In Singapore for 24 hours? Explore the best of the city.
Less7AM: Greet the dawn with a jog around the futuristic Gardens by the Bay. Take in the skyline from the East Garden, as you wend your way through palm trees and pavilions in one of the city's most impressive feats of green architecture.
8AM: Enjoy a feast of street food at Maxwell Road Food Centre. A national institution in a country where “diet” is an impolite word, it offers an epic spread of over 100 hawker stalls. Do like the locals and enjoy a pork and century egg congee, with a fresh sugar cane juice hit with lemon.
10AM: Take a stroll through the National Gallery Singapore. Housed in the old Supreme Court and City Hall buildings, it boasts the world's largest collection of South East Asian modern and contemporary art.
NOON : Get fitted for a customized suit at Kevin Seah Bespoke. His atelier, hidden away in the middle of a business park, is a calm haven of choice fabrics (more than 20,000 at last count) and an obvious passion for tailoring. Next door is his ready-to-wear menswear studio stocked with an ever-changing catalogue of hard-to-find labels.
1PM : Work up an appetite with a stroll through the ginger gardens at Halia in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, before lunching here. The best tables in the house are on the covered timber-decked terrace overlooking the greenery.
3PM: Pick up some art books at Basheer Graphic Books. The second home of architects, designers and fashion students, the store is crammed with everything from Taschen tomes to cult graphic novels and just about every design magazine in existence.
5PM: Stop and smell the orchids at Far East Flora. This florist is a certified Eden bristling with rare blooms. Choose the violet-mauve Vanda Miss Joaquim, Singapore’s national flower, named after Agnes Joaquim who crossed two local species to create this stunner.
6PM: Succumb to the subtle fingers of a masseuse at Remède Spa. An urban sanctuary nestled within the St. Regis hotel, the spa offers revitalizing treatments such as a steam bath followed by a Vichy shower. Alternatively, try the orange-blossom Rassoul Wrap, while reclining on a heated marble bed.
8PM : Dine in sky-high splendour at Si Chuan Douhua, sixty floors above the city with views that stretch clear to the horizon. At lunch, the clientele comprises city suits and bankers closing deals; at dinner, the crowd segues into an audience swooning over the superb Cantonese fare.
10PM : Toast the good life with a heady cocktail at the aptly named HighHouse, which rises sixty-one storeys above Raffles Place. Paired with stunning views, the classic Singapore Sling is given a millennial makeover with Roku Gin and a tart Makrut Triple lime cordial, while the American whiskey menu includes some rare gems.
MIDNIGHT : Party like there’s no tomorrow at Zouk. After three decades, this legendary nightspot is still reeling in Singapore’s dance and music hipsters. Wander, happily lost, through a labyrinth of specialist mini-clubs that spin everything from experimental beats to house and techno. Quieter moments can be snatched at Queens, a speakeasy-style bar.