Map tips: click a marker to learn more about the spot, and click the star in the map header to save the entire map under Your Places in Google Maps.
We had about an 8 hour layover in Singapore (were flying standby) and it turned out to be the perfect place to have such a layover. They have 2 free city tours if your layover is longer than 5.5 hours (details here: https://www.changiairport.com/en/airport-guide/facilities-and-services/free-singapore-tour.html). This might sound dumb but we opted to do it ourselves. We would have wanted to do the City Sights Tour, but they only offer that 2 times per day and the hours didn’t line up with our layover. The Heritage Tour is offered 4 times per day, but didn’t go the places we wanted to visit.
We took the metro in and walked to Merlion Park first for the famous view with the lion statue spraying water. Then we walked all the way around Marina Bay. It was so hot in July and there were tons of people exercising. It is a very clean, rich city and it shows. The skyline is beautiful, and the Marina Bay Sands hotel is quite a sight. We walked across the Helix Bridge as it got dark, and the view looking back with the bridge lit up and the hotel in the background is fantastic.
As we walked back towards the metro stop, they had a show in the bay where they sprayed water up and actually projected images with music against the water. The skyline was behind it all and I’ve never seen anything like it. Such a unique experience, and we got to see it completely by chance. The only money we spent was on ice cream and a snack, so even though it’s a really expensive place, it doesn’t have to be if you’re there on a layover. Gardens by the Bay would be neat to visit but we didn’t have enough time (the outdoor gardens are free). Singapore isn’t a city/country that we would choose to go on our own, but really glad our flight schedule left us enough time to check it out.
Traveled in July 2014
Leave a reply