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A must-read guide to 48 hours in Singapore

The fabric of this eternal city is stitched together by a mélange of cultures, where traditional food stalls are UNESCO-protected and colonial buildings share space with cutting-edge architecture.

Indonesian Prince Sang Nila Utama founded the settlement of Singapura (Malay for ‘Lion City’) on the island of Temasek in 1299. The city was a crucial trading hub between East and West, facilitating the exchange of goods such as spices, textiles and porcelain.

These transactions only increased from 1819, when the ‘founder of modern Singapore’, Sir Stamford Raffles, signed a treaty with Temenggung Abdul Rahman and Sultan Hussein Shah of the ruling Johor empire to establish a British trading post on the island. He had a vision that Singapore would be “a place of considerable magnitude and importance".

His Town Plan allotted parcels of land to each segment of society: Europeans would reside along the seafront; the Chinese were designated a kampong (village) on the south-west bank of the river; Bugis settlers and Arab merchants would be settled around the Sultan’s residence; and Indians were placed upstream.

Today, these distinct neighbourhoods retain their heritage, from Little India and its markets filled with spices and silks to Kampong Gelam’s mosques and Chinatown’s temples and hawker stalls. In the 1960s, to make the industrialised city more liveable, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had an ambitious vision to transform Singapore into a ‘Garden City’.

Some 60 years on, the country was recognised as the world’s first Sustainable Destination in 2023 – and today, between the stratospheric skyscrapers, you’ll find respite in some 400 parks and nature reserves. Indeed, while still a crossroads for Australian travellers en route to Europe and beyond, Singapore is a destination to linger longer.

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple was built during the Tang Dynasty, considered a golden age for Chinese arts. (Image: Getty)

Day one: Experiencing the highlights

8am

Wake up in your cosy abode, JEN Singapore Orchardgateway by Shangri-La. This modern hotel is in the heart of Singapore, with the flurry of world-renowned shopping strip Orchard Road playing out below. It’s also a short walk to Somerset MRT (railway) station, which is the cheapest way to get around the city.

9am

An architectural and horticultural feat, Gardens by the Bay pushed the boundaries of innovation in green design when it opened in 2012. The 101-hectare park houses more than 1.5 million plants, conserving many rare and critically endangered species.

The now-famous solar-powered Supertrees – which look as though they’ve been planted top-down with their spindly roots exposed – double as vertical gardens each comprising more than 200 species of plants.

Towering Supertrees in Gardens by the Bay.
Towering Supertrees. (Image: Getty)

The Flower Dome is the largest glass greenhouse in the world, holding flora from the Mediterranean to the South African savannah under one roof. The ethereal Cloud Forest, meanwhile, is a mist-filled enclosure with aerial walkways that wind around a ‘mountain’ covered with plants, including carnivorous species and an indoor waterfall. There is an interactive digital art experience at the end that has our kids chasing light projections on the floor while we enjoy respite from the humidity outside.

The Cloud Forest in Gardens by the Bay, Singapore.
The Cloud Forest. (Image Nicky Loh)

Noon

Sir Stamford Raffles originally divided Chinatown into zones for different Chinese communities and trades. Today, it is also characterised by Malay and Indian influences.

The colorful Chinatown in Singapore.
Singapore’s Chinatown is known for its vibrant atmosphere. (Image: Getty)

Come here to browse the street markets and experience hawker culture, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s list for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Delicious Singapore chicken rice, Hainanese Asian food style.
Try Hainanese chicken rice. (Image: Panuwat Dangsungnoen)

Within walking distance of each other, you’ll find Singapore’s largest hawker centre, Chinatown Complex Food Centre, where Bruce Lee makes an appearance in a mural, and Maxwell Food Centre, home to Michelin Bib Gourmand stalls Lian He Ben Ji Claypot and Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice respectively.

A mural of Bruce Lee in Singapore.
A mural of Bruce Lee. (Image: Getty)

3pm

From one cultural institution to another; try to nab a table at Long Bar within legendary hotel, Raffles Singapore. The 1920s plantation-style bar is where national drink the Singapore Sling was invented.

The pool in Raffles Hotel Singapore.
Raffles pool. (Image: Ralf Tooten)

7pm

The three vertiginous towers of Marina Bay Sands, straddled by the world’s largest rooftop pool, have become a modern icon of the city. Only those with a room key can take a sky-high dip, but you can still make your way to the 57th floor by booking a table at Lavo Italian Restaurant.

The menu features brick-oven pizzas, hearty pastas, and supersized dishes such as a one-pound meatball and a one-kilogram tomahawk. But the real scene-stealer is the sparkling city below.

LAVO's Carne Brick Oven Pizza.
LAVO in Marina Bay Sands is popular for pizza. (Image: Getty)

Day two: Immersing in the local culture

9am

Spend the morning strolling in Katong-Joo Chiat, traditionally a Peranakan (people of Chinese and Malay/Indonesian heritage) neighbourhood. Take a snap of the pastel-hued shophouses on Koon Seng Road, which dates to the 1920s. Grab a traditional kopi (coffee) and toast with kaya (coconut jam) from Chin Mee Chin Confectionery, a family-run institution since 1925.

Colorful Peranakan shophouses in Singapore.
Pretty Peranakan shophouses. (Image: Getty)

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Noon

Former Arab quarter Kampong Gelam is also full of historical and cultural richness. It’s home to the golden-domed Sultan Mosque, built in 1824 by the first Sultan of Singapore.

Haji Lane – named after the ‘Hajj’ Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca – and lined with shophouses turned boutiques, bars and cafes. Stop at Fatt Choy Eating House for streetstyle food and at brewery Good Luck for Singapore’s freshest microbrews on tap.

People walking along Haji Lane.
Step into the buzz of Haji Lane. (Image: Getty)

2pm

Return to JEN Singapore Orchardgateway for a languid afternoon in the 47-metre-long rooftop infinity pool.

5pm

Make your way to Clarke Quay, a bustling waterfront dining precinct that recently underwent a $62 million rejuvenation. Musos will love Swee Lee Cafe & Bar. Order the pasta with Singaporean chilli crab, a craft beer or cocktail, and settle in at one of the vinyl listening stations.

The interiors of Swee Lee Cafe & Bar in Clarke Quay, Singapore.
Swing into a listening station at Swee Lee Cafe & Bar in Clarke Quay. (Image Getty)

7:30pm

Board a traditional bumboat for the Singapore River Experience. Cruise past Parliament House, the famous Merlion statue and Marina Bay, where the Spectra light and water show tells a story inspired by Singapore’s complex history as a multicultural trading hub turned modern nation.

A bumboat in Singapore River at night.
Board a bumboat to cruise the Singapore River. (Image: Mark Lin)

9pm

Finish your evening at ATLAS, a luxe Art Deco bar with a curated cocktail menu and extensive gin and Champagne collection that’s worth settling in for.

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These community homestays are changing how travellers experience Nepal

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    After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers? 

    In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.  

    Tharu dance
    Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

    Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?  

    Nepal gray langur
    Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

    The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?  

    How tourism is changing in Nepal

    Bardiya National Park
    Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

    India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.  

    Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.  

    “Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.   

    Local men in Bhada village
    Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

    The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”  

    Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.” 

    CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.  

    A new generation demanding more

    Dalla Town Hall
    Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

    The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”  

    We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”  

    Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels
    Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

    In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you… 

    bouda stupa prayer flags
    Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

    The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.  

    Boudha Stupa vendors
    Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

    A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.  

    A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi
    A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

    Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.  

    Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.  

    Life unfiltered in the Terai region

    tharu woman
    Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

    The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.  

    Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.  

    safari through Bardiya National Park
    Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

    We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.  

    Marigolds
    Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

    “The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.  

    On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.  

    community homestay entrance
    A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

    They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.  

    The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.  

    In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.  

    food at community homestay
    Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

    Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.  

    The power of community homestays 

    community homestay owners in Nepal
    Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

    Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.  

    “I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?” 

    The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed. 

    Sonara community room
    An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

    Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.  

    Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.  

    CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.  

    “Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.  

    Elephant watch
    Elephant watch. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

    In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.  

    Gathering greens
    Gathering greens. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

    “We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.” 

    Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”  

    Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.