Accomodation/sights in day there and on return
Nov 2nd, 2008, 02:10 PM
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Accomodation/sights in day there and on return
Lone female travelling to Australia via Singapore in Feb arrive 7pm in evening and leave the following day for flight at 9pm.Returning beginning March again via Singapore arriving 7.30pm leaving midnight following day.Been recommended to stay at Park Royal Kitchener Road,can anyone recommend cheaper accomodation? Quite fancy the night safari at the zoo can I grab a taxi there and pay for ticket on arrival? Thought of the botanical gardens,ciy tour or should I wonder myself? what is there to do in the evening on your own? Any other tips?
Nov 2nd, 2008, 06:24 PM
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You can book night safari tickets ahead of time, and if your trip is on a weekend, you might want to consider it, see http://www.nightsafari.com.sg/ for information. Probably not really necessary for one ticket, but you never know.
For a visit in February to Singapore, you should check to see if your visit will coincide with the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. If it is, you should definitely plan to go to the temple on Tank Road and also to the Little India area to observe events. This festival is really something to see, and is only celebrated in Singapore and in the Batu Caves near Penang. Devotees piece their bodies with skewers which hold up huge headdresses and walk barefoot about 2 miles between two temples. There is firewalking and other similar physical feats going on at the temples. I don’t think the date has been fixed yet for 2009, it has something to do with moon phases, but you might check the Singapore tourism website to see if they have any info yet and see if your dates coincide with it. The Singapore tourist board website at http://www.visitsingapore.com/publis.../en/index.html
is a good place to check, and it will give info on other events as well as suggestions for things to do.
For activities, I would not take a bus tour (I am not a tour person in any event). I love Singapore for walking the neighborhoods of Little India (Serangoon Road and that area) and Arab street with the narrow streets and traditional 2-storey shophouse buildings with the little family stores and restaurants; that is the Singapore I like the best. The Malay area of Geylang is very interesting and great street food. (Perfectly safe in Singapore.) You can also still find this in “china town” -- hard to believe that there is one in a place so overwhelmingly Chinese -- over in the South Bridge Road area where there is an interesting Hindu temple (there are also a few in Little India too, naturally) and Chinese clan association buildings. You could almost pick an ethnic group and spend a few hours exploring each area. A good street map will really help. Singapore is mostly flat (at least the main tourist bits) and the parts you want to see as a tourist are in the downtown river and waterfront area and are really quite close together, perhaps a 3-4 mile square area. If taken slowly in the heat and with a map, all of this is walkable IMO. Taxis are cheap and there is an excellent subway system to get to a place like Orchard Road for shopping and restaurants if you don’t walk to walk the mile or so between the downtown river area and the Orchard Road area.
There is a loop walk in downtown Singapore of the colonial core that will give you a nice chance to see the colonial architecture and learn some history, and will include the Empress Place wing of the Asian Civilizations Museum, which IMO is the best in SE Asia. It always has something interesting, take a look at http://www.acm.org.sg/home/home.asp to see what will be on when you are there. There is another new branch in a restored Peranakan house not too far away as well. Most guidebooks describe this colonial area walk, also take a look at the website for the Singapore Tourist Authority at www.visitsingapore.com to see if they have info, and hopefully a map.
Their modern art museum is small but has some great stuff, and they have several other really just excellent museums. The National Museum of Singapore is worth a stop too. You might want to consider going up on the Singapore Flyover, see http://www.singaporeflyer.com.sg/.
With regard to hotels, the Park Royal is sort of near Little India (although their map is not at all to scale, and IMO is a bit misleading, as I think it is a long walk to the MTR station). For a slightly cheaper alternative in Little India, which is a very interesting part of town in which to stay, you might look at the Perak (http://www.peraklodge.com/), which I have not been inside, but this place always looks interesting to me. It is in a very good location for Little India. (AND you get a discount at Apollo Banana Leaf curry house, which you will want to go to anyway…) You might also try the Berjaya Hotel (formerly the Duxton Hotel, see http://www.berjayaresorts.com/beachresort_duxton.htm), I think it is a little worn, but location is very good for the Chinatown area. You could also try The Inn at Temple Street (http://www.theinn.com.sg/) this gets some not so great reviews on tripadvisor.com, but some good ones too. Another thought would be the Gallery Hotel (http://www.galleryhotel.com.sg/html/index.html)./ This gets some uneven reviews on tripadvisor.com. However, there is nothing conventional about anything in this hotel, and it is in a interesting little neighborhood of good restaurants and shops. You might also try the Lonely Planet guidebook for cheaper accommodation reccos. Their “top end” reccos are usually good value for money. The Singapore tourism board also lists hotels by price I believe.
For a visit in February to Singapore, you should check to see if your visit will coincide with the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. If it is, you should definitely plan to go to the temple on Tank Road and also to the Little India area to observe events. This festival is really something to see, and is only celebrated in Singapore and in the Batu Caves near Penang. Devotees piece their bodies with skewers which hold up huge headdresses and walk barefoot about 2 miles between two temples. There is firewalking and other similar physical feats going on at the temples. I don’t think the date has been fixed yet for 2009, it has something to do with moon phases, but you might check the Singapore tourism website to see if they have any info yet and see if your dates coincide with it. The Singapore tourist board website at http://www.visitsingapore.com/publis.../en/index.html
is a good place to check, and it will give info on other events as well as suggestions for things to do.
For activities, I would not take a bus tour (I am not a tour person in any event). I love Singapore for walking the neighborhoods of Little India (Serangoon Road and that area) and Arab street with the narrow streets and traditional 2-storey shophouse buildings with the little family stores and restaurants; that is the Singapore I like the best. The Malay area of Geylang is very interesting and great street food. (Perfectly safe in Singapore.) You can also still find this in “china town” -- hard to believe that there is one in a place so overwhelmingly Chinese -- over in the South Bridge Road area where there is an interesting Hindu temple (there are also a few in Little India too, naturally) and Chinese clan association buildings. You could almost pick an ethnic group and spend a few hours exploring each area. A good street map will really help. Singapore is mostly flat (at least the main tourist bits) and the parts you want to see as a tourist are in the downtown river and waterfront area and are really quite close together, perhaps a 3-4 mile square area. If taken slowly in the heat and with a map, all of this is walkable IMO. Taxis are cheap and there is an excellent subway system to get to a place like Orchard Road for shopping and restaurants if you don’t walk to walk the mile or so between the downtown river area and the Orchard Road area.
There is a loop walk in downtown Singapore of the colonial core that will give you a nice chance to see the colonial architecture and learn some history, and will include the Empress Place wing of the Asian Civilizations Museum, which IMO is the best in SE Asia. It always has something interesting, take a look at http://www.acm.org.sg/home/home.asp to see what will be on when you are there. There is another new branch in a restored Peranakan house not too far away as well. Most guidebooks describe this colonial area walk, also take a look at the website for the Singapore Tourist Authority at www.visitsingapore.com to see if they have info, and hopefully a map.
Their modern art museum is small but has some great stuff, and they have several other really just excellent museums. The National Museum of Singapore is worth a stop too. You might want to consider going up on the Singapore Flyover, see http://www.singaporeflyer.com.sg/.
With regard to hotels, the Park Royal is sort of near Little India (although their map is not at all to scale, and IMO is a bit misleading, as I think it is a long walk to the MTR station). For a slightly cheaper alternative in Little India, which is a very interesting part of town in which to stay, you might look at the Perak (http://www.peraklodge.com/), which I have not been inside, but this place always looks interesting to me. It is in a very good location for Little India. (AND you get a discount at Apollo Banana Leaf curry house, which you will want to go to anyway…) You might also try the Berjaya Hotel (formerly the Duxton Hotel, see http://www.berjayaresorts.com/beachresort_duxton.htm), I think it is a little worn, but location is very good for the Chinatown area. You could also try The Inn at Temple Street (http://www.theinn.com.sg/) this gets some not so great reviews on tripadvisor.com, but some good ones too. Another thought would be the Gallery Hotel (http://www.galleryhotel.com.sg/html/index.html)./ This gets some uneven reviews on tripadvisor.com. However, there is nothing conventional about anything in this hotel, and it is in a interesting little neighborhood of good restaurants and shops. You might also try the Lonely Planet guidebook for cheaper accommodation reccos. Their “top end” reccos are usually good value for money. The Singapore tourism board also lists hotels by price I believe.
Nov 4th, 2008, 01:56 PM
#5
Regarding the Park Royal on Kitchener - we stayed there not long ago and loved it.
It's a short walk to the MRT and right next door to Mustafa, a massive 24 hour store that sells just about everything you can imagine.
Just step our your door and you're in Little India.
It's a short walk to the MRT and right next door to Mustafa, a massive 24 hour store that sells just about everything you can imagine.
Just step our your door and you're in Little India.
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