Gay Singapore Singapore City Guide

Curation by Yasmina Rodríguez, words by Suzi Siegel

The world’s most expensive city might just be worth it. A tropical island city-state, high-tech Singapore is known for its Draconian chewing gum laws, but more noteworthy are its over-the-top theme parks, hip heritage neighbourhoods and luxurious lodgings. As for the gay thing (sigh), anti-gay laws are still on the books, however, Singapore's got a gay pride parade, a vibrant gay scene and you can hold your partner’s hand and feel welcome everywhere you go (unless you’re chewing gum, of course). Singapore is not for everyone but everyone should visit at least once. Before we go into why let’s clear up a few things. Is Singapore an island? A city? A state? Yes, yes and yes. Is it illegal to chew gum and engage in same-sex nooky there? Yes and yes. Now let’s dive into what’s actually interesting about this place since as a gay traveller you will feel gladly received everywhere you go despite the antiquated laws. Singapore’s home to both Michelin-rated hawker stands and five-star French restaurants. A centre of global finance and trade, Singapore is as international as international gets. Referred to as City of the Future, it’s got robot trees and the world’s highest smartphone penetration rates. Yes, it’s a nanny state with disturbingly clean streets, weird theme parks and too many malls. For your definitive Singapore gay guide, in all its glory, you’ve come to the right place.

The best hotels in Singapore

Singapore’s finest addresses run from colonial grandeur to warehouse-chic industrial cool, and our four picks could scarcely be more different from one another. Raffles Singapore remains the undisputed grande dame of Southeast Asian hospitality, its restoration keeping nineteenth-century pedigree fully intact: original teak floors, breezy verandahs and round-the-clock butler service. Suites are vast and lawn-facing, arranged around tropical courtyards near the National Gallery and Bugis, while the storied Long Bar still shakes the definitive Singapore Sling. Raffles Spa, tucked within the Arcade, offers seven gemstone-named treatment suites and a Peruvian salt vitality pool for an afternoon of pampering.

A few minutes south, in fashionable Tanjong Pagar, Duxton Reserve occupies a row of 1860s shophouses reimagined by the inimitable Anouska Hempel. No two of its forty-nine rooms share quite the same layout, though all carry her signature palette of lacquered black, gold and imperial yellow, layered with Oriental screens and calligraphy wallpaper from her private collection. Its evening room, Anouska’s, and modern Cantonese restaurant, Yellow Pot, both draw a well-heeled local crowd, and Tanjong Pagar’s gay bars along Neil Road sit within easy walking distance, making this arguably the best-located stay for anyone keen to be out until the small hours.

Raffles Singapore

On the rolling hills of Sentosa Island, Capella Singapore offers an altogether different escape. Foster + Partners paired two restored 1880s colonial bungalows with a sleek contemporary wing, and the result is thirty acres of grounds cascading toward the South China Sea. Villas come with private plunge pools, and between the award-winning Auriga spa, three tiered pools and Bob’s Bar’s old-world cocktail hour, it becomes easy to justify never leaving the grounds at all. It’s a fifteen-minute taxi from the city, ideal for bookending a trip with genuine seclusion.

Back on the mainland, in riverside Robertson Quay, The Warehouse Hotel occupies a restored 1895 godown that once anchored the spice trade, and in one of its stranger past lives, a 1980s disco. Its thirty-seven loft-style rooms mix exposed brick and blackened iron beams with copper fittings and Bang & Olufsen sound systems, while a cantilevered rooftop pool and the restaurant Po, celebrated for its take on staples like popiah, lend the place real character after dark, with Clarke Quay and Chinatown within easy reach.