January 3/4, 2026

We came into port on Saturday morning and had a nice breakfast on the ship before making our way out into Singapore. We had less than 24 hours in Singapore – so we knew we had to make the most of it. I had made a to-do list that would cover the major tourist locations in addition to doing some foodie-fun as well.

Our first mission, of course, was to drop off our luggage. When I had traveled to the Philippines for work previously, I had stayed at a Shangri-La hotel and it was absolutely lovely. In my search for a hotel I had seen there was one in Singapore, so it was a no-brainer that we stayed there for our one night.

Somehow, the universe looked down upon us favorably and when we checked in at 9:30 am our room was ready! The room was really nice and had a great view of the pool. We had a quick cat nap before we made our way out into the city.

Public transit in Singapore is incredible – I kept reading about the “MRT” (Mass Rapid Transit) and how they had tourist passes. Candidly, I love saving money and I know Andy and I can always figure out public transportation in a foreign country. The 1-day tourist passes came out to about $26 for both of us, and gave us unlimited access to the city. The MTR system was vast – and honestly puts any US system to shame. (Don’t get me started on how clean and safe it is as well…)

We made our way to the closest MRT station, which happened to be in a mall. It felt like we were in a whole underground city + mall. Because Christmas had just ended – there were a ton of sales and everything still felt super festive. We had to stay focused though – we only had the one day in Singapore and this wasn’t the time to go shopping. So, we got our MRT passes and got on the train!

Our first stop was the Newton Hawker Center. Have you seen Crazy Rich Asians? This is where Nick and Rachel go to meet his best friend and his fiancé when they land in Singapore. It also happened to be the closest Hawker Center to our hotel!

We were there during the day, so not all of the food stations were opened, but we made due. We got more noodles, rice, and chicken. One lady was really pushy and she almost talked Andy into ordering a beer – instead he got a peach Jinro from Korea. (It was really sweet). I stuck to a Tiger beer. The food was really good, but more expensive than our food market in Malaysia.

After lunch we hopped back on the MRT and made our way over to Gardens by the Bay. I’m sure if you’ve ever seen pictures of Singapore, you’ve seen these famous trees. We wish we could have seen them at night, but time was not on our side with this trip. They were still amazing to see during the day (and free!) – we walked around until our time at the SkyPark observation deck.

The SkyPark is part of Marina Bay Sands hotel – the surfboard shaped hotel that is also a famous part of the skyline. Naturally, I had to get to the top of it because I figured this would be the best viewpoint of the city. The cost was actually really affordable – about $50 for both of us to get up there! As far as we know, there isn’t a time limit for how long you can stay and there is a restaurant where you can get food and drinks. But remember – we were on a time crunch!

Photos of the photo spots

Places to see people! We did a complete walk around of the observation deck (I read every plaque – I’m one of those people) and took pictures. My mom went to Singapore in the 1970s – so I wanted to take pictures and videos so she could compare and see how much it’s changed from when she was there. (I’m sure a ton!)

After we felt like we had taken as many pictures as our hearts desired – and we spotted our cruise ship in the distance! We made our way back down the elevator. Our next stop was the famous Merlion.

Unfortunately, this was a tough one to get to by MTR and we decided to hail a Grab (their version of Uber) to get over there.

We hopped out and blended in with the other tourists trying to take a picture of this famous statue – and of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which was weird because we had just been there 7 minutes before! We didn’t stay for too long, but it was a nice area.

We decided to walk to our next stop, the famous Raffles hotel. This is where the Singapore Sling was created. We hadn’t researched it ahead of time, otherwise we might have gotten there earlier, but we ended up waiting in a line to get in.

Thankfully the line was moving pretty fast – and it was in the shade. Once we got inside, we were greeted by peanut shells all over the ground and punkah fans on the ceiling. Back in the early 1900s, women weren’t exactly encouraged to drink in public. Juice was acceptable, cocktails were not. Enter Ngiam Tong Boon, who saw a loophole and ran with it. He slipped gin and liqueurs into what looked like a harmless pink juice, giving us the Singapore Sling – a discreet cocktail with a rebellious streak.

We had a few Singapore Slings on the trip, but this was definitely the best one we drank and the most expensive.

At this point we started to make our way back to our hotel. We wanted to have a quick dinner and then repack our suitcases to redistribute the weight for the flight. We opted to eat at the hotel since we had a credit with our American Express card – we opted for pizza and wine. A classic.

We were off to bed and had an early wake up since our flight was at 9 am the next morning!

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We were excited to get to the airport early because the Singapore airport is known for being one of the best airports in the world. We dropped our bags and were thrilled just to walk around the airport.

I had researched things to do in Terminal 3, which is where our ticket said we would be departing from. Unfortunately, we were actually departing from Terminal 1. (Noooo!!)

This meant that I was going to miss out on the giant slide and free movie theater – yes, you read that right. But when life hands you lemons… so we decided to walk instead of taking the train so we could see everything as we went.

The main attraction is the Jewel. This glass-domed stunner is home to the Rain Vortex, the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, crashing through the center of a jungle-filled oasis like it’s no big deal. Jewel turns the airport into a destination. It’s the kind of place that makes you forget you’re in an airport… until you realize you actually wish your flight were delayed. Unfortunately for us… it doesn’t turn on until 10 am. So we took the train by it, and got to see the lush jungle surrounding it and used our imagination. (You can use yours too…)

We headed to a lounge to get a quick bite and a coffee and before we knew it we had to head to security to board our flight. For those of you who have really long layovers, just know that the Singapore airport even has free city tours that you can sign up for that take you around the city on a bus. (How cool is that?!)

Until next time – thanks for joining us on this trip!

Up Next: Our last US National Park cruise: New Zealand / Fiji / Samoa / American Samoa! – March 2026