I had flown to Singapore with Air France in their A380 (review will be up shortly) and was slightly annoyed to have to queue for a cab into town; clearly Emirates have spoiled me (they have a complimentary chauffeur service for business and first passengers).
I was in Singapore to pilot a key element of a project that lasted three days. EDI – CDG – SIN is a long way to go for a three days. Anyway, the taxi took about 25 minutes and I was surprised to find that the infamous Raffles Hotel (and Long Bar) was situated directly across the road from The Carlton.
The hotel was huge (as all hotels in Singapore seem to be) and I chuckled to myself as I saw two separate Emirate crews loitering in reception. The lobby was very grand with a little coffee shop that had some cakes that looked yummy. When I looked up, I could see a hint of the gallery above, which I think is used for corporate events.
There were a number of people behind reception but I still had to join a queue to check-in. I only waited a few minutes but a wait is the last thing I wanted after my very long journey (I wanted a beer).
I was greeted pleasantly enough and informed that my client had made the reservation for me here, but hadn’t offered to pay. I duly handed over my passport and Amex card and was handed a welcome letter from the hotel in return. My current client is one of the worlds largest, and most prestigious companies, so it makes sense that the hotel wants to look after their guests. I was informed that I had been given Internet access as well as breakfast each morning with compliments of the hotel.
Singapore hotels are notorious for being expensive; I paid 225 SGD each night but of course in this part of the world everything is ++; tax and service charge which made the room a bit more.
As my passport was handed back to me, I was informed that I had been upgraded to an Executive room; I didn’t have access to the lounge but I did have the bigger room. I thought this was a nice gesture.
The lift here didn’t work until I put my card in the slot, which was about 3 minutes after I had been standing waiting like a fool wondering why the lift wasn’t moving!
The room was large and cool. I had a view of some offices and a rooftop pool (looked refreshing) as well as little of the Singapore Skyline. My room was on the 14th floor (I think). This is a quality business hotel; desk, large bathroom, wardrobe etc. were all pretty standard. The Super King bed was an added bonus and (having taken some Melatonin a bit later in the night) proved to be very comfortable.
Breakfast here was pretty good, although not as good as the Park Royal on Beach Road and certainly not as amazing as the Hilton PJ, a few hundred miles North in Malaysia. They did however have proper coffee; with some four shots of espresso consumed.
The bar here was a fairly generic hotel bar, just off the lobby without much atmosphere. The beer here was almost 25 SGD for a bottle that I thought was quite expensive. They had a ‘band’ playing in the evening here; a boy and a girl with a keyboard. They were not good and indeed the fact that all of the guests in the bar were seated as far away form them as possible, demonstrated this nicely.
I approached the team of ‘concierge types’ early in the morning asking where I could purchase a PAYG SIM for my phone. I was advised to go to the 7/11 (there are 6 (really, six!) within a short walk of the hotel) but alas they didn’t have any that fitted in my iPhone. Upon my return (when I was hot and a bit sweaty) I was informed that they didn’t know where else I could get said SIM. These guys seemed to exist with the single purpose of shifting luggage. For reference there is a large phone shop at Bugis Junction, which is less than 10 minutes walk away; remember you need your passport to obtain a SIM in Singapore.
Check-out was uneventful and over pretty swiftly.
A pretty good hotel in the very centre of Singapore, which is an excellent choice for business stays; shame they don’t have a frequent guest programme.
Carlton Singapore, 6 Bras Basah Road, Singapore, 18955. Website
