Introduction
Recently, I had the privilege of visiting Singapore with my wife and two adult children. I am writing this post out of my experience. Everyone will face something different and will have a separate point of view when going any place. This holds true for me too.I believe this post should help anyone who is planning to visit Singapore. There is plenty of stuff out there on the internet, so I will try not to repeat what is unnecessary and what you may already be aware of.
Preparing for the trip
If you have already been abroad, then you already know what to carry. However, for an overview, make sure that you have the following with you or are already aware of the below –- Passports
- Visa
- Currency (SGD or Singapore Dollars)
- Credit Cards
- SIM with international roaming
- Weather
- Taxi
- Airport Lounge Access
- Electrical Power Outlets
- Language
- Food
- Period of Stay
- Bookings
- Flights
- Allotting the days for attractions
- GST refund
Passport
Nothing much to share here. You need a Passport with minimum six months validity. Otherwise, you may not get a Visa citing Passport validity reasons. Indians can only enter Singapore with a Valid Passport.Visa
You need to complete your to and fro Flight and Hotel bookings before applying for visa. You cannot apply for Singapore Visa directly at the embassy. You need to get in touch with any of the authorized travel agents for your Visa.I procured my Visa though Riya Travels. You may choose any other agent based on your geographical location. The earliest, you can apply for visa is 30 days prior to your travel date.
Keep note of the following points when you apply for visa –
- Contact the travel agent of your choice for your visa and explain your requirements.
- Provide them your Passports, Visa Application Form and related documents.
- If everything is in order, you should get your Visa in 2-3 days after the documents have reached your travel agent.
- All members applying for visa need to fill a four page Singapore Visa Application form and supply the relevant documents.
- One member needs to be the one sponsoring the trip, with sufficient income and bank balance. Consider a total requirement of Rs 80,000.00 per person. He will submit the application to the embassy with detail of other family members travelling with him. Format for application will be provided by the travel agent. This member needs to submit his ITR, Income proof, Six months Bank Statement showing closing balance equal to or more than the funds required for the trip for all members.
- Other members need to provide the occupation proof, such as GST and Udyam Certificate for businesses and Student ID Card for children who are studying. No proof of occupation is required for homemakers.
- Hotel and Flight booking vouchers.
- Two Photos as per visa guidelines in matte finish. One to be affixed on the Visa Application Form and the other to be provided separately.
- This is important. When applying for visa, reach out for the name of the specific person looking into your case. Coordinate and keep in touch with that person regarding your visa status. Do not simply send your documents and wait for your visa to be processed. It may cause an unnecessary delay.
- Passports are not sent to the embassy. The travel agency simply asks them for verification purpose. Once, the travel agency has submitted your application (first they prepare, check and then submit the visa application), ask them to return your passports to you. You will be able to save a day or two because of this. Your travel agency will send your visa on email to you.
- Take a printout of your visa and carry it with you. Don’t rely on soft copies. You tend to waste more time when you are trying to show the visa to the authorities on your phone.
Generally, they will issue a multiple entry tourist visa with a validity of 30 days for all members. Reason being, many people also visit Malaysia while visiting Singapore.
A Video Call interview may be conducted with the person sponsoring the trip. However, we were not interviewed. This is totally subjective, but you should be aware of it. Be ready with the submitted documents and travel data, before beginning the interview.
Currency (SGD or Singapore Dollars)
Credit cards are widely accepted and you should not face any problems when making payments. Taxi Drivers are happy with cash as they have to bear some 10% fee if you pay using your Credit Card.Other than that, there are small stores in Chinatown, where I feel they could ask for cash. Since, we paid for cash at those places, there could be a chance that they may not be accepting Credit Cards.
However, save for a single transaction, we were not denied credit card payment at any place. Since, we decided to spend and finish all the cash which we were carrying, we shopped for everything in cash in the last 2 days of our visit. SGD equal to Indian Rupees of 50,000.00 should be a decent bet for a family of four, if you decide to make most of the payments using your Credit Cards.
When purchasing forex, you will be asked for your PAN, Passport, Aadhaar, Visa and travel vouchers. Keep them ready when you visit the forex dealer. If you are planning to return Forex Cash, make sure that you manage to spend all your coins, as the forex dealer in India will generally not accept Singapore Dollar Coins in exchange for Indian Rupees.
One very important point to note – Both Singapore (SGD) and US (USD) have their currency names ending in Dollars. Universal Studios and Big Bus Tours charge in USD when you book directly from their website. While comparing prices with klook which offers prices in SGD, you may be tricked into thinking you are getting a better deal, but you may be paying more. This happened to me, so I decided to write explicitly about this.
Credit Cards
Generally, you will incur a 1.99 to 3.50 percent + 18% GST Forex Markup fee on all your international spends using Credit or Debit Cards. Even, if someone abroad is charging in INR, they have already marked up their price by this amount.However, I possessed a Yes Bank Uni Credit Card with a decent limit of INR 400k, which was sufficient for my trip. The main advantage is that it does not charge any mark-up fee for International spends and it is a lifetime free credit card. The IRIS app from Yes Bank is decent and works without glitches, when you are trying to manage your Credit Card transaction limits.
In this way, if you spend around 250k abroad, you will be saving around 9-10k INR. However, there is no cashback or reward points for forex spends. Do not withdraw cash from any ATM, as it is chargeable.
I am very paranoid about Contactless transactions but I decided to enable Tap and Pay when I was on the trip. Every transaction was a breeze and worth the experience. Essentially, the transactions are instantaneous and hassle free. You just need to be watchful about the amount being input at the Swiping Machine. One decimal out of place and you are toast.
There are other Cards like Scapia offering the same deals but I do not have any knowledge about them.
SIM Cards and International Roaming
I searched for mini hotspot dongles but they were very costly and ditched the idea, there itself.I prepaid around Rs 500.00 for a SIM from klook before arriving in Singapore. This SIM from Singtel, I collected from the klook kiosk at the Airport after we landed. I did not use it for calling but got 100GB data. Put it in my phone and switched on the hotspot for all family to share. Data speed was mostly above 100mbps at all places with zero dead zones. With such cheap stuff, you can get a SIM for all members, if you wish to.
Other than that, all four of us had an International Roaming Plan of Rs 1098.00 from Airtel, with 200 minutes of talktime and 3GB data with a 10 day validity period. The hotel also had free Wifi. Internet connectivity was always spot on with zero issues, even at minus two floors.
Weather
When researching, it will be evident, that you are likely to experience showers any time of the day. Carrying an umbrella or raincoat is advisable but it may become bulky. We did encounter rain but only once in the seven days of our visit.Research before visiting. Some months are rainier than others. We visited from the 29th of October to 5th of November this year to be precise. I think that it was a perfect time for us as Diwali had already passed and we encountered a lesser crowd than expected.
It is mostly humid and hot. Wear soft and loose clothing which will help you sweat less. It will also help you to move around quickly.
The taxis, malls and most of the attractions you will be visiting are airconditioned. So, the outside weather should not bother you there.
However, areas like ChinaTown, Universal Studios, Sentosa Island and the Mandai Zoo are just too big to be airconditioned, so you will have to bear with the weather at these places.
Taxis and moving around
Since we were four adults, moving by taxi was the best and fastest alternative available to us. You may get around using the Metro but it is all about personal preference and how economical you wish to go, the extra time you wish to kill and the distance you are willing to move on foot.There is no Uber. However, you have Grab and City Comfort Ride which we used. There are other apps which we did not try.
Grab offers premium and cleaner vehicles. It is costlier by around 20% than others. Map tagging on the Grab app is accurate most of the times. You can add your credit card details in the app and the money will be deducted when you make the booking. You can also choose to pay by cash like other apps.
City Comfort Ride app had some issues with adding our credit card and we had to make payment after we completed the ride every time.
It would be worthwhile to checkout both the apps before making a booking as there can be a gap of more than 10 SGD during peak hours.
Few important points, I would like to mention –
- There are designated pickup points everywhere. You have to move to the designated pickup point at the time of the booking. You cannot get into a cab at any place.
- There is a late fee penalty of around 3 SGD for delayed pickups, so make sure you booked your taxi from the correct pickup point. The taxi apps are bit buggy and you may select the wrong pickup point unknowingly. This happened to us once.
- One luggage per person is the rule. If you are carrying 8 bags (big or small, which you need to keep in the trunk), then you need to book an 8-seater. If no, the cab owner will cancel the booking or charge you extra. This rule, you need to keep in mind when moving to and from the airport. You cannot keep some luggage in your lap as we do in India. Other times, when moving in the city, you will not have any luggage so need not worry.
- Seat belts are needed to be worn by all passengers compulsorily. Else, there is a hefty fine of 100-200 SGD per passenger. The cab driver may or may not make you aware of this.
- Cab drivers have to option to charge any penalty or late fees to your card account. Generally, they are all very honest and will not overcharge you. However, if you do face some charge, you can appeal in the app and get your charges reversed.
Airport Lounge Access
Since you are reading this on Technofino, you may already be in possession of a couple of credit cards.We managed to get access to the Encalm Lounge at the Delhi International Airport as we possessed the requisite cards. As for now, they are not asking for the Photo ID or Passport of the Card Holder, so you can grab a friend’s or relative’s card to get access. However, this may change in the future.
Fruits, food, tea, coffee and breakfast are free once you get entry. Live counters offering dosa and omelets were up to the mark and delicious. Liquor and beer was also there, but we stayed away from those counters. There is a stay time limit of 2 hours per member, but no one came to check if we had overstayed.
Generally, Lifetime Free Credit Cards will not give you access to the Lounge. Some lifetime free credit cards may offer access to the lounge, but only after you have met a spend criteria (anywhere around 50k-200k) in the previous quarter.
If you hold a credit card that carries an Annual fee of Rs 1000.00 or more, then it is likely that you will get free access to the Lounge. However, check the list of available lounges which the credit card is offering beforehand to avoid any surprises.
To be clear, we had SBI Elite, SBI BPCL Octane, HSBC Live and PNB Rupay Debit Cards with us. The Rupay card came as a surprise and life saver as I did not expect it to work. We were willing to pay the extra fee for one person, just in case.
While moving out of Singapore, we had an active Priority Pass for all members which was valid for two lounges. However, both the lounges were full and entry was by Prior Reservation or only to the registered members. They are probably just denying access to free pass holders. We were not lucky here, but you may give it a shot.
Electrical Power Outlets
If you are staying at any one of the 3-star or more luxury type hotels, most of them have switched to universal outlets which will accept any power pin. I don’t think that travel adapters are needed any more. However, you can carry one travel adapter and a spike board with four outlets to be on the safer side. Check with your hotel beforehand.Pack a power bank for emergency in case your phone or camera runs out of electrical juice. We did take family pictures but prioritized enjoying the moment more, so the power bank did not come handy as our phones were sufficiently charged most of the times.
Language
If you speak English, you should get around easily. However, locals do not speak English. You will only need to interact with people at the time of entering an attraction or while buying food or other stuff.There are clear signboards of what is available and you should not face any problems. Most of the taxi drivers, we encountered knew enough English to get the job done. If you are Tamil, then you are in luck.
You may face issues while asking for directions or while checking in to your place of accommodation.
Food
Indian food is hard to find at most places. While leaving for Singapore, we had packed some dry food with us. This, we ate during mid-day and happened to skip lunched most of the times. You can also grab cookies, pastries and coke on the go to satisfy your hunger.If you are comfortable with non-vegetarian and sea food, then there is ample variety for you. Our family stuck with Subway, McDonalds and Breakfast at the hotel.
In Chinatown, there were cafes where you could eat, but they did not offer the stuff we wanted. So, we purchased something cheap from Starbucks, so that we at least got seats to eat our stuff. Other than that, there are seats in the walking areas of the mall, where you can sit and eat your own food.
Finding a place to eat your home food could be challenging, if you are not going to any cafe or some place. For this, you can go to the food courts located on the top floor of the malls. They offer a common seating arrangement for all food shops out there.
Period of Stay
There is so much to see, that three to five days seem too less to cover Singapore. We gave a good seven days for the trip and covered almost everything. If you are taking the Cruise, then consider ten days.Bookings
We booked our hotels and flights online from cleartip and goibibo. Klook offered competitive prices for all attractions. We booked a Big Bus night tour, Entry passes with Express Passes to Universal Studios and Observation Deck from their respective websites.Flights
Flights to and from Singapore are cheaper in weekdays. Air India and Singapore Airlines offer free food and screens with earphones to keep yourself engaged during flight. They are more comfortable and roomier than Indigo. But they tend to be a little costlier.Allotting the days for attractions
Major attractions tend to be crowded on weekends. So, we covered all attractions on weekdays and malls and other places on the weekends.Below is our itinerary with comments for choosing those days –
| Date / Day | Attraction | Comments |
| 30-10-2025, Thursday | 10.00 AM to 1.30 PM - Oceanarium 2.00 PM to 5.00 PM - Adventure Cove Water Park 5.30 PM to 9.00 PM – IMM Mall | Less Crowded, both places are next to each other. 3 hours for water park were enough. Bring your own towels at the water park and you also need to rent a locker for 10-15 SGD to keep your stuff. |
| 31-10-2025, Friday | 10.00 AM to 12.30 PM - Ifly 12.30 PM to 1.00 PM - First Cable Car 1.15 PM to 3.30 PM - Madam Tussauds 3.45 PM to 4.00 PM - Second Cable Car 4.30 PM to 5.45 PM - Skyline Luge 6.00 PM to 7.00 PM - Enjoyed at the beach 7.15 PM to 8.00 PM - Wings of time | All these attractions are located in Sentosa and we did not find it over crowded at any place. There were very small queues, though. It is a 15 minute walk to reach ifly from where your taxi will drop you. Make sure to reach iFly at the designated time, else there is a reschedule fee of 30 SGD per person. We were late here and had to pay the reschedule fee. |
| 01-11-2025, Saturday | 10.00 to 2.30 PM - Shopping in Chinatown and a visit to the Buddha Temple 3.00 PM to 8.30 PM - Gardens by the Bay | Buddha Temple has 4th and 5th floors too. Make sure to visit those floors. Beware of pickpockets in Chinatown. Floral fantasy is located a bit far away from the Gardens by the bay area and it closes by 8.00 PM. You need to catch a battery-operated shuttle service which operates at a fare of 3 SGD per person and takes around 10 minutes to reach there. You should first visit floral fantasy and then cover other Gardens by the Bay attractions. This way you will not miss the light show on the Super Trees at Gardens by the Bay which starts around 8.00 PM. In the light show, we did not enjoy the song, but the lights were good. |
| 02-11-2025, Sunday | 10.00 AM to 2.30 PM - IMM Mall 3.30 PM to 4.30 PM - Singapore Flyer 5.00 PM to 5.30 PM - Observation Deck 5.45 PM to 7.30 PM - “Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands” mall 8.00 PM to 8.45 PM - Merlion | IMM mall is the largest outlet mall of Singapore. It offers great discounts on weekends, so if you looking for jewelry and costly stuff, plan accordingly. It rained this day, so Observation Deck was closed for us. But, they allowed us entry the day after. Check out the Apple Store and the Casino in “Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands” mall. Entry to the Casino is free for foreigners to Singapore. There is free tea and coffee in the Casino. Not to exaggerate, but is feels like one of the James Bond movies. There is a waterfall too from the area overlooking the marina bay area (where the water falls in the lower floors of the mall, a bit hard to describe but youtube should help). It starts around 7.45 PM, the top of which forms a whirlpool. Another light show awaits you here at 8.00 PM. Merlion is a 20 minute walk from “Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands” mall but the view is enjoyable. The Observation deck and “Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands” mall are are separated by a busy road, so moving in between them is a little tricky. But it will be easy if you are willing to take the longer route. |
| 03-11-2025, Monday | 10 AM to 4 PM - Mandai Zoo 5.30 PM to 9 PM - Big Bus Night Tour | The Zoo comprises of 4 sections. Bird Paradise which is located a little away from the other 3 parts but there is a free shuttle service connecting them. Others are Singapore Zoo, Night Safari (not to be confused with night timings, it is the nocturnal animals out there and hence the name) and River Wonders. The Mandai Zoo is far away from town, so expect 25-30 minutes in taxi per leg. Bird Paradise was wonderful with two 15-20 minute shows between 11 AM and 1 PM. We skipped the Night Safari and only saw half of the Singapore Zoo, as we needed to catch the Night Tour Bus. We did not plan to visit River Wonders since we researched it to be similar to the Oceanarium. If your schedule allows you, I believe that you should give a full day to the Mandai Zoo. The Big Bus Night Tour helped us see the Marina Barrage, Hawker market and Super Tree Light Show, which we missed earlier. |
| 04-11-2025, Tuesday | 10 AM to 4 PM – Universal Studios (USS) 4.30 PM to 5.30 PM – Observation Deck 5.45 PM to 9.00 PM - “Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands” mall | Buy an express pass with the normal entry ticket when visiting USS. It will help you almost nullify wait times. The wait time for most rides is anywhere between 20-45 minutes. The express pass is costlier than the normal entry ticket, so it could up your budget. There are more than 20 rides. There is a separate entry lane for express pass holders for almost all rides. From November, USS closes at 7PM and before that 5PM. Check the timings beforehand. Since, we had spare time, we decided to visit the Observation Deck, which we missed earlier. They allowed entry to us using the same tickets. |
| 05-11-2025, Wednesday | 12 PM to 5 PM Changi Airport | Three of the four terminals of the Airport are inter-connected by a walkway and an interior metro service to a common area called the Jewel. This showcases a huge waterfall in the center falling from a glass ceiling amidst lush greenery. Be sure to check it out. One unusual thing is that unlike other airports, Cabin Baggage security is done at the Gates, where you will board the flight. They have a baggage screening machine at each gate. If you are boarding an evening Indigo flight, check-in counters for those flights open at 2.30 PM |
GST Refund
You can claim a GST refund on all your purchases by referring to the below process –- The Invoice amount is SGD 100 or more.
- It should not include food consumed or entry passes for activities. It is strictly for goods purchased which you are carrying to your home country.
- Inform the store at the time of making the payment that you wish to claim GST refund for that purchase.
- Provide the store with your passport and a copy of the SGAC (Singapore Arrival Card).
They will provide you a receipt showing the amount of refund applicable for your purchase. It comes to around 5.50% of the invoice value.
When leaving for your home country, before checking in your luggage, proceed to the GST refund kiosk at the airport. Enter your Passport Number and other details, requested by the system.
Choose the mode of payment. If you wish that the payment should be credited to your Credit Card Account, then there is a space, where you need to place your Credit Card. The system will read it and if all goes well, you will be redirected to the final screen, showing all your purchases and the amount of SGD which will be processed to your card account. If you choose cash, then there is a desk where you need to collect it from.
Closing Comments
I believe that I have outlined everything which I experienced. However, there may be some bad things which we managed to avoid owing to our sheer luck or caution. Our trip was truly a memorable one which we will cherish as long as we live.Thank you for reading all the way. Please post any doubts, comments, suggestions or clarifications in the comments section and I will reply back.
Ravi.
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