Some airports you sit out a connection in, and then there is Changi. Here a forty metre waterfall pours through a glass dome, a rainforest grows over five floors, and the metro has you in the centre of the easiest city in Southeast Asia in half an hour to 45 minutes. So a stop in Singapore is not lost time. It is a free bit of extra trip.
The only question is what to do with your hours. With a few hours you stay at the airport, with an evening you catch two light shows on Marina Bay, and with a few days you get a whole city break. Long-haul flights land here and budget airlines fan out from here across the whole region, so plenty of travellers get to choose how long their stopover lasts.
Below, for every length of layover: what fits in, what to sort out before you walk out of the airport, and the mistake you can make with a vape in your bag. Everything there is to do in the city itself is in things to do in Singapore.
First: what to sort out before you head into the city
Visa free, but with an arrival card
Most passports get up to 90 days visa free (Canadians get 30), so an afternoon in town is no problem at all. What you do have to fill in is the SG Arrival Card. It is free, you do it within three days before you arrive, counting the day of arrival, and you need it even if you only pop into the city during a layover. Fill it in on the website of ICA, the immigration authority, or in the MyICA app. Some sites charge for it, but the form itself costs nothing.
On arrival you get a digital e-Pass, which shows how many days you are allowed to stay. Your passport should still be valid for six months when you fly out, and keep your onward booking handy. What applies to your nationality is on our visa page.
What cannot go in your bag
This is the one transit passengers most often miss. Vapes and e-cigarettes are banned outright in Singapore, even if you are only changing planes. If one turns up, it is confiscated and you pay a S$700 fine, about €470, tourist or not. Chewing gum cannot come into the country either. So bin them before you fly, or leave them at home. Drugs carry extremely severe penalties, and you can be tested on arrival for what you used earlier, even if it was legal in another country.
Our verdict: five minutes for the arrival card and an empty side pocket in your backpack, and you walk out without a worry
A layover of a few hours: Jewel
If your layover is short you stay at the airport, and that is no punishment at all. Jewel is the building opposite Terminal 1, and you can walk in even if you are not flying. From the centre of the glass roof forty metres of water come crashing down, with five floors of rainforest all around: the Rain Vortex, the tallest indoor waterfall anywhere. Wander as long as you like for free; the Canopy Park at the top is the only part with a ticket.
Go after dark if you can, when the waterfall gets its own show of light and music. And do not drag all your luggage around. Hand your bag in at the baggage storage in Jewel and wander through the forest with just your daypack.
Because Jewel sits outside the terminals, as a transit passenger you go through passport control to get there. So fill in your SG Arrival Card even for an hour in Jewel.
Our verdict: there is hardly a nicer place to spend a few hours waiting, and it costs you nothing
Five and a half to 24 hours: into the city
The Free Singapore Tour
With a connection of five and a half to 24 hours you can sign up as a transit passenger for the Free Singapore Tour: a free bus loop past the skyline. Handy if you want to see the city without planning anything yourself, and ideal if it is your first time in Asia.
Our verdict: the easiest introduction to the skyline, without having to read a metro map
On your own by MRT
Rather make your own route? The MRT runs from Changi into the city, changing at Tanah Merah, for about €1.50, and your ticket is the contactless bank card or credit card already in your wallet: tap it on the gate going in and the same card coming out. Eating and drinking on the metro is not allowed, not even a sip of water, so finish your bottle on the platform. A Grab into Chinatown runs to €20 or more, so the train wins easily.
With an afternoon, get off in Chinatown. Walk past the red Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and the Sri Mariamman Temple, eat a plate of chicken rice at Maxwell Food Centre and walk on to Marina Bay in twenty minutes, past the Merlion and the Helix Bridge. A loop around the bay takes about an hour and costs nothing.
Our verdict: with a bank card and half a day you see more of Singapore than plenty of people do in a full one
An evening layover: two shows, zero euros
Landing in the afternoon and flying on in the night? Then you have the city’s best hours in your pocket. At 7.45pm the Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay switch on for Garden Rhapsody, fifteen minutes of light and music in a forest of steel trees up to fifty metres tall. You lie on the ground and look up, like everyone around you. Then walk on to the waterfront for Spectra, the light and water show at Marina Bay Sands, at 8pm or 9pm, and on Fridays and Saturdays at 10pm too.
Afterwards, eat satay off the grill at Lau Pa Sat and take the MRT back. Want to see the shows without planning it yourself? There is a river cruise that takes in both.
Leave plenty of time for the way back. You have to go through security again and get to your gate, and an evening in this city flies by.
Our verdict: the best layover you can have, and with the free shows also the cheapest
A night in the city
Arriving late and only flying on the next day? Then take a bed in the city. A dorm bed costs about €25. With an early flight the handiest place to sleep is out east: Betel Box in Joo Chiat is in a restored 1920s shophouse, the airport is close and the coffee and tea cost nothing all day. Save an hour in the morning for the Peranakan houses in mint green, pink and yellow, and a bowl of Katong laksa before you leave.
Would you rather be right in the middle of the city for the evening? Then sleep in Chinatown, for example in the capsules at Atelier Hostel. All the hostels and neighbourhoods are on our Singapore page.
Our verdict: one night turns a layover into a short visit, and Joo Chiat makes the early flight easy
Two to four days: a proper stopover
If you can choose your onward flight yourself, make it a few days. With three to four days you see the highlights: a day for Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay, a day through Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam, and a day for Sentosa, Pulau Ubin or the Botanic Gardens. How to split those days, one neighbourhood each, is in Singapore itinerary: 4 days.
And maybe you do not even need to go back to Changi. Malaysia is just across the Causeway: the direct bus takes four to five hours to Melaka and five to six hours to Kuala Lumpur. That way your stopover becomes the start of an overland trip. How that works is in Singapore and Malaysia itinerary.
Our verdict: three or four days is just right to get used to the heat and the jet lag before you move on
What does a stopover cost?
Less than you think, as long as you stay outdoors. Jewel, the light shows, the temples and the loop around Marina Bay are free. An MRT ride costs about €0.90 to €1.80, a plate at a hawker stall from about €3 to €4. The money goes on drinks and tickets: a big bottle of Tiger at the hawker centre is about €6, and the two domes at Gardens by the Bay together about €32. Staying a few days? Budget about €55 a day. More on that in backpacking Singapore: cost per day.
You can pay contactless almost everywhere, the metro included. Bring a little cash for the older stalls: the currency is the Singapore dollar, and a euro gets you roughly one and a half. Which card to bring for that is on travel cards, and if you want to be online the moment you land, sort an eSIM before you go.
When a layover is nicest
Singapore is warm all year round, around 31 degrees in the day, and it rains in every month, usually as a short, heavy shower late in the afternoon. February is the driest month, and February to April are the most pleasant. December and January get the most rain, and that is exactly when a layover in Jewel is ideal: covered, green and with a waterfall you can watch while staying dry. The weather month by month is in the best time to visit Singapore.
How long a layover do you need to go into Singapore?
With a few hours you are best off staying at the airport. Jewel is right opposite Terminal 1, the Rain Vortex is free, and with your bag at the baggage storage you get a relaxed stop without watching the clock.
From five and a half hours you can join the Free Singapore Tour, and the MRT gets you to the centre in half an hour to 45 minutes. Add an evening and the Supertrees and Spectra come free, and with a night or more it becomes a proper stopover.
Our advice: whatever happens, fill in the SG Arrival Card and leave your vape at home, so you can still decide at the last minute. And if you can choose your flight, take at least one evening in the city. Lying under the Supertrees while they glow to the music is the best reason there is to make a layover longer.
