So called from the Malay words singa (lion) and pura (city), Singapore is a cultural pot pourri that leaves the unsuspecting visitor dazzled by the containment of so many influences upon one small island. Sir Stamford Raffles, a 19th-century British civil servant, brought the 'Lion City’ to world prominence after searching for a trading station to counter the Dutch influence in the Straits of Malacca. 

Singapore is an island city-state and the smallest country in Southeast Asia. It is located on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, south of the Malaysian state of Johor, and north of the Indonesian Riau Islands. Made up of not just one island but a main island with 63 surrounding islets, the main island has a total land area of 682 square km. Located at one of the crossroads of the world, its strategic position has helped it grow into a major centre for trade.  

Singapore is truly cosmopolitan, a fascinating mixture of people and culture: officially Chinese, Indian and Malay, but also with a huge foreign resident and transitory population of Americans, Burmese, Europeans, Indonesians, Japanese and fellow Asians, making it one of the most diverse centres in Asia.  There are still fascinating pockets where enclaves exist, such as Chinatown, Arab Street, Little India and Padang Square.

Singapore is linked to Malaysia by two causeway bridges, and the key  islands of the Riau archipelago of Indonesia are just a quick ferry hop. 

One of the best things about being in Singapore is undoubtedly the food.  Food markets are a great ~ and cheap ~ way to eat in Singapore. With such a cosmopolitan choice of food available, Food Courts are extremely popular and great if you want to dine in a hurry.  Usually found in shopping malls and air-conditioned, Food Courts are slightly more expensive than the Hawker Centres, where you can expect to dine for approximately $3.  For a selection of the most popular hawker centres, refer to the What to Do section within the Destination area of this website.

Nearly all tours are on a stop over either to/from the antipodes or Malaysia.  The UK/Singapore route is a very competitive one and our choice of airline depends on the structure of your tour. If you are combining Singapore with Malaysia, the best choice will probably be between Malaysian Airlines (via Kuala Lumpur) or Singapore Airlines. Both of these carriers have multi departures from London and Manchester.

If you are just stopping over in Singapore en-route to Australia or New Zealand, invariably, we will be using British Airways or Qantas both of whom have daily flights from London to Singapore.  British Airways only fly to Sydney whereas Qantas go to Darwin, Cairns, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. These are what we call premium carriers.

Sometimes, because of the tour you have chosen to do, we will use Emirates via Dubai as their local departures from Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London Heathrow and Gatwick provide our customers with greater flexibility and ease of departure. As budget may be a consideration, they can prove to be more cost effective but the journey time via Singapore is longer.

The flight schedules to Singapore are:

• Singapore Airlines ~ Three non-stop services from London Heathrow every day, plus a direct service from Manchester five times weekly, plus two via Zurich.  
  
• British Airways ~ Two non-stop services from London Heathrow daily.
  
• Qantas ~ Two non-stop services from London Heathrow daily.

Occasionally, we will use Emirates via Dubai depending on the budget our customers have.

Probably our most visited Far Eastern destination. There is still an excellent colonial culture here for sport where all the British games are played – and some particularly well. It is an excellent place to stop off, particularly from a cultural aspect.

On the Padang, you have two fantastic sporting institutions – the Singapore Cricket Club, with its majestical colonial excellence at one end and the Club at the other, which was founded by the local Indian population when they were excluded from the Singapore Cricket Club. See if you can visit both.

I can’t remember when we didn’t deal with Sunny Lim in Singapore. He is an absolute gem. To give you an idea of how good he is, we had a problem around midnight Singapore time recently, which needed one of our people to be there. We rang Sunny, who immediately jumped out of bed and was at the scene within 30 minutes. Now that’s service for you. It is also why we continue to work particularly well with him as he provides our customers with top class service. They rate him very highly, as do we.

Testimonials:  "Sunny was an excellent support.  His reps were also excellent and had a great rapport with both staff and students."  Tour Manager

"We are all hugely enriched from our wonderful experience.  The tour was great and everything we did was superbly organised.  Both Sunny and Zubir were brilliant and I want to thank you for putting together a first class tour for us."  Tour Manager

 

 

• Wah Lok ~ The master chefs from Hong Kong tempt diners with amazing choices of Dim Sum to sumptuous à la carte specialties.
  
• Café Vic ~ A 24-hour café with a Mediterranean flair, where you can choose to dine inside or out, from a selection of wood-fired pizzas to the signature Frutti di Mare, ocean-fresh seafood perched atop a refreshing bed of ice.
  
• Wah! Noogee House ~ The new hip and trendy restaurant serving Hong Kong style noodles, congee and dim sum.

We have also successfully used arguably the best YMCA in the world, where every room has its own bathroom!