The Five Best Things To Do In Singapore

Foodies will be spoiled for choice in Singapore, a melting pot of Asian and Western cultures and culinary traditions. For coffee, Carolina recommends Cremier (5a Lock Road; +65-6262-1087) at Gillman Barracks, explaining it’s "a small retro place where you may enjoy different blends of coffee or cocoa, and other handcrafted delights such as waffles and ice cream." Afterwards, she suggests going for a stroll around Telok Blangah Hill, a green park nearby.

Her favorite place to get lunch is the Blue Ginger (97 Tanjong Pagar Road; +65-6222-3928), which serves Peranakan cuisine, a uniquely Singaporean cuisine that combines Chinese, Malaysian, and Indonesian culinary traditions. Her order? The ngo hiang, a sausage-like roll made of minced pork and prawn, seasoned with five spice powder, rolled in a bean-curd skin and deep fried. For a romantic dinner, she recommends Candlenut (Block 17A Dempsey Road; +65-1800-304-2288), which was the world’s first Peranakan restaurant to earn a Michelin star. She also suggests visiting one of Singapore’s hawker centers for a truly local experience.

Singapore has a world-class bar scene, with must-visit cocktail bars like the ultra-creative Operation Dagger and an outpost of New York speakeasy Employees Only. Carolina’s favorite place to hang out is Potato Head (36 Keong Saik Road; +65-6327-1939), a casual-yet-cool bar born in Jakarta with locations in Bali, Hong Kong, and Singapore, where it inhabits a four-story heritage building in Chinatown.

She also loves the Atlas Bar (600 Northbridge Road; +65-6396-4466), which is considered one of the world’s best bars. “It feels like you’re having a very classy drink in a museum,” she says, highlighting details like the murals on the high ceilings and gilded architecture. “The venue is just outstanding.”

Between the city’s many museums, the lush Botanic Gardens (1 Cluny Road; +65-6475-5060), and the Gardens by the Bay(18 Marina Gardens Drive; +65-6420-6848)—home to the world-famous supertrees—Singapore has enough things to do to keep you busy no matter how long you’re staying. “I love the Botanic Gardens, which is one of the landmarks of Singapore. It’s very relaxing as well,” Carolina says.

For visitors looking to get acquainted with the city, Carolina recommends taking a Singapore River Cruise (1 North Bridge Road, #15-06 High Street Center; +65-6336-6111) “for a different yet wonderful perspective of the Lion City.” A cruise on the Singapore River is a fascinating way to learn about the city-state’s history, which is filled with tales of Javanese pirates, the East India Company, and English colonial rule. When the country became independent in 1965, though, its river was extremely polluted, its banks lined with hawkers, squatters, and opium dens. It took more than a decade to clean the river, which is now a point of pride for locals and one of Carolina’s favorite places to go for a stroll.

For high quality goods, Carolina recommends TANGS (310 Orchard Road; +65-6737-5500) department store at Tangs Plaza, whose history dates back to 1923, when Chinese merchant CK Tang journeyed to Singapore armed with a tin trunk of lace and linen. “It has quite a few European brands, which because of my hometown I can actually relate to,” Carolina says, explaining that they carry Asian brands as well.

If there’s one part of the Capitol Singapore development you must see, it’s the Capitol Theater (17 Stamford Road; +65-6499-5168), a historic landmark that dates back to 1903. “Locals used to come here for the cinema, for their first dates, for ice cream, so this was a very prominent place,” Carolina explains. Though the theater is now only open for private events, Carolina often receives emails from people requesting a tour, and she’s always happy to oblige. “Locals especially are very interested. It’s quite interesting to hear their stories of how it was before because they really recognize the place,” she says.

Since reopening, the theater has hosted the premiere of “Crazy Rich Asians,” Asian movie awards, and other special events. Celebrity sightings are not unusual. With approximately 977 seats, it’s one of southeast Asia’s largest single-screen cinemas, but with the touch of a button, the seats recede into the floor and it becomes a massive event hall.