Singapore
Singapore
A hyper-organised city-state with extraordinary food
Photos by Mike Enerio, Joshua Ang, Zhu Hongzhi and Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Singapore
February to April, and June to September (driest); the city works all year
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 290mm in Dec
Where it is
1.35°N, 103.82°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- See the Supertree light show at Gardens by the Bay
- Eat across three different hawker centres
- Walk the Southern Ridges trail
- Visit the Botanic Gardens orchid collection
- Explore Kampong Glam and Little India
- Night safari at the zoo
Singapore travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Singapore
ExpensiveMoney changers in Mustafa Centre, Chinatown and Arcade at Raffles Place give notably better rates than banks or the airport. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, but hawker stalls often want cash or PayNow.
ATMs & cards
DBS, OCBC and UOB machines are everywhere and reliable. Foreign card fees are modest. Decline dynamic currency conversion.
Avoid these
- independent machines in Change Alley and tourist arcades
Use these instead
- DBS
- OCBC
- UOB
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Singapore
Very safeAmong the safest cities on earth, with correspondingly strict laws. Fines apply for eating on the MRT, jaywalking and littering, and drug offences carry extremely severe penalties. Chewing gum import is restricted.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (2 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Singapore — all of it, at any hour, which is genuinely unusual
Worth more attention
- The law rather than crime: chewing gum, jaywalking, vaping and drug offences all carry real penalties, and drug trafficking carries the death penalty
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Singapore visa rules
No visa neededup to 90 days
Everyone, including visa-free arrivals, must submit the SG Arrival Card online within three days before arriving.
Other passports
Visa required in advance
How to get it: File the free SG Arrival Card at the ICA website. Sites charging for it are not official.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: the arrival card
SG Arrival CardRequired
In the three days before you arrive.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- flight number
- the full address of your first night
It carries a health declaration as well as the arrival details.
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of Singapore
Good and affordableRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Hepatitis A
Getting treated
Among the best healthcare on earth and among the most expensive in Asia. Visitors pay unsubsidised rates, so insurance matters. Tap water is drinkable and food hygiene at hawker centres is regulated and graded.
Dengue is endemic and there are periodic outbreaks; the government publishes cluster maps.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingHawker centres are the whole point — Maxwell, Tiong Bahru and Old Airport Road. A Michelin-recognised chicken rice plate costs a few dollars. Look for the longest local queue and join it.
Nightlife
Expensive rooftops, excellent cocktail bars, and hawker centres where the beer is a fifth of the price.
- Clarke Quay — the mainstream riverside night
- Ann Siang Hill — and Duxton, for the cocktail bars
- Haji Lane — something smaller and stranger
- Marina Bay Sands — the rooftop, and the view it sells
Closing: 02:00–03:00.
A beer in a bar: S$12–18
Buying alcohol in shops after 22:30 is illegal, as is drinking in public after that hour.
Getting around
Easy and cheap- GrabWorks here
- GojekWorks here
- TADAWorks here
- ComfortDelGroWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
TADA no commission, so often a little cheaper · ComfortDelGro the taxi fleet
- From the airport
- Changi to the centre S$25–35, against S$2 on the MRT
- Against a taxi
- About level with a metered taxi. Both are reasonable by the standards of a city this rich.
Time zone and your working day
Asia/Singapore — 12 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 21:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 21:00–05:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Singapore
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 3.6× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 1.5× the global median of 109 Mbps.
These are medians for the whole of Singapore — Ookla does not break it down any further. The capital and the resort strips will beat the number and the remoter corners will fall below it.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Singapore, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Singapore English — local usage
- Emphasis particleLah
- Reserving a hawker table with a tissue packetChope
- Very good / deliciousShiok
- Can you? / Yes I canCan or not? / Can!
4 more phrases
- Fear of missing outKiasu
- The bill, pleaseBill please / Can help me check?
- Coffee with condensed milkKopi
- Thank youThank you / Terima kasih
Singlish adds particles to the end of sentences. Lah adds emphasis, meh signals doubt.
Religion
No majority faith
Genuinely plural — Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Taoist communities live closely together, and religious harmony is protected by law. Remove shoes at mosques and Hindu temples.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Chope your hawker centre table with a packet of tissues — it is the accepted system
- Return your tray after eating; it is now required at hawker centres
- Queue patiently and precisely
- Carry a water bottle and refill it; the tap water is excellent
Don't
- Do not eat or drink on the MRT, including water — it is fined
- Do not bring in chewing gum, and do not litter or jaywalk; all carry real fines
- Do not take drug offences lightly; penalties are extremely severe, including capital ones
- Do not skip the hawker centres in favour of restaurants — you would be missing the point of the city
Where to stay in Singapore
No Holistay rentals in Singapore yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Singapore on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Changi SIN
45 minfrom the airport· 19 km as the crow flies
MRT East–West line to the centre, 45 min.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
