Ok people me again! Has been a hitch in my trip I now have to wait 5days with my 2 little kids before my partner can fly in because of work :( Cant change my plane tickets because it was the opening scoot fare!!! So im planning on still flying in but going straight to a resort destination like bintan, kuala Lumpur etc. cheap to get and stay and relax at. Never been anywhere over there so really have no idea> I need to be back in singapore on the 24th oct. Thanks in advance guys :)
Cheapest island/beach resort from Singapore
mel82 on 09/10/2012 - 16:15
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They are also both only a ferry from Singapore, so close bintan seems a bit pricey. Ill have a look at batam now :)
How cheap are you talking about and how old are the kids?
I'm in Penang now with the family thanks to the scoot opening fares on ozbargain! We got a room at the festive hotel on Sentosa in SG. it was cheaper on wotif. Really good hotel for kids.
We went 5 star at le meridien in KL with a suite with free connecting room for the kids. It had a water slide and was pretty luxe all round.
Not cheap though, at $220 a night.Hi briony my kids 3 and 9 and $120 a night or under hoping kids can do some fun stuff like ride an elephant or something!
Mskeggs wat do u think of Penang? Did u fly from Singapore to Penang?
Penang was great for my family (got back today) but we had done enough resort stuff, so stayed in the old part of the city (Georgetown) at a really nice boutique hotel called Noordin Mews.
Lots of historic stuff, markets, hawker food, but exhausting in the heat and humidity. My youngest is 3 too, and she ended up on my shoulders fairly often.
We caught the overnight sleeper train from KL (recommended if you want something different!) but flew back to Changi with AirAsia (who I found a lot more polished than Scoot) although I was a bit peeved we had to go through immigration an extra time as they don't access the transit lounge.
Some random tips from Singapore, KL and Penang:
- In Singapore, Chinatown night market was good for food and trinkets. Little India too. We stayed at Sentosa, which was good, but I don't think it is worth visiting unless you specifically want to do some 'theme park' style activities or visit universal studios - all of which is pretty costly.
- Again in SG, Mustapha's department store has to be seen to be believed. I was twitching to post ozbargains every turn.
- SG MRT is awesome to get around. We got a multi-day pass ($10 refundable deposit) and used it a heap.
- if the kids are a bit skeptical of local food, get rotis, satay sticks, hainan chicken as ice breakers.
- in KL the aquarium is ok, but expensive. The petronas towers is pretty good, but pretty expensive.
- Penang try Fort Cornwallis (there is lunch next door so make up a picnic) take a tri-cycle rickshaw ride and an ice cream and you'll have a good day for peanuts.
- Penang hill was good, but grab some rolls from Bread Talk or similar.
- Penang (and KL and SG to a lesser extent) takes a while to get going in the morning. Get the kids into a pattern where they aren't grumpy and tired in the evening to make the most of the night markets, hawker stands etc.
- Legoland has opened up just over the MY border from SG. We didn't have time to go, and it isn't cheap, but my kids were keen.
- Take a look at www.coupark.com for a daily round up of all the SG daily deal sites. I was tempted by a few deals, but something in the fine print always put me off (things like surcharges for non-residents or odd black-out dates/times) so read anything carefully. In any case, it will give you ideas. They also seem to have a bunch of Bintang deals on there for cheap accommodation.Omg thanks so much, I think I'm going to print your advice out and take it with me :) sounds like u guys had a great time! I'm so nervous just not knowing what to expect or where to start so thanks again great help!
I am in Singapore now and find it to be an OzBargainers nightmare.
Everything is a blatant price gouge, mskeggs we went to Mustafa Centre based on your advice and it was an overcrowded, overpriced sh*thole!
Happy to be leaving tomorrow, Marina Bay Sands is an awesome Hotel but you certainly pay for it, even with the billions they spent to build it they still don't give you a outlet in the bathroom that can handle the wattage from a hair dryer, it's Shaver only! Singapore is a great gateway destination.
There is no need to shop overseas, IMO. Just enjoy your holiday without wasting time shopping. Except for duty free grog. I have found Singapore to have the cheapest duty free grog. (I haven't been to the US for over a decade though)
If you think Singapore is a price gouge, I wonder how you will deal with taxi drivers in the rest of asia?
Maybe I was conditioned by the prices in the glitzy malls, but I thought mustafa had good prices on clothes, cosmetics and toys - generally being 10-20% less than Sydney, plus the exchange rate saving. But I can agree I saw plenty of prices there that weren't anything special.
I recommended it as an interesting place to visit - kind of Myer or DJs on steroids with everything in the world for sale crammed cheek to jowl and from floor to ceiling.
Taxi drivers are not the problem, I bundled my family into one and made him drive us to the Mustafa Centre, during the way there I bamboozled him into accepting payment in Australian dollars because I didn't have any local currency!
We are off to Malaysia next, a true OzBargainers paradise, you pay for Taxi fare using pre paid vouchers from a ticket box at the Airport to avoid being swindled.
That prepaid is from the airport. How about every other ride you take?
I'm staying in KL everything is connected by skywalk air conditioned bridges and tunnels so if you have a sense of direction you need never to use a Taxi.
The Monorail is dirt cheap to boot.
However should the need arise I make sure I catch one that has the sign on the door that reads, "This is a metered Taxi, Haggling is prohibited".
The only time a Taxi ripped me off was when we were in Singapore, the driver helped himself to a 80 cent tip by refusing to give me exact change, typical of the greed that possesses both Singapore and Australia.
Haggling IS commonplace. They will try to screw you, guaranteed. I found out how much I should pay and added a bit and then negotiated a fixed price. I found that far better than being driven "the long way" while some filthy man asked me intrusive questions about my personal circumstances. And all of them did.
In which they over charge you for it, when I was there last they wanted 200MYR to go to Sentral I ended up taking a bus for 8MYR. All the voucher system does is centralise the corruption. The trick to a taxi im KL is to get one off a busy street. They'll use the meter almost every time.
Yes, it's the dodgy ones who hang around waiting for the right customer to come along. The more honest ones are just getting on with it.
I knew how much something should cost. I would negotiate before I got in the cab. We really are talking about stuff all at any rate. I happily negotiate 50% more than it should be because I'm pretty sure they will take me straight to my destination, rather than drive me around and around. That way I also don't need to tip them. So, if something should be about 10r, I'm happy to pay another 50% just to get on with it. If they try to get more than that and they won't come to my already generous price, I go to the next one. Having seen me walk away from the other cab, the second one will always fall in line.
Hey guys I just returned at 1pm today! Found the mustafa centre and area dirty and didn't enjoy it at all. Shopping in Singapore is expensive! I found the taxi drivers great and taxis super cheap in both Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia. I eded up staying 3nights in Singapore, 2 nights in Bintan, 3 nights in Batam 2 nights in Kuala Lumpur. Shopping was only cheap in Kuala Lumpur at the markets but u really need to bargain n haggle with the stores or they will rip u off blind! Know what u would be paying in Aussie dollars! Also the coupon system for taxis rob you blind. Got our own taxi off the street for the journey back and it was much much cheaper. We enjoyed ourselves but spent a lot in Singapore on all the tourist things!!!! Could not believe how cheap the food is in all of these countries, so eat eat eat and try everything :) xx
I understand that there is a lot of child prostitution in Batam, with sex tourists going there via boat from Singapore. Did you see any of that crap?
No didn't see anything like that at all, but I stayed out of town in a resort and only went into town in the days.
There was a big uproar in the local News about dishonest Taxi drivers, as long as find a metered driver with his ID clearly displayed you should have zero problems. In the meantime I will never tire of only paying $11 to feed my family at a high quality restaurant!
Where are you located? ie - what local news are you referring to? Do you have a link?
TIA
There was a 3 page investigative report in the Berjaya New Straits Times around 3 days ago. Staying at 6 5 star Hotels around Kuala Lumpur with my 3 month Son and 6 year old, the reason I hate this holiday is that I know its going to end soon..
You could try either going to Bintan or Batam. The beaches in Bintan are pretty clean with sea-sports orientated resorts around there. Batam would be more urbanized with more places to shop. In terms of price, they would either trade in Singapore Dollar or US Dollar, so they are roughly the same.