4 Days in Singapore: Where Slow Travel Began in the Best Possible Way

July 11, 2025

Every journey has to start somewhere. Ours started with 4 days in Singapore — at 35,000 feet, on the longest nonstop commercial flight in the world — and honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better beginning.

Our 4 days in Singapore weren’t just a stopover — they were the beginning of something we hadn’t expected. It made sense as a gateway: well-organised, English-speaking, safe, and genuinely world-class in ways that ease you into international travel before things get more unpredictable further along the road. What we didn’t expect was how much the city itself would get under our skin. Four days felt both plenty and not nearly enough.

Getting There: Singapore Airlines SQ23

Flight SQ23 from New York JFK to Singapore Changi is something of a legend in aviation circles — 17.5 hours nonstop, one of the longest commercial routes on earth. We flew it in business class using points from our Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which meant lie-flat seats, real glassware, and cabin crew who made nearly 18 hours in the air feel genuinely manageable.

Singapore Airlines’ reputation is well-earned. The service is warm without being performative, the food is a serious step above what you’d expect at altitude, and the whole experience set the tone for the trip in the best possible way. If you’re considering this route, and you have the points, use them here — it’s worth every one.

Mike and Marge in Singapore Airlines Business Class flying to Singapore

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Practical note: SQ23 departs JFK late evening and arrives Singapore the following evening local time, losing a day to the time zone. Build in a rest day on arrival — don’t try to hit the ground running.

Where We Stayed: InterContinental Singapore

Our base for four nights was the InterContinental Singapore, near the Bugis neighbourhood — and it’s worth a quick note for anyone planning a visit: the hotel has since changed hands. It closed out 2025 as an IHG property and reopened in January 2026 as Frasers House, a Luxury Collection Hotel under Marriott. The building, the location, and the colonial-era bones are the same — but if you’re an IHG One Rewards member looking to redeem points, factor that in. Marriott Bonvoy is the programme to be looking at now. Whatever the name above the door, the Bugis location remains one of the best in the city — close to MRT stations, markets, and an easy ride to everywhere else.

What to Expect from 4 Days in Singapore

Marina Bay — Best Experienced Twice

Do Marina Bay during the day. Then do it again at night. They’re genuinely two different experiences and both are worth your time.

In daylight, it’s about scale — the Marina Bay Sands towers rising above the water, the Supertrees of Gardens by the Bay catching the sun, the geometry of it all. The Gardens by the Bay are worth a few hours: the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest conservatories are spectacular, and the outdoor Supertree Grove has a walkway above the canopy that gives you the whole panorama.

But after dark is when the city shows off. We walked the Marina Bay waterfront well into the evening, and it’s one of those experiences that stays with you. The buildings reflect off the water, the light show at the Supertrees draws a crowd but doesn’t feel crowded, and the whole bay hums with a kind of effortless energy. The InterContinental isn’t on the bay itself, but the short journey there at night — and the walk back through the lit-up streets — felt like the city welcoming us properly.

Practical note: The Garden Rhapsody light show at Gardens by the Bay runs nightly at 7:45pm and 8:45pm. It’s free if you’re already in the outdoor gardens. Worth timing your visit around.

The ArtScience Museum

Tucked at the edge of Marina Bay Sands, the ArtScience Museum is one of those places that catches you off guard. The building itself — shaped like a giant lotus flower — is striking from the outside. Inside, it’s consistently one of the more inventive museum experiences in Southeast Asia.

The Future World permanent exhibition is the standout — an immersive, technology-driven space that blurs the line between art installation and playground. We spent longer here than we planned to, which is always a good sign. Worth a half-day.

The Cultural Neighbourhoods

Singapore’s cultural districts — Chinatown, Little India, and the Arab Quarter (Kampong Glam) — are each distinct enough to warrant separate visits, and close enough together that you can cover two in an afternoon on foot.

Chinatown’s shophouses and temple courtyards contrast with the glass towers rising immediately behind them in a way that never stops feeling striking. Little India is all colour, noise, and the smell of fresh jasmine garlands. The Arab Quarter’s Sultan Mosque and surrounding streets — particularly Haji Lane, with its independent boutiques and murals — give you something completely different again.

Don’t rush these. Wander. Eat something from a street stall. That’s the point.

The Hawker Centres

Singapore’s hawker centres deserve more than a paragraph, but we’ll do our best.

Maxwell Food Centre and Lau Pa Sat were our two most-visited, and between them they covered most of what Singapore’s street food scene does best: chicken rice, laksa, char kway teow, roti prata, satay, and more variations of noodle soup than we could work through in four days.

A few things worth knowing: the quality varies stall to stall even within the same centre, so look for the ones with the longest queues — locals know. Prices are remarkably low even by Southeast Asian standards. And the whole experience — plastic chairs, communal tables, cold Tiger beer, strangers sharing benches — is one of the most enjoyable ways to spend an evening in the city.

Eat at the hawker centres. Make it a priority, not an afterthought.

The Weather

Hot. Humid. Relentlessly so.

Singapore sits just above the equator and the weather doesn’t pretend otherwise. Temperatures hover between 28–33°C most days with humidity that makes it feel higher. We walked a lot — more than we probably should have in the middle of the day — and learned quickly to plan around the heat: out early, indoor break midday, back out in the late afternoon.

It’s completely manageable with the right approach. Just don’t fight it.

Practical Tips

Heat and humidity are real. Plan outdoor sightseeing for early morning or late afternoon. The midday sun will drain you faster than you expect.
Dress in layers. Sounds counterintuitive, but air-conditioning indoors is aggressive — carry a light layer for museums, MRT trains, and malls.
The MRT is excellent. Clean, reliable, affordable, and covers the whole city. Get an EZ-Link card at the airport on arrival.
Hawker centres over restaurants. For authentic food at honest prices, the hawker centres are unbeatable. Budget SGD $5–10 per meal per person.
Alcohol is expensive. Heavily taxed across the board. If you’re drinking, look for happy hour deals — most bars in Clarke Quay and the CBD run them.
Connectivity is seamless. Singapore has excellent mobile coverage. Pick up a local SIM at Changi on arrival, or sort it before you land with an Airalo eSIM — grab one here and save 15% on your first eSIM.
Allow 4 days minimum. Three is doable for the highlights; four gives you room to slow down and actually enjoy it.

Final Thought

Singapore set the tone for everything that followed. It’s not the most surprising city we’ve visited — it’s too polished, too efficient for genuine unpredictability — but that’s not what it’s for. It’s a city that shows you what Southeast Asia is capable of, wraps it in world-class infrastructure, and sends you down the road wanting more.

The walk along Marina Bay at night, the food at Maxwell, the quiet elegance of the InterContinental — those are the things that stayed with us. Not a bad way to begin.

Next up: Kuala Lumpur.