Singapore is a country of under six million on an island smaller than New York City, and in sixty years it has gone from a colonial port with slums to one of the richest places on earth. It is efficient, humid, multilingual and more interesting than its reputation for order suggests.
Stamford Raffles landed in 1819 and signed a treaty with the local Malay rulers for an East India Company trading post at the mouth of the Singapore River; it grew fast as a free port on the route between India and China, with Chinese, Malay, Indian and European populations that the colonial plan sorted into separate quarters. The Japanese took it in 1942 in what Churchill called Britain's worst disaster. Independence came in stages — self-government in 1959, a short merger with Malaysia, then expulsion and full independence in 1965 — and Lee Kuan Yew's People's Action Party, which has governed without interruption since, built the modern state: public housing for most of the population, English as the working language, a hard line on corruption and on dissent, and an economy that moved from port and factories to finance, pharmaceuticals and technology. Per head it is now among the richest countries in the world.
The island is about 50 kilometres across and the city occupies most of it. The historic core is at the river mouth: the Civic District's colonial buildings and museums, Boat Quay and Clarke Quay's bars, and the financial district's towers around Raffles Place. Marina Bay, on reclaimed land, has the three-towered hotel, Gardens by the Bay and the skyline photographs. The ethnic quarters of the colonial plan survive as Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam, each with its temples, mosque and hawker centres. Orchard Road is the shopping mile; Tiong Bahru is the pre-war housing estate turned café district; the East Coast is where Singaporeans eat seafood and cycle by the sea. Beyond are the heartlands — Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio, Jurong, Tampines — the HDB towns where around eighty per cent of citizens live, each with its own hawker centre, market and MRT station. Sentosa is the resort island; Changi is the airport and a destination in itself.
The food is the national culture and the hawker centre is its parliament: chicken rice, laksa, char kway teow, roti prata, chilli crab, for a few dollars, from stalls that have done one dish for decades, and the queue is the guide. Four official languages — English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil — and Singlish, the local creole, on top of them. There is a good art scene at the National Gallery and Gillman Barracks, a Formula One night race in September through the streets of Marina Bay, and football and basketball at neighbourhood level; the Lions and the local league are followed loyally rather than passionately, and the real sporting loyalty is to the English Premier League on television. Shopping is serious, air conditioning is a way of life, and the city is greener than any tropical city has a right to be, with a rainforest reserve in the middle and park connectors that let you cycle the length of the island.
The hard parts: it is hot and humid every day of the year, around 31 degrees with afternoon storms, and the seasons are wet and slightly less wet. It is expensive — cars are taxed to the point where a modest one costs what a house does elsewhere, rents for foreigners are high, and alcohol is heavily taxed. The politics are managed: one party, a compliant press, tight rules on assembly, and penalties for drugs and vandalism that are severe by any standard and enforced. The work culture is long-hours and credentials matter. What it offers is a city that simply works — the MRT is clean and punctual, the streets are safe at every hour, the healthcare is excellent, the airport is a marvel — a genuinely multiracial society that has made the arrangement hold, and the best cheap food in Asia within a five-minute walk of wherever you are.
The colonial core — the Padang, the National Gallery in the old Supreme Court, Raffles Hotel — and the reclaimed bay beyond with Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay and the Esplanade theatres. The postcard.
Shophouses, the Buddha Tooth Relic temple, the Sri Mariamman Hindu temple in the middle of it, the Maxwell and Chinatown Complex hawker centres, and Tanjong Pagar's Korean restaurants and cocktail bars on Duxton Hill.
Serangoon Road's sari shops, temples and spice merchants, Tekka Centre's market and hawker stalls, and Mustafa Centre, open around the clock and selling everything. Loudest and most alive on Sunday evenings.
The old Malay and Arab quarter around the Sultan Mosque — Arab Street's textiles, Haji Lane's murals and boutiques, and the Malay Heritage Centre in the former palace.
The shopping mile of malls and hotels, with the UNESCO-listed Botanic Gardens and the National Orchid Garden at its western end and the embassies and condominiums of the wealthy behind.
A 1930s public housing estate of Art Deco walk-ups, now the city's café and bookshop district, with a wet market and hawker centre still doing the real business upstairs.
The Peranakan district of painted shophouses, laksa and kaya toast, running down to East Coast Park's beach, cycle path and seafood restaurants. Where Singaporeans go at weekends.
The expat and brunch belt west of the Botanic Gardens: Holland Village's bars and Dempsey's restaurants in converted colonial barracks, with the black-and-white bungalows in between.
nightclubs, cocktail lounges · marinabaysands.com
eyewear, precious metals, jewelery stores, jewellery stores, jewelry stores · parismiki.com.sg
department stores, shopping malls · 391A Orchard Road, Singapore 238873 · takashimaya.com.sg
soups, restaurants, Halal Certified Authentic Indonesian Soup House · toktok.com.sg
ferry terminals, ferry services · 50 Tanah Merah Ferry Road, Singapore 498833
Singapore, 04, SG — You board from the indoor waiting area — no need to plan for the weather. ✈ 83 airlines (Singapore Airlines Cargo, SilkAir, Tiger Airways, Garuda Indonesia…) · direct flights to 125 destinations incl. Denpasar, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Brisbane… (OpenFlights route data).
Routes and aircraft from OpenFlights (open data; a point-in-time snapshot). * = codeshare. Linked destinations open their own guidebook. Flight numbers are not in the open data — they come from the airline or a paid schedule feed.
Johor Bahru, 01, MY — You board from the indoor waiting area — no need to plan for the weather. ✈ 6 airlines (AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, Firefly…) · direct flights to 12 destinations incl. Kota Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Surabaya, Bandung… (OpenFlights route data).
Routes and aircraft from OpenFlights (open data; a point-in-time snapshot). * = codeshare. Linked destinations open their own guidebook. Flight numbers are not in the open data — they come from the airline or a paid schedule feed.
Seletar, 02, SG — Indoor waiting areas, but some gates board by bus or on foot across the apron — plan for the weather on the day.
Further out, but often the cheapest way in — the airports the low-cost carriers use. Each links to its own town's guide for getting from there into the city.
Batam, KR, ID — You board from the indoor waiting area — no need to plan for the weather. ✈ 6 airlines (Lion Mentari Airlines, Citilink Indonesia, Garuda Indonesia, Sriwijaya Air…) · direct flights to 17 destinations incl. Jakarta, Bandar Lampung-Sumatra Island, Jambi, Kuala Lumpur, Padang… (OpenFlights route data).
✈ Feeder airport · 42 km from Singapore · Lion Mentari Airlines, Citilink Indonesia, Garuda Indonesia · Getting around Batam Island →
Routes and aircraft from OpenFlights (open data; a point-in-time snapshot). * = codeshare. Linked destinations open their own guidebook. Flight numbers are not in the open data — they come from the airline or a paid schedule feed.
Ferry terminal · 9.3 km from the centre
Ferry terminal · 10 km from the centre
Ferry terminal · 10 km from the centre
Ferry terminal · 11 km from the centre · Batam Fast;Majestic ferry;Sindo ferry
Ferry terminal · 11 km from the centre
Ferry terminal · 11 km from the centre
Ferry route
Ferry route
Ferry route
Ferry route · Tian San Shipping
Ferry route
Ferry route
Ferry route
Ferry route
MRT, bus · Singapore's MRT lines and bus network. · Fares: EZ-Link card or contactless · Airport: MRT East West Line from Changi Airport
Bus · Schedules & GTFS data
On-demand charter, jet cards and the semi-private scheduled carriers that serve this city.
Broker · Any aircraft via operators worldwide · Global charter broker with 30+ offices; private jets, group charters and cargo.
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Charter, management, FBO, MRO · Managed fleet worldwide · General Dynamics company: charter, completions and FBOs in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the US.