Singapore City Discovery: Gardens, Hawkers & Heritage

Private transfer from Changi Airport — consistently rated the world's best — to the Fullerton Hotel on the Singapore River. The rest of the day is entirely yours: perhaps a slow walk along the river promenade to take in the Cavenagh Bridge, the Merlion and the extraordinary Marina Bay skyline, or simply a long afternoon in your room with room service. Emma joins you this evening for a welcome dinner at a restaurant in the Fullerton's own dining room, overlooking the illuminated river.

Emma meets you at 09:00 for a private walking tour of Singapore's colonial heart. The Padang cricket ground — where the Japanese announced their surrender in 1945 — the neoclassical Supreme Court, the Victorian Concert Hall, St Andrew's Cathedral and the Armenian Church (Singapore's oldest Christian church, 1835) chart three centuries of the city's extraordinary history. The National Museum of Singapore, housed in a dome-topped colonial building and thoroughly redesigned in 2015, brings the Singapore Story to vivid life with exceptional interactive exhibits. Afternoon free.

A full morning at Gardens by the Bay — the 100-hectare horticultural marvel built on reclaimed land beside Marina Bay. The two glass conservatories (the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest) are air-conditioned sanctuaries of extraordinary plant life from five continents; the Cloud Forest's 35-metre indoor waterfall is genuinely unlike anything else in Asia. The Supertree Grove is best experienced at dusk, when the 50-metre steel trees illuminate against the darkening sky in the nightly light show. Emma guides you through at your own pace, with time for the OCBC Skyway walkway linking the Supertrees for views over the whole bay. Evening at leisure — the rooftop infinity pool at Marina Bay Sands is open to hotel guests; Emma can arrange a SkyPark observation deck visit for non-guests.

Singapore's Chinatown is one of Asia's most authentic — not merely a tourist quarter but a living neighbourhood where clan associations, traditional medicine shops, goldsmiths, and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (housing a tooth relic of the Gautama Buddha in a tower of 320kg of gold) coexist with contemporary coffee shops and art galleries. Emma then takes you to Tiong Bahru, Singapore's most beloved neighbourhood, a low-rise cluster of 1930s Art Deco housing blocks that today shelters independent bookshops, artisan bakeries and the Tiong Bahru Market — home to what many consider the city's finest chicken rice. Lunch here is included: Emma will guide you through the hawker stalls.

Two of Singapore's most colourful and culturally rich neighbourhoods in a single morning. Little India's Serangoon Road is an assault on the senses in the best possible way: garland-makers, sari shops, the magnificent Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple (whose gopuram tower teems with mythological figures), and the scent of sandalwood and jasmine from a hundred flower stalls. Kampong Glam, the traditional Malay quarter, is anchored by the golden-domed Sultan Mosque (1932) and the famous Haji Lane — a narrow street of independent boutiques painted in vivid murals. Afternoon at leisure. This evening, Emma has booked a table at her favourite local restaurant in Joo Chiat — Singapore's Peranakan heartland.

Singapore's Botanic Gardens, opened in 1859 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, represent one of the finest tropical gardens in the world. The National Orchid Garden — the largest display of tropical orchids on earth, with over 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids — is the centrepiece of a morning that also includes the rain-forest ecosystem, the bandstand lawn and the heritage trees of the primary rainforest fragment at the garden's heart. Late morning coffee at the Halia restaurant in the ginger garden, then a short drive to Dempsey Hill — the colonial barracks complex turned dining and lifestyle destination — for a long, leisurely lunch at one of Singapore's best restaurants in a setting of tropical gardens and bougainvillea-draped colonial buildings.

A final half-morning at leisure — perhaps a last breakfast on the Fullerton terrace, watching the Singapore River wake up. If your flight departs in the afternoon, Emma can arrange a gentle morning on Sentosa Island: the cable car from Mount Faber offers extraordinary views over the container port and harbour; Siloso Beach provides a final taste of tropical sun before the journey home. Private transfer to Changi Airport.