You’ve read the reviews, you’ve seen the pictures. Your mate who works in finance has probably been there and spammed your whole Facebook feeds with pictures of it. So why should you stay at The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore?
Let’s get things straight. Owned by the Sands group, which controls The Venetian and the Palazzo in Las Vegas, The Marina Bay Sands isn’t exactly your ultimate cheap holiday destination. The complex is so much more than a hotel, towering over Singapore’s Marina Bay in a blend of buildings, that it’s almost a town in itself – and not a traditional Far East town.
A casino, a high-end shopping centre, a home for various globally renowned restaurants, a giant-sized complex which even has its own evening light show with laser beams and dramatic music, The Marina Bay Sands does remind you of a Vegas home of perdition. But if you’ve got some spare cash – and, ideally, someone to share a room with cause the best things in life are better shared and selfies by the pool don’t come out as good as a full shot – The Marina Bay Sands will provide you with an experience you will never forget.
Let’s start with the room. For $493 SGD a night (about $276 each) we booked a twin bedroom with all of the comforts and even more. As the Snapchat video shot by yours truly (I’m no Martin Scorsese) shows, the luxury hunter in you will do a little happy dance every time you will walk through the door and the curtains will automatically open in front of you, revealing the breath-taking views Singapore has to offer.
From the little elephant figure put together through bath towels to the branded robes, everything at The Marina Bay Sands is thought up in the tiniest detail. You can even conduct important business while sitting on the loo, which I obviously did because I am important.
I know you want me to cut the crap and go straight to the 57th floor, so I will spare you pictures of me on the toilet and get straight to the point. Yes, the Infinity Pool and Skypark are as gorgeous as they look on Instagram – actually, they’re even better. No, you can’t swim there unless you’re a guest of the hotel. So you better get booking, because I would have bitten my nails, hands and arms if I were one of the people who had access to the Skypark bar but not to the pool and the Spa.
With breath-taking views of the sunset and sunrise on the back, which also faces down to the Gardens By The Bay in their gorgeous by day and by night look, the Skypark and Infinity Pool are more than just any other pool. You can actually sit back in a boiling hot Jacuzzi as the sun goes down in the world’s highest swimming pool. You can see the skyscrapers light up in front of you at sunset. You can see the light change at dawn and the city wake up at your feet.
Also, you can see awkward couples taking even more awkward selfies, amateur photoshoots by Insta influencers in the making (I tried, but will never get there – soz) and tourists dropping their phone in the pool cause they just had to take that shot. For once, I wasn’t one of them – dropping my phone in a hot tub at Peruvian supper club Suppertub in London taught me.
I could be going on and on about why a night at The Marina Bay Sands is worth you spending $493…Or I could be posting videos and pictures to prove that you can’t get higher on life than at The Marina Bay Sands. FYI: these pictures contain a high level of NSFW (and yes, I did wake up at six to take some of them) #sorrynotsorry.
Pictures: Carolina Are, Charlotte Howells
…In case you’re ever wondering, the swimsuit is by Bondi Bather.
Cool!!