If you have done Singapore on your own please advise

[travelers2]

We are on the Diamond Princess in April and are looking into doing Singapore on our own. We will be there from 9 - 6. The MRT looks easy enough. Did you exchange money prior to leaving the USA or did you change in Singapore? Do you know if there was a day pass for the MRT? We would like to do a river cruise, go to Orchard Street and Chinatown. We are good walkers and looks like we could walk between some of these places. Any advice and further information will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

travelers2

[newfarmers]

We are on the Diamond Princess in April and are looking into doing Singapore on our own. We will be there from 9 - 6. The MRT looks easy enough. Did you exchange money prior to leaving the USA or did you change in Singapore? Do you know if there was a day pass for the MRT? We would like to do a river cruise, go to Orchard Street and Chinatown. We are good walkers and looks like we could walk between some of these places. Any advice and further information will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

travelers2

 

we were in singapore for three days at end of legend of the seas cruise from shanghai (two weeks ago).

 

use money changers in shopping centres to change USD. way better exchange rates than banks.

 

no day pass on MRT. only single trip where you pay journey cost plus S$1 refundable deposit or a card that you pay S$15 with $10 credit. the recharge card gives you cheaper trips. you cannot get the S$5 deposit back on the charged card. we brought them home and have already lent them to someone who went to singapore last thursday

 

we stayed just on edge of chinatown. we walked to clarke quay, to museum, singapore art museum, down to raffles. didn't bother with long bar. could get a better singapore sling (freshly made, not pre-mixed) at just about any bar if it's your thing. cherry brandy isn't ours. is very humid so be prepared to sweat buckets. used MRT get back to chinatown from orchard road, to get to little india, to get out to bus for jurong. one of the best subways we've ever used.

 

we're not shoppers so orchard road was a non-event for us. loved the singapore art museum and asian civilisations museum. we had a fantastic lunch in little india. ate in the local 'food courts' under most of the high rises around chinatown for breakfast lunch and dinner.

 

went to jurong bird park. we really enjoyed. went to sentosa. apart from seeing dolphins was a nothing place.

[travelers2]

Thanks so much for your advise newfarmers. All the info you provided is very helpful. We are not shoppers either so is it worth it for us to go to

Orchard St? Raffles is also not on our list of things to do. Did you ride

the cable car? We are thinking of just riding it over and back without stopping at the island.

Thanks again for all the info.

[newfarmers]

if you're not interested in shopping then you could give orchard road a miss entirely, we got off the mrt, walked for about 10 minutes and then found the next mrt and left. same with raffles, it was lovely to look at/in, but why pay S$20 for 'the experience' when if you like the taste you can buy a full strength singapore sling at any bar for S$15 at the most

 

before I forget - mrt - the recharge cards have to be bought at the ticket office, the single journey cards are obtained from the ticket machines - they are all touchscreen - also can only buy a single single trip so if there atwo of you you need to do it twice

 

sentosa - we caught the cable car. if we'd done the cable car in nha trang we wouldn't have bothered. we like that weird mix of terror and thrill you get in any kind of aerial tramway/cable car.

 

we got off the mrt at harbourtown stop which is actually where the cruise terminal is. you walk out of it (there are plenty of signs directing you) into an adjoining building where you buy the tickets and then go up to the 15th (?) floor to get the cable car. apparently it sometimes runs further back towards the city but culdn't work out when/how you do that. no-one else was on the day we went

 

we were told one night in a bar that if all we wanted to do was see the dolphin show we could just walk over to sentosa from harbourtown/vivo city and avoid the cost of the cable car. when you get over there you just catch one of the free buses to the dolphin show and then back to the bridge and walk back off the island

 

but yes, you could just go there, get off, then get straight back on. not sure if you could say to the attendants that you just want to go back. can't see why not

 

we loved singapore, so much more to do than shop. it was food heaven for us

[caliber35]

All the above comments about MRT are valid. Very easy system. While I was there I enjoyed riding the Flyer, which is similar to the London Eye. Also, walking along the river at lunchtime is great with wonderful food places. Just be advised that Singapore is very, very Hot! I am from South Florida and could not take being outdoors there for more than an hour at a time.

[Ms Understood]

We are also just back. We did a couple of days pre-cruise on our own. We stayed at the Four Seasons and took a taxi to the Night Safari, really worthwhile we thought. We ate at the buffet restuarant there and that was pretty mediocre but I guess should have been expected given the fact that we were in a Zoo. We also thought Orchard Rd was Ho Hum except I needed to get a magnet at the Hard Rock Cafe which is right at the beginning of the road. We took a car and driver hired thru the hotel to tour the City the next day and went to the Orchid Gardens which were fantastic and had a Sling at Raffles and went on the Flyer. The skies then opened up and it thundered and rained like crazy effectively cancelling any further touring. It is worth repeating that this is great City and we had a lot of fun but it is Hot Hot Hot. Enjoy!

--------------------------

Helen

[celle]

All the above comments about MRT are valid. Very easy system. While I was there I enjoyed riding the Flyer, which is similar to the London Eye. Also, walking along the river at lunchtime is great with wonderful food places. Just be advised that Singapore is very, very Hot! I am from South Florida and could not take being outdoors there for more than an hour at a time.

 

One beautiful thing about the MRT - it is air conditioned! It's really great to sit there in the cool on a humid, hot day!

[chummy]

Hi,

 

There are plenty of money changer around. For 1 day I dont think u need a lot of SGD, so any money changer will do. But for big amount, you can try to ask several money changer before deciding to change your dollar. Sometimes the rate they give varied eventhough they located in the same building.

 

For Chinatown experience you can take MRT to Chinatown station. Just 2 station away from Harbourfront where u gonna deck from your cruise.

 

For Orchard u need to change train, but the MRT map are available in every station n is very simple. Not as complicated as Tokyo's. So u dun have to worry about that.

 

Cheers

[West Windsor girl]

Singapore is a great city and very easy to get around by subway. axis are also plentiful and cheap. Yes, a Singapore Sling is over-priced at Raffles Long Bar, but how often are you going to be there and the atmosphere is amazing. There is also a great dim sum inexpensive restaurant right by the Long Bar. If you love flowers, the Botanical Garden is fabulous - especially the orchids.