Ever since we heard about the world’s largest infinity pool at Marina Bay Sands, it’s been on our ever-growing bucket list. There is no doubt this 5-star hotel is the most talked about attraction in Singapore.
The World’s Largest Rooftop Infinity Pool!
We had looked at booking a night here a few months prior and were quoted $650 USD for a night (ouch!). Deciding it was too expensive, but not giving up on hope, we checked one last time a week prior to our stay in Singapore and managed to get a half-price deal on a deluxe room with many restaurant discounts thrown in. Some will say it was meant to be, so we closed our eyes, made the booking and didn’t look back.
Here’s our experience living the high life in Singapore…
Our Room
You can only imagine how we felt as we stepped foot into a 5-star hotel – a hotel which is much more than our usual daily accommodation budget of $15-25 in Asia. It was a real treat!
We arrived super early to make use of our stay and fortunately, thanks to the very kind lady at the check-in desk, we were able to check into our room at 9:30 am, when check-in isn’t supposed to be until 2:00 pm. What a total win and what a view!
We thanked her later in the day by giving her some samples from our box of pineapple tarts (a very popular dessert in Singapore).
As we entered our room and put our key in the key holder, the lights turned on, the blinds automatically opened and we had one incredible view of The Gardens by the Bay. We looked at each other and couldn’t help but giggle. It was time to get comfortable!
The first thing anyone does when they enter their hotel room is jump directly on the bed (at least we like too). It’s important to see how comfortable this is going to be, especially when we’d just come from a beach shack in the Perhentian Islands. Comfort level? 10/10. This was going to be one heck of a sleep. The marble tiled bathroom had a beautiful large shower, big fluffy dressing gowns and slippers to boot!
How are we supposed to go back to budget hotels after this?!
The Infinity Pool
We were slightly nervous about the ever-changing weather in Singapore because this can make or break the stay, but the weather gods were definitely on our side and we had the nicest, clearest day to enjoy a full day at the pool. Can you imagine if you had just one day at this pool and it rained? Boy, that would be unfortunate! In saying that, it actually rained the entire the next day after we checked out, so we got uber lucky.
Expectations were high, but this pool lived up to all of them and then some. The pool opened at 6:00 am and by 6:30 am it was crowded. It didn’t close until 11:00 pm which gave us the opportunity to see Singapore by night, whilst we hung over the cascading water’s edge. There are palm trees surrounding the edge of the pool as well as an abundance of lounge chairs.
Sunshine & swimming… this generally calls for cocktails. However, at $26 a drink, we weren’t going on any big benders here. Instead, we shared one and savoured every last mouthful as we fought for the last sip. We spent an entire day at the pool, relaxing, reading, taking photos and people watching. Oh, the people watching was a free form of entertainment!
One of the most entertaining aspects of this pool was how many people wore their bathrobes. Everyone was wearing them! We genuinely felt out of place by wearing clothes. I’m not just talking about at the pool, but in the elevators, the lobby, it felt like we were missing out so, on our last visit to the pool, we followed suit and felt utterly ridiculous walking around a 5-star hotel in our dressing gowns!
On the roof, there were more restaurants, bars, a club, an observation deck, jacuzzis, a day spa, and a really fantastic gym. We couldn’t ask for more!
Note: They’re really strict with pool access. Everyone has to have their own key card, children included. So don’t bother if you’re not a guest, you’ll just embarrass yourself 😉
The Restaurants
If you’ve got all the money in the world and you love food, you’ll be in food heaven. There are a lot of celebrity chef restaurants in this hotel as well as one of the most mouth-watering buffets we’ve ever seen. It definitely gives some of the other buffets a run for their money (Sofitel in Mumbai still takes #1 for us).
It’s no surprise with a hotel cost of $300 a night, there aren’t many ‘cheap’ meals at Marina Bay Sands. Thankfully, we had our restaurant vouchers to take full advantage of and we thoroughly enjoyed 30% off + 2 for 1 cocktails at Adrift, ate ourselves into a coma at Rise, the dinner buffet (another 40% off), and sipped perfectly handcrafted cocktails on the rooftop at CÉ LA VI.
Top Tip: The food court located at the bottom level of the Marina Bay shopping mall has a very impressive amount of restaurants for a fraction of the cost.
The Location
You can’t beat the location of this hotel and you would hope so with the price tag you’re paying! The Marina Bay Sands is within walking distance to many of Singapore’s famous attractions such as Gardens by the Bay, The Esplanade, Museums, shopping malls, restaurants, the helix bridge and most importantly, right by the MRT (subway) which makes getting anywhere else in the city very convenient.
See here for the top budget-friendly things to do in Singapore.
Fun Facts
- Marina Bay Sands cost $5.7 billion dollars to make, making it one of the most expensive hotels ever built.
- It opened on 27 April 2010 and has welcomed 31 million visitors in 2011 and 38.5 million visitors by 2012.
- Marina Bay Sands uses approximately 36,000 key cards a month. Lining them up will be as long as 306 km – the distance of more than 7 full marathons.
- It is the largest hotel in Singapore, the 6th largest in Asia and the 34th largest in the world.
- Marina Bay Sands stands 57 stories high with a total length more than 3 Olympic size swimming pools.
- The hotel has 2,561-rooms, multiple “celebrity chef” restaurants & bars, 2 large theatres, a shopping mall, skating rink and the world’s largest atrium casino and of course, the world’s largest infinity pool.
- The Sky Park has the world’s longest elevated swimming pool, with a 146-meter (478 ft) vanishing edge, 191 meters above ground. The pool is made up of 422,000 pounds of stainless steel and can hold 376,500 gallons of water (that’s almost one and a half million litres! Wowza!
Is it worth it?
Jacob and I have always had our own little motto during this trip. “Experiences are priceless”. You are more likely to regret the things you didn’t do than the things you did. So, yes. It was. Would we ever feel the need to do it again? Likely not, unless someone else was willing to pay! Honestly, though, not a day has gone by that we’ve regretted our stay at Marina Bay and all we can think about is the amazing memories and epic photos.
» Ready to book? Book your stay directly through the hotel here. They often have great deals on with discounted packages on meals, shopping and nightlife.
Unfortunately, our stay at Marina Bay Sands was NOT sponsored. All opinions are our own, as always!
Married Days Survived: 818
wow amazing.
are we allowed to wear shirts on the pool? or do men have to only wear trunks
There are no rules for this, however, I would imagine a swim shirt would be more suitable than a cotton piece of clothing.
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