Explore Singapore

Marina Bay

The beating heart of modern Singapore, Marina Bay presents one of the world's most dramatic cityscapes — the triple-towered Marina Bay Sands complex, the Helix Bridge, the futuristic ArtScience Museum, and the Merlion statue all crowded within a short walk of one another. The nightly light-and-water show along the waterfront promenade is among the most-photographed spectacles in Asia.

Gardens by the Bay

Adjacent to Marina Bay, this 101-hectare reclaimed-land garden is anchored by 18 towering steel Supertrees draped in tropical ferns and orchids that glow after dark, alongside two climate-controlled glass conservatories — the Cloud Forest (mist-shrouded waterfall, highland plants) and the Flower Dome (Mediterranean flora, seasonal displays). It has become Singapore's single most-visited attraction since opening in 2012.

Sentosa Island

Connected to the southern tip of Singapore by cable car, monorail, and a boardwalk, Sentosa packs Universal Studios Singapore, Resorts World casino, three beaches, the SEA Aquarium, Fort Siloso (a preserved WWII coastal battery), and a clutch of luxury resorts into a single resort island that attracts both international tourists and Singaporean day-trippers. Palawan Beach's suspension bridge leads to the southernmost point of continental Asia.

Chinatown

Established in 1819 when Raffles assigned ethnic Chinese immigrants to this district, Singapore's Chinatown is densely layered with gilded shophouses, the incense-clouded Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple (the oldest in Singapore, dating to 1827), the Buddhist Tooth Relic Temple housing a tooth of the Buddha, and some of the city's best hawker food at the Maxwell Food Centre. The conservation shophouses on Pagoda, Trengganu, and Sago streets have been restored to their late-19th-century appearance.

Little India

Centred on Serangoon Road, Little India is Singapore's most intensely sensory district — temple bells, the smell of jasmine garlands and biryani spices, textile shops overflowing onto the street, and the ornate Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple dedicated to the goddess Kali. Mustafa Centre, a 24-hour shopping maze, and the Tekka Market's hawker stalls make this one of the city's most rewarding neighbourhoods to explore on foot.

Kampong Glam

Once the royal compound of the Malay sultan who signed the original treaty with Raffles, Kampong Glam is now Singapore's Islamic quarter, anchored by the gleaming golden dome of the Sultan Mosque (1924) and the converted Malay Heritage Centre inside the former istana. Haji Lane — a narrow street of pastel shophouses converted into indie boutiques, cocktail bars, and street-art-covered walls — has become one of Singapore's most Instagram-visited locations.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

Founded in 1859 and Singapore's only UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 2015), the Botanic Gardens spread across 82 hectares of tropical greenery in the heart of Orchard, home to the National Orchid Garden's 60,000 plants representing 1,000 species, including the Vanda Miss Joaquim — Singapore's national flower. The heritage Rain Tree grove at the centre of the gardens is one of the most atmospheric spots in the city.

Orchard Road

Singapore's 2.2-kilometre luxury shopping boulevard is lined with mall after interconnected mall — ION Orchard, Paragon, Ngee Ann City, Wisma Atria — making it one of Asia's premier retail destinations. During the December festive season, the street is transformed by elaborate lighting installations that attract visitors from across the region.

Clarke Quay

Five blocks of restored Victorian-era warehouses along the Singapore River have been transformed into a riverside dining-and-entertainment district where cooking smells, bar music, and the reflections of riverside lights all compete for attention after dark. The area's history as a 19th-century trading port — when bumboats piled high with spices, coffee, and rubber docked here — is preserved in interpretive signage along the restored quayside.

Bugis / Bras Basah

Singapore's arts and heritage precinct stretches between the Bugis MRT station and the National Museum of Singapore, encompassing the National Library, the Singapore Art Museum, the Singapore Management University campus, and the restored art-deco Cathay Building. The Bras Basah Road corridor was once the centre of Singapore's education system and remains home to numerous galleries and cultural institutions.

East Coast Park / Katong

A 15-kilometre strip of reclaimed shoreline turned parkland, East Coast Park is where Singaporeans cycle, barbecue, inline-skate, and eat seafood under open skies — the long-established East Coast Seafood Centre here is one of the city's great institutions for chilli crab. Inland, the Katong neighbourhood preserves some of Singapore's finest Peranakan (Straits Chinese) culture in its pastel terrace houses, nonya cuisine restaurants, and boutiques selling embroidered beaded slippers.

Tiong Bahru

Singapore's first public housing estate, built in the 1930s in a distinctive Art Deco Streamline Moderne style, has evolved into the city's most characterful neighbourhood for café culture, independent bookshops, and farmers' market food stalls. The curved balconies and porthole windows of the original SIT flats — many still inhabited by elderly residents — stand just metres from third-wave coffee bars and natural wine shops.

Pulau Ubin

A 12-minute bumboat ride from Changi Village brings you to this small island where Singapore's kampong (village) way of life from the 1960s has been consciously preserved — dirt paths, wooden houses on stilts, free-roaming wildlife, and virtually no motor vehicles. The Chek Jawa Wetlands boardwalk on the island's eastern tip offers rare views of mangrove, seagrass, and coral habitats that have largely disappeared from mainland Singapore.

Holland Village

A relaxed expatriate enclave in Singapore's west, Holland Village is built around a small pedestrian square ringed with restaurants and bars that cater to the surrounding diplomatic and international community in one of Singapore's more human-scaled and walkable neighbourhoods. The surrounding landed-property estates — Dempsey Road's converted barracks (now galleries, restaurants, and antique dealers) and Rochester Park — give it a leafy, suburban atmosphere rare in Singapore.

Jurong Bird Paradise

Relocated from its original Jurong home to the new Mandai Wildlife Reserve in 2023, Bird Paradise is now part of Singapore's world-class wildlife hub alongside the Night Safari (the world's first nocturnal safari park), the Singapore Zoo, and the River Wonders aquatic park. The four-park complex in northern Singapore is one of Asia's premier wildlife tourism destinations, home to more than 7,000 animals across 300 species.

Established in 1859, the Singapore Botanic Gardens is the only tropical botanical garden in the world to be inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (2015), recognised for its outstanding significance as a centre of botanical science and plant conservation across 156 years of continuous operation. The gardens were at the forefront of developing the rubber industry — scientists here cultivated and distributed Hevea brasiliensis seedlings that transformed the economies of the Malay Peninsula and beyond — and the National Orchid Garden within its grounds holds the world's largest display of tropical orchids.