Complete Singapore Travel Checklist – Everything you need to know before you go!

If you are currently planning your city trip, or layover, in Singapore, there are probably a number of questions you are asking yourself. Do I need a visa? What is a SG Arrival Card? And, do I need to get one? Where to get a SIM Card? Should I stay in a hotel or Airbnb? Is Airbnb even legal in Singapore? And so much more.

Lucky for you, we already did all the research. In this Singapore travel checklist we walk you through everything you need to know when planning your trip to Singapore and tell you exactly what to prepare in advance!

Complete Singapore Travel Checklist

This Singapore travel checklist covers five major categories and a number of subcategories that are relevant for anyone booking a trip to Singapore. While these may not be the most exciting to read about, we guarantee they will help you to have as smooth a trip as possible!

Among others, we cover general entry requirements as well as a lot of practical information on travelling Singapore such as where to find ATM’s, whether you need cash and what SIM Card to get for a quick city trip. There is a lot to unpack, so let’s get started!

1. Singapore Entry Requirements

In this section, we will go over the general entry requirements you should be aware of before traveling to Singapore and try to answer the most frequently asked questions related to the latter. Do you need a Visa? Have you wondered what the SG Arrival Card or the ePass are and how you can get them?

This section is meant to give you a good overview of what you might need to prepare before your trip. However, make sure to always check the official ICA website for further information and latest updates. (This section of this post was last updated in September 2024).

🛂 What are the general entry requirements for Singapore?

• Your passport needs to be valid for at least another 6 months upon entry to Singapore.
• A Visa, if required for the country your passport is issued from.
• Proof of onward travel.
• You need to submit a SG Arrival Card within 3 days before your arrival in Singapore.
• Customs declaration if necessary (which for the standard traveller is probably not the case).

🪪 Do I need a Visa to go to Singapore for a short term visit?

If you have a passport issued by a member of the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, UK or USA, you can enter Singapore without a visa for up to 90 days.

If your passport is issued by one of these 34 countries (find a list here), you do need a visa. Depending on the country you might however be able to apply for the Visa Free Transit Facility.

Passport holders from the remaining countries can enter Singapore without a visa for up to 30 days. The latter includes for example travellers from Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, etc.

📄 What is the SG Arrival Card and how do I get it?

• The SG Arrival Card is an online document you will need to fill out and submit within 3 days prior to your arrival in Singapore.
• The acquirement and submission of the SG Arrival Card is free of charge.
• You will be asked to provide personal information, make a health declaration and give details about your trip.
• Regardless of whether you need a Visa or not, the SG Arrival Card needs to be submitted by everyone who wishes to enter Singapore with a foreign passport.
• The SG Arrival Card can be found and filled out on the official ICA website.

📄 What is the ePass and how do I get it?

The ePass is essentially a ‘Visit Pass’ stating the details of your allowed stay in Singapore. It is meant to replace the physical stamp that you would typically receive in your passport. As such, the ePass will be sent to your e-mail address, which you provided on your SG Arrival Card, once you clear immigration.

2. Official health recommendations & requirements

• Generally, when going to a tropical destination we recommend you to visit your nearest travel clinic and talk to a doctor about recommended vaccines and medication for that particular country or region. Make your decisions based on the provided information of your doctor.
• A good online resource to get a first idea of general recommendations is the Fit for Travel website.

✅ If you are travelling to Singapore directly from Europe, Australia, North America or within Asia, there are no required vaccines to enter Singapore.
 
🌡️ If you are travelling from South America or Africa, you might need proof of a Yellow Fever vaccination. Find out more on the Fit for Travel website.

3. Best SIM Card, Navigation Apps and Websites for Singapore

Now that you know what to prepare in order to be able to enter Singapore, your next step will require booking your accommodation and activities. Furthermore, you should also look at what the essentials for travelling Singapore are: What SIM Card is best? What apps are helpful for navigating Singapore? And, should you get a transportation card?

🛏️ Where to stay in Singapore: Hotel or Airbnb?

Renting out an apartment for short-term stays (i.e. for less than 3 months) is actually illegal in Singapore. Airbnb as a platform is not. However, due to the first predicament, you will only find hotel room listings on Airbnb in Singapore.

Therefore, we would recommend to book your accommodation in Singapore via the usual websites:

• Compare hotel listings via Tripadvisor*
• or book directly via Booking.com*

💡 Don't know what area to stay in best in Singapore? Read our recommendations here!

🎟️ What popular attractions are best to book in advance?

🌟 In general, entry tickets to attractions such as museums, gardens and exhibitions can easily be purchased on-site, even for the more popular ones.

However, if you happen to visit during a busier season or during a holiday, booking some attractions in advance might not be a bad idea. As is the case for a lot of Asian countries, Klook is a great website to book entry tickets to popular attractions in Singapore.

🌺 Cloud Forest*. You can either book a combo ticket for the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome (Price: 59SG$) or a combo ticket for the Cloud Forest and Supertree Observatory (Price: 34SG$) depending on your preferences.

🌏 Universal Studios Singapore*. Entry ticket for Singapore's Universal Studios (Price: 77SG$).

🔭 Marina Bay Sands Skypark Observation Deck*. Entry ticket for the observation deck (Price: 31-35SG$ depending on the time-slot you choose).

📶 What SIM Card is best for Singapore?

The best SIM Card offer for your Singapore trip will depend on a few factors. Do you prefer a physical SIM Card or an eSIM? How long are you staying? Are you visiting other countries in Southeast Asia besides Singapore? How much data do you need per day?

💫 Singtel Tourist SIM (Physical SIM Card)

If you prefer a physical SIM Card over an eSIM, we recommend to pick-up Singtel’s 5G/4G Singapore SIM Card. Singtel is the largest mobile network operator in Singapore and they offer a variety of packages.

If you spend only a few days in Singapore, the Tourist SIM for 14 days will be more than enough. You get:

• 100GB of 4G data for 14 days.
• Pick-up possible at every terminal at Changi Airport.
• Price: 12SG$ (Note: on Klook you often find offers for 8SG$).

When booking in advance, you will get a voucher which you should download to your phone before travelling. Present your voucher and passport when picking up your SIM Card on arrival. Note: Your voucher is only valid for 60 days so don’t book too much in advance!

💫 eSIM

An eSIM is a convenient way to get data on your phone without having to pick up a physical SIM Card. In case you do not have a Dual-SIM phone, an eSIM also allows you to keep your phone number.

For a short-term city trip, Maya Mobile offers e.g. eSIM for 5 days. You get:

• 5G data by the provider Singtel.
• Price: e.g., 13SG$ for 5GB; or 30SG$ for unlimited data

🚇 Do you need an EZ-Link Card to pay for public transport?

A convenient way to pay for public transport in Singapore as a tourist is the EZ-Link Card. It works as any transportation card does: you charge the card and then pay by tapping the card when entering a bus or an MRT station.

But, do you need one?

Public transport in Singapore can also be paid with Apple Pay or Samsung Pay or contactless with your Visa or Mastercard.

Personally we like having a transportation card. I know we might be the odd ones here😆. However, we didn’t want to take out our credit card every time we took the MRT and we don’t have Apple or Samsung Pay set up. So it made sense for us🤷.

However, for you one of those methods might be more convenient, especially if your credit card does not charge you extra for paying in another currency!

On the EZ-Link Card

If you do decide to get an EZ-Link Card, we would actually recommend getting a Personal Card instead of a Tourist one. It actually makes way more sense as the tourist one seems to be unnecessarily expensive plus you will need to pick it up at a specific office.

• Where to get a personal EZ-Link Card? There is an EZ-Link vending machine at Changi Airport MRT Station. However you can get one at numerous spots throughout the city as well. Read more on the SimplyGo website.
• How much does it cost? The Personal Card costs 10SG$, of which 5SG$ represent the cost of the card and 5SG$ are stored value you can use for paying public transport fees.

📱 What are the best apps to use for travel in Singapore?

Travelling around Singapore is pretty straight forward since there is no language barrier and no overly complicated public transport system either. Therefore your standard apps will be more than enough.

• Google Maps. For navigating, both public transport and on foot.
• Grab. Best way to organise a car ride in Southeast Asia. However, in Singapore specifically it is pretty easy to get around on public transport, so this is not really a must.

4. Singapore Packing List

Singapore has tropical climate. That means you should prepare for considerable heat and a decent amount of humidity when selecting what to pack in terms of clothing. Down below you will find a list of items that we consider a MUST for every trip to Singapore.

🧳 What are essential items you need to pack for Singapore?

• 🔌 Power Plug Adapter. If your home country does not use the Type G Power Plug, such as e.g. the UK or Malaysia, bring an adapter.
• 👒 Sun hat and sunscreen. For obvious reasons.
• 🧣 Scarf (and Sarong). To cover your shoulders and knees when visiting religious sights. The scarf can also come in handy inside shopping malls where there is easily a temperature difference of 10°C due to air-conditioning🥶.
• ☔ Rain jacket or umbrella. Unfortunately it does rain quite often in Singapore.
• 👟 Good walking shoes. Pack your most comfortable walking shoes because you will do quite some walking in Singapore!

5. Currency, Conversion Rates and Cash Withdrawal

Last, but definitely not least, we will go over everything related to money and payment methods in Singapore!

💱 The Singapore Dollar and Current Conversion Rates

• The currency used in Singapore is the Singapore Dollar (SG$).
• Approximately, 1SG$ = 0,69€ or 0,77US$ (Last updated: September 2024)
• Check current conversion rates to any currency via the Oanda Currency Converter.

💵 Do I need cash in Singapore?

In short, yes, as a tourist we would advise you to carry at least some cash when visiting Singapore. However, you won’t need much. Enough funds to pay for daily food expenses and the occasional souvenir should do the trick.

Here is why:

• Credit cards are widely accepted. Hence, you should not have trouble e.g. paying for tickets to popular attractions or paying at the cashier inside big shopping malls by card.
• However, if you want to eat at Hawker Centres (i.e. food courts with really delicious local and inexpensive food) or buy souvenirs in smaller local shops, having cash might be essential.
• While Singaporeans have cashless payment methods that are widely accepted even in smaller shops (e.g. PayNow), these are not accessible to tourists. So you will need cash instead.

Finally, it might be good to also check whether your credit card charges a fee every time you pay in a foreign currency. In that case using cash might be more favourable as well. But, more on that in the next section.

💳 On Travel Credit Cards, where to find ATM’s and ATM fees

When withdrawing cash at an ATM in Singapore, there are fees that might be applied to your transaction.

• For one, the ATM is probably going to charge a transaction fee.
• The only exception being if your bank is global and has a branch or partner bank in Singapore. Then you might be in luck and should search specifically for an ATM of that bank.
• Otherwise, you can’t really avoid that one. So make sure to rather withdraw a larger sum of cash once instead of a small sum every day.

Where to find ATM’s in Singapore that accept foreign cards

🏧 Singapore is home to numerous shopping malls and most of them will have at least one ATM in their vicinity. Often ATM's are either from UOB, DBS or Citibank.

As a guideline: We carried about 100€ (~144SG$) in cash for 4 full days in Singapore (for 2 people). And, for us personally this was the perfect amount to carry. We mostly used cash to pay for food expenses in Hawker centres. Otherwise we usually paid by card.

Advantages of having a Travel Credit Card! And, do you need one?

If you pay by card in Singapore, you will be paying in a foreign currency i.e. in Singapore Dollar. Depending on your bank or credit card provider, you might be charged a fee when paying in another currency or for withdrawing money in a foreign country in general. Make sure to check before your trip to Singapore!

Before heading to Asia for a few months, we got a travel credit card. Here is why:

💳 It allows to pay in foreign currencies and withdraw cash all around the world without additional fees from our bank. Note: ATM fees unfortunately still remain. 

If your trip to Singapore is part of a multi-months trip to Southeast Asia, we 100% recommend you to get a travel credit card as well.

For a short city trip getting a travel credit card will not be necessary. Instead:

• Resort to paying cash instead of using your card for each small transaction to avoid reoccurring fees.
• Book entry tickets and activities online beforehand. Most websites such as Klook, Viator, etc., allow the selection of several currencies. Opt to pay in your home currency.

Final Thoughts