Singapore Travel Costs Overview
Singapore is much more expensive than the other countries in Asia. Yet a visit to this futuristic city does not have to be very expensive. You can, among other things, eat cheaply at the so-called hawkers and if you walk more, you save on public transport costs. In this article we give you an overview of our travel costs for a 4-day city trip to Singapore.
It is important to know the type of city trip we made in Singapore, when looking at our travel costs. Because we were traveling around the world, we had to reduce costs considerably. That’s why we slept in a hostel, ate at cheap hawkers (street food) and did mostly free activities. So the overview we make here may be considered the minimum amount. Though we live in Europe, prices are given in US dollars. Euros and dollars were around parity in 2023.
Overview Costs for Singapore City Trip
In total we spent around $400 for 4 days in Singapore (excluding the flight tickets), which is around $50 per person per day. Below you can see roughly what we spent this on. The 2023 price level applies and we did not receive any discounts.
- Accommodation (62%)
- Food & drinks (25%)
- Transport (13%)
- Activities (0%)
- Other expenses (0%)
Flight tickets for a city trip
The price for an airline ticket depends on so much that we do not mention prices here. View the best offers via Skyscanner and be sure to look for options with a transfer if they are cheaper than a direct flight.
Transportation Expenses
So we walked most of the time in Singapore and only took a metro ticket to get from the airport to our accommodation and to travel to Sentosa. By the way, you have to buy a pass for the metro card. You can easily arrange this at the metro station at the airport. Furthermore, we did not spend any money on taxis. If you stay close to the city center, a taxi won’t be necessary.
Costs for Accommodation Singapore
Accommodation was the largest expense for our city trip to Singapore. Really, accommodation is pricey. We slept in a hostel-like place in Chinatown (but the mattresses were so thin it was just sleeping on the ground literally). But, it was at a reasonable distance from the main attractions. And actually it was the only affordable option in the city itself at that time. We still paid $250 for four nights, so as said, really pricey.
Costs for Activities
Well, if you’d like to do any paid activities, consider doing that in Malaysia or another country in Asia. Singapore is just much more expensive. So we only did the free options (shopping malls, fountain show, Gardens by the Bay). As a result, we didn’t spend any money on activities, but were still able to see a lot of the city. We also skipped the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest at Gardens by the Bay, but you could still consider this in terms of costs. For us, a walk through the gardens was sufficient.
Food and Drinks
There was no way to prepare anything in the hostel, so we did order street food every day (3 times a day). The hawkers are priced reasonable, and you just get nice Asian street food. Still, food is more expensive than other Asian countries. We paid around $100 for two people.
Other Travel Costs Singapore
In Singapore, we bought a cheap SIM card that was also valid for our trip to Indonesia. By the way, a SIM card isn’t even necessary if you have proper WiFi at the accommodation. Souvenirs are also a bit more expensive in Singapore than elsewhere, but not extremely different from other countries. In fact, we didn’t spend anything more on other things than specified above.
Tip: you can also buy an Esim at Airalo. This way you’re connected right away when you land at the airport. With the code MEIKE4854 you’ll receive a discount as a first user of the app.
Check out our Google Maps Singapore!
