Top 5 thing to do in Singapore — Family Vagabonders

We were in Singapore for 5 days and we thought it was a fascinating city. Singapore is an island state-city off southern Malaysia. It is a large city-country that spans 31 x 17 miles. It offers many entertainment options that we probably did not even scratch the surface of everything. Here are some of the activities that we did do and really enjoyed:

The Botanical Gardens are amazingly beautiful and FREE!!! The botanical gardens have all sorts of plants from flowers to ginger to bonsai trees. The only thing you did have to pay for was the orchid garden but that was filled with all different types of orchids. The botanical garden is great to just walk around and see the colorful plants and relax. The offer good maps to explore and have many cafes. We only had 1 hour here and explore the tropical forest walk, the frangipani garden and the ginger garden.
The various Hop on hop off Buses are a must. They are a really good way to see the city as it stops at the main places of interest and they have an audio recording so that you can listen to the history of each place and what the places have to offer. There are multiple companies doing the hop on hop off, so you can choose whichever one suits you best. Most of the buses are double-decked and have an open roof. The company that we used was called Fun Vee. This company offered 3 routes and we decided to do 2 loops on one day and the third route, to Sentosa island, on the second day. Overall, we had a great experience.
Different cultures have come to Singapore in big concentrations and have made areas like China Town and Little India. Singapore has around 75% Chinese-Singaporeans, 13% Malay-singaporeans and 9% Indian-singaporeans. China town is really cool and has a couple of very interesting temples. One of them is ‘The Buddha tooth relic temple’ that is really big and has very intricate statues of the Buddha. China town has many different Chinese food options and if you walk just far enough, outside the touristy street, you can find very authentic Chinese food that is super cheap. We had lunch at Hong Lim Market & Food Centre. Little India is also really fascinating and the food there is delicious and dry authentic. We had lunch at Tekka Centre. The Mustafa Center (which is in Little India) is ginormous and you can find anything from food to clothes to hairbrushes to medicine (really, anything). If you are looking for something that you need to buy go there!!!
The Gardens by the Bay is really spectacular and includes the biggest glass greenhouse in the world at an amazing size of 1.2 hectares. The Gardens by the Bay also have the amazing ‘super trees’. The super trees are giant tree-like man-made objects that have all sorts of plants growing on them. The super trees also collect water and energy for the park itself. At night the super trees come to life with lights that follow the pattern of music that is being played. There are two shows (they are the same thing just at different times) one at 7:45 and another at 8:45. Every couple of weeks a new song starts playing. You don’t need to pay for the light show but you do need to pay for the two greenhouses. The whole area is like a big botanical garden with many places to explore.
Sentosa Island is an island off of Singapore that has Universal Studios and Adventure cove along with many other attractions. There are wonderful beaches and restaurants on Sentosa island. The island offers free shuttles going up and down the island and monorails. To get to the island you can take a car, a hop on hop off bus (Fun Vee has a shuttle that takes you to Sentosa Island), or the Singapore cable car. On the island, there is an old World War 2 fort, named ‘Fort Siloso’ that was occupied by the British and the Japanese and you can learn a lot about Southeast Asia’s part in World War 2. The Fort itself is free of charge so I definitely recommend it.

These were the things that we enjoyed but there was so many other places we could explore in Singapore! It’s a fun city with many options for families.

I really recommend the attractions above. It was all really incredible!!!