no kitchen) and want to be next to the Chinatown, that’s your pick! On our way back, we chose Hotel G on Bencoolen street, super centric with a great feature called Handy. Every hotel room has a phone you can take with you when going outside and use data and call if needed, a real treat for those travelling from far and not wanting to drown in phone bills.
There could be a whole (and are many) separate article about food in Singapore. In summary, it’s all a mix of Chinese, Malay and Indian influences and you can find many hawker centres which are open-space markets with multiple stalls to choose from, each specialising in a particular type of cuisine. There’s a good chance you’ll find an article about each one of them with some recommendations, which often come in handy when the whole menu is in Chinese. Make sure to try the two cheapest Michelin-star places - Hawker Chan with it’s soy sauce chicken and the Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle. The second one looks quite shady with only two mains to choose from. The menu was in Chinese and the staff didn’t speak much English, so what we know is that both had some pork in it and we would recommend noodles over the soup (but both were good!). It's one of a few places we couldn't pay by card in Singapore, so make sure to bring some cash. We were tempted by the reviews of the Satay by the Bay but it wasn’t anything spectacular and there’s quite a walk to reach it, so you won’t miss a lot if you skip it. You should, on the other hand, give a try to a Sichuan hot pot - an experience in itself where you are sitting around a giant pot of boiling soup (usually damn spicy) and put ingredients of your choice in it. You might want to save it for dinner and not like us for a breakfast when everything else in the neighbourhood is still closed ;)

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