This headline may be a tiny bit clickbaity—but not entirely.

If I had to pick one word as Singapore’s word of the year, it would be: expensive! Hotel prices are so high that you really need to make up for it by grabbing a few freebies where you can. I’ve rounded up several very practical ones, so if you’re visiting Singapore, read on and put them to use.

Free Local Experiences EXPERIENCE

One of the best current travel freebies in Singapore is the Singapore Tourism Board’s Singapore Rewards experience program. Visitors arriving in Singapore by air can apply for one free local experience.

The experiences are divided into four categories: “Adventures,” “Food,” “Sustainable Travel,” and “Sports & Wellness”. Some of them look especially good, such as the outdoor mystery game “Chinatown Murder Mystery,” the food experience “Singapore Zoo Breakfast in the Wild,” the sustainable option “PAssion WaVe @ Ubin Kayaking Adventure,” and the sports/wellness offering “Aqua Spin,” among others.

For more details and application instructions, see the previous post: Singapore Is Treating You to a Free Trip—Don’t Miss It

Free Tickets TICKETS

If you’re in Singapore, chances are you’ll visit Marina Bay Sands—and if you go there, you probably won’t miss the lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum. Want to save about 300 RMB on tickets?

It’s simple: apply for a membership directly at the Marina Bay Sands counter. If you have a UnionPay Platinum or Diamond credit card, Alipay Platinum or Diamond status, or Taobao 88VIP, you can receive three months of Prestige membership.

Prestige membership benefits include:

  • 2 ArtScience Museum all-exhibition passes per month
  • 6 tickets per month each for the SkyPark Observation Deck and the Sampan Ride (limit 2 redemptions per attraction per day)

The ArtScience Museum pass includes access to two exhibitions. The best-known permanent exhibition, teamLab’s Future World, is practically a pioneer of immersive light-and-shadow art exhibitions. The other is Sneakertopia, an exhibition on sneaker culture with a very pop-culture vibe.

The second most worthwhile perk is, of course, the observation deck on the 56th floor of Marina Bay Sands, where you can take in the Singapore skyline and Marina Bay at sunset.

The Sampan Ride and Spectra are both well-known Marina Bay Sands attractions, so if you’re still paying out of pocket for them, that feels a little unnecessary.

Put all four items together and you’ve basically got a very full half-day itinerary at Marina Bay Sands.

Membership registration locations: Marina Bay Sands Hotel Tower 1 lobby (10AM - 1030PM), The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands B1 (above the Sampan Ride) and B2 (near Spectra) 10AM - 1100PM

Free Museums MUSEUMS

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre is a place I highly recommend, and even many locals have never been. The first and second floors feature permanent exhibitions on the history, traditions, language, and more of Singaporean Chinese people, and they’re vivid and engaging.

The center also produced an excellent documentary, One of Us, which tells the stories of different Chinese communities. Seeing that there are still people committed to passing down their roots is genuinely moving.

The top floor is not only a great observation spot, but also home to an adorable Year of the Rabbit exhibition called tu gether.

And while the National Gallery charges a S$20 admission ticket for its exhibitions, it’s completely free if you just want to go inside the building and take photos.

The former Supreme Court building in particular is stunning and incredibly photogenic. Don’t miss the small library tucked inside.

Free Performances PERFORMANCES

Singapore Botanic Gardens hosts free concerts at the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage inside the gardens.

The symphony stage is a shell-shaped structure built in the middle of the lake. In Dream of the Red Chamber, when Grandmother Jia listens to the family opera troupe perform, she says, “Set the performance in the waterside pavilion at Ouxiang Xie—the sound is even better with the water carrying it.” The writer Chiang Hsun praised this as a deeply sophisticated understanding of music appreciation. I can’t help wondering whether this stage works on the same principle.

Bring a picnic mat and some snacks, and you can enjoy a little of Grandmother Jia’s lifestyle in this UNESCO World Heritage garden. The biggest risk, though, is Singapore’s unpredictable weather—I once sat through a Chinese orchestra performance in the rain that was both chaotic and romantic.

Performance times vary from month to month and can be checked on the Botanic Gardens website. The nearest upcoming ones are the April 30 jazz performance and the May 14 Mother’s Day concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

If the Botanic Gardens are already in your itinerary, see if you can line up your visit with one of the concerts.

Esplanade, nicknamed the “big durian,” is basically a giant bazaar of Singapore performing arts. Its programming is incredibly rich, and it’s definitely worth a stop on any Marina Bay itinerary.

What you may not know is that Esplanade has free performances almost every night, often featuring emerging local artists, university groups, and even high school clubs.

Each month has a theme. For example, April’s was In Youthful Company. I attended a poetry reading by young local poets—who knows, maybe one of them will become Singapore’s first Nobel Prize in Literature winner.

May’s theme is Songs We Grew Up With 2023, spanning memories from different generations across the 1960s to the 2000s.

These performances are usually short, around 30 minutes. On weekdays they’re held in the Esplanade concourse, and on weekends at the outdoor theater, making them easy to fit into a Marina Bay stroll.

Free Transportation TRANSPORTS

Sentosa is another place most visitors will probably want to go, so why not take the cute little train onto the island for free?

Before June 30, register for the free Sentosa membership program, Sentosa islander. The most important step when filling in your details is to enter NTUC500 in the Referral code field. After verifying your email, continue filling in your birth month, year, and other personal information.

Once completed, you’ll become an Islander Insider. Tap the small eye icon at the bottom right of your membership card to generate a QR code, which you can scan each time for free island entry.

If you happen to visit Sentosa during your birthday month, you can also receive a S$20 voucher that can be used at many attractions or shops on the island.

Add it all up, and you’re saving several hundred Singapore dollars—so are you ready to treat me to chili crab?