Singapore sits one degree north of the equator. The temperature moves between about 26 and 32 degrees every day of the year, the humidity rarely drops below 70 percent, and it rains hard most afternoons for twenty minutes. There is no season to plan around because there is only one, and it is always this.
That single fact reorganises how a hotel should be judged here. Restaurants, museums and shopping are all air-conditioned and connected by an underground network that means you can cross the centre without stepping outside. What you cannot easily do is be outdoors comfortably. Which is why the pool, and specifically an elevated pool with air moving across it, is not an amenity in Singapore. It is the room you will use most.
Why height changes the water
At street level the heat is trapped between towers and the air does not move. Twenty floors up there is a breeze off the strait most of the day, the temperature drops several degrees, and the city becomes something you look at rather than something you are inside.
Singapore's hotels understood this earlier and more thoroughly than anywhere else, which is why the city has more serious rooftop pools than any comparable place. The good ones face Marina Bay, the harbour, or the colonial core, and they are usable from six in the morning until late at night.
The twelve below are grouped by which water or skyline they face.
Marina Bay
The postcard. Reclaimed land around a freshwater reservoir, ringed by the financial district, the Gardens and the Esplanade.
Marina Bay Sands needs no description: three towers with a ship across the top and the 150-metre infinity pool that put Singapore on every travel poster of the last fifteen years. The pool is crowded from mid-morning and superb at seven a.m. Rooms are ordinary for the price and the position is the entire product.
Marina Bay Sands
Marina Bay · 5★ · $$$$
The 150-metre infinity pool across three towers
Check availabilityThe Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore sits on the water at Collyer Quay with a rooftop pool and bar looking straight across the bay to the towers, and the best design of the group. The bay-view rooms have a balcony, which almost nothing else here offers.
The Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore
Collyer Quay · 5★ · $$$$
Rooftop across the bay, and balconies
Check availabilityThe Fullerton Hotel Singapore occupies the 1928 general post office beside it, a colonial pile with a colonnade and a pool on the podium overlooking the river mouth. It is the most beautiful building any hotel in Singapore occupies.
The Fullerton Hotel Singapore
River mouth · 5★ · $$$
The 1928 general post office with a podium pool
Check availabilityThe Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore sits on the eastern side of the bay with a pool on the fifth-floor deck, large rooms and the closest position to the Gardens by the Bay. It is the practical family choice on the water.
The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore
Marina Centre · 5★ · $$$
Large rooms nearest Gardens by the Bay
Check availabilityPan Pacific Singapore rises above Marina Square with a rooftop pool and a view back across the bay to the financial towers, and the best value for a bay view by a considerable margin.
Pan Pacific Singapore
Marina Square · 5★ · $$
Best-value bay view with a rooftop pool
Check availabilityThe colonial core and Bras Basah
Inland from the bay, around the museums, the cathedral and the old civic buildings.
Raffles Singapore is the grand hotel of Southeast Asia, a low white colonial building with courtyards, verandahs and a long history it manages without embarrassment. The pool is small and the suites are enormous. It is the most complete hotel in the city.
Raffles Singapore
Colonial core · 5★ · $$$$
All-suite colonial landmark with courtyards
Check availabilityJW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach occupies a heritage complex on Beach Road with a large pool deck and a covered outdoor canopy designed by a well-known architect to move air. It is the most comfortable outdoor space in the city on a hot afternoon.
JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach
Beach Road · 5★ · $$$
Engineered canopy that moves air over the pool deck
Check availabilityAndaz Singapore, By Hyatt sits in the middle of the arts district with an interior garden, a rooftop pool and the most current design of the group.
Andaz Singapore, By Hyatt
Bras Basah arts district · 5★ · $$$
Interior garden and a rooftop pool in the arts quarter
Check availabilityChinatown, Tanjong Pagar and the CBD
The older streets to the southwest, where the food is and where Singapore feels most like a city rather than a masterplan.
Six Senses Duxton occupies a former police station in Duxton with a rooftop pool, a serious wellness programme and shophouse-scale rooms. It is the most interesting hotel in Singapore.
The Warehouse Hotel, Singapore, a Member of Design Hotels is a converted 1895 warehouse on the Singapore River with a lap pool over the water and a design that keeps the industrial bones. It is small, quiet and the best value on this list.
The Warehouse Hotel, Singapore, a Member of Design Hotels
Singapore River · 4★ · $$
1895 warehouse with a lap pool over the water
Check availabilityPARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering, Singapore sits in a hotel above Pickering Street wrapped in planted terraces and hanging gardens, with a pool on the fifth floor among the greenery. It is the most photographed piece of green architecture in the city and it works as well as it looks.
PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering, Singapore
Chinatown edge · 5★ · $$$
Hanging gardens wrapping the whole building
Check availabilitySentosa
Capella Singapore occupies a colonial estate on the island with three pools cascading down a hillside, peacocks in the gardens and thirty acres of rainforest around it. It is twenty minutes from the centre and the only genuine resort here.
Capella Singapore
Sentosa · 5★ · $$$$
Cascading pools in thirty acres of rainforest
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The Orchard Road hotels are excluded, and they are the best value in the city. They are inland, and their pool decks face other buildings rather than water, which in this climate is the whole difference.
What to do besides swim
Eat at hawker centres, which is where the actual food is. Maxwell, Tekka, Old Airport Road and Chinatown Complex. A meal costs a few dollars and is better than most restaurant cooking in the city.
The Gardens by the Bay conservatories are worth the ticket and the Supertree walk is best after dark. The National Gallery, in the old Supreme Court and City Hall, is the best museum in Southeast Asia.
Walk the shophouse streets in Joo Chiat and Katong for Peranakan architecture, and the Southern Ridges trail for a genuine two-hour walk in forest inside the city.
Singapore is also the easiest place in Asia to eat extremely well at every price point, and the rooftop bars are worth one evening even at the prices they charge.
Practical notes
Changi is 20 minutes from the centre by taxi at around 25 Singapore dollars, or on the MRT. The airport itself is worth arriving early for.
There is no best season. February to April is marginally drier. November to January is the monsoon, which means heavier afternoon rain rather than washed-out days.
Everything is efficient, safe and expensive. Alcohol in particular carries heavy duty, which is why a rooftop cocktail costs what it does.
Explore 4 & 5 Star Singapore Hotels
Questions people actually ask
Is Marina Bay Sands worth it?
For one night, for the pool, yes. For a week, no. The rooms do not justify the rate and the property is enormous and busy. Stay there once and elsewhere afterwards.
Where should you stay for the food?
Chinatown, Tanjong Pagar or Katong. The hawker centres and the shophouse restaurants are down there and the bay hotels are a taxi away from all of it.
Is Singapore worth more than a stopover?
Three nights is right. It rewards a proper visit more than its reputation as an airport suggests, particularly if you eat seriously.
Do you need a pool?
In this climate, you will use it more than you expect. It is the difference between being outdoors and not.