from S$32.00 Marina Bay Sands
free without a ticketThe Marina Bay promenade, the Event Plaza light-and-water show, and The Shoppes mall are free; the SkyPark Observation Deck is ticketed.
Singapore now — —:— SGT Vol. 01 · The Free & Easy Issue · S$0 to use, forever
singaporecity360° expensive city, cheap days
What Singapore actually costs
the reputation
Singapore has a reputation for being dear.
true — for hotels and alcohol
Everything a visitor came to see
is either free, or nearly so.
and here is the arithmetic
see all ten, pay nothing S$0
4 of the ten major sights are free outright. The other 6 each have a substantial free part — a promenade, a park, a rooftop, a temple.
see all ten, buy the cheapest ticket at each S$143.79
That is the total if you take the least expensive ticketed option at every one of the 6 that sell tickets. Most visitors need none of them.
Admission prices verified 2026-07-23 to 2026-07-24 from each operator. Transport fares: LTA / Public Transport Council official fare table, fares effective from 27 december 2025.
the thing nobody tells you
The dear attractions have free halves
You do not have to skip a place because its ticket is expensive. In most cases the best part of it is not the ticketed part.
from S$32.00 
from S$28.00 ArtScience Museum
free without a ticketThe lotus-shaped exterior and ground-floor lobby are free; all exhibitions are ticketed.
from S$25.00 Singapore Flyer
free without a ticketViewing the wheel from the promenade and browsing the retail/dining galleria at its base.
from S$23.79 Gardens by the Bay
free without a ticketThe whole outdoor park — Supertree Grove, the lakes and Bay East Garden — plus the nightly Garden Rhapsody light show at 7:45pm & 8:45pm.
from S$20.00 National Gallery Singapore
free without a ticketEntry for Singapore Citizens & PRs; public spaces including the rooftop deck, Ng Teng Fong Rooftop Garden and Padang Deck skyline views are free for all.
from S$15.00 Chinatown
free without a ticketExploring the district and street market; entry to Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Sri Mariamman Temple (donations welcome; cover shoulders and knees).
nothing to buy at all
Free from end to end
No ticket exists for these. Turn up and walk in.
S$0 Merlion Park
The site itself is free to enter.
when to goEarly morning or evening — midday sun is brutal with no shade.
S$0 Kampong Glam
Wandering the quarter — Haji Lane, Arab Street, Bussorah Street and the murals; entry to Sultan Mosque (donations welcome; robes lent free for modest dress).
when to goBefore 11am — cooler and quieter before the Haji Lane shops and cafés fill up.
S$0 Little India
Walking the district, shophouse murals, Tekka Centre wet market, and entry to temples/mosques (Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, Abdul Gafoor Mosque).
when to goMorning for the Tekka Centre wet market; evenings are vibrant too.
S$0 Clarke Quay
Strolling the riverfront promenade, bridges and people-watching; no entry fee to the precinct.
when to goEvening — the riverside bars and lights come alive after dark.
where the small money leaks
Getting about costs almost nothing — unless you pay cash
Two habits account for most of what visitors waste on transport.
habit one · always tap a card
A short adult ride is S$1.28 by card and S$2.10 in cash — 64% more for the same seat. Crossing the whole island by card caps at S$2.57.
habit two · let transfers work
Fares are charged on the total distance travelled in one journey, regardless of mode and whether direct or with transfers. You have 45 minutes between a train and a bus, and 15 between trains — up to 5 transfers inside 2 hours. A bus leg after a train usually adds cents, not a second fare.
the trap worth the most money
The full fare table, all eight distance bands →
A private shuttle fare is paid on top of the public fare AND ends the fare journey, so a following public leg starts a fresh journey at the first band. This is why a flat-fare shuttle can cost more overall than a longer public bus ride.
the cheapest good food anywhere
Eat at hawker centres
This is where Singapore stops being an expensive city.
Singapore has 129 NEA hawker centres between them holding more than 6,900 cooked-food stalls. 59 individual stalls, spread across 28 of those centres, hold a Michelin Bib Gourmand — the award for excellent food at modest prices. A hawker centre is not a budget compromise here; it is where the good food is.
We are not going to print a price. Michelin publishes none, and every figure has to be checked at the stall before it goes on this site — so our Eat pages currently show a stall's dish and where to find it, and say openly that the price is unconfirmed. A cheerful round number would be the easiest sentence to write here, and the first one to be wrong.
All 59, by food centre and by dish → the honest bit
What we can't cost yet
A money guide is only as good as its worst number, so here are the ones we do not have.
- Hawker meal prices
Not verified at a single stall yet. Coming from our own checks, not from a guess.
- Whether a tourist travel pass beats paying per trip
It depends on the pass price, which we have not read from the operator. With the fares above you will be able to work it out yourself the moment we have it.
- Hotel rates in any form
The old site carried several hotel round-ups. Room rates go stale faster than anything else on a travel site, and we hold no hotel data — so we publish none.
- Child, student and senior admission at most attractions
We verified adult prices. Concession prices are recorded only where the operator published them plainly.
First published 21 October 2024. Rewritten 2026-07-29 — the earlier version quoted fares that changed on 27 December 2025.