Travel Vacation

Published in the April-June 2011 issue.
Think Singapore is all about business? You’ll change your mind after reading Natasha Dragun’s pick of the city-state’s hottest new attractions. 

Not so long ago, Singapore was widely regarded as a great hub for finance and banking and an efficient stopover for travellers en route to their real holiday destinations. Indeed, the entertainment offered at the airport almost eclipsed that available in town. Today, the petite city-state has become one of the most alluring destinations in Asia, attracting record numbers of holidaymakers with its groundbreaking architecture, cutting-edge shops and clubs, and melting-pot cuisine. Next time you touch down at Changi International Airport, you’ll have plenty of reasons to leave. 

1. Lofty Lounging
Marina Bay Sands – one of Singapore’s two integrated-resorts – has changed the city’s skyline dramatically since it opened in April 2010. The resort’s three hotel towers soar over Singapore Bay and are topped with one of the most gravity-defying architectural edifices in the world: the 57th-floor Sands SkyPark. Here, 200 metres above the ground, hotel guests lounge by a 150-metre-long infinity pool or at Ku Dé Ta, a restaurant-cum-lounge that serves fusion fare and cocktails to the beat of chill-out music. If you’re not checked in to one of Marina Bay’s 2,561 rooms, you can still enjoy a bird’s-eye view of the city from the observation deck, open to the public for a fee.



2. Boutique Bay Beds 
Singapore’s gargantuan Marina Bay Sands may have stolen the spotlight over the past year but on the other side of the marina, the Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore is proving you don’t need a gaming floor to be a sure bet. Part of the Fullerton Heritage entertainment complex, the waterfront property offers 106 rooms and individually themed suites, tastefully fitted out with balconies overlooking the bay and furnishings that nod to Singapore’s past. Hong Kong designer Andre Fu was called in to craft the public areas and three restaurants, which come with polished rosewood, latticed screens, mosaic floors and bespoke artwork. 

3. A Date with André
Much-lauded young chef André Chiang left Jaan last year to open his own fine-dining restaurant, an eponymous establishment in the Bukit Pasoh district of Chinatown. If you can get a booking (there are only a handful of seats in the white dining room and even fewer around the chef’s table), you’ll be presented with a degustation of eight concept courses: a dining style Chiang dubs “octaphilosophy.” The idea is to serve dishes that highlight specific characteristics of the food: pure, salt, artisan, texture, terroir. What you get on any given night depends on what is fresh and available. But regardless of whether you’re eating a scallop carpaccio (one of the “pure” dishes) or foie gras jelly (a “memory” dish conceptualised by Chiang over the years he spent in Southern France), you can be sure it will look as good as it tastes. 



4. Weird Science
Designed to resemble a white lotus, the freshly minted ArtScience Museum offers a striking architectural contrast to the trinity of glass towers that soar above it at Marina Bay Sands. The 6,000-square-metre space houses a vast array of galleries, each unique in its layout and concept. One gallery, for example, encourages visitors to explore the history of art and science and produce their own creative expression of the nascent field; others host exhibitions curated by leading museums including a collection of Tang-era treasures salvaged from shipwrecks (on display until July 31) and artefacts from the Mongol Empire (until April 10).

5. Celebrity Chow Down
Singapore has never been short of fabulous food, but half-a-dozen new restaurants in the Marina Bay Sands complex have taken the city’s dining scene to a new level. Sydneysider Tetsuya Wakuda’s intimate Waku Ghin has tongues wagging with its creative Japanese cuisine; Santi, opened by the late chef Santi Santamaria, serves impeccable Spanish fare; while Michelin-starred Guy Savoy’s eponymous restaurant has already developed a reputation for its classic French food. Newer still are a steakhouse by Wolfgang Puck (Cut), a contemporary French-American eatery by Daniel Boulud (DB Bistro Moderne) and Mario Batali’s adjoining Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza. Phew! 

6. Island Hopping
Sentosa, Singapore’s resort isle, has enjoyed a renaissance of late thanks in part to the recent opening of Resorts World Sentosa. The sprawling complex is home to six hotels, a casino, dozens of restaurants and shops and a soon-to-open waterpark and oceanarium, slated to be the largest of its kind in the world. And then there’s Universal Studios. The theme park is tiny by international standards but it draws crowds with its recently re-opened headlining attraction: Battlestar Galactica, the world’s tallest pair of duelling rollercoasters. Moreover, revamped and new hotels (including Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort and Capella Singapore) and an increasingly polished infrastructure make it easier to get to the island and stay there. 



7. Retail Therapy
Singapore offers shoppers plenty of opportunities to spend their money, from the upscale boutiques in Marina Bay Sands to the malls and markets that line Orchard Road. The newest kid on the shopping block is ION Orchard, some 400 retail outlets sprawling over endless levels and underground passages. Still, the mall is not all about shopping – it’s also home to an art gallery and an observation deck, ION Sky, set 218 metres above the ground. Serious shoppers will want to time their visit to coincide with the Great Singapore Sale (May 27 to July 24): two months of discounts and bargains across the city-state.

8. High Flyers
The tallest Ferris wheel in the world, the Singapore Flyer offers yet another opportunity to ogle the city-state from above. When you’re at the top of the 165-metre-high ride, you’ll even glimpse the Indonesian islands of Batam and Bintan, as well as Johor, Malaysia, in the distance. For those looking for more of a rush, make a beeline for the just-opened iFly, claiming to be the world’s largest indoor skydiving simulator. The 18-metre-high wind tunnel comes with a glass wall so that when you’re airborne you’ll feel like you’re drifting over the South China Sea.  

9. A New Beat
For a city of just over 4.7 million people, Singapore punches well above its weight when it comes to world-class clubs. And party people will soon have two new spaces in which to bump and grind with the 2011 opening of venues Avalon and Pangaea, both to be set in a glass pavilion on Singapore Bay and both with illustrious older sisters (Pangaea in London, New York and Miami; Avalon in Hollywood). Expect bottles of top-shelf alcohol, international DJs and celebrities galore.

10. Going Green
The vista from the top of the Singapore Flyer is about to get much greener thanks to Gardens by the Bay, a trio of waterfront parks due to open in stages over the next year. The first phase, Bay South, is scheduled to welcome guests in November and will feature chilled conservatories for cool-climate plants, floral displays, a cluster of “supertrees” from 25 to 50 metres tall, and areas for garden festivals and concerts. Particularly interesting are the Food Gardens in Bay East: beds dedicated to plants and herbs commonly used in Singaporean and Southeast Asian cuisine, paired with food outlets that incorporate some of the produce. •

Photographs courtesy of the Singapore Tourism Bureau and respective hotels and restaurants. 


TRAVEL FACTS

getting there 
Jetstar, Singapore Airlines and Qantas all offer regular direct flights from Australian capital cities to Singapore.
• Jetstar. 131-538; jetstar.com.au
• Singapore Airlines. 131-011; singaporeairlines.com.au
• Qantas. 131-313; qantas.com.au

getting around
• Creative Holidays. creativeholidays.com
• Singapore Airlines Holidays. 1300-666-722; siaholidays.com.au

where to eat & drink
• Ku Dé Ta. 65/6688-7688; kudeta.com.sg
• Restaurant André. 65/6534-8880; restaurantandre.com
• Waku Ghin. 65/6688-8507; wakughin.com
• Santi Restaurant. 65/6688-8501; marinabaysands.com
• Cut. 65/6688-8517; wolfgangpuck.com
• Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza. 65/6688-8868; 
mozzarestaurantgroup.com
• DB Bistro Moderne. 65/6688-8525; marinabaysands.com
• Guy Savoy. 65/6688-8513; marinabaysands.com
• Avalon & Pangaea. marinabaysands.com

where to sleep
• Fullerton Bay. 65/6333-8388; fullertonbayhotel.com
• Marina Bay Sands. 65/6688-8868; marinabaysands.com
• Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort. 65/6275-0100; shangri-la.com
• Capella Singapore. 65/6377-8888; capellahotels.com

what to do
• Gardens by the Bay. gardensbythebay.org.sg
• Resorts World Sentosa. 65/6577-8888; rwsentosa.com
• ION Orchard. 65/6238-8228; ionorchard.com
• Great Singapore Sale. greatsingaporesale.com.sg
• iFly Singapore. iflysingapore.com
• Singapore Flyer. 65/6734-8829; singaporeflyer.com

further information
The Singapore Tourism Board is one of the best of its kind in the world. 
1800-736-2000;yoursingapore.com