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| The Fullerton: colonial elegance |
IT’S NOT ENOUGH for taxi drivers in Singapore to just tell you that they’re already hired. They tend to also make it very clear that they are busy by ignoring you with a particular sense of bustle. So I knew I was in for a treat when I was lead to one waiting patiently in bay number one at Chiangi International Airport arrivals. Seconds from the kerb, I got a welcome speech and then the question I learned to dread, “And when were you last in Singapore?” There seems to be no right answer to that. You could say you had been there last Thursday and it would still be too long ago. Doormen at major hotels I had never set foot in before called out in relief, “Welcome back!” The place is one huge, meticulously managed bed-and-breakfast charged by the concern that, should you really need to leave, you must return as soon as possible.
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At the higher end of the Singapore business hotels market there is a rich and expensive selection of properties. And then there are places best described as high camp. But fun. Budget, or business, I made every attempt to see each hotel’s regular and least expensive room. The guest room prices quoted in the fast facts at the end of this Singapore hotel review are rack rates, very much subject to season, and daily fluctuations.
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Singapore hotels, Orchard Road
At over a hundred years old, the Goodwood Park Hotel, at 22 Scotts Road, is one of a clutch of hotels set around the Orchard Road area, the “Oxford Street” of Singapore. Other clusters are to the east, around the Marina Centre and Beach Road and to the south, covering the central business district (CBD) and Chinatown. Built as a German Club in 1912 and almost immediately confiscated in 1914, the Goodwood Park’s original design, after a Rhineland castle, explains its distinctive centre tower. Nowhere else does it rise above three stories. It has been refurbished, with new design touches in the rooms, a fresh look to the facade and stuffed leather retro armchairs in the lobby. The important thing is that the hotel still feels somewhere between a hill station club and a pukkah cricket pavilion.
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| Goodwood Park Suite: Old World charm |
Guest rooms still have small pane windows that you can open outwards. A standard room has a club armchair and footstool where you could imagine a great aunt sitting and fretting over where the syce had got to with the car. There is a sofa, ceiling fan, pleasing back lighting, a big desk with Broadband connection, an Elf safe and in-room tea and coffee. The rooms are big but the bathrooms are a more average fit with an in-the-bath shower. Attached to the main building is the Mayfair court, with more contemporary suites of shaded rooms round a Bali-style swimming pool. The hotel’s afternoon tea remains one of the city’s favourites, especially with the Japanese. Along the corridor to the coffee shop, where American breakfast aromas waft, there is still an embedded Indian tailor.
Just behind the Goodwood Park is The Elizabeth Hotel, a centrally located Singapore business hotel that is neat, contemporary, comfortable and economical, although it might be without excessive frills and flash. The Elizabeth Hotel, a short hop from Orchard Road and set just a bit away from the bustle, was renovated in late 2005. In other updates, the old Crown Prince has been renamed the Park Hotel Orchard and the long-serving Phoenix Hotel, smack in the middle of the Orchard bedlam, closed its doors in August 2007 with general manager Noel Hawkes serving his staff at the farewell do.
For something entirely different, further up Scotts Road, is the crisp Singapore business hotel, Sheraton Towers Singapore, with 413 rooms including 23 theme suites. The place has long been a favourite with executive travellers and offers an arsenal of goodies to please the most hardboiled customer. The marble and glass Valhalla lobby is a good introduction to Singapore’s penchant for cathedral entrances. Another feature, typical of local hotel architecture, is the highway-wide sweeping carpeted staircase down from the mezzanine floor.
My visit started off with a courteous approach by the concierge. The room I was shown opened out onto the pool, where some Western guests were idling. “Caucasians enjoy sunning themselves,” the marketing lady remarked, with some satisfaction. Rooms have unusually large, marble-topped desks with Broadband access in response to customer feedback. Guests can order from a “pillow menu”, even before their arrival. The glass-sided coffee shop surrounded by a tropical garden with a rock waterfall is one of a kind. The Sheraton is only a brisk 15-minute walk from the Orchard Road epicentre. On sultry days take a cab. The Sheraton Towers is a sound Singapore business hotel choice.
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| Sheraton Towers: Executives' dream |
From its position in secluded Orange Grove Road, away from city noises, the Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore is somewhere you’d need to get a taxi from. This is a big property, constructed back in 1969, and it pays for that in its facade. The Tower Wing is geared for business-orientated guests, the Garden Wing for leisure travellers and there’s an exclusive Valley Wing with its own entrance. The good-looking Tower Wing lobby encompasses a 10m-high, 11,000sq ft space, with marble columns, chandeliers and blue-tinted glass, as well as 15 murals and paintings and six sculptures. The Garden Wing atrium is an indoor tropical jungle.
The guest rooms are more modest. Tower Deluxe room furniture has curved edges to create a harmonious flow. Yes, it’s feng shui. The desk is large with concealed power points. The wardrobe is a walk-in with mini dressing room, and there is a “leisure corner” spot near a window for armchair and low table. The bathroom is a big cat-swinger with double sink and a walk-in shower. The Line, the hotel’s new 24-hour contemporary-style dining room and coffee shop, is an interesting eating option with self-service international food stations, open kitchens and designer crockery. If you want to swap the city location for the seaside, there’s a sister hotel on Sentosa island, Shangri-la’s 459-room, five-star Rasa Sentosa Resort, Singapore.
The Orchard Hotel Singapore’s general manager, Eric Brand, describes it as “rock and roll”. At 442 Orchard Road, this two-wing, 650-room property does seem to have a buzz about it, particularly in the evenings when the lobby and Orchard Café are heaving and seats at Hua Ting Restaurant are as rare as dragon’s teeth (it’s widely regarded as one of the best Chinese restaurants in town). Orchard wing superior rooms have a “feng shui” window in the bathroom wall so you can watch the LCD TV on the wall while you soak. There are spot reading lights on stalks, a very supportive high-backed chair with the desk and an in-room safe with laptop capacity and a charger plug. Bathrooms are large, a recurring feature in many Singapore hotels and a relief to larger guests. For a S$500 to S$700 designer experience, the hotel has had four floors of club rooms refitted. They are opulently colourful. The most powerful design is the red-and-black with rich silks, dark rosewood, huge red drapes, a framed window and a black-tiled bathroom. The Executive Lounge on upmarket opium-den lines is just about complete. Rooms in the Claymore wing have similar facilities and are fractionally larger, but the exterior looks a bit like a pharmaceutical firm and inside it’s not as much fun.
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Shangri-La Hotel: Deluxe |
Staff at The Regent Singapore on Cuscaden Road are polite, and there’s an elegant wrap-around lobby with a drive-in deli in a far corner. So it’s a surprise to look up and see all the room levels set around a vast atrium. Up you go in the bubble lift. At 36sq m, the superior guestroom is perfectly comfortable with refreshing mango decoration. Twin beds are “super singles”, wider than normal. The floor-to-ceiling windows offer either city or garden views but, given the Singapore mix, I couldn’t tell the difference. There is a safe, and complimentary shoeshine. At just a few dollars more, the deluxe room with sitting room area and a bigger bathroom seems a comparative bargain. Unfortunately for the less agile, neither bathroom has a walk-in shower. Close by is the businesslike Traders Hotel, Singapore, a staple for on-the-go executive travellers, with brisk service, a central location, interesting food outlets (like the jolly Ah Hoi's Kitchen poolside) and renovated rooms with Broadband. Decor is in muted corporate earthy tones. The hotel rooms feature satellite TV, phones with dataport, and a handy iron and ironing board combo. Traders has a well-equipped business centre and a health club and spa.
Just around the corner, at one quiet end of Orchard Road, the gleaming St Regis Hotel, Singapore threw open its doors in December 2007. The 299-room Singapore luxury hotel features such creative flourishes as a private art collection with works by Miro and Chagall among others, the 1,000 capacity John Jacob Ballroom with skylights, air-conditioned tennis courts, and a plush Remede Spa with the mother of all bath menus. Expect aquariums, ice fountains, marble beds and cedar wood. While the exterior is the sort of reflective glass facade ubiquitous in Asia these days, inside is where the subtle textures, the muted yet rich decor, blown-glass, deep carpets, and delicately inlaid marble floors exert their considerable charm. The St Regis is plush, without overstatement, gracious without bluster, almost zen in its quiet detatchment. Pick from delicious breads and speciality butters over breakfast, eat off custom-made china, and then head up to rooms with 42-inch flat-screen TVs (there's even a screen by the free-standing bathtub), twin vanities, a shower with full length mirror, a divan, a well thought out work desk with multi-pin sockets, and Bose sound system. The modestly sized flat safe will house a not-too-large laptop. If all this is not enough, hop into a Bentley for a whisper-smooth airport transfer. Adjacent to the development are the St Regis Residences. If you're trawling for Singapore luxury hotels that offer style, service and location, this is one for your diary.
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| St Regis room/ photo: hotel |
Four Seasons own The Regent but also has a hotel under its own name on Orchard Boulevard. The Four Seasons Hotel Singapore entrance is an early 19th-century reception suite with Egyptian pillars, William IV armchairs, low, barrelled ceilings, shutters, black lampshades and a reception desk in twilight. It is one of those class acts where nothing totally matches but everything is in place.
Deluxe room doors are wide and opened by a real key. The feeling is spacious and early Victorian. Currently, the décor is a bit bland but this has changed following a major renovation. Rooms already have DVD and CD players with iPod connection docks. Apart from Broadband, there are lines for faxes and modems. Beds are custom-made – and for sale. Visit the gift shop. That’s right. The 134sq ft bathroom is hexagonal, with double sink, tub and walk-in shower. In a premier room on a corner position, I saw one of only two bidets I was to come across in Singapore. Four Seasons is connected by an internal walkway to the Orchard Road Hilton Singapore, a longtime landmark and refuge on this artery of commerce and shopper abandon. The Hilton's Deluxe Rooms offer Wireless access, yukata robes and a marbled bathroom while the 32sq m Executive Rooms are a tad more lavish. The rooftop pool offers city views and a touch of breeze. Hilton is a crisp and convenient Singapore business hotel choice. It is accessible and right in the heart of shopping mania.
Orchard Road’s junction with Scotts Road is where Singapore is at its most crowded and brassy. In a 30-floor pagoda above the MRT station stands the landmark Singapore Marriott Hotel, with 493 rooms directly on top of the MRT station with its foundations in at least four shopping centres. No other hotel is so melded into the town around it. Its Crossroads Cafe is a populated pavement eatery stretching back indoors seemingly the length of a football pitch.
Deluxe rooms feature “The Table that Works”, a desk with high-speed computer connections and all the plugs, bells and whistles. Décor is quietly contemporary, there is a king-sized bed, sofa, safe, tea and coffee in the room and, like practically every other standard hotel room in town, an iron and board. There is also an executive room version. The Pool Terrace on the 5th floor has been redone. There’s an alfresco grill restaurant up there and nine cabana-style Pool Terrace Rooms leading to the pool, as well as a luxury suite with see-through bathroom wall for honeymooners.
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| Four Seasons: Sheer class |
Next door, at 10 Scotts Road, is the 600-room Grand Hyatt Singapore. Though flanked by shopping malls, all that disappears once you’re through the door. Reception is calm, with a low ceiling, black marble, slate, rocks and water. The wall of the passage connecting the Grand Wing with its street scene views and the Garden Wing with its pool view is one long waterfall.
Deluxe rooms have sitting and working areas with Bang & Olufsen flat TV and sound, and retro wood panelling with “2001” spaceship seating that’s surprisingly comfy. There is a walk-in shower inside what is a huge bathroom for its class. Guests with bad backs will appreciate the eye-level mini-bar. The Grand Hyatt is one of those hotels that adapt room rates according to a computer programme. At the time of our visit, the web rate for this room was S$350 – but it could drop to S$280 and even closer to S$200, supporting the contention of one local hotelier that it is still possible to get a five-star room in Singapore for a bit over US$100.
For slightly more, the Club Room has a 37” plasma TV, and a double-sided closet between bed and bathroom to help out roommates who are shy about undressing in front of one another. The 24-hour technology concierge is on hand to assist with “connectivity related challenges”.
Dead opposite the Grand Hyatt is the Royal Plaza on Scotts, a rather large, busy hotel with a swanky lobby. We asked to be shown around for the purposes of this review, but several telephone conversations later were firmly told that the hotel “did not want to participate”. Ah well… The location’s good, the décor strongly stated, the staff skittish.
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| Grand Hyatt Deluxe: Central |
The two towers of the 1,200-room Meritus Mandarin Singapore, the flagship of the Meritus group, stand halfway along Orchard Road, a business haven. Its style is opulent Oriental mixed with Western contemporary. Staff are courteous and quick. An interesting innovation targeting business travellers is the introduction os a MasterCard Platinum Floor at the Meritus Mandarin where MasterCard and Titanium cardholders are pretty much guaranteed space at short notice. Decidedly contemporary and going for chic is the 200-room Meritus Negara Singapore on Claymore Road, a good mid-range business hotel option. But where Meritus really makes a huge splash is at the Marina (see Marina area hotels). The Holiday Inn Singapore Park View is a quiet, sedate, often overlooked, property that nevertheless offers a central location at 11 Cavenagh Road not far off Orchard Road, walking distance from the thrum of shops and restaurants. There are 311 smart rooms and 28 suites. Demanding executive travellers can opt for the Executive Club. For lip-smacking good Indian food there are few better spots than their curry haunt.
Singapore hotels, North Bridge Road
To the east of Orchard, North Bridge and Beach Roads running down to the Padang are more traditional parts of town and some of the hotels there reflect this. At the InterContinental Singapore at Bugis Junction, you pass through an old-fashioned courtyard and enter the off-white lobby with black-and-white tile floors though French windows. The mix is classical colonial and local. The Lounge coffee shop has pillars, an inlaid ceiling and chandeliers. A row of Chinese shophouses has been converted to “Shophouse rooms”, with pitched ceilings and timber floors. The ethnic 1920s concept is supported by typical Straits Chinese Peranakan décor – mixed, unavoidably, with hip 2006 shopping going on in the street below.
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| Singapore Marriott: Well known landmark |
Business-like 38sq m deluxe rooms are sizeable, with pillars at the entrance and striped wallpaper. Style-wise, they are influenced by Victorian colonial touches. There are comfortably big desks with Broadband connection and two extra phone lines, king-sized beds, and white, bright and big bathrooms with sensible walk-in shower. The InterContinental doesn’t publish rack rates. They post their best offers daily on their website.
Around the corner from the InterContinental and down Albert Street is the Albert Court Hotel, set around a courtyard, in shophouse style and with a Peranakan ambience. The rooms have all mod cons, including Broadband access, and there is a range of meeting rooms (good for small and medium-sized events) and packages on offer. The convenient location and atmospheric grounds also make the hotel substantially appealing to leisure travellers.
Down the street stands Singapore’s raffish, colonial legend, Raffles Hotel Singapore, which is actually very posh and international these days. Don’t try and get in through the shopping arcade. Walk around to Beach Road, crunch over the gravel to the front door and into the front hall. The hotel comprises the original Sarkies brothers block (the four Armenian Sarkie brothers were the founders of the hotel), two storeys of suites round a central court, and two later wings at each side with rooms leading onto cloisters and grass. The residents-only pool, gym and spa are on the roof.
Between 1989 and 1991 the hotel closed for a complete renovation. Although traditionalists complained, the original suites were in fact restored to their original 1915 proportions, meaning that false ceilings were removed and are back up to 14 feet. The Grand Hotel suites average out at 140sq m, with master bedroom, a second bedroom, sitting room, study, pantry, 24-hour butler, big brassy light switches, service bells and a huge balcony looking onto nothing very much. They are yours for S$4,500 a night or more.
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| Raffles Hotel: Gracious silks |
Probably more fiscally prudent are the Courtyard and Palm Court suites to the sides. Here, you come off your verandah into the parlour and dining area, and pass through a curtained arch into a bedroom and large bathroom with old-fashioned tiles. At the very back there is a pantry. It’s a replication of a traditional colonial bungalow, kept dark for coolness. The Bermuda shorts and baseball cap crowd, browsing for trinkets in the arcade, is kept at a secure distance.
Raffles The Plaza around the corner is quite a different hotel, despite its parentage. Joined at the hip to the Swissotel The Stamford Singapore next door, Raffles The Plaza is a circular building with 760 rooms and a lobby of redwood fascias and quadrilateral shapes. Premier deluxe rooms are 38sq m with mini-bar, safe, iron and board and coffee in the room. Mattresses are constructed from ten layers of goose feathers. The bathroom has a big tub. A friend who once stayed still cannot forget the wide-spray “tropical rain shower”. Considering the steep room rate, the extra S$29 for 24 hours of high-speed Internet access might be a smidgeon tough.
The Swissotel The Stamford Singapore lives right on top of Raffles City shopping mall and City Hall MRT station. It is a tall 60-floor cylinder and since the rooms don’t start till the 7th, everybody gets a view of some sort. Deluxe rooms are 33sq m, all with balconies. There are the usual high-speed Internet, in-room tea and coffee, hair dryer and iron. A few extra dollars get you a harbour view and the possibility of an even higher floor. Just around the corner, opened September 2007, is the boutique Naumi. The place is admirably located next to Raffles Hotel on Seah Street. Naumi calls itself a small Singapore luxury hotel with a few imaginative extras like the "Naumi Aide" who greets you upon arrival and is available for a consult at any time, day or night. Yes, there's Wireless.
The Marina area hotels
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| The Oriental: crisp new look |
Across Beach Road is the Marina Centre, on reclaimed land with several five-star hotels offering views out to sea. By Singapore’s compacted standards it’s currently a bit out of the way, with the City Hall MRT too far and walking too exposed. But this will change when the new Circle Line opens its station there, recreational development (including a casino) is completed and the marina is turned into a vast lagoon. The Oriental, which was re-launched in May 2005 after a complete refurbishment, looks out on the ocean and lagoon-to-be. It’s dark in there, and exciting. The building is a half-dome in the style of the Mandarin Oriental logo fan and backlit. There’s dark carpet, rich colours, a circular pavilion bar and bubble lifts moving up and down the canopy. There is a hum. It resembles an extraterrestrial spaceship.
Eighty percent of the rooms have water views and the décor is light and bright with an “all elements of nature” theme including mother-of-pearl colouring, polished hardwood floors, Jim Thompson bed covers and even gecko door handles. The hotel is completely Wireless and all rooms have surround sound that is connectable to your MP3. There’s a full technology kit available, and a range of adaptors that will find a fit even if you’re from Burkino Faso. All rooms have laptop-sized safes with charge points. Sensors alter temperature slightly according to activity level in the room. Things getting a little hot?
Rooms (excluding the 72 suites) range from 33sq m to 49sq m. Harbour view rooms are more expensive than those overlooking the city. If you can extend to a modest suite, the Ocean doesn’t fuss with a dividing wall: a huge and useful desk separates bed from sofa. On the edge of the view is the expressway. Apparently businessmen like the sight of the traffic. It gives them a buzz. If you want to check your e-mails on hotel computers in the business centre or club lounge it’s around 50 cents a minute.
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| The Ritz-Carlton: Futuristic |
Our visit to The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore next door, at 7 Raffles Avenue, nearly coincided with that of the king of Saudi Arabia, who was about to check in. With a futuristic barrel glass roof, the hotel is welcoming in bright browns, fauns and gold. The effect is congressional rather than cathedral-like. When comparing Singapore hotel standards, people often muse, “And then, there’s the Ritz Carlton”. It seems much of its eminence is based on the intangible “great service”.
Rooms score heavily for brightness and style. They have that mélange of deeply upholstered, classical but lightly shaded furniture. Every room has a slanting glass shade outside over the windows, which worked wonders for me. Beds face the window and ocean-view baths have earned the “sexiest bathrooms” title from at least one magazine. The Ritz-Carlton lays on a butler-drawn bath and the rooms stock Bvlgari toiletries. The hotel says deluxe rooms are 25 percent bigger than the standard. All have high-speed connection and a walk-about phone. The hotel has a 4,000-piece art and sculpture collection (some quite valuable), and its own catalogue.
One of the original Marina atrium-style properties is the 37-floor Pan Pacific designed by John Portman & Associates that has emerged from a series of progressive renovations with a jaunty stride bordering on hallucinogenic cool. The 1986 hotel now incorporates eye-catching mood lighting and projection displays that thoroughly energise the lobby and public areas as glass bubble elevators soar up the central atrium. A second rank of elevators glide up the exterior of the building presenting staggering city views en route to the exclusive Pacific Floors and the penthouse Chinese restaurant Ha Tien Lo. The bright and functional Pacific Floor rooms occupy the 33rd and 34th floors, featuring an in-room DVD-and-video player, complimentary high-speed Broadband, a smart work desk with an ergonomic chair, ironing board and iron, an in-room safe large enough for a laptop, and generously large bottles of complimentary Evian water.
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| Pan Pacific, Pacific Floor Room |
Step in the shower and let the massage jets do their work. If all this doesn't send you to sleep, check out the extensive pillow menu and pick from organic, contour, foam or polyester. There is a useful, single, "Service One" button that you can press for any and every need, and an electronic finger-touch bedside panel for activating pretty much anything in the room that moves or can be switched on. If the bar lights fail to disappear, the secret is to open the concealed cutlery cabinet and locate the large switch next to the electric kettle. Two lounges on the Pacific Floors cater for breakfast, cocktails and a steady stream of refreshment while staff briskly attend to any request with alarming eagerness and disarming smiles.
Five other floors are set apart as Executive Business Floors and longstay guests may avail of the "Residences" scheme. A 24-hour run on Broadband is S$26.25. The Indian restaurant Rang Mahal has been a "hot" favourite of those in the know for years and the mod tones, curves and privates spaces of the adjacent Global Kitchen offer an interesting counterpoint. The Pan Pacific has come a long way indeed.
The undisputed Meritus jewel in the crown, The Marina Mandarin, is next to the Marina Square shopping complex, still sparkling from a recent makeover. It’s one of those bustling, come-and-go five-stars with popular outlets, including Singapore’s first and still premier Italian restaurant. As with the Ritz-Carlton, the rooms start higher up to give everyone a view, so baggage is handled on the ground floor but reception begins on the fourth. The atrium has been renovated and reopened in 2005.
There are Deluxe, Premier and Meritus Club rooms (linked to the executive lounge). I thought the rooms had an interesting Japanese touch to them (but was told the Japanese designer might hotly deny this!), and theme furniture. The deluxe room is simple and pleasant on the eye, with a big desk, a TV in an armoire and a big bathroom with a double sink. The Premier room is a bit more Zen with a flat screen TV and a laptop-friendly safe. Club Rooms have huge flat screens and exotic complimentary fruits, chocolates and even cake, all of which can account for a lost hour or two. Showers feature “water massage” power jets. The Meritus Club has a well-designed flow, privacy around the computer terminals and a splendid buffet breakfast. A man is contracted to bring his birds in their cages to the hotel every morning, hanging them on a lower floor walkway from where they sing up through the hotel all day.
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| Marina Mandarin Deluxe: Reborn |
The Conrad Centennial Singapore at Temasek Boulevard has rather less of a marine view but a direct line on the Fountain of Wealth connected to the Suntec complex (the story goes that you should wet your hands in it, return to Singapore, and get instant wealth). This is a crisp Singapore business hotel, in a prime office area. The lobby is black, gold and silver with the compulsory tsar and tsarina descending staircase, but the guest rooms conjure up fruit juice: the colour scheme is a light mango, all over. Deluxe rooms have Wireless Broadband, two direct phone lines, a big desk, in-room tea and coffee, safe and ironing board, as well as a gratifyingly big walk-in shower. As at all Conrads, there are rubber duck and teddy bear that I never quite know what to do with. Again, rates aren’t published, but “generated” on the hotel website. The hotel has an extensive Asian art collection, and it also supports the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Central Business District, Chinatown, Clark Quay hotels
At the other end of the Padang, an icon heading up the business district, is one of the most novel hotel developments of recent years, The Fullerton Hotel. The building was completed in 1928, a classical granite monolith with Doric columns exuding confidence and authority at the mouth of the river. Initially used as government offices and General Post Office, it was turned into a hotel in 1999, in a definite case of thinking outside the (post) box. The triangular-shaped building has been crafted into 400 rooms and suites, conference facilities, three restaurants and a bar. No two rooms have exactly the same shape. The former Singapore Club’s poolroom has been kept intact and the cavernous inner courtyard, the former posting hall, is so large that some rooms look out into it.
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| Conrad Centennial: Business hub |
Quay Rooms are tall and bright but still imperial. The real delight is the 26sq m bathroom, which is as big as the room itself. Bathroom accessories are the Fullerton’s own range (in the suites, it’s Bvlgari). Suites are eclectic. Behind the Doric columns and impossibly high windows, some spaces have been split into Loft Suite duplexes with spiral staircases. The double sets of curtains are fun to play with – all room curtains are motor-controlled. (One-bedroom Palladian suites with water views go for S$900.)
The hotel is unstuffy and keen to be a popular gathering point. Generations of ordinary Singaporeans have worked their way through the building as civil servants and it is not unusual for individuals (including government ministers) to pop in and ask what their old offices look like now. The management says it always tries to oblige. (The Fullerton Hotel Singapore features in our exclusive Top Asian Hotels Collection, featuring the best Asian hotels, resorts and spas in a printable A4 page with stunning visuals.)
Chinatown proper is a district of preserved and developed shophouses and it is here where some Singapore boutique hotels thrive. Among the pioneers were the Berjaya Hotel Singapore (formerly The Duxton, but now taken over by the Malaysian Berjaya group) and Hotel 1929. The Berjaya Hotel on Duxton Road has a shophouse exterior and colonial-style interior. Endearingly, no two rooms are the same. The place is small, welcoming and cosy. Hotel 1929 has a great sense of the unconventional in a very straight city. If you have a sense of humour about skylights, a distinct lack of wardrobes and a shower over the toilet, the oddly shaped rooms and great location will suit you – particularly if you are travelling light and staying only a night or two. Its Ember restaurant has a good reputation.
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| New Majestic: Capricious |
But boutiques are all about trends and two others are on everyone’s lips these days. The Scarlet on Erskine Road is probably the most delightfully camp and lush. Somehow, 85 rooms and suites, two restaurants and a moody lift have been fitted in. Edwardian houses of pleasure never came more rouged, velvety and brocaded than this, but you can still take the kids – just about. Standard rooms are themed, with dark woods and wrought iron, but they are on the small side. A few only have skylights. Executive and premium rooms are more elaborate and fully wired. Opulent, Lavish and Passion rooms are riotous, with combinations such as “purple, aubergine and mauve”, “emerald green, gold and rust with gold sunburst bed-set” and “jet black, matt gold and cardinal red”. Food at the Scarlet is really rather fine and a lot of fun if you like sex with your sauces. In the Desire restaurant they have a dessert called “the G-String”. Did I say something about the kids?
The New Majestic on Bukit Pasah Road, opened in January 2006, is the boutique hotel every hip dude is talking about. It was once a neighbourhood cinema, which is why the open white lobby is big enough for the owner’s collection of designer chairs. When I arrived, a bronze male nude was getting a leg polish from a cleaning lady. There are just 30 rooms and the property has the only shophouse swimming pool in town. There are four basic room types, where design concepts are let rip: “Mirror” (watch and be watched is the catchphrase), “Hanging Bed” (the fourposter is actually suspended over the floor), “Loft” (where the sleeping chamber is elevated above the living space) and the controversial “Aquarium” (where the centre-piece is the bath). Five of the rooms were given to local designers to have a go. Themes range from “Fluid” and “Work” to the rather naughty “The Pussy Parlour”, with French chandelier, neon lights and mirrors.
Premier Garden Rooms, with baths outside in little gardens with interconnecting doors, cater to parties where the baths are used for stashing the booze on ice. All rooms have wireless Broadband, plasma TVs and CD/Radio Bose stereos. It is a quiet, relaxed and very bright property. There is a restaurant downstairs serving “modern Cantonese cuisine”. The food is good.
Novotel Clarke Quay offers easy access to Orchard Road, Raffles Place and, of course, Clark Quay. Renovated in 2006, this four-star hotel has 401 rooms including 18 suites, a 25-metre outdoor pool, and a full-service business centre and meeting facilities. There are three restaurants (Indian, Cantonese and International) and complimentary shuttle service to Raffles Place and City Hall.
Havelock Road area hotels
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| The Scarlet: Baroque touches |
A kilometre away, off Havelock Road on a stretch of the Singapore river yet to be claimed by groovy wining and dining, are half a dozen four to five-star hotels, including the River View, the Novotel Apollo, The Mirimar, the Concorde and two Copthorne hotels. It is described as an up-and-coming precinct and is well placed for the business district and industrial places to the east and south. The hardy even walk up to Orchard Road. Prominent on the junction with Kim Seng Road and with a terraced coffee shop right on the river is the 538-room Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel Singapore. The hotel is of the grand-lobby-and-forecourt-fountain school. With large conference facilities, it is very much tuned to business and the meetings business as well as leisure travellers, in crisp and courteous style. The Superior room is perfectly adequate but for a few dollars extra the deluxe provides more space and double windows. There’s a shuttle service to all major town centres and you can always take a “bum boat” ride down the river.
The Millennium & Copthorne Company owns a small empire of hotels in Singapore, including the M Hotel. This property at 81 Anson Road, at the south end of the business district, was the regional leader in creating a sort of wrap-around business hotel. “We don’t have a business centre. We are one”, was the catch phrase. It opened with all cyber bells and whistles in the rooms, Bose sound flat screen TVs, ergonomic design, retro furniture, and public area wireless access when these features were mere twinkles in the eyes of others. Gimmicks included a mirror wall between bedroom and bathroom that turned opaque at a button push. All right, that’s been copied since, too.
The Holiday Inn Atrium Singapore is a well-known (recently rebranded) property housed in a grey reflective-glass 27-storey tower with an atrium-style set-up inside. The Holiday Inn Atrium is at 317 Outram Road at the junction with Havelock Road. Expect high-speed Internet and enjoy an outdoor pool
Sentosa Island hotels and resorts
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| The Sentosa Singapore: Comfy hideaway |
If you want to turn your back on the city, cross over the Causeway Bridge, pay S$2 a head and enter Sentosa Island, minding the crossing monkeys as the signs bid you. The Sentosa Singapore has 214 rooms, suites and garden villas, two restaurants, a pool and conference facilities for up to 400. The Terrace Bar is lovely enough to stay until you fall off your stool. Deluxe rooms have substantial steady furniture, are quiet and on the dark side and blessed with good-sized bathrooms. A lobby entrance divides suite bedroom and sitting areas, which is splendid if you are having a noisome family gathering you want to escape from. In fact, family would be a good reason for choosing the Sentosa – you could easily be in a resort up the Malay coast. Shuttles to and from the city centre run regularly up to 11pm.
Food is excellent – try The Cliff – there’s a nice spa, and conference facilities galore. Need a Singapore conference hotel for a corporate meeting or a family getaway? This one’s for you. Near by is the aforementioned Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort with its very relaxed family and fun ambience. Take your pick – Singapore business hotel or wild escape. And don’t forget to come back.
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