Singapore is the most expensive country on our route, and you feel it at two moments: when you book your bed and when you order your first beer. A dorm bed here costs about €25, and a pint in a bar easily runs to €8. But walk into a hawker centre afterwards and the city suddenly gets very affordable. A plate of chicken rice costs about €3.50, and the metro takes you anywhere you like for about a euro.
Our daily budget for Singapore is €55. That covers your bed, three hawker meals, the MRT and a few small extras. It is almost twice what you spend in Malaysia, where we reckon on €30 a day, and the gap is mostly in that first night and that first glass. The food only costs about a euro and a half more per plate.
Where your budget leaks fastest is indoors. Conservatories, rooftops, attractions and cocktail bars add up quickly, while the best of the city is outside and simply free. Get that, and you see Singapore at its best without going over €55.
What a day in Singapore costs
This is what an average backpacker day looks like, based on the figures on our Singapore page:
- Dorm bed: about €25, ranging from €20 to €30
- A hawker meal: about €3.50, often from €3
- An MRT or bus ride: about €0.90 to €1.80
- A big bottle of Tiger at the hawker centre: about €6
- Total per day: about €55
Add it up and you have a good ten euros left each day for a drink, a boat or a ticket. That is exactly where you make the difference: pick one paid thing a day at most, and run the rest on what the city gives you for free.
Our verdict: €55 is tight enough to make you choose and generous enough that you miss nothing
What a bed costs
Your bed is your biggest fixed cost, and there is not much you can do about it: even the simplest dorm in Singapore costs about €25. What you can choose is what you get for it. Most hostels are in Chinatown, and from there you walk to Maxwell Food Centre and even to Marina Bay. Kampong Glam and the area around Bugis are a little scruffier, and the beds there are often a few euros cheaper.
Check the breakfast when you book. At Atelier Hostel and The Bohemian it is included in the price, which saves you a plate every morning. Betel Box in Joo Chiat keeps the coffee and tea flowing all day at no charge, and you can hire a bike to ride along the sea through East Coast Park to Marina Bay. The Pod on Beach Road has no breakfast, but all of Kampong Glam and its cafés are right outside the door.
Book early around the big events. Chinese New Year, Deepavali and especially the Formula 1 weekend in the autumn send bed prices up, and the €25 beds are the first to go. Which neighbourhood suits you is on our Singapore page.
Our verdict: pay a few euros more for a bed with breakfast in Chinatown rather than taking the metro into the centre every day
What food and drink cost
This is where Singapore wins. A dish in a hawker centre costs about €3 to €4, and it is no emergency option: hawker culture has been on the UNESCO list since 2020, and plenty of stalls have been making one and the same dish for generations. At Maxwell, Chinatown Complex, Lau Pa Sat and Tekka Centre you eat better than in many restaurants, for a fraction of the price. Start the day with kaya toast, eggs and a kopi, and breakfast costs you a few euros.
If you do sit down in a restaurant, check the price on the menu. Two plus signs after a price (”++”) mean a 10% service charge and 9% GST are still to come. Tipping is not expected anywhere. Chilli crab is the famous exception to your budget: it is priced by the kilo and is not a hawker meal. Want to try it? Share it with a group, and it stays a feast instead of a whole day’s budget.
The real money goes on alcohol. Singapore taxes it hard, so a big bottle of Tiger already costs about €6 at the hawker centre, and in a bar a pint easily sets you back €8 or more. Hunt down the happy hours, drink your beer at a plastic table in the hawker centre rather than on a rooftop, or order a glass of fresh lime juice for a euro. And do not bring duty free booze from Tioman: you still pay the tax on it at the border.
Water costs you nothing. The tap water is safe to drink everywhere, so just refill your bottle. What to order at the hawker centres and how to claim a table is in food in Singapore.
Our verdict: eat every meal at the hawker centre and save your money for one good drink, not ten
What transport costs
Public transport is cheap and easy. An MRT or bus ride costs about €0.90 to €1.80, and you do not need a ticket: you tap your own contactless bank card, credit card or phone on the gate, in and out with the same card. Which card to bring for that is on our travel cards page.
From the airport you take the MRT too. With one change at Tanah Merah you are in the centre in half an hour to 45 minutes, for about €1.50. Take a Grab into Chinatown instead and you are looking at €20 or more, so skipping it is the biggest transport saving you will make. Grab does come in handy for a late ride once the metro has stopped, with a fixed price up front.
Sentosa costs you nothing to reach: you walk the boardwalk from VivoCity. Rather ride? The Sentosa Express is about €3. How the MRT, the buses and Grab fit together is in getting around Singapore.
Our verdict: the MRT is so cheap and so good that you only need Grab for the late ride home
What you do pay for
A few things in Singapore cost real money, and they are worth it if you choose them on purpose. These are the biggest:
The domes at Gardens by the Bay
The gardens and the Supertrees are free, but the two glass domes together cost about €32. For that you get the misty mountain of ferns and orchids in the Cloud Forest and the vast, pillar free Flower Dome. The OCBC Skyway, the walkway between the Supertrees, costs about €10 on its own. Go in the afternoon, when it is hottest outside.
The Night Safari
Your priciest night out in Singapore, and probably the one you remember longest. About €40 gets you in, tram included. It is an hour north by MRT and bus; the gates open at 7.15pm, and right then or late in the evening the queue is shortest.
Pulau Ubin
Almost free, but not quite. The bumboat from Changi Point costs S$4, about €3 per person, and a bike for the day about €6 to €10. Both want cash, and so do some of the older hawker stalls, so keep a few Singapore dollars on you.
Our verdict: pick one, the domes or the Night Safari, and your big spend of the week is money well spent
And what is free?
More than you think. The light shows on Marina Bay, the gardens around the Supertrees, the temples and the mosque in the old neighbourhoods, the Botanic Gardens and the Rain Vortex at Jewel cost you nothing. They are the reason €55 a day works here, and they deserve a story of their own: the full list, with times and tips, is in free things to do in Singapore.
What do four days in Singapore cost?
At €55 a day, four days come to about €220 for your bed, your food, the MRT and the small extras. Add the domes at Gardens by the Bay or the Night Safari and you put €32 or €40 on top. You do not need more days than that for the city: our 4-day Singapore itinerary shows how to split them.
Do not forget the costs before you go, because they are small. Most passports get into Singapore visa free, and the SG Arrival Card is free. Use the ICA website or the MyICA app, and steer clear of lookalike sites that ask for a fee. Everything about entry rules per passport is on our visa page. You are online the moment you land with an eSIM, and many public buildings have free wifi through Wireless@SG.
And the most expensive mistake you can make is not in your budget. Vapes and e-cigarettes are banned in Singapore, and one found in your bag costs you the device plus a S$700 fine, about €470. Being a tourist makes no difference. Leave it at home, or bin it before you cross the border. What else is and is not allowed is in Singapore etiquette.
After this, everything gets cheaper
The best thing about an expensive city on a border: the cheap one is just across it. A five minute hop on the KTM Shuttle Tebrau, about €3.50, takes you from Woodlands to JB Sentral in Johor Bahru. From there the ETS train takes you to Kuala Lumpur in about four and a half hours, from about €16. Rather not change? The direct bus to Melaka costs from about €18, the one to Kuala Lumpur from about €14.
And then your daily budget drops in one go. In Melaka you count on €22 a day, in Kuala Lumpur €25, with a dorm bed for €8 and a meal for €2. What the rest of Malaysia costs is in backpacking Malaysia on a budget, and how to link the two countries is in our Singapore and Malaysia itinerary.
Is Singapore too expensive for backpackers?
No, not if you know where your money goes. Beds are expensive, about €25 for a dorm bed, and so is alcohol, at €6 for a bottle of Tiger at the hawker centre. But food costs about €3.50 a plate, the MRT about a euro a ride, and a big chunk of what you came to see is free.
That makes Singapore a city where you choose rather than scrimp. Eat at the hawker centres, drink tap water, walk the boardwalk to Sentosa and save your money for the one night you really want: the domes at Gardens by the Bay or the Night Safari.
Do that and €55 a day gets you by comfortably, and after three or four days you cross into Malaysia, where everything costs about half. All the practical information about the country is on our Singapore country page.
