Our favorite Singapore tours and excursions

Originally built as a private beach house in the 1830s, Raffles Hotel has seen film stars, escaped tigers, Japanese soldiers and (more recently) Instagram influencers pass through its doors over the past 200 years.  

Raffles’s Long Bar is famous for being the birthplace of the Singapore Sling — but it’s arguably the Grand Lobby, with its fluted columns and shiny marble floors, that’s the most evocative of the hotel’s Victorian heyday. Here, you’ll follow in the footsteps of Ava Gardner, Rudyard Kipling and Elizabeth Taylor as you sit down to a traditional afternoon tea, complete with finger sandwiches, scones and pastries on a silver, three-tiered cake stand. Not a tea-drinker? Never fear — you can opt for Raffles’s own blend of coffee, or go all-out and pair with Champagne. It’s not every day you get to spend an afternoon at a bona fide colonial-era icon, after all.

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 specialty, 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 behavior. 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-meter-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 colored 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-story Singapore Flier Ferris Wheel, the Esplanade Theaters (nicknamed “The Durians” for their spiky appearance) and the colonial splendor of the luxurious Fullerton Hotel. Then, hop off at the colorful shophouses of Clarke Quay, the perfect place to continue a night of drinks delicious street food.