Singapore Botanic Gardens

Orchard Road is Singapore's most famous shopping street, stretching approximately 2.5 kilometers through the city center. You'll come here to shop at malls like ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City, and for the Peranakan terraced houses of Emerald Hill right next door. The street presumably owes its name to the nutmeg, pepper, and fruit plantations that the dirt path led to from the 1830s onwards. After the decline of the plantations, villas and residential buildings emerged, but the major development into a shopping mile only began in the 1960s.Away from the main street, you'll find quieter corners: the terraced houses of Emerald Hill Road, the restored shophouses of Peranakan Place, and at the southeast end, the Istana presidential palace with Istana Park. You can reach the street via several MRT stations, including Orchard, Somerset, and Dhoby Ghaut.

Tiong Bahru is Singapore's oldest public housing estate, a tranquil neighbourhood of curved 1930s Art Deco blocks southwest of Chinatown. You come for the architecture, the Tiong Bahru Market, home to some of the city's most renowned hawker stalls, and the cafés and bakeries that have set up shop on the ground floors.The name means 'new cemetery', from the Hokkien word 'tiong' for cemetery and the Malay 'bahru' for new. In 1927, the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) acquired around 70 acres of land to build the country's first public housing estate here; the first block was ready for occupation in December 1936. Today, 20 pre-war blocks are heritage-listed. Between the blocks, you'll find a Monkey God Temple, murals depicting scenes from old Singapore, and one of the last surviving World War II air raid shelters.

Singapore is both a city and a state: Across 744.3 square kilometers, colonial buildings, temples, skyscrapers, and rainforests are often just a few MRT stations apart. You come for its districts shaped by Chinese, Malay and Indian communities, its Hawker Centres, and its gardens. According to the statistics authority, approximately 6.1 million people lived in the city-state by mid-2025. In 1819, Stamford Raffles established a British trading post here, and on August 9, 1965, Singapore gained independence after separating from Malaysia. Official languages are English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil, and this diversity continues to shape the city's districts today.The city center is divided into clearly distinct quarters: the skyscrapers and gardens of Marina Bay, the colonial buildings and museums in the Civic District, the temples and shophouses of Chinatown, and the spice shops of Little India. Beyond these, highlights include the UNESCO-listed Singapore Botanic Gardens, the Bukit Timah rainforest, and the Hawker Centres in residential areas. The MRT reaches almost all these destinations.

Little India along Serangoon Road is Singapore's historic Indian quarter. You come for the Hindu temples, the biryani eateries, the Tekka Centre, and the 24-hour Mustafa Centre. It began as a cattle trading district: Indian immigrants, many of them cattle farmers, settled here, and in 1915, the Kandang Kerbau Market, named after the cattle trade, was established. The area was only named Little India in the 1980s at the initiative of the Singapore Tourism Board; in 1989, it was heritage listed. Many Singaporeans still call it Tekka today.Between the temples, eat at the Tekka Centre or Bismillah Biryani on Dunlop Street; afterwards, the Indian Heritage Centre is worth a visit. During Deepavali and Thaipusam, the district becomes a festival ground. The Little India MRT station is located on the North East Line and the Downtown Line.

Chinatown is Singapore's historic Chinese quarter southwest of the Singapore River. You come for its temples of three religions, the restored shophouses, and the Maxwell and Chinatown Complex Hawker Centres. Raffles' 1822 town plan allocated the area to Chinese immigrants; the Chinese name Niu Che Shui, 'Bullock-Cart Water', recalls the water carts that supplied the district in the 19th century. Since 1989, it has been a conservation area; the urban planning authority URA divides it into four districts: Kreta Ayer, Telok Ayer, Tanjong Pagar, and Bukit Pasoh.Standing close together are the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, the Hindu Sri Mariamman Temple, and the Masjid Jamae Mosque. The district is accessible via Chinatown and Maxwell MRT stations.