I vaguely remember someone mentioning that there was some kind of day tour around the city of singapore where you get to see the sights and I think he said you didn't have to go through immigration or worry about visas etc coz you are just in transit. Can anyone with experience of this provide any more info/links?
I'm arriving in Singapore 2:30pm, departing 10pm.
Anthony Bordain, my favourite tv host/travel dude/cook does a show called "The Layover" where he gives you stuff to do while on a layover.
give this a bash mate! :)
http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/the-layover/episodes/s…
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xo2ian_the-layover-s01e01-s… <—- full episode here
Thanks, that's awesome!
And based on your username, I have to ask the following question: Got any ideas for us (5 young adults) or places to check out while staying in Shinjuku for 4 days in february with a JR pass. We have disneyland so that's one day gone, looking for other ideas :) A pub crawl is probably on the cards too ;) Any recommendations?
any bar is good. ask for Nomihodai (nom-ee-hoe-dai) you'll pay about 1000 yen (10 bucks) for about 2 hours all you can drink beer, wine, spirits, whatever…..
it's absolutely insane
and you can do tabehodai + nomihodai (all you can eat + drinks bolt on) for not much extra… I don't think they expected us last trip, we had around 100 drinks in our session :P
most karaoke places to nomihodai. look for the big branch ones on all the main streets in shinjuku or anywhere, head to Kabukicho (red light district) for awesome drinking too, only a few steps from shinjuku
good luck at disneyland I left after about 3 hrs because of the crowds. to get on one ride was a 3-4 hr wait.
Cheers for the tip, I reckon I could make good use of all you can drink in 2 hours haha ;)
Disneyland sounds like it could be a let down. Are there days/times/seasons when it is less busy than usual? I'm guessing weekday is better than weekend.
theres a japanese crowd calculator
pick the day you're going and it will tell you a rough idea of what the crowds will be like.
http://tdrnavi.jp/forecast/disneyland?lang=en
I went mid-week thinking it would be less busy, but got there around 1pm… by this time all the fast-pass things were closed and crowds were insane.
sometimes lines just to buy popcorn were an hour long.
Wow, that's depressing. Oh well cheers for the info.
What is DisneySea? I've heard it mentioned twice now but haven't looked into it. Is it worth checking out?
If you have an aussie passport, you don't need to worry about a visa anyway… Just get a stamp in your passport and if asked, say you're doing a day trip.
These days (I've been to Singapore a lot), I would just go into town, have a walk around the promenade up to the quays. I might settle in for a drink somewhere (there is this place in Chinatown that I like). You can see things such as the merlion, the big durian, the marina sands hotel, and a run through the gauntlet at the quays is fun. At your time, dinner should be on the cards as airline food generally sux.
A few things to keep in mind:
- They use SGD obviously, I think it's about $1 AUD = 1.3 SGD.
- If you are walking around, buy a bottle of water from somewhere. It's not too bad in the morning and evening, but it builds up the heat quickly.
- The MRT train system is great. It'll take you about 2 minutes to figure it out.
- You can't just hail a cab from the side of the road - you have to book them, or wait at a designated taxi rank.
Cheers for the info :)
No wonder it always takes me so long to hail cabs in Singapore!
You can easily kill 7 hours just at the airport… there's quite a few gardens, lots of shopping and food outlets and a free cinema as well. There's also a hotel if you were looking at taking a nap for about $40. There's also an aviation museum if you're into that while you're doing the free tour you can go there as its outside the airport.
Airport Cinema (free)
just a note on the free tour - book early or you may miss out. we recently had 6+ hrs in the airport and decided we would do the tour, but we stopped and did some shopping on the way to the tour point. by the time we reached the tour meeting point, there was only one seat left and there were many of us being turned away.
we did manage to find our own way into the city with the trains - its pretty easy really, but we weren't thrilled with the dining options we found (it was on the river, lovely spot but a tourist trap). i'm sure if you did a little research before you left, that you would find some great spots though :)
Look for some rump.
FREE SINGAPORE CITY TOUR from Changi Airport
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/120224