Overview
Singapore is a gleaming, multicultural city-state at the tip of the Malay Peninsula — a place of futuristic gardens and skyline, world-famous hawker food, and Chinese, Malay, Indian and colonial heritage packed into one spotless, hyper-efficient island.
Travel
Singapore is one of the world's great city break destinations — a wealthy, green, immaculately run island city-state where Chinese, Malay, Indian and colonial-era cultures meet, and where futuristic architecture rises above some of the best street food on the planet. The showpiece is Marina Bay: the three-towered, ship-topped Marina Bay Sands, the spaceship-domed ArtScience Museum, the original Merlion statue spouting into the bay, and — across the water — Gardens by the Bay, where the towering Supertrees light up nightly and two cooled conservatories hold a cloud-forest waterfall and a changing flower dome. But Singapore's soul is its food, eaten in the hawker centres — open-air halls of cheap, brilliant stalls (two have held Michelin stars) serving Hainanese chicken rice, chilli crab, laksa, char kway teow, satay and roti prata. The city's character lives in its ethnic quarters: the temples, food streets and shophouses of Chinatown; the colour, garlands and curry houses of Little India; the mosque, Arab Street textiles and hip cafés of Kampong Glam; and the Peranakan shophouses and Nyonya cooking of Katong/Joo Chiat. The colonial civic district holds the white-domed national museums and the storied Raffles Hotel (home of the Singapore Sling), while Orchard Road is a two-kilometre canyon of malls. Beyond the centre, the resort island of Sentosa adds beaches, Universal Studios and cable cars; the world-renowned Singapore Zoo and its Night Safari sit in the green interior; and the UNESCO-listed Botanic Gardens hold the National Orchid Garden. Even the airport is an attraction — Changi's Jewel, with the world's tallest indoor waterfall under a glass dome, regularly tops “best airport” lists. Compact, safe, English-speaking and connected by a superb metro, Singapore is the easiest of Asian introductions. It's hot and humid year-round, with frequent short downpours; there's no real bad season, though February to April is marginally drier.
Marina Bay is Singapore's modern showpiece and the place to start. The three soaring towers of Marina Bay Sands, joined by a ship-shaped SkyPark with its famous infinity pool (guests only, but the observation deck is open to all), define the skyline; at their feet, the lotus-inspired ArtScience Museum and the Helix Bridge complete the set. The original Merlion — Singapore's half-lion, half-fish mascot — spouts water into the bay from its waterfront park, the classic photo spot. The headline, though, is Gardens by the Bay: a vast waterfront park where the steel Supertrees, vertical gardens up to 50 metres tall, stage a free light-and-sound show after dark, best watched from the OCBC Skyway, an aerial walkway strung between the tallest Supertrees — a separately ticketed attraction with its own admission, not included with the free show. Two giant cooled conservatories hold the Cloud Forest (a misty indoor mountain with a 35-metre waterfall) and the Flower Dome, which rotates seasonal displays around a permanent Mediterranean and semi-arid plant collection. The nightly Spectra light-and-water show on the Sands' boardwalk rounds off a Marina Bay evening.
Frequently asked questions
Diplomatic missions in Singapore
4 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.
This overview comes from Visaja's worldwide missions database (visaja.com), checked against official government sources; for binding answers, the mission itself always has the final word.