Best hotel for traveling alone in Singapore – Quincy

by Annie Scott on

The Quincy Hotel has got to be one of the most surprising hotels I’ve ever visited.

Knowing nothing other than that it was a somewhat modern boutique hotel, I arrived midday on a Sunday to be greeted with a card featuring a hand-drawn picture of myself (they Googled me), and a tour of their small but well-equipped premises. They may be a modest-sized hotel, but they have a totally stacked exercise room, a full wood sauna and a steam room, and their 12th floor pool is totally awesome (underwater windows!).

The guest rooms are somewhat small, but for someone traveling alone, the size is more than adequate. All the rooms are the same price with small variations in color and window style — mine had beautiful charcoal bricks and a large window with a comfortable window seat. The location, while not scenic, is extremely convenient to attractions like the shopping Mecca that is Orchard Road; you can walk there.

The rooms have transparent showers — you can pull down a curtain, but if you don’t, you can see through the shower to the toilet from bed! This is to give the rooms a more spacious feel. The bathrooms are chic and very clean, and have a full supply of Molton Brown products (yum). The rooms also all have 40″ flat screen TVs and exposed hookups for everything from your laptop to a Playstation. There’s a secret wall in the room which contains a very secret ironing board, and a fridge stocked with snacks and drinks — which brings us to one of the reasons this hotel is so great for lone travelers: it’s all-inclusive.

The Quincy Hotel’s all inclusive nightly rates include a limousine from the airport, free breakfast, lunch and dinner, unlimited free alcoholic bevvies from 6-8 PM, Carlsberg Lager all day in your fridge, laundry (!!), coffee, local calls, internet and more. The complimentary meals at designated times give the hotel the feeling of an upscale hostel — all the guests come out of their rooms to dine together, and it’s easy to make friends. Especially during cocktail hour.

Check out the gallery for photos of this fabulous hotel, whose kitschy-cool decor includes silly photos of staff members in the elevators and LOLcats in the lobby. Rates start at $228 per night; additional charges apply for additional guests — just because it’s perfect for traveling alone doesn’t mean you won’t want to bring a friend if you’ve got one handy! Visit the Quincy website for special promotions.
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This trip was paid for by the Singapore Board of Tourism, but the views expressed within the post are 100% my own.

Manse away from home – The Capella Hotel, Singapore

by Annie Scott on


The Capella Hotels are relatively new to the luxury travel scene, but have already made quite a name for themselves. They aim to create unique experiences for their guests by keeping their sizes small and fostering a home-like atmosphere — and the seven-month-old Capella Singapore is no exception.

The Capella Singapore looks, from the front, like a grand plantation house. It was built in the 1880’s, and used to be the weekend getaway for British soldiers (they’d bring local girls there and party). The hotel incorporates two original buildings, which they remodeled from the inside out, along with an enormous new structure (above) by Lord Norman Foster. The historical building houses the front desk, the library, and the acclaimed restaurant Cassia. Behind that, the new portion of the hotel contains a modest number of beautiful guest rooms with breathtaking views of the sea below. The landscaping in the back includes extensive terraces with one and two bedroom villas, three infinity pools, and a path down the the beach (days from opening at the time of my visit) — which, though large ships are continually passing by, people do in fact use for swimming.

The concept of the hotel’s design is very indoor/outdoor, and one morning when it was pouring rain, one of the breakfast staff escorted me all the way to my room to ensure I could find a dry route — that’s impressive service.
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This trip was paid for by the Singapore Board of Tourism, but the views expressed within the post are 100% my own.
The elegant, stately rooms are a spare, yet comfortable fusion of traditional Asian decor and modern convenience, featuring bedside touch screens (concealed in the night tables) which control the lighting, air conditioning, and curtains. Large flat screen TVs are standard, as are Nespresso machines, spacious rain-style showers, and generously-sized bathtubs with views of the ocean.

When you stay at The Capella Singapore, you are entitled to your very own personal assistant, who can arrange travel details for you and take care of any odd requests you may have. The beautiful breakfast haunt, The Knolls, has a continental buffet of fruits, meats, yogurts and baked goods, as well as an impressive offering of Eastern and Western breakfast dishes (and quite possibly the best fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice I’ve ever tasted).

The hotel may seem somewhat out of the way on the tiny isle of Sentosa, but there are a number of attractions right there including the Butterfly Park, Dolphin Lagoon, Fort Siloso, and a number of adventurous excursions like rides and a flying trapeze; basically, the island is like an elaborate playground, and attracts over 5 million visitors, mostly from Asia, per year. Oh — and Universal Studios Singapore is opening there in 2010. So, yeah. And downtown is only a $10ish taxi ride away.

Don’t get the wrong idea about the Capella, though. Sentosa may sound like a madhouse, but the Capella Hotel is serene, quiet, and both a relaxing place for travelers (definitely check out the Auriga Spa’s moon phase-based treatments) and an elegant, home-like choice for events like weddings. Insider tip: Check out the library (above the lobby) when it rains; many guests gather there to read and socialize. It’s just like staying in your rich friend’s country house. Like I said in the title, The Capella is like a home away from home — if your home is an elaborate mansion. It may take a long time to get there from the United States or Europe, but after a long journey, the comforts of a living-room style lobby and a friendly staff will make you feel welcome and pleased you came to Singapore.

Rates start at around $530 (US) per night.

Welcome to the Island of Misfit Toys – Chinatown, Singapore

by Annie Scott on


Remember “The Island of Misfit Toys” from the legendary holiday TV special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer“? It’s where imperfect and rejected toys came to life. Well, I have found this real-life island. It’s Singapore — Chinatown, to be exact.

Some find it strange that Singapore has a Chinatown, since so much of the culture is influenced by the Chinese anyway. It turns out that the Singapore government is very supportive of its unique ethnic areas; including Chinatown, Little India, and Holland Village (where there is a windmill and no Dutch people). Chinatown is to the Chinese influence in Singapore what Euro-Disney is to American influences in Europe. It’s wacky and kitschy and ultimately a lot of fun — but not really based in reality.

Chinatowns across the world always seem to have an variety of crazy, kind of scary toys, and Singapore’s was no exception. In fact, I found such an assortment that I had no choice but to photograph and videotape them. In case you’ve been hurting for nightmares, check out the video above and the gallery below for your fix of Misfit Toys.
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This trip was paid for by the Singapore Board of Tourism, but the views expressed within the post are 100% my own.

High-tech bridge to connect Singapore’s Sentosa Island

by Stephen Greenwood on

Construction began Tuesday on a 620 meter boardwalk that will connect Sentosa Island with Singapore’s mainland.

The resort’s annual 5 million guests will be able to access the island on foot come November 2010. A series of covered travelators will be capable of transporting an estimated 8,000 guests per hour in each direction.

The boardwalk will be lined with retail, food and beverage outlets and be divided into five garden theme areas – mangrove, rock garden, terrain / hill, coastal flora and rainforest.

The development is expected to cost USD $48.6 million, and will accomodate a surge in visitors next year when Resorts World at Sentosa opens. The island currently features two five-star hotels, two golf courses, and will be home to Universal Studios Singapore when it opens in early 2010.

And if all that isn’t enough to pique your interest, then maybe our list of Summer festivals in Singapore will.

More tech specs can be viewed via the Sentosa Leisure Group’s official press release.

For summer, a banquet of exotic fresh fruits: Bring travel back home

by Jamie Rhein on

So you’re at home this summer. Your vacation budget is bust. Sure, there are backyard barbeques with friends and family stretching out into summer, but that tropical vacation feels long gone.

Or perhaps, you have never been on a tropical vacation. Perhaps a tropical fruit to you is the canned version of Dole pineapple–the one that waits in your kitchen cabinet.

Hop to it. An exotic experience might be as close as your neighborhood grocery store. As you browse the fruit, section buy those that you haven’t tried before.

Perhaps, they are the odd looking ones. Go head. Pick one up. If you’re heading to a barbeque, bring some with you and give your friends a geography lesson with the bounty. If you’re a parent, pull out a geography book and give your kids a taste of the world.

Here are suggestions and countries where such tastes can be had. I found them in local markets where I’ve lived and traveled, and some of them, in my own backyard.

1. Last year we purchased three dragon fruits in Chinatown in New York City. Dragon fruits, a nickname for pitaya, are cultivated in Vietnam, among other places. Those three brought back memories of our pleasures of first trying them on our first Vietnam visit. Even though I’ve had them elsewhere, I attach them to this Vietnam experience.

2. In Bangkok, we head straight to the fresh coconut stand across from the Regency Park where we always stay. The vendors cut off the tops of coconuts, add a hole and slip in a straw. Sucking out fresh coconut juice is one of my daughter’s favorite treats.

3. Taiwan was the first place I ate a star fruit. A friend of mine had carefully cut one of these slightly sweet fruits into star-shaped slices and arranged them on a plate for a lunchtime dish.

4. Also in Taiwan, on a bus ride to Taroko Gorge, I ate an Asian pear for the first time at a rest stop. The crunchy, refreshing taste is distinct from the pears grown in the U.S. They’re like apples, but not quite.

5. In the Gambia, I was greeted each morning during the rainy season by a tree filled with mangoes that created welcome shade in my backyard. With lack of refrigeration, I ate mangoes morning, noon and night and made mango jam, mango bread and added mango slices to oatmeal. Since the season for that tree was so short, I didn’t have time to get tired of them. Not all mangoes are the same. I prefer the ones with juicy flesh and very little strings to get caught in my teeth.

6. If you’ve ever eaten bananas where they are grown, particularly the red ones that are not much bigger than a fat finger, you’ll have a hard time adjusting to the Cavendish variety most common to grocery stores. The Gambia also was a worthy introduction into banana wealth.

7. Also, in the Gambia, papaya trees were one of the easiest fruit trees to grow. Thus, papayas were everywhere, and almost all year long. Although I like them, I suggest squirting a bit of lime on your slice to add a bit of zip to the flavor.

8. The first time I ate a pomelo, my great aunt and uncle brought one back from California. As a young girl, the size amazed me. It’s the largest citrus fruit there is. Before I ate it, I took it to school for show and tell.

9. Singapore is a fruit lovers delight. Even though we had a durian tree in our backyard, we let other people have the fruit that is so stinky it’s banned on subways. I have had durian ice cream and found it appealing.

10. I first developed a taste for rambutans that we bought from the market in Singapore. One isn’t enough.

Of course, if you happen to live in the tropics, relish what you have. You’re lucky. You get the goods fresh off the trees.