On our second day in Singapore we booked a night at the Marina Bay Sands. The hotel building itself is exceptionally unique and its structure is immediately recognizable. The top deck of MBS is known for its infinity pool and the incredible view of downtown Singapore. The hotel is on the expensive side, but we decided to splurge. We booked a room because we wanted to hang out by the infinity pool. It ended up being definitely worth it! We also checked out the Shops and Gardens by the Bay, and for dinner, we went to Clarke Quay for food and drinks.
Check In
A nice feature for checking into MBS is being able to register your own check-in time at your convenience. Within 24 hours of your check-in date, you can register your time slot to check into MBS. For us, we wanted to check in as soon as possible. We registered to check in at 9am. We packed our luggage and called a Grab for MBS.
There are two main entrances to MBS. The main entrance is on Tower One's side. There is a lot of traffic on this side and you can expect longer wait time if you check in here. We walked in through the other entrance from Tower Three. There were way less people on this side so we were able to check-in a few minutes.
The hotel room was everything you’d expect from a 5-star hotel. It came with a king-sized bed with the softest pillows I’ve ever felt, a mini fridge with complementary juice and sodas, and a lavish bathroom to match. Next to the bed was a small couch and a coffee table. The window shades were automated with the controls right next to the bed. I didn’t even have to use my outlet converter because it supported USB plugs. It started to feel like I was getting my moneys worth.
Marina Bay Sands Food Court
The food court is not in the hotel building itself, but instead it’s a 10min walk down to the Shops. Don’t worry, you won’t need to walk outside. There is an underground path that connects the main hotel building to the Shops building (very much like in Vegas).
There are a ton of food options, from Singaporean to Chinese. We got there around 11am so only the dim sum stalls were open. If you are looking for delicious and affordable meals, I recommend coming here. We spent about SG$35 on breakfast and coffee, and we left feeling very satisfied with everything we ate. What do you know, we got the chicken feet again.
Logistically it would have made sense to stay here and walk around the shops, but we desperately wanted to check out the infinity pool 😁. If we were to rewind and do this day again, we would have walked around the shops first before heading up to the top.
Marina Bay Sands Infinity Pool
Don’t forget to register which day you want to go to the infinity pool! You can book 1 day before your hotel check-in date. Once you’ve booked your day, you are free to come and go during pool operating hours (6am - 11pm).
Is it worth it?
Unfortunately only hotel guests can swim in the infinity pool. Yes, you can still see the views by going to the observation deck for a small fee, but you won’t get a great angle of the skyline. I'm not going to say this has to be a must-see experience, but if you do have an extra $500 laying around, I recommend staying here one night. It is worth it. Another famous hotel on our list was the hotel Parkroyal Collection Pickering. This one is around $300/night.
Best time to go?
We went around 1pm when I thought it would be the busiest. Turns out the crowd was not as large as I thought! The single day beds are first come, first serve, but we found two next to each other pretty easily. I don’t think you will have any trouble finding a spot to lay down no matter what time you go.
How is the food?
You can expect the pool food menu to pretty much only cater towards westerners. As someone who grew up in the US, it looked identical to what a typical menu from a luxury day club would look like. I traveled here to eat Singaporean food, not cheeseburgers. I drank a couple Tigers but that’s about it.
Also, every single review blog of the infinity pool will post only the view of Singapore downtown skyline. But what is underrated and overlooked is the view of the Singapore Strait from the the other side of the deck. I have never seen that many container ships in one place. Not surprisingly, Singapore is the 2nd largest port by cargo volume in the world. I wonder if the ships were waiting for their turn to unload their cargo. I couldn’t make out any patterns as to how they were anchored because they looked like they were all over the place. If anyone knows what they are doing out there, please let me know!
Gardens by the Bay
No trip to Singapore is complete without visiting the other major attraction at MBS, the Gardens by the Bay. This outdoor attraction is actually one large park that consists of four majors attractions: Cloud Forest, Flower Dome, Floral Fantasy, and Supertree Grove. We only had enough time for Cloud Forest and Supertree Grove. If you had an interesting experience at the other two places, please let me know! Plan to spend about half your day here (4 hours).
Cloud Forest
You can unmistakably identify the glass dome of Cloud Forest from the top of MBS. It is a conservatory with thousands of different species of plants and flowers. These plants cover every facade of the multi-story, artificial rock that is built in the center of the dome. The whole dome is climate controlled so when you first walk in, you get smacked in the face with cooled air. This was welcoming because I was drenched in sweat from the humidity. The trail within Cloud Forest starts at the bottom of the waterfall and the path takes you to the top. From the top, there is an aerial walkway with great views of the conservatory and it will snake around and take you to the exit. The whole experience lasts about an hour, and for SG$28 per adult, it is well worth it.
Supertree Grove
Plan to visit this attraction around 630pm. You will walk around and take pictures for an hour. At 745pm the nightly light show will start. You will see a crowd of people starting to congregate around the Supertree before the show starts. So make sure you have a good spot to enjoy the show. We watched the show from the walkway between MBS and Supertree Grove because we thought the elevation would give us a better view. This was a mistake and I will admit the light show was a bit underwhelming from this perspective. I recommend you watch the show from directly underneath the trees instead of from a distance like I did.
Clarke Quay
We ended up getting dinner and some drinks at Clarke Quay. Clarke Quay is an outdoor shopping complex with retail stores and restaurant bars. This was a very lively area at night. The crowd was younger and the bars had live music and cheap alcohol.
I’m not the one to turn down a good time so we stayed out there drinking for a while longer. We noticed a couple of clubs that had opened up across from the restaurant we were at. Checking out this club sounded enticing. But after watching the entrance for a good 15 minutes and seeing no one was going inside, we decided to skip it 😂.
Time to Leave
Leave at least one day to fully explore the Marina Bay Sands area. Gardens by the Bay, Infinity pool, and the Shops will easily take up the whole day. This schedule isn’t even mentioning the MBS casino. We spent US$710 total with most of cost coming from MBS.
Overall Singapore was a fascinating country with an endless number of activities to do and various stunning cuisines to eat from all over southeast Asia. Two days was not enough time to explore the city to my satisfaction, and we will need to come back to explore the rest. This is the place that reignited my passion for travel and inspired me to start my own blog. Now for the second leg of our trip, next up: Bali!
Places we missed
River Cruise - There are several options to choose from. Starting from Clarke Quay, take a relaxing cruise down Singapore river while learning about the various historical areas that dot the city.
Tanjong Beach Club - This beach club is located in Sentosa Island. We were going to a beach club in Bali so we decided to skip this one.
Singapore Universal Studios - This was pretty low on our attractions list. We have a Universal Studios in the US so we didn’t think we need to visit.