Singapore Hotels - Recommendations ...

[Millie1]

Can anyone please recommend a really nice Singapore hotel with good facilities for a 3 yr old and a baby (ie. pool/gardens). We're only there for 1 night but 2 full days so won't be venturing too far.

thanks

No-one has replied to your post so I thought I would Millie ~ not that I have anything useful to say.

I would think you'd easily find a hotel in Singapore. Have you tried looking on the Internet. Singapore is really easy to get around so you should be able to do a lot in your two days.

Most of the hotels are fantastic - just go with one of the big chains. I stayed in one for two nights but cannot remember the name ~ it might have been The Mirimar. Anyway, Singapore has some of the best hotels in the world so you cannot go far wrong.

I have you made plans for what to do during your 2 days. I'd really recommend the night safari if you think your children will be awake beyond 8pm your night in Singapore. It takes place at the zoo. The animals are in quite natural surroundings and small lights, sympathetically light them up. You see loads of great animals because they are mostly nocturnal. You'll be able to get more details at your hotel.

Anyway, I hope some of that helps.

Merchant Court
Near Clarke Quay

Nice pool, you can stroll through a pedestrianised quarter by the river, nice and quiet.

We stayed there in August on the stopover on the way to Australia with a 3 year old and a crawling baby. There are two great pools one suitable for you and your little one and we took ds1 in the big one with his water wings

Because of the heat, there aren't many outdoor playgrounds in Singapore but I'm sure your 3 yr old will enjoy riding on the MRT (tube) and if he/she will still kip in the pushchair then you and dp may get to eat out on Clarke Quay which has lots of (touristy) restuarants.

If you get really stuck there is a small indoor soft play place at the far end of Orchard Road in a shopping complex that has a Toys R Us stylee shop.

Thanks Beatie & Suzywong. We've stayed in Singapore twice before but it's been just us with no kids so it's a bit different this time. I'll check out both those hotels - we're having difficulties trying to get a room which will allow for a double, single & cot - a couple have offered suites which would be okay. Know what you mean about the heat/humidity factor - that's what's really worrying me. The indoor play area sounds like a great idea and will keep that in mind. Oh ... and DS1 has a nut allergy so it should be fun, fun, fun!!

well in that case you are going to have to be really bloody careful with the food. The buffet breakfast they have at all these hotels should be relatively ok to deal with (I'm sure you know what you are doing by now) but stay away from the street stalls.

Are you flying on to somewhere else? or is it a holiday?

Beatie's right, the zoo is a great day out and there are always deals and discounts to be had. Also good for little kids is Sentosa Island Resort and the Jurong Bird Park.

I had my honeymoon on Sentosa island! Your 3 year old should love the cablecar ride over there (it goes from the World Trade Centre) and there's a monorail which goes round the whole island. There's loads for kids on the island including an aquariam.

Re the food Suzywong ... don't I know it! It's a 1 night stopover en-route home from Australia and I'll bring lots of stuff with me that he can snack on. That's why we're being so fussy and e-mailing the hotels to ask them whether they can guarantee nut-free. So far Raffles Plaza and the Shangri-La have said they can but the latter can't fit us all in one room. Don't really want interconnecting cos due to flight times think we'll have to pay for late check-out/extra day anyway and can't afford that plus additional room charge.

I'd looked at Sentosa Island but it seems like a long way out (although it says 30 mins from airport) - is it via ferry/boat or something. Do you think it'd be accessible/worth it for a one night (tho' 2 full days) stay?

You ladies are going to get me sorted out yet!! Thanks!

Okay ... Sentosa looks great . We're thinking of the Sentosa Resort or the Shangri-La. Suzywong/Beattie .. have either of you stayed in these? If so, re the Sentosa Resort (which is where DH really wants to stay), is it child-friendly (they say they do entertainment for kids on Sunday nights so it must be?) and how accessible is the beach and mono-rail? TIA.

swissotel merchant court - we stayed there with 2 1/2 year old on our way back to Australia - great pool area including a separate pool for toddlers. Walk across to clarkequay - great for shopping/eating - they were building and renovating when we were there last June - so probably finished now. Walk to metro station, courtesy bus to shops and raffles and suncity - biggest shopping centre with fountain of wealth.....

we stayed a week and found it fab.

Sentosa was great for a visit but we found it too far out for a stay iykwim.

If you can - do the Zoo - we caught a cab from the hotel to the zoo cost us very little from memory.

I second the Merchant Court.
Also had fun at Sentosa.
We were doing a couple of nights there before driving through Malaysia (now that's a great place!)and Thailand.
Dd loved the ferry ride to Sentosa and the monorail ride (I enjoyed the exhibition about Sentosa in 2WW!!)

Bummer about the nut allergy. Most of SE Asia uses groundnut oil for cooking.

We couldn't get a good deal at Sentosa .... so there seems to be a sub-sub-clique of Mumsnetters evovling, The Merchant Court Guest Clique. Did you fly home with Singapore too, eidsvold?

Dear Millie1,

Singapore resident here!

Residenced Apartments are really good here if you have more than one child, though check that they do stopovers. Treetops on Orange Grove Road is lovely (2 bed flats with kitchen), Great World City Apts on Kim Seng Walk also v good, as is the Ascott.

Due to long term stay, have not experienced any of the hotels. The Sentosa Resort is beautiful but you're right, it is a bit of a way out when you are in a taxi with 2 little ones. Sentosa is linked to Singapore by bridge. Underwaterworld is a great aquarium, and nice and cool inside for the baby. The hotel should have a bus that ferries you around? Siloso beach is the best, and there is a good bar called Coastes on the sand. The beach is very hot and sticky after 10 and before 5, especially for a baby.

Singapore is a very child friendly place imo. BUT MRT is not good with pushchairs (have been on it ONCE in 3 years) but then taxis are dead cheap. (you need your rockatot carseat for the baby, but your 3 year old can probably just go into the seat belt).

Night Safari is great for jet lagged children, but the zoo is very hot after 10am, especially coming straight from winter in the UK, but it has got a good playground with a waterplay area.

Tanglin Mall, on Tanglin Road has an indoor play Gymboree and Kindermusic, and a brilliant Aussie Cafe called Cafe Beviamo on the 2nd floor, which does half portions and has high chairs, and will respect nut allergies.

I'll try to find out more info if you need it...

of course Suzy - frist flew out here with them when we brought dd1 ( then 8 months old) out to Aus to visit the relies....

they were brilliant as we had bought the flights for the Christmas after dd1 was due but because of her heart surgery really did not want to travel so soon after that..the travel agent wanted to charge us - 900 pound to change the tickets - 300 pounds each... DD's ticket only cost us 150 pounds. This was something that we could not have forseen - the surgery... we contacted Singapore Airlines and they were brilliant - contacted the agent to tell them we were not travelling and rebooked our tickets for a time we could fly and prebooked and confirmed a skycot for dd ( with info as to why she needed one)all the way out and back from Aus.

Then we flew them last year when we came back to Aus - again they were brilliant....

great with children and it seems nothing is too much bother for the cabin crew.

We caught the metro to the cable car and cable carred it to Sentosa then took the monorail... dd loved the Butterfly enclosure.

Really wanted to see the WW2 exhibit but be warned they have moved it to another place on the Island and it is quite a steep climb to get to the museum to see that exhibit - we gave it a miss with toddler in buggy and me being 18 weeks pregnant.

The zoo was brilliant and dd loved that... but she loved just playing in the pool at the hotel the best I think.

Thanks everyone ... loads of information and good advice and I might be back with some more questions when I've had time to re-read and absorb all!

millie, agree with all that sentosa will be too far away to stay for 1 night. and you may end up being stuck in the hotel as going around the island may be a little too hot and there isn't much air conditioned place around the island. best bet is to stay round the orchard road area where there are plenty of restaurants and air-conditioned areas. if you go really early to the zoo, you could probably do it in the morning. about $17 by cab from the centre of town. we did it twice but after 11, it becomes unbearable. another good place to go (but again probably in the morning) is the singapore botanical gardens. in terms of food, there is a good japanese place called "dons"(does rice, noodles, tepanyaki) at the bottom of tanglin mall. they are rather child friendly and you can request no salt, msg and stuff like that.

which airline are you flying?

Thanks CSA ... we're flying Singapore. Usually go BA or Qantas but have been told that Singapore Airlines are great with children. Am really confused now re where to stay - it seems to be a 50/50 split on here - we'd pretty much decided on Sentosa simpy cos Underwater World could use up most of a day and the beach would be there for early am/late pm with hotel pool for quick dips inbetween times. Admittedly, lack of restaurant choices worries me with DS's nut allergy. More food for thought!!

millie, if you are flying SQ, then i believe they do a singapore stopover deal
have a look at this
check it out for hotels too cos they do really discounted ones at top notch hotels.

also, with sq, you can pre-check in for seats over the phone (flying out from the uk) and when you are in singapore, again, you can do it over the phone or the internet. (i think it is either 24 or 48 hours before flight time). that way, you can ensure that you get the seats you want. and yes, singapore airlines is great for travelling with children.

cvlarke quay near the swissotel merchant court has a wide range of restuarasnts within alking distance including golden arches. we ate there at different places each night - brilliasnt food and very cheap

CSA ... thanks for all the info. Infact the internet check-in was one of our main reasons for travelling with them as we have to go from Belfast to London initially and unless we get there hours and hours in advance we'd miss out on decent seats (ie. bulkhead) - at least this way we have a chance of getting them.

And Eidsvold ... McDonalds? OMG - DS1 would eat breakfast, lunch and dinner there if he could! Actually, it's a good point cos they might be pretty safe from the nut perspective.

Would love the night safari myself but think we're more likely to want to get them to bed and sleeping.

just to let you know on the nut front, may be safer to stick to sandwiches where no frying is concerned. when i was pg (was living in singapore then), i was real careful about avoiding nuts, etc. and it wasn't until ds was about 2months that i realise that the cooking oil which we have been using (labelled in large letters "Corn Oil" and a very popular brand in Singapore) contained peanut oil too! so much for being careful.

oohhh just remembered - also staying at Clarke Quay we were on the river and dd loved travelling in the bumboats.... up and down the river.... took us to various places.

The shuttle bus from swissotel merchant court went to raffles and chimes - great places to eat - the staff in the two restuarants that we visited there spent so much time cooing over dd1 that we almost had to remind them about our food

Hi Millie,

If you have a baby without a seat, you should automatically get a bulkhead seat on SQ as the skycots (basinettes) are fixed to the wall infront of them.

It takes about half an hour to get around Underwaterworld!

I find it best to keep the children up until 10pm or so when coming from the UK, as they are less likely to treat bedtime as a nap, and then be up until 3am. So Night Safari would be a good filler from that point of view, and cool. I do the normal meal and bath, and take pushchair/sling so it doesn't matter if they conk out whilst there.

hth

Hi Millie

Get your travel agent to book you a bassinette - that way you're guaranteed one. There's no charge as you've already paid the infant fare.

You don't want to end up with your babe in your arms if there are too many other babies on board!

I'm going to be in Singapore at the end of this month with DS (3 yrs) and DD (5 months) and will be staying at the Swissotel too, so it's good to read the positive recommendations.

cheers

Pam

Millie - great thread - just what I wanted to know too. Will try to join the MN uber-clique who've stayed at the Merchant Court