Marina Sands is right next to Singapore’s most famous recreational area, Gardens By The Bay, which spans 101 hectares (250 acres) of reclaimed land and features popular tourist attractions like Supertree Grove, Flower Dome, and the Cloud Forest. From Changi Airport, it’s a 20-minute taxi drive to the hotel along the East Coast Parkway expressway. Orchard Road Asia’s most famous shopping street is a 15 min taxi drive away. The hotel is also directly above Singapore’s MRT (Mass Rapid Transit system), making it a convenient choice if you want to discover a side of Singapore beyond Marina Bay Sands and Orchard Road (although most of Singapore can be easily explored on foot).
Marina Bay Sands, that cost 8 billion to build it and is among the most expensive hotels in the world, enjoys an excellent location with direct exit on the Marina Bay. It has a Shopping mall, casino and many restaurants inside the hotel.
The Marina Bay Sands hotel is part of a mammoth resort complex, which also includes a convention-exhibition center, an enormous shopping mall, a museum, two large theatres, dozens of restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, an art-science museum, and the world’s largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines. Designed by Moshe Safdie architects, the mega property fronting Marina Bay opened in February 2011. Comprising three 55-story hotel towers, the hotel features an iconic exterior that is instantly recognized all over the world. The three towers feature a distinct shape as they are broader at the base and narrow as they rise. Each tower stands on two asymmetric legs, with one curved leg leaning against the other before both legs fuse which each other towards the upper floors – a unique design that apparently created a significant technical challenge in its construction. At the base, the towers are connected by an enormous lobby and at the top, the three towers are connected by a giant roof terrace, called Sands SkyPark. Of course, the architecture of the resort was approved by feng shui consultants.
Check-in counters are located in towers one and three and here, you also find the taxi drop-off and pick-up points. Several high-end boutiques and restaurants line the lobby, which also offers direct access to the adjacent shopping mall, the MRT, the convention center, and the casino.
Marina Bay Sands features several large-scale art installations created by internationally renowned artists. The site-specific artworks extend from the 23-storey atrium in the hotel towers to the exterior of the buildings, creating an inspiring and breathtaking art path through the hotel. The two most impressive artworks are located within the giant lobby space. ‘Drift‘ is a massive three-dimensional stainless steel polyhedral matrix of steel rods and nodes suspended cloud-like in the air between levels 5 and 12 of the atrium of tower 1. ‘Rising Forest’ is a ceramic sculpture composed of 83 massive, glazed, stoneware ceramic vessels, with every vessel holding a tree, creating a “canopy” of trees across the lobby.
The hotel has 2561 rooms and suites spread across the 3 towers.
During my visit, I stayed in a club room with a view of the Singapore skyline (which the hotel designates as a ‘sky view’).
I truly recommend it ! The spacious room had a kingsized bed area leading to a sitting corner facing the windows. The bathroom featured one sink and a rain shower. Featuring a beige-and-white color scheme, the room decor was classic, with thick carpets, textured wallpaper, wood furniture, and marble finishes. All products in the shower are Hermes.
Elvira tip:
For a perfect experience, I highly recommend booking a room on a higher floor for great views and peaceful night’s rest. If you can, book a suite. You will enjoy complimentary Club 55. If you booked it then you will enjoy also an afternoon tea included, and evening canapés and drinks. Breakfast will be also served in club 55! In the club room, you have also a fast check-in.
The hotel is most famous for its much-talked-about 57th-floor rooftop space called the Sands SkyPark which features many of the hotel’s facilities. The SkyPark is a shaped structure constructed of spanning steel bridges hovering over the concrete towers below. The incredible 151 m long rooftop pool is arguably the hotel’s most impressive attraction. The pool – which is dived into 3 sections, one of them reserved for adults only – appears to have a vanishing edge, making it a very popular location for a selfie to be instantly posted on Instagram. Open from 6 am till 11 pm, the pool is only accessible to hotel guests via their room key card. The Skypark also features two restaurants, a bar, and an observation deck that are open to non-guests.
The hotel’s higher floors and its rooftop terrace offer the most spectacular view and photo-taking spot anywhere in Singapore. Towards the east, the panoramic vistas offer a bird’s eye view of the architectural wonders of Supertree Grove, the vibrant colors of Gardens by the Bay, and dozens of ships navigating the Singapore Strait. Towards the west, the hotel looks out over the glass skyscrapers of the Financial District, Clarke Quay, and the central Civic District along Marina Bay. Whether you’re looking to immortalize the reflection of the skyline in the pool under the clear bright sun or marvel at the spectacular nightly light and water show, the hotel is the place to be to hone your photography skills from the best vantage point in the city.
One of the things that impressed me the most during my stay at Marina Bay Sands is that despite the gargantuan scale of the resort and the huge number of guests, service is excellent, efficient, and personalized. The hotel staff seems to genuinely care about their guests, doing everything they can to make your stay a pleasant experience.
Marina Bay Sands is home to more than 80 restaurants, including celebrity chef brands such as Wolfgang Puck and Tim Ho Wan, with the biggest challenge not only being what to eat but where to begin. In the lobby of the hotel you have a variety of restaurants among which:
Wakuda (a famous Japanese Michelin restaurant )
Blossom (Chinese )
Rise (international )
Origin +Bloom (deserts and coffee )
On the rooftop with amazing views:
Lavo (Italian restaurant)
Spago (Mediterranean)
Ce la vie(French )
