Singapore and More
 

I am traveling to Singapore for work and then looking to spend 3 days just relaxing on a beach somewhere close any suggestions?
Because after we are traveling on to New Zealand and Australia for vacation. Need suggestions for that leg of trip also.

Haven't been to Singapore or NZ, but I've been to Australia 5 times and can certainly help you there. What are you interested in? One suggestion I can make no matter what you like is, unless you have loads ot time there, fly between destinations. For a very progressive country, their road system is not. Driving can take much longer than you anticipate.

don't know the name, but there are one or two islands just up the east coast that are resort type places...

There are Malaysian beaches just a short flight away that are worthwhile (such as Kuantan) or you can go to Malacca (Melaka) for a few days (not a beach but an interesting historic town. Ther are a couple of nearby beaches that are really not worth it - Bintan island, an Indonesian island, and Sentosa, which is part of Singapore.

If you've not been to Singapore before, three days enjoying Singapore when you aren't working would be nice. You have to decide if you want to spend your time traveling to another place.

Unfortunately, Singapore's beaches are nothing to boast of. Because the island is mainly a port city, the water is murky and there are virtually no waves. That being said, Singapore's best beaches are on Sentosa island, the theme park island to the south.

There is also Bintan island, 45 minutes by ferry from singapore. It's actually part of Indonesia. The North part of the island is resort city - nice beaches too. The south part of the island is an old, sleepy fishing village.

I agree with the earlier poster - If you are in singapore for a few days, its better to spend it there rather than go up to Malaysia or elsewhere.
My suggestion, spend one day at the beach in Sentosa and do the rest touring the city. Singapore's attractions are in its ethnic and colonial quaraters (Little India, Arab street, historic district, chinatown, etc), not its beaches.

Singapore has many things to do but it is not a beach island. My suggestion is to enjoy the shopping and sights of Singapore and then fly to an island with good beaches. Krabi and Samui are very nice and you can fly from Singapore.

Depend s what you consider best beach. to me the best beach closest to singapore is Langkawi's Tanjung Rhu. Fine white sand with karst islands in the sea ala Beach.And there is the new Four Seasons.

Guess Phi Phi (where they filmed The Beach)is better but the hotels there have been damaged by the tsunami.

WE went through Singapore on a recent last minute trip and enjoyed two nights at the Four Seasons...lots of good food and very relaxing.

In the past I have stayed for three nights at the Banyan Treen at Bintan. If you're not interested in flying somewhere this may be one of your best options. We went there for the millenium because it was one of the few places we could find availability.

The rooms/villas are gorgeous as is the spa which remains one of the best I have visited. It's VERY easy to get there on a ferry from Singapore or the airport. However, as everyone has mentioned the beaches are not so great in this area as it is a major shipping channel, also Bintan is really a resort development area so it's very "resorty"...which could be good or bad depending on what you're looking for.

If your looking for accessibility to Singapore and don't want to fly, if you'd be happy around a resort pool rather than the beach, doing the spa thing for a few days I would recommend Bintan.