General: Singapore > Reviews > Paradise and a Singapore Sling

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
Family Friendly

Advantages:	Clean, multi cultural
Disadvantages:	Humid

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

We had the pleasure of taking our annual holiday last year to Singapore.

We stayed at the Shangri-La hotel, which is a really lovely hotel, and I will surely write an op on this shortly.

For the most part, Singapore is a clean and sterile city. There are beautiful, modern buildings throughout the city. There are some semi-exotic areas with interesting temples and buildings such as Little India on Serangoon Road, Chinatown near the Elgin Bridge, the Muslim Quarter near Arab Street, and a must see for most travelers, the Raffles Hotel Arcade Complex.

A friend of ours, told us if we ever made it to Singapore, we must go inside to relax and enjoy a Singapore Sling in Raffles. A Singapore Sling is a concoction of gin, cherry herring, cointreau, benedictine, pineapple, lime juice, and angostura bitters. They tasted good, were refreshing, and the atmosphere inside was splendid.

Some of the places that we visited and which were really the highlight of our holiday were:

NIGHTLIFE SAFARI
This is amazing. A monorail ride around a whole lot of animals in natural surroundings. You get really close and see creatures you've never seen before - either because they only come out at night or because they come from places as distant as South America and Africa. You can also take self-guided walks through forests and aviaries. Look out for the aquarium with its unbelievable assortment of fish and other sea creatures.

SENTOSA ISLAND
Another must see! This island is fantastic! It has big, sandy beaches, historic museums and a monorail that takes you right around the perimeter and Fantasy Island!
Fantasy Island is the absolutely lovely, especially for our children. It has an aquatic park full of hydro-slides and pool, which are really exciting. There are slides that you go in boats down, simulating rapids, speed slides that you go on mats down and the usual scarifying and horrifying twisters. But one of the best and definitely the most relaxing attractions is the stream, which slowly drags you around the whole park on a rubber ring.

JURONG BIRD PARK
Another great animal attraction. The highlight for me was having parrots sit on my arms and shoulders as I got my picture taken. Lots of colourful parrots, flamingoes and other rare birds.

We also visited the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Singapore Zoo. If you are an animal person, I highly recommend you go to the Singapore zoo. It is very different and a lot more interesting than other zoos namely London Zoo and other zoos in England.

There are many other lovely places to visit and you can usually get a list of places that might interest you from your hotel’s information desk.

Shopping is also great with clean shopping centers and boutiques along Orchard Road that sell a wide variety of products to suit everyone’s needs. Make sure you bargain though. You should start from half the price of what they tell you.

The nightlife is also very nice with lots of restaurants and activities.

The only thing that may put some people off is the strictness in which Singapore enforces it’s “stay clean” policy. In a way it is really very good and the country is spotlessly clean. Heavy fines are enforced if you litter, don’t flush the public toilet, rowdiness etc etc. This really did not put is off and we didn’t have any problems with this.

All in all we had a really lovely time and I would strongly recommend Singapore for anyone planning a holiday to Asia. It is especially suited for families and couples.