Singapore is one of the most expensive cities in the world. In this post you will find out how much money you need for one week in Singapore, split into all relevant categories like food, activities, accommodation, and more!
General comments
expenses are in chf
Since I live in Switzerland, the expenses listed below are in Swiss francs. Fortunately though, the Swiss franc is basically on par with the Euro and the USD at the moment. That means, if your currency of reference is any of these two you can treat the numbers as 1:1 being equal in your currency.
Secondly, since I used my credit card for most transactions, these expenses also include possible credit card and exchange rate fees. I did use Revolut (check it out, I can highly recommend this card for traveling!), which basically has no exchange rate fee and very low credit card fees. If you use a different card, your fees might differ and lead to slightly higher prices.
flights not included in expenses
I did not include my flight in the charts, since I did buy my ticket in advance and I don’t think it makes sense to include it in the cost of “being there”. However, in case you’re curious, I paid 600 CHF for a one-way flight to Singapore from Zurich, via Bangkok.
i was not solo travelling
During my time in Singapore I was travelling with a friend. Therefore, we were able to share the cost of some things. Namely, cost of transport, spitting a meal, sharing a hotel room, etc… The cost I have shown reflects my part, aka cost per person. However, keep in mind, if you travel solo some costs might be higher in relation.
Costs are for 6 full days in singapore
Lastly, I consider the expenses to be equivalent to 6 days in Singapore. If I’m going to be *very* specific, I’m talking about 5 full days exploring the city, and then half a day each before and after that just consists of arriving and departing. However, since these days also obviously lead to expenses, I have combined them into one “full” day for my analysis.
how much i spent in one week in singapore
Here are my most important stats:
| category | total cost (in CHF) | average per day |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel | 399 | 66 |
| Food | 234 | 39 |
| Activities | 42 | 7 |
| Transport | 12 | 2 |
| Souvenirs | 6 | 1 |
| Total | 692 | 115 |
Overall I spent 692 CHF for one week in Singapore, which averages out to approx. 115 CHF per day including accommodation.
Analysis per category
accommodation
As you can see, the biggest expense category was obviously the accommodation, with a 58% share of my total expenses for this trip. We stayed at Hotel Nuve Elements, a low- to mid-range hotel (check out this blog post for more details regarding accommodation in Singapore!). If you’re on a super tight budget there’s definitely some wiggle room here to go lower if needed. Overall, I found the accommodation prices to be similar to those of Switzerland, which is also a very expensive country! Even if you go super low budget, you’ll likely not find anything below ca. 30 CHF per night. Accommodation wise Singapore is quite expensive.
food
The second largest expense category is of course food, representing approx. 34% of what I spent in my one week in Singapore. We spent around 40 CHF per person per day on food. This includes all meals and any snacks throughout the day.
If you look at the table below, tt is clearly visible that we were quite frugal with our breakfast, which we often took on the go from a local bakery. This allowed us to splurge a bit more on the dinners. Overall, our average per meal type looked like this:
| meal type | average cost (in chf) |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | 8 |
| Lunch | 12 |
| Dinner | 17 |
| Snacks | 9 |
The snack contains any food related items which are not directly part of any of the three “major” meals. That may include coffee breaks, some drinks and little snacks here and there.
Overall I would say, we did watch how much we spent on food, but if you’re really on a budget you’d probably manage to keep costs down even a bit more!
activities, transport & souvenirs
All the other cost categories are pretty low and almost not worth mentioning. The categories activities, transport and souvenirs together only make up 9% of what I spent in Singapore in one week. I personally did not do any shopping in Singapore other than this one souvenir I bought, which is why there is no such category (in case you were wondering).
We did many free activities (which I have all outlined here!), which is why we didn’t spend much on activities. The activities category basically only consists of two items, the entry for the orchard garden and our high tea experience in the Shangri-La.
Transportation only includes two Grab rides (the Uber of Singapore) from and to the airport. I also used the metro (called MRT) while I was there to get around the city, however somehow the fare was never credited on my credit card. Unless you get as lucky as me (lol), I would say you should add around 5 CHF to your daily budget to be sure to include that cost in your budgeting.
highest single expenses
Let’s break down my top three highest single expenses:
- Hotel: This is an obvious one, and one you can’t avoid. Even if you find he cheapest option, the accommodation will likely be your single highest expense. In my case that was 66 CHF per day or a total of 399 CHF for the entire stay.
- Dinner at LeVeL33: We had one fancy dinner at this rooftop restaurant with panoramic views on the Marina Bay Sands. The price for the dinner was 35 CHF, for which I had one seafood appetizer, a beer and some fries to share with my friend. So FYI, if you’re really hungry and you want a full meal this experience would cost you significantly more, but the atmosphere and views are amazing so I would still recommend this place!
- Dinner at Nanjya Monjya: This evening we were feeling fancy, which is why with this dinner we ordered a cocktail to go with the meal. This was definitely a “splurge” for me, but hey it’s still a holiday after all, right? 🙂
what would I do differently next time?
Overall I am pretty happy with how much I spent in one week in Singapore. Looking back though, there are still two things that I would probably change slightly.
Firstly, we spent so little time in our hotel room because we were constantly out and exploring, that I would probably choose an even more affordable accommodation option next time. You saw that we spent 66 CHF per person per night on our hotel. I have meanwhile realized that there are also decent options around for ca. 40 CHF per person per night, which over 6 nights would have saved me over 100 CHF.
Secondly, looking at my expenses now I realised that there are two meals where we spent over 10 CHF on breakfast. Personally, while I do love breakfast in my eyes that is too much. I’d rather get a small bite and directly start exploring than sit and spend time and money on some fancy brunch.
final remarks on how much i spent in singapore in one week
To conclude my budget analysis, personally I believe for a city like Singapore that’s actually a pretty good daily spend average. If your budget is in a similar range, know that while you do need to watch where and what you spend your money on, you can also allow yourself to splurge on some things. For example, as you saw, one of our dinners was 40 CHF in one evening, which is basically the equivalent to one daily average food spend 🙂 But you can even out your expensive experiences in Singapore by just choosing more affordable options on the other days…
I hope this breakdown of my costs helps you estimate the budget for your own travels! If you’ve been to Singapore before I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below, did your spending also fall into the range I’ve just outlined?