Our favourite Singapore tours and excursions

Raffles, Victoria, Cavenagh, Fullerton: Singapore is peppered with British names and opulent buildings, but how does the city square all this grandeur with the legacy of colonialism today?  

Anyone can rock up in Singapore and be awed by the opulence of Raffles Hotel, or the magnificent neoclassical clock tower of Victoria Concert Hall. Grand as they are, what’s really fascinating about these buildings is the journey they’ve been on. On this walking tour, you’ll learn that the Fullerton Hotel was a fort, a post office and a government building before it was a luxury hotel. You’ll find out how the old Supreme Court became the largest gallery of Southeast Asian art in the world, and hear the story of how Singaporean Independence was announced at City Hall in 1963. It’s easy to be wowed by grandiose architecture; what’s harder is to grapple with what “heritage” really means in a post-colonial world.

Singapore’s love affair with gardens dates all the way back to 1859, when the Botanic Gardens were founded on a disused plantation. Today, they’re the country’s only World Heritage Site. 

Back then, the Gardens were little more than a park; today they’re a huge network of habitats, from swamp and marsh to primary rainforest. It’d take you a good hour to walk from top to bottom, and in-between you might see clouded monitor lizards chilling out on tree stumps, racket-tailed drongos flying from branch to branch, or buttress-rooted kempas trees wrapped in spiky rattans and liana vines. Orchids are a particular speciality, with varieties named after everyone from Maggie Thatcher to Jackie Chan. In the orchidetum, follow a trail from lowland to highland conditions to see epiphytic orchids give way to swamp, jewel and corduroy orchids, then boat, chain and slipper orchids in the cool house.

Recreating six geographical regions, from the Himalayan foothills to the jungles of Southeast Asia, the world’s first nocturnal zoo is a masterclass in wildlife conservation. 

We hold our experiences to the highest standards of animal welfare, which means we don’t often recommend zoos — but this one’s special. Here, elephants, rhinos, pangolins, tigers and more are allowed roam freely in large, open-air habitats. Unlike in most zoos, these animals are allowed to keep to their natural day-night cycle, and are made visible by moonlight-like lighting that’s designed not to disturb their nocturnal behaviour. Wandering the zoo’s walking trails or taking a 40-minute tram ride through the park is like having a front-row seat for a real-life episode of Life: listening to the high-pitched whistles of tapirs, watching a pride of Asian lions feeding, or spotting civet cats and black bears in the branches of trees. 

Dominated by 18 gargantuan, 50-metre-tall “supertrees”, Gardens by the Bay is this self-proclaimed Garden City’s pièce de resistance. 

They may be only a decade old, but Singapore’s supertrees have quickly become one of the city’s most iconic landmarks. Draped in flowering vines and festooned with lights, they suck up sunlight and rainwater to power the garden’s eco-domes, which recreate the ecosystems of cloud forests, Mediterranean olive groves, South African plains and more. Explore the biggest greenhouse in the world, search for orchids so small you need a magnifying glass to see them (really!), and lose yourself in a magical wonderland of lights and music as the gardens transform after dark. Forget everything you think you know about gardens, because this is something else entirely.

After dark, Singapore turns into a world of neon-lit riversides, twinkling lights and spectacular light-and-water shows. 

Begin your evening at the bay, where a clever combination of fountains, mist, lasers, lights and projections creates a huge — and really quite incredible — light show in time to dramatic music. After you’ve taken in the 15-minute show, hop on a “bumboat” (Singapore’s brightly coloured water taxis) and cruise down the river beneath the twinkling lights of Singapore’s skyscrapers. Keep your eyes peeled for the half-lion, half-fish Merlion fountain, the 42-storey Singapore Flyer Ferris Wheel, the Esplanade Theatres (nicknamed “The Durians” for their spiky appearance) and the colonial splendour of the luxurious Fullerton Hotel. Then, hop off at the colourful shophouses of Clarke Quay, the perfect place to continue a night of drinks delicious street food.