Singapore
Singapore is a city-state of about six million people on an island roughly 50km across, which is why it has no hinterland, no second city and no bad transport links. Almost everything a visitor wants sits within half an hour of an MRT station, and a ride costs between S$1.28 and S$2.57. That compactness is the whole proposition, and it is also why Singapore is a three or four day stop rather than a two week trip.
The trade-off is price, and hotels are what decide your budget. The average room rate across gazetted hotels was S$278.90 in July 2026; the small-hotel tier averaged S$145.90. Food runs the other way. Hawker centres are where people actually eat rather than a tourist exercise, and they are the reason a cheap day here is genuinely cheap.
Singapore will not suit you if you want weather variety or a sense of discovery. It sits one degree north of the equator, so the mean afternoon high is between 30.5 and 32.4 degrees in every month of the year and it rains on 171 days of an average year. There is no shoulder season to arbitrage and no month when the city empties out. It will not suit you either if you expect things to be negotiable. Prices are fixed, rules are enforced, and the fine print means exactly what it says, which cuts both ways: the GST refund you were promised has conditions, and the bus that says it comes at 7.12 comes at 7.12.
What it does suit: a first trip to Asia, a stopover worth extending, families who need infrastructure that works, and anyone who would rather spend the day eating than queueing.
- Entry and visas
Most Western passports need no visa. Singapore publishes the list of travel documents that do require one, and if yours is not on that list you do not need a visa: ICA visa requirements.
What everyone needs is the SG Arrival Card, residents included if they arrive by air or sea. It is free, it is filed online or in the MyICA app, and it can only be submitted in the three days before you arrive, counting the day you land. ICA states that it does not endorse the commercial sites charging a fee to file it for you, so file it yourself: SG Arrival Card.
The part that catches people out is the length of stay. It is not fixed, and it is not tied to a visa. ICA issues an electronic visit pass at the counter and emails you the e-Pass, which names the last day you may stay. Nothing is stamped in your passport, so if you do not read that email you do not know your own deadline. Give a working address on the arrival card.
Carrying more than S$20,000 in cash or bearer instruments, in either direction, triggers a mandatory declaration to the police on Form NP 727, filed within 72 hours of travel. There is no limit on the amount you may carry, only on failing to report it: the penalty runs to a S$50,000 fine or three years. See taking cash in and out of Singapore.
- Taxes and fees
GST is 9% and applies to almost everything a visitor buys. Hotels usually add a 10% service charge, and the two stack, so a quoted room rate is not the number you pay.
You can reclaim GST on goods under the electronic Tourist Refund Scheme, but the conditions are tighter than the shop signage suggests. You must spend at least S$100 including GST with a participating retailer, and you may combine up to three same-day receipts only when they carry the same GST registration number and shop name. You must present your physical passport at the till; a photo of it is not accepted. You must leave with the goods within two months of purchase and within 12 hours of the kiosk approving your claim, and only via Changi or Seletar.
Three exclusions do most of the damage. Accommodation does not qualify, no service qualifies, and the refund operator deducts a handling fee, so you never recover the full 9%. The scheme is also voluntary, meaning plenty of shops are not in it at all. Conditions: IRAS Tourist Refund Scheme.
- Getting around
The MRT answers almost every journey. Adult card fares run from S$1.28 for trips up to 3.2km to S$2.57 for the longest, and tapping in before 7.45am on a weekday takes 50 cents off.
Fares rise on 26 December 2026. The Public Transport Council granted a 7% increase: adult card fares go up 12 cents for journeys to 3.2km and 13 cents beyond, adult cash fares go up 20 cents, and monthly pass prices do not change. Budget from the new numbers if you travel after Christmas.
Tap a contactless Visa or Mastercard straight at the gate and skip the ticket machine, but know the catch: SimplyGo’s terms impose a Foreign Bank Card Admin Fee of S$0.60 per day of use on foreign-issued Visa and Mastercard. Singapore-issued cards pay nothing extra.
The Singapore Tourist Pass costs S$17 for one day, S$24 for two, S$29 for three, S$37 for four and S$45 for five, covering buses, MRT and LRT. Do the arithmetic before you buy. The three-day pass is S$9.67 a day, and central hops cost about S$1.49 to S$1.75, so you need roughly six rides a day for three straight days to beat tapping a bank card and paying the 60 cent fee. Most visitors manage three or four. The pass also excludes the Sentosa Express and express buses, which are exactly the trips people assume it covers.
Hiring a car is the wrong instinct here. The rail network reaches nearly everything, parking and road pricing are not designed for visitors, and nothing worth seeing needs a car.
- Cards and money
Cards work nearly everywhere, the MRT gate included. The two things to watch both come down to who gets to choose your currency.
First, refuse dynamic currency conversion. When a terminal or an ATM offers to bill you in pounds, euros or dollars rather than Singapore dollars, that is the merchant’s rate instead of your bank’s, and it is the worse of the two. Always take the SGD option. The full version of that argument is in card versus cash abroad.
Second, carry some cash regardless. Many hawker stalls and small shops take only cash or a local QR payment, and the local QR apps are not realistically available to a short-stay visitor.
Singapore does not restrict how much currency you bring in or out. It only requires you to declare it above S$20,000.
- Currency
- SGD
- Best months
- February and March, the driest and sunniest. November and December are the wettest.
Prices checked 2026-10