Today, Singapore is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, with 12 million people visiting in 2016 alone. Surprisingly, the main reason for visiting this extraordinary city-state is not tourism or business, as one might think, but transit. For many travelers, Singapore is a transit point on the way to more exotic countries in Southeast Asia. It’s one of the most Europeanized and affluent cities in the region, making it a great place to immerse yourself in Asian culture and prepare Western travelers for a different way of life.
As a starting point, Singapore beats most cities in the region for several reasons.
Firstly, the local government is doing everything possible to increase the tourist flow (tourism is one of the main sources of state income),
so that the most favorable conditions are created for those arriving from abroad. Transit passengers in Singapore receive a 96-hour visa on arrival, special discounts in shops and restaurants in the city and airport, and even a free sightseeing tour of Singapore from Changi Airport (offer applies to passengers with a connection of more than 5.5, but less than 24 hours). Well, for passengers of Singapore Airlines there are favorable offers on hotels and transfers to the center.
Secondly, in order to get an idea of the city and see the main attractions, one or two days will be enough for you, which you don’t mind taking away from a standard two-week beach holiday in Asia. The minimum program includes the Gardens by the Bay park with giant futuristic super-trees and an indoor rain forest, Singapore’s Chinatown, where the largest Buddhist temple in the world is located, the colorful Little India district, the Museum of Science and Art, and a mandatory night safari in the local zoo.
But even if city sightseeing isn’t your thing or you only have a few hours until your next flight, it still makes sense to get out into the city, if only for Singapore’s famous restaurants, bars and shops. Singapore has a stunning range of establishments to suit every taste: from prim colonial bars with classic cocktails and popular clubs on Clarke Quay, to hipster pubs and coffee shops in Tiong Bahru and affordable backpacker beer gardens in Chinatown.
Singapore’s restaurant scene is also quite diverse, with Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese and numerous European restaurants in addition to Singapore cuisine itself. But the main highlight of Singapore is street food, as tasty as in Thailand or India, and as safe and hygienic as in Europe. It was Singapore that became the only city where two simple street food vendors from a cart received a Michelin star at once, this is impossible anywhere else in the world.
Well, if you still prefer to spend the time between flights at the airport, then Singapore Changi is the best choice. This is the largest transport hub in Southeast Asia; every day dozens of flights depart from here to the farthest corners of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines. Changi is not just an airport, but a real city within a city. On an area of 13 square kilometers there are 350 shops, 160 restaurants, 3 hotels, a 12-meter slide for children, a free cinema and even a rooftop pool with a magnificent view of taking off planes.
There are three terminals in the port (they plan to build a fourth next year),
between which a train runs, but there are also convenient walking routes, so in just a couple of hours you can, for example, take a swim in the pool in the first terminal, run into the spa in the second and catch a flight departing from the third. In 2016, Changi Airport was voted the world’s best terminal for the fourth time in a row, and it doesn’t look like it plans to relinquish that title in the coming years.
When it comes to connecting trips, travelers’ biggest concerns are getting to their flight on time. But, alas, this is not the only problem for transit passengers: luggage is often lost during connections and does not arrive at the destination along with the tourist. Unfortunately, little depends on travelers here; you can influence the situation with luggage only at the level of choosing an airport and airline. And in this sense, Changi Airport and Singapore Airlines again greatly outperform their Thai and Hong Kong counterparts. In a state that has defeated corruption and achieved an economic miracle, all systems work extremely well, and troubles like lost luggage are abnormally rare here.
It is Singapore’s organization and strict adherence to laws that have made this city one of the most comfortable places to live in the world. From the point of view of today’s fashionable urbanism, Singapore is an ideal city, there are no traffic jams, each district has its own full-fledged infrastructure, and the public transport system is incredibly clear and convenient. Thanks to this, you can visit all the main attractions and interesting areas of the city in a very short time.
