5 reasons why I chose Singapore for a family trip!

This year, myself, my brother and our mother wanted to go on a memorable trip before I was getting married. We wanted an international destination yet one that wouldn't tear our pockets. Considering a lot of factors, we finally zeroed down on Singapore. Let me tell you some of them:

1. Visa 

Getting a Singapore Visa is a cake walk to say the least. We approached Riya travels' local office and got a list of documents to be submitted, which included 3 months salary slip and scanned copy of ID card from your office as employment proof, bank details to show enough budget that you have allocated for the trip (we showed INR 2L), two way tickets and proof of accommodation. Ofcourse, the agency has to be paid a fee in addition to the visa processing fee but it saves us alot of hassle and confusion. In less than a week, we got our Visa's. Yaaayy!!

2. Budget

We had allocated upto INR 1.75L for all three of us for a 4 or 5 day trip. Most of the Asian countries fall under this category like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, etc. We reached Singapore on a Saturday afternoon and left by Thursday early morning giving us a 4.5 days time frame excluding the flights. We chose over night flights to save the cost of accommodation and for cheap tickets.

3. Mode of transport

As our mother had not traveled much in years, we definitely wanted her to relax and enjoy the trip totally but at the same time, we did not want to go on a guided bus tour with scheduled day by day itinerary throughout the trip. So we had to choose a country which has a very affordable, yet comfortable and easy mode of transport. Singapore's metro or rather the MRT was the answer to this! That is when Thailand was crossed off the list.

4. Things to do and places to see

On researching quite much in the internet I understood that Singapore is more versatile compared to other Asian countries and offers multiple attractions which would take around 7 or 8 days in total to be covered completely. That would help us plan a very eventful itinerary for a 4 to 5 day trip keeping aside some attractions in buffer in case we finish early than planned. Malaysia, as far as this factor is concerned would be placed at second after Singapore. For instance, we had planned Orchard road and Vivo mall for the last day but we finished way too early. We certainly didn't want to wait at the airport for more than 5 hours before our departure so we chipped in Singapore river cruise which was kept at buffer for our last evening in Singapore, which totally gave us the best curtain down for the trip.

5. Climate

As we weren't planning on booking a tour package and all the travel would have to be done by ourselves which includes alot of walking and public transportation, weather was a crucial factor. We were planning a trip during early March and Singapore has an ideal weather which is not very sunny yet not rainy. Although it drizzled at some point, we had kept umbrellas handy after going through remarks about quick Singapore downpours.

We had done alot of home work and narrowed down on the most interesting attractions for 5 days and had the time of our lives! List down all the attractions that come up when you google Singapore and go through each of the articles and reviews about them to plan efficiently. Also, keep a note on the geography and average time people would spend at an attraction to manage time and energy throughout the trip.

Hope you have an amazing time in this beautiful city state! :)