- You know, people often ask me,
"How expensive is it to travel to Singapore,"
because they've heard that Singapore's really expensive
and I'm just wrapping up five days here in Singapore.
I'm gonna tell you exactly how much I spent
so you can find out if it's really that expensive.
All right, let's go.
My first expense after landing in Singapore's Changi Airport
was to take a taxi to my hotel.
I took a taxi from the airport's official taxi rank
and it costed 30 Singaporean dollars to get to my hotel,
the JW Marriott South Beach Hotel,
where I checked in pretty late, about 9:30 at night
so I just went straight to sleep.
My first activity on my first day in Singapore
was to go visit the classic Merlin Statue.
Yes, the unofficial mascot of Singapore.
This was free, doesn't cost anything to see the statue.
Lunchtime, I headed over to the Lau Pa Sat hawker center.
I had some chicken rice and some sugar cane juice.
This cost me eight Singaporean dollars.
Then I walked over to Chinatown
and had a second lunch because honestly
the portions at these hawker centers aren't that big
and I wanted to compare my first chicken rice
to the most famous chicken rice in all of Singapore,
the Tian Tian chicken rice
at the Maxwell Road hawker center.
I got that and a lime juice, $7.50.
By the way, I'm gonna round all the prices up
to the nearest 50 cents
'cause who's counting pennies anyway.
A little later to get a dessert,
I went over to the Chinatown hawker center
and got an iced cendol $2.50.
By the way, if you're wondering
what Singaporean dollars are converted to U.S. dollars,
one Singaporean dollar is worth about $1.30 U.S.
I'll do the whole conversion at the end.
All right, for dinner, I ate
at another hawker center in Chinatown, The People's Market.
I had a pork rice and a lemon iced tea, $7.
The next morning, this is a much more expensive day.
I went to the Singapore Zoo
and so I had to buy the tickets ahead of time online
to go to the Singapore Zoo.
I also added on the River Wonders Park.
Together, those two parks, $78.
The zoo's kind of hard to get to by public transportation
or it just takes a long time
and so I wanted to get there quicker.
So I took a taxi to the zoo, 25 Singaporean dollars.
At the zoo, I had lunch.
I had chicken biryani lunch
at their main restaurant inside the zoo
with an iced teh for $20.
Then a little later in the day it was hot.
I wanted a dessert again.
I had a shave ice at one of the vendors
outside the zoo's main gate, $5 for the shave ice.
Then I was thirsty,
so I got an iced tea from the zoo's mini mart.
The canned iced tea was $3.
I picked up a little souvenir
to bring back home to our daughter, $32 for this panda,
that's also gonna join the yellow productions crew.
Now to get back from the zoo to my hotel,
it had started to rain and so there were no taxis available.
There were no grabs available.
I had to take one of the limousine taxis
that was about twice the price.
It cost me $50 to get back to the hotel.
So I decided to save some money
and just have dinner at the hotel's lounge
'cause I got that for free.
And so dinner didn't cost me nothing.
All right, the next day I went to Sentosa Island.
The taxi to Sentosa Island cost me $15.
Then for lunch, I ate dim sum
at the Resorts World Casino, $18.
I had shave ice at the Food Republic Food Hall
at the VivoCity Shopping Mall,
$3.50 for the mango shave ice.
Then I went to the airport.
Chris, why are you going back to the airport?
'Cause I wanted to see the Jewel Shopping Center.
$25 to take a grab to the Jewel at Changi Airport.
I had dinner in the food court in the basement of the Jewel.
Indonesian food with some oolong tea, $20.
And then for dessert,
I had some Cow Cow milk ice cream sundae.
This is a chain from Tokyo.
My ice cream sundae
with a slice of cheesecake on it, $10, ouch.
Then to get back to the hotel, I also took a taxi, $30.
It is now day number three
and for lunch I went to the Albert Centre hawker center
near the Bugis MRT
where I had some fried hokkien me shrimp noodles
and some lime juice.
That was $7.
And it was hot and so I wanted some cold dessert.
So I got another iced cendol for $2.50 in Kampong Glam,
also known as Little Arabia.
That iced cendol was pretty small
and it was really hot that day,
so I got another ice cream, in particular a gelato,
from Birds of Paradise, the lychee raspberry flavor,
$5.50 for this small cup of gelato.
Then I stopped into 7-Eleven to get a green tea.
This much cheaper than at the zoo was $1. Bargain.
I then walked over to Little India
and had a mid-afternoon snack at the Tekka Centre
which is Little India's hawker center.
I had a honey prata and a ice honey, ginger, lemon drink,
$5 in total.
Then it was time to take the MRT for the first time,
which is Singapore's subway.
I took that over to Gardens by the Bay.
To ride it, I had to get the MRT card first,
$5 for the tap-on, tap-off card
and the actual trip to Gardens by the Bay was $1.
That's right, $1 to ride the MRT.
It's like the best bargain in town. All right.
Then Gardens by the Bay.
I went into the cloud and flower domes.
Not as cheap as the MRT ride.
The combo ticket to go into those two domes, $53.
Then for dinner, I ate at the Jurassic Foodhall
at Gardens by the Bay.
I had Hawker Chan,
which is a famous Michelin starred hawker stall
and an iced teh to drink, 23 Singaporean dollars.
And to cap off the evening, I watched the nighttime show
in front of the Marina Bay Sands.
That luckily was free.
Now on my final full day in Singapore,
I took the MRT for $1 to the Singapore National Museum
where I learned all about the history of Singapore for $15.
Then I took a bus for $1, down to Orchard Road
where I stopped into Ion Orchard on the basement level
for a food hall called Food Opera
where I had some prawn noodles, some carrot cake.
That's what this redish, black soy sauce dish is called
and a honey lemon drink for $16.
Then along Orchard Road
I got a bargain ice cream sandwich for $1.50.
In Takashimaya Shopping Center I had a coconut shake,
large size for $6.
I took the bus back to the hotel for one Singaporean dollar.
And then just to make it easy,
I had dinner at the hotel lounge again.
So that didn't cost me anything.
And then my final day to head back to the airport,
30 more Singaporean dollars.
Total that all up and what do we get?
564 Singaporean dollars.
Convert that to U.S. dollars. What do we get?
424 U.S. dollars for five days of fun
and awesome eating in Singapore.
Note, this does not include my hotel cost
and this does not include my flights.
This is just how much I spent on,
kind of the things to like exist
and have a good time in the day in Singapore.
You'll note I did not eat at any fancy
or really expensive restaurants.
I also did not go out to any bars
and have any alcoholic drinks in the evening.
Those are things that can be quite expensive in Singapore.
So now let me talk about the hotel for just a moment
to give you an idea of hotel prices.
Singapore hotel prices, they can really range.
You know, there are hostiles and capsule hotels
that you can get for as cheap as $35 a night in Singapore.
Or you can stay at the JW Marriott South Beach.
When the cash rate, while I was staying here,
was 600 Singaporean dollars a night.
I booked it with Marriott points.
I had a lot of Marriott points
and so I didn't pay anything to stay here.
That was part of why I enjoyed staying at this hotel.
I also flew to Singapore on United Airlines
using my United Miles.
So my flight didn't cost me anything.
And so in that case, factor those things in,
but they're very highly variable.
And so, you know, if you want a fancy hotel,
you're gonna spend a lot of money.
You're gonna spend maybe more money
on one night in the hotel
than you will on the five days of adventure in the city
if you're staying in one of Singapore's luxury hotels.
But as you can see,
Singapore can be quite an inexpensive destination.
You just have to do the things that are cheap
as opposed to the things that are expensive.
And I didn't like limit myself.
You know, I still visited
kind of expensive Gardens by the Bay,
kind of expensive zoo,
and I took some kind of slightly expensive taxis.
I mean expensive compared to the $1 MRT and bus ride.
All in all, I don't think that expensive.
Well, fellow explorers, if you enjoyed this video,
you might enjoy checking out some more videos
from my Singapore series.
You'll find links on the screen or in the description below.
And as usual, I won't say goodbye 'cause I'll see you
in the next video.