Neighbourhoods
Thirteen areas worth a few hours each. Every page has a suggested walking order, what the area is good for, and how sheltered it is when the weather turns.
Marina Bay
Reclaimed land turned into the postcard version of the city. Everything is walkable and mostly flat, but there is very little shade between buildings, so it rewards an early start or a late one.
Chinatown
Temples of three faiths within a few streets of each other, a hawker centre big enough to get lost in, and shophouse bars that only wake up after work. Dense, so an afternoon covers it.
Little India
The busiest streets in the city at the weekend. Garland stalls, gold shops and food that runs hot. Sunday evening is at full volume; a weekday morning is a different, gentler place.
Kampong Gelam
A compact quarter around the mosque, with fabric shops on one street and independent boutiques on the next. Small enough to cover twice without noticing.
Bugis
Cheap shopping stacked over three floors, a very good public library, and enough underground links that you can cross the district without going outside.
Orchard
A shopping street with a basement network under it. Worth knowing that one turn off the main road puts you in a quiet row of old terraces.
Civic District
Three of the country’s main museums, a wooded hill and the river, all inside a fifteen-minute walk. The highest concentration of indoor options in the city.
Tiong Bahru
Pre-war walk-up flats with curved balconies, now sharing the estate with bakeries and secondhand bookshops. The market is the anchor; the rest is wandering.
Joo Chiat
Terraces painted in colours you would not get away with anywhere else, and a market a few streets north that has been feeding the area for decades.
Katong
Where the east coast used to meet the sea, before the land was extended. Now a food strip with the beach a short walk further out.
Sentosa
An island of beaches and paid attractions, ten minutes from the mainland on foot across a covered boardwalk. Easy to spend more than you planned.
HarbourFront
A very large mall at the bottom of a very green hill. You can be in air-conditioning and in a forest within the same twenty minutes.
East Coast
Fifteen kilometres of coastal park with a cycling path running the length of it, barbecue pits, and a hawker centre where the sea breeze does half the work.