Two Strategic Days in Singapore: Where to Splurge, Where to Save
Two Strategic Days in Singapore: Where to Splurge, Where to Save
Regularly rated as southeast Asia’s most expensive city, Singapore has a hefty supply of fine hotels and designer shopping enclaves as well as 39 Michelin-starred restaurants. Just slightly larger in area than Chicago, with twice the population, this city-state is a mecca for luxury lovers.
SLEEPING QUARTERS: Singapore’s newest luxury hotel, the Capitol Kempinski, sits smack in the center of the happening Civic and Cultural District. Gawk-worthy city views and an art deco aesthetic rendered in thickly veined marble and glossy rosewood characterize the rooms and suites; the two wings occupy the former Capitol building and Stamford House, whose architect also designed the Raffles Hotel. Suites in the Stamford House wing come with 24-hour stay periods, handy for early intercontinental arrivals. Chef Alvin Leung, who earned three stars for Hong Kong’s Bo Innovation, is overseeing the hotel’s 15 Stamford restaurant, opening this month.
COST: From $416 a night, kempinski.com
CULTURE FIX: You can’t really grasp Singapore without knowing about its Peranakan culture; to catch up efficiently, make one of your first stops the Peranakan Museum. The Peranakan—the descendants of marriages between local women and the foreign merchants who began arriving in the 1400s—grew wealthy working in real estate, shipping and banking. Their influence still permeates many aspects of daily life but the museum’s real highlights are the fabulously opulent items worn by the Nyonya, the female descendants: gem-studded jewelry, intricately embroidered silk clothing and handsewn slippers swathed in minuscule Bohemian glass beads. The museum is popular with school groups; beat the crowds by booking a private tour, led by a museum docent.
COST: $146 per hour for up to 8 people, book at least 2 weeks in advance, peranakanmuseum.org.sg
Illustration:
MATTHEW COOK
OUTDOOR EXCURSION: In a small city that’s equally vain about its tropical greenery and its skyscrapers, Gardens by the Bay may be the quintessential Singapore experience: almost 250 acres of parkland dotted with climate-controlled botanic domes, aerial walkways and towering structures. Beat the heat with a morning walk led by a specialist nature guide.
COST: $373 for a 3.5 hour tour includes private guide, refreshments and entry for two people, janestours.sg
MIDDAY MEAL: Across the Singapore River in Robertson Quay, the restaurant Po (short for po-po, ‘grandma’ in Chinese) occupies a ground-floor space in the Warehouse Hotel. Kitted out with marble tables and ’70s-style globe pendant lamps, Po is known for embellishing homestyle classics. Here, fresh flower crab popiah (soft spring rolls) arrive as a platter of ingredients (thin wheat flour wrappers, handpicked crab meat, crispy shallots, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts, cilantro), with chili and sweet sauces, for diners to assemble at the table.
Illustration:
MATTHEW COOK
COST: Around $102 for two, po.com.sg
SOUVENIR: Devoted to Singaporean designers, Supermama stocks stylish, often playful objects, accessories and homewares. The shop’s signature porcelain collection includes Kebaya Bleu, plates awash in a cobalt-blue-and-white botanic motif patterned after the embroidery on kebaya, traditional blouses worn by Peranakan women.
COST: $123 for a set, supermamastore.com
REFRESHMENT: Two-year-old Native Bar, in Chinatown, draws queues for its tough-to-replicate cocktails featuring Southeast Asian spirits and local produce. One recent offering, the Pineapple Arrack, consisted of coconut palm liquor from Sri Lanka, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and an infusion of pineapple skin.
COST: From $33 for two drinks, reservations recommended, tribenative.com
DINNER: The Corner House fills a romantic colonial-era bungalow once occupied by its namesake E.J.H. Corner, assistant director of the Botanic Gardens. Chef Jason Tan calls his cuisine gastro-botanica and gives equal billing to flora and fauna. The 7-course degustation menu might feature Wagyu beef with endive or a lone tomato with basil seed and Iberico ham.
COST: Dinner from $491 for two including wine pairing, cornerhouse.com.sg
Bare Budget: $349 a day
Compared with other world capitals, Singapore offers considerable bang for the buck. The wealth of cultural activities are surprisingly affordable, while food-obsessed locals justifiably crow about the city’s stellar street food regulated by an army of hygiene-conscious inspectors.
SLEEPING QUARTERS: Hotel MONO—well located and well priced—occupies six historical shophouses in the middle of Chinatown just a block from the MRT, Singapore’s extensive train system. The MONO’s black-and-white rooms benefit from high ceilings, aggressive minimalism and stylish baths (beware: Some open right into the bedroom).
COST: From $135 a night, hotelmono.com
CULTURE FIX: Singaporeans refer to the Esplanade, the island’s premier arts center, as “Big Durians,” for the building’s spiky likeness to the infamously malodorous fruit beloved across the region. Seventeen years after it opened, Big Durians remains a major nexus of music, dance, theater and the visual arts in Singapore, hosting annual events like the Singapore International Festival of the Arts (May 16-June 2); Baybeats, an indie music festival (Aug. 17-19); one-off exhibits in its galleries; and performances including free concerts one Sunday each month. The Esplanade’s vastness is best appreciated via a tour offering a peek beneath its famous domes, some perspective on its inimitable design and the chance to experience the sublime acoustics in the Concert Hall.
COST: $28 for two for tour, esplanade.com
OUTDOOR EXCURSION: Hiking is probably the last thing that comes to mind when people think of Singapore, yet the second most densely populated country in the world (after Monaco) boasts over 300 parks and four nature reserves. Travel just 6 miles from the Central Business District and you’re in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, 400 lush acres that are home to macaques, monitor lizards and an astonishing variety of birdlife and flora. The trails are in top-notch shape thanks to a recent multimillion-dollar reconstruction effort, and aren’t overly arduous, though the little-over-one-mile climb to the summit of Timah Hill, a combination of steep slopes and stairs, might leave you breathless.
COST: Admission is free. A taxi from downtown costs about $10, or take the MRT, nparks.gov.sg
MIDDAY MEAL: With so many street-food (or hawker-food, in local jargon) specialties on offer and so many hawker centers scattered over the island, where to begin? A strategy for the time-challenged: Zero in on one hawker center and graze. Thirty-year-old Amoy Street Food Centre in the Central Business District delivers the classic street food experience: crowds and queues. The effort is rewarded with savory-sweet kway teow (rice noodles) stir-fried with egg, bean sprouts, Chinese sausage and dark soy sauce from a stall called Fried Koay Teow.
COST: Average $7 for two.
Illustration:
MATTHEW COOK
SOUVENIR: Even if you’re not a shopper you’ll find it difficult not to succumb at Mustafa Center. Singaporeans frequent this consumerist icon in Little India for everything from Himalayan pink salt to high-end electronics and gold bars. Head to the jewelry section (Level B1, entrance 4) for glass-beaded bangles in a riot of colors; textile lovers can scoop up saris and patterned silks by the meter (Level B1, entrance 1) for a pittance.
COST: Up to $20 for a sari and $14 for an armful of bangles
Illustration:
MATTHEW COOK
REFRESHMENT: You’ll find the most authentically Singaporean caffeine fix at a classic kopitiam (coffee shop) like Tong Ah Eating House, in Chinatown. Here, powder that’s ground from beans roasted with sugar and margarine is placed in a cloth bag suspended from a metal ring and subjected to repeated dousings of hot water. The result is an intense brew served with a glug of sweetened condensed milk, to drink hot or iced (35 Keong Siak Road).
COST: $3 for two
DINNER: Unsurprisingly given its name, Salted and Hung specializes in all things smoked, cured and pickled. Chef Drew Nocente oversees the vaguely Australian menu out of a converted shophouse near the Raffles Hotel. The long, narrow space features a sleek timber bar backed by an open kitchen, where you can watch the chefs prep, among other dishes, kangaroo with beetroot or beef tongue with pickled onion.
COST: From $132 for two with drinks, saltedandhung.com.sg
Due to fluctuating currency rates, all prices are approximate.
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