STAYING IN SINGAPORE WITH TEENAGERS

STAYING IN SINGAPORE WITH TEENAGERS

Singapore is a truly remarkable city and a very good place to take teenagers for a number of reasons. My daughter described it as “the New York of Asia”, which sums up how she felt about it. It’s small enough to be able to get around easily, the taxis are plentiful and cheap and above all it is an extremely safe place to go with your children, so it’s an extremely good family destination. In addition, there is very little crime, everyone speaks English and everyone we spoke to was extremely helpful and proud of their country.  The city only has around 5.3 million people living in it and yet it boasts one of the highest per capita GDP’s in the world. What is more you can nearly always rely on the weather – even though the weather forecast was for rain most days, if it did rain, it only rained briefly and then the sun came out again.

One consideration when travelling with teenagers is the distance – it’s a thirteen hour flight that might be off putting with children, but as long as you plan to stay for at least 5 days then it’s worth it.  If you take a night flight then the children tend to sleep most of the way so it’s not as arduous as it sounds.

We found more than enough to do for the six days we were there and could have happily stayed for another week.

WHERE TO STAY

There is a wealth of choice for places to stay and many lovely hotels, but if you are travelling with children, then it is worth considering a serviced apartment as it gives you greater freedom, more space and you can all be together.

We stayed at Le Grove Apartments, right next to the Shangri’La Hotel, which was very well located and had all the amenities that we needed, including a swimming pool.

WHAT TO EAT

Thanks to Singapore being a melting pot of flavours from Chinese, Indian, Malay and Peranakan you will find some of the best food you will have ever eaten from anywhere in the world.  Ranging from upmarket restaurants to street food, the choice is fresh, varied and delicious. We spent a lot of our time trying out the various restaurants and below are some of the ones I would recommend you try:-

YUM CHA

Yum Cha is an excellent Dim Sum restaurant in Chinatown that must not be missed.  It’s lively and bustling with trolley loads of food being wheeled around that you can choose from. It was here that we had the best Chow Siu Bau ever – one of our family favourites and described by my daughter as “little clouds of happiness”:-

DIN TAI FUNG
Din Tai Fung is a very popular dumpling restaurant situated in the Marina Sands Hotel.  You won’t miss it as it seems to constantly have people queuing to get in. Delighted to hear that they have recently opened one in London and it’s on the Top 50 New York Times restaurants.  Again, not to be missed.

BLUE GINGER RESTAURANT
This was recommended to us by a local. A bit more expensive and well known for it’s Peranakan Malaysia style sauces with Chinese ingredients.  The food was delicious and well worth the visit:-

CRYSTAL JADE

This is a Dim Sum restaurant in Orchard Road that the children loved.

LAU PA SAT

This is the hawker centre where you can get steamed dim sum, chilli crab but mostly satay in a lively street of food.  Competition is fierce amongst the street vendors and it’s a very interesting place to go to. You sit on tables in the centre whilst all around you are little fires cooking the satay. I have never tasted such delicious satay ever before. All amazingly fresh and cooked in front of your eyes.

JUMBO RESTAURANT

This is a must for trying out one of Singapore’s well known delicacies – the chilli crab:-

There is a large one in downtown Singapore on the Quay which is very popular, but we went to the smaller one in the Dempsey area which I would highly recommend for an evening as it’s got lots of bars and restaurants and a fantastic Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream parlour.

BEN AND JERRY’S ICECREAM PARLOUR –

This is very popular with the kids. It’s located in the Dempsey area and well worth a visit if you like their ice-cream!

A BRIEF LIST OF THINGS TO DO

There is SO much to do in Singapore with children and we had a ball. Below are some of the main highlights that we as a family would recommend:-

The world renowned Botanical Gardens:-

The Singapore Zoo – again considered to be one of the best in the world:-

Orchard Road for shopping – so many shopping centres!

Raffles Hotel for cocktails in the iconic bar where peanut shells cover the floor:-

Sentosa island is like a fantasy island for children – they have a vast array of activities ranging from wind tunnels to beaches to Madame Tussaud’s:-

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown – fascinating

Chinatown in general is well worth wandering around:-

Little India – another fascinating precinct:-

The MacRitchie TreeTop Walk will give you a lovely lush view of the area

Gardens By the Bay:-

Marina Bay Sands Hotel:-

Bumboat tour of Singapore River:-

Roof top bars:-

Head up to some of the most famous ones to check out the amazing views of the city:-

WHERE TO SHOP

Go shopping in Orchard Road – so many shopping centres to choose from

Marina Bay Sands Hotel has an excellent shopping centre too

WHERE TO DRINK

Raffles for cocktails – of course

The Red Dot for their lychee mohitos and green beer!  There is one at Boat Quay and also at Dempsey’s.  They do great food too:-

HOW TO GET AROUND

Public transport is amazingly cheap and efficient.  The taxis are plentiful and very reasonable.  The MRT is also excellent.

This post is written on behalf of Thomas Cook and the Singapore Tourism Board. All opinions are my own. Find out how you can Get Into Singapore by booking a trip with Thomas Cook here: –https://www.thomascook.com/holidays/singapore/
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