Yet another hotel/attraction suggestion request...
 

I've looked through a bunch of threads but couldn't find one that addressed our situation. We will need a hotel room for two nights this July for two adults and a 3.5 yo. We'd like a fairly spacious room with sitting area maybe for the child to sleep (sofa bed or cot). Walking distance to MRT/shopping/dining would be ideal. The only attraction we have decided on is the Night Safari. Would prefer a hotel under $100US/night. This will be our first visit into town. We are flying SQ on an award.

Thanks in advance.

Roy

Night Safari is nowhere close to any hotel. The best way to get there is using the cab. Hence the best place to stay would be in the city. Maybe u can tell us more of what else u might wanna do, then we can suggest accordingly :)

BTW, consider visiting the day zoo too. You can get a combined zoo and night safari ticket. My 1.5 year old nephew loves the zoo and my sis brings him there every other week. You can read about his adventures in the zoo here (Sorry for the shameless plug).

Here's the zoo website with a link to night safari, if u have not seen it already: www.zoo.com.sg

Well, based on what I've read on this forum, there would be a lot of things we'd like to do sans daughter. Seems like a nice city for some couple time, romantic hotel, nice restaurants, night life, etc. However, not this trip so our goal would be to entertain her while getting a taste of the city. The food sounds fantastic and we would prefer a more casual setting. The food stalls sound interesting. In fact some of the tastiest food I've had have been in such settings. Shopping wouldn't be a big priority as we'll be off to HK and China afterwards. The ethnic neighborhoods sound interesting to wander through. We'll be coming off 10 days on Phuket. Thanks!

July is the annual Singapore Food Festival! Rest assured there would be plenty to eat. :) I personally recommend Maxwell Road Food Centre for good food, through i'm sure the FTers here would have others to recommend as well. Look for the recent thread on food centres.

Maybe u can bring lil sactoroy for a walk/cycle at East Coast Park by the sea, then end off at East Coast Lagoon Food Village for dinner or lunch. :)

In my opinion the night zoo is over rated unless you get there right as it opens before all the tour buses arrive. The day zoo is a blast, as is Jurong Bird park and the Botanic Gardens. I remember doing all of them when I was younger and having fun.
The MRT is great for getting places, and if you buy the travel cards you can also use them on hte buses, and the MRT/bus ride to the zoo is lots of fun.

Got to agree with this, especially if you're in town mid-week. We went to the zoo on a Wednesday just a couple of weeks ago and had the place almost to ourselves, whereas those working can easily make it to the night safari. We visited the night safari a couple of years back and whilst it was good, it seemed crowded at times.

One note - assuming you're happy with your child being in the back of a taxi without a child seat, i'd say go with this method of transport as you'll save a lot of time. It took us about 1hr from our apartment near Somerset to get out to the zoo using a combination of MRT & bus (with a 10 mo. old, we didn't want to use a taxi).

Hotel choices
 

Based on the comments on another thread and price, looks like either the Carlton ($112US) or Swissotel Merchant Ct ($108US) would meet our needs. I assume we can ask for a cot for our daughter if we book a double room? Any preferences? The water slide at the Merchant Ct sounds fun.

Both are OK but unspectacular. Merchant Court suffers from noise from the huge construction site next door and everybody whooping it up at Clarke Quay across the river though, so on this basis I'd opt for Carlton instead.

Yes that's true Carlton is the better choice. Not so heavy construction.

IC Singapore, great location and good price rooms
 

Great Staff, Great Location above the Bugis MRT, close to Raffles and Bugis Village. Get a Premier Room that has a separate sitting area. Large bathroom with both shower and bathtub. Got one last month for $150 USD.

Carlton was refurbished within the past 2-3 years, so I expect everything to be still fairly well-maintained. If you do a search on Singapore hotels, you will see that Carlton have been mentioned quite a few times. It's a nice location, opposite Chijmes and one block to Raffles City Shopping Centre and City Hall MRT

Priceline? I see some comparable rates (US$115 all in per night) but for nicer properties on biddingfortravel. e.g. Swissotel/Marriott/Pan-Pacific. The first 2 are very close to the MRT

Singapore hotel rates, undervalued in the past (3-4 years ago), has crept upwards.

A word of warning - "cot" in the US means something completely different to "cot" in the UK and given that Singapore has a UK legacy, I suspect you want to be specifying "roll-away" at least... Can quite imagine how your 3.5yr old would react to being asked to sleep in a pac-n-play...

The Carlton has a great location and is very near a good food court called Kopitiam (1 block away IIRC) - aircon, very approchable for the uninitiated etc. Also close to Raffles Hotel, plus othe venues as stated before.

Cot...
 

Thanks for the heads up, Tony and to everyone else for their insight. We'll ask for a rollaway or make a sleeping bag for her on the floor and tell her that she's camping. :D We are blessed that she's a great traveler and sleeper.

Disappointed
 

We were disappointed with our stay at the Carlton.

* It took half an hour to get our bags after check-in (I had to call to retrieve them and even went down after waiting another 10 mins)
* One night made two requests that a bucket of ice be delivered, never came.
* Requested a bell boy with a luggage trolley to check out, gave up after 15 mins took them down ourselves.
* Finally, asked the concierge desk for a list of the restaurants that won the chili crab contest that took place a few days before we got there, no clue!

Next time we're in town, we'll pick a different place.