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Condé Nast Traveler picks
 Best of Singapore
Staid, chaste, strict—Singapore has been accused of all of the above. But this island-state of 4.5 million people is shedding that image and finally learning how to have a fling. One of Asia’s most cosmopolitan cities, it combines the architecture, food, and cultures of its Chinese, Malay, and Indian citizens—all overlaid with a patina of British colonial order.
For almost 150 years, Singapore was the classic Brit port. In 1956, Lee Kuan Yew, the first post-colonial prime minister—ambitious and highly accomplished, blending the straight lines of Confucian values with the rigor of a legal education at Cambridge—saw the chance to transform the new country in his own image. The city’s standard of living soared as Singapore became part of the region’s high-tech manufacturing miracle. As Lee remade his city with a father’s stern hand, it took on a sort of surreal, Disney-esque prefab character. Many said that it lacked personality. In recent years, the city’s masters realized that in order to keep up with the global economy, Singapore needed to do more than just churn out high-tech machinery. Encouraged by the government, a crop of hot clubs, sleek hotels, and hip restaurants has opened, and the art and design scene has also blossomed. Attractions & Activities Singapore is so compact that, remarkably, it can be taken in and almost exhausted in two or three days—unless you’re fervent about high-end shopping or tropical basking, in which case a longer stay may be in order. The whole city is safe and hyper-efficient, and you can get from the airport to downtown or Orchard Road in half an hour. Singapore has something for everyone. The best way to see the city is to stroll the various neighborhoods, from Chinatown, where little shops sell everything from paper Chinese lanterns to temple incense, to Little India, where you can pick up fabulous sari silks, to Emerald Hill, where you can admire the pastel-painted shophouses, private homes built around open courtyards that have become the city’s most desirable real estate. To get a taste of the three predominant local religions, visit the Leong San See Buddhist temple (371 Race Course Rd.), Sri Veeramakaliamman, a Hindu temple (141 Serangoon Rd.), and the Sultan Mosque (3 Muscat St.). The equestrian-minded drop into the Singapore Turf Club for a day of horse racing (65-6879-1000; turfclub.com.sg) or watch a polo match at the Singapore Polo Club (65-6854-3999; singaporepoloclub.org). The open-concept Singapore Zoo, where you can see orangutans and Sumatran tigers roam (65-6269 3411; zoo.com.sg), and the 50-acre Jurong Bird Park, home to thousands of colorful birds (65-6265-0022; birdpark.com.sg), are fun for the kids. On Sentosa Island, linked to the mainland by a causeway bridge, you’ll find beaches, golf courses, and an Asian village with a restaurant serving Malay, Chinese, and Indian food (65-6736-8672; sentosa.com.sg). The Night Safari, in which visitors ride a tram through a park to spy its nocturnal creatures, is especially great for the little ones (65-6269-3411; nightsafari.com.sg). Don’t leave Singapore without visiting the restored, colonial-era Raffles Hotel (see Lodging, below), once frequented by the likes of Somerset Maugham and Noël Coward. The floorboards may no longer creak, but ceiling fans still stir the damp air, and you can sip a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar and tuck into a curry in the Tiffin Room. For Asian culture, the Asian Civilisations Museum offers wonderful exhibits about the Chinese diaspora communities that settled all along the Malaysian peninsula, as well an excellent collection of Ming furniture (65-6332-7798; acm.org.sg). The Singapore Art Museum is also worth a visit (65-6332-3222; nhb.gov.sg/SAM). And don’t forget the shopping, which is a blood sport here, aptly described by the local Chinese word kiasu, which means “always wanting the best, no matter what.” Head to Orchard Road, where you’ll find everything from designer clothes to toys. Try the Palais Renaissance complex for the Bollywood-inspired Mumbai Sé (390 Orchard Rd.; 65-6733-7188) and Tang’s for its famous house wares department selling bamboo baskets, clay pots, and sushi sets (320 Orchard Rd.; 65-6737-5500). These days you haven’t seen Singapore until you’ve checked out its nightclubs. Probably the hottest is Zouk (17 Jiak Kim St.), but you can’t go wrong at the Club by Aphrodisiac (47B Club St.). The opening of Crazy Horse Paris, a raunchy semi-nude cabaret, is a sure sign that things have changed (3B River Valley Rd.). Lodging The traditional way to see Singapore has been to book a room in one of the gleaming luxe properties near or along Orchard Road, with its landscaped shopping malls, or in one of the large properties closer to the remaining downtown colonial sites. Several of both of these types rank on Condé Nast Traveler’s Gold List of the very best places to stay in the world: the Conrad Centennial, in a Marina Bay tower, near the upscale Millenia Walk shops; the Four Seasons Hotel, where the Zen-like rooms feel pleasantly removed from the chaos of nearby Orchard Road; The Fullerton, in a 1928 building on the Singapore River that was once home to the General Post Office; the Grand Hyatt, a steel-and-glass hotel right off Orchard Road that caters to expense-account travelers and has several fine restaurants; the Pan Pacific, with direct access to the convention center and glass elevators with views of the 35-story atrium lobby; Raffles Hotel, a colonial landmark with puffy duvets and dark wood floors; Raffles The Plaza, an art-filled hotel within walking distance of the National Museum; The Regent, a 12-story atrium hotel just two blocks from Orchard Road and near the botanic gardens, a favorite of joggers; the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia, a 32-story tower chockablock with works by Hockney, Warhol, and Chihuly; the Shangri-La, a three-wing property with quiet, formal service that recalls the best English hotels. Other choices include the Oriental, which reopened with the city’s best spa after a multimillion-dollar face-lift. Perhaps Singapore’s hippest digs, the 223-room Gallery Hotel—an aesthetic jumble of Mies and Mondrian—is an obligatory downtown hangout for the Asian in-crowd. But you might find some of the coolest lodgings these days in Chinatown, where a slew of pastel-colored hotels in small shop house buildings have popped up. Once a Chinatown trading depot, the low-slung Berjaya Hotel, on Duxton Road, oozes the sedately chintzy atmosphere of a Pall Mall Club. Another hot spot is the New Majestic, a 21-room, 9-suite hotel that showcases local contemporary art. On the second floor, windows built into the bottom of the pool let swimmers see what’s for dinner at the trendy Majestic restaurant below. Dining The place to start eating in Singapore is the hawker markets, spanking-clean (of course) covered open-air food courts where you can taste the real local cuisine. The Alexandra Village Food Centre is behind the row of shophouses directly opposite Queensway, and the Maxwell Road Food Centre, in Chinatown, is on Maxwell and South Bridge roads. For more exclusive digs, IndoChine Waterfront has everything you could possibly desire: great river views, an opulent interior that pairs Czech chandeliers and Thai Buddhas, and terrific Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian food. Try the Saigon pomelo salad with steamed prawns in aromatic dressing or the Nha Trang duck and mango salad (1 Empress Pl.; 65-6339-1720; entrées, $14–$36). In the Shangri-La Hotel, The Line takes its inspiration from the city’s street markets: Patrons pick and choose the elements of their meal from vendors serving made-to-order dishes. Chef Sebastian Ehret presides over 16 stations, including a crustacean bar, a sushi bar, a barbecue grill, a dim sum carousel, and Western, Chinese, and Indian “inductions”—a far cry from warmed-over fare in chafing dishes (entrées, $14–$31). At Wasabi Bistro, in the Oriental hotel, paper lanterns illuminate the chic minimalist dining room, which overlooks Marina Bay. Signature dishes include Kumi’s No. 1, baked fillet of red snapper stuffed with crabmeat and avocado and topped with a secret sauce, and papaya motoyaki—baked prawns and scallops in garlic sauce served in a papaya half (entrées, $12–$35). Jade, in the Fullerton hotel, features delicious nouvelle Chinese at reasonable prices (entrées, $17–$20). Rang Mahal, at the Pan Pacific, serves refined Indian cuisine—concentrating on the complex, spicy dishes of Rajasthan, Kashmir, and the Punjab—in a cool, sophisticated setting with woods and stone as well as fine contemporary art (entrées, $19–$48). Truth in Travel is the guiding principle for all content published in Condé Nast Traveler. Other travel publications often accept free travel and accommodations. Condé Nast Traveler does not. It is independent of the travel industry. The magazine always pays its way, and, as far as possible, its correspondents travel anonymously. By doing so, they experience the world—both the good and the bad—as other travelers do, and their reports and recommendations are fair, impartial, and authoritative.
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