Singapore Blog – Michelle’s perfect time at Singapore’s Pan Pacific Hotel
Visiting the world famous Raffles hotel and having a Singapore sling has always been a dream of mine, as well as being on the top of Marina Sands hotel looking down at the city below.
Well, luckily that happened to me! I was invited to Singapore, with other Miles Morgan Travel staff, to experience this amazing metropolis, along with Sam from Gold Medal. On arrival, I saw that the city is so green, lush and clean!
For the first three nights we stayed at The Clan Hotel, just on the edge of Chinatown.
In the daytime, we had tours of both The Clan and Oasia Novena, and in the evening we visited the iconic Raffles. To top the evening off, we had dinner in the Butchers Block. It was a sensational seven course tasting menu, which then had to be washed down with a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar!
On following day, we met our guide Catherine who took us on a walking tour of the city. We started in Haji Lane, which is in the Malay Quarter. We were told about the colourful drawings, the types of houses, and we’re taken into a Mosque. We were then escorted to Little India and shown through a brightly coloured market. You could buy traditional Indian dress, again there were many colourful houses. Finally, we went to Chinatown and were shown drawing by the artist Yip Yew Chong, who has depicted traditional scenes that go on in the local houses. After all that walking, we went back to La Pau Sat and tried different traditional street foods.
In the evening, we had another hotel tour, this time it was the Pan Pacific. There are 790 rooms, some that have views over the bay, and there are rooms that can be interconnecting so should a family need space there are options. To reach the club lounge on the top floor, you take the lift which is on the outside of the building! Once you’re in the lounge, you have spectacular 360-degree views of Singapore’s bay and finance buildings.
The lounge is a very popular spot at both sunrise and sunset, especially when the light show is on in the bay. The restaurant has a huge variety of food, they currently have two Vietnamese chefs who are show casing their traditional foods, along with fresh sushi, pizza and a great selection of puddings.
This hotel is popular with guests’ who are staying before a cruise, and they have a wonderful cocktail bar called the Plume, where cocktails match birds. Within the reception area they have eight pods which you can use for sitting and relax with an afternoon tea, watching the world go by.
We the meet our guide again and went to the Botanical Gardens. I was impressed by the many different species of plants and displays, particularly the waterfall. In the afternoon visited the Park Royal Marina Bay hotel. This one is aiming to be more sustainable by not offering water bottles in the room, using solar panels to operate the lift, and an urban garden where the chef grows their herbs for use in the dishes for the buffet, also the hotel features 370m squared lush gardens and wall planters, which serve as natural air purifiers.
To add to the effect of green and bringing the outside in, there are songbirds dotted around, making the loveliest sound. The hotel was fully refurbished during the Covid pandemic, so now the rooms are spacious, offering views of the swimming pool or the bay itself. Facilities include an outdoor swimming pool, a gym, a children’s indoor play area, conference rooms. Whilst we visited, there was a wedding going on. The restaurant has a vast array of food choices, including sushi, traditional Singapore noodles and rice dishes.
For the following day, we moved hotels to The Outpost in Sentosa for the last two nights. This area used to be a British military colony, and they have now developed the area with boutique hotels, opened a Universal Studios theme park, a monorail, implemented cable cars and created a man-made beach. There is plenty to see and do here and would highly recommend a visit to this part of the city.
The whole trip was phenomenal and I cannot wait to go back to this wonderful country to see and do more. I would recommend, either going for a holiday or stopping off here along your way to Australia or New Zealand.
