Lifestyle
How much should a traveller expect to spend in one of the world’s most expensive cities?
It’s a common question that Canadian travel YouTuber Alina Mcleod sought to answer, in a video published on June 19.
While it’s her second-ever visit to Singapore, Alina added that it has become one of her favourite countries.
“I like how things are run here, I like that it’s overall super clean, very safe, people are lovely,” said Alina in the video titled How much I spent in a day as a tourist in Singapore, Southeast Asia’s most expensive city.
“But of course, it is extremely expensive,” she adds, showing a Forbes’ report on how Singapore tops the world’s 10 most expensive cities to live.
However, Alina caveats that in her opinion, “it is one of the few places that… justifies being this expensive”.
In the video, Alina showed how much it would cost to spend an average day in Singapore “doing some of the most touristy things”.
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This includes grabbing a quintessentially Singaporean breakfast of kaya toast, kopi and soft-boiled eggs. She had hers at Lau Pa Sat, which came up to a surprisingly economical (even for us locals) $2.80.
“No way you can get this kind of food in Canada or the US,” said the tourist. “You couldn’t start off the day in a more budget-friendly way… definitely a must-try in Singapore.”
Taking the MRT to Orchard, she also praised the reasonable and “high-quality” public transportation available, adding: “There’s no reason to get any sort of taxis here.”
Under a friend’s recommendation, lunch for Alina was at the Food Republic foodcourt in 313@Somerset, where she spent $10 on a Korean bibimbap and a can of green tea, which she called a “fairly reasonable deal”.
She was also surprised to see beer being served at the foodcourt. “Why don’t we get that in Canada, where do I file a complaint,” she joked.
The rest of her day consisted of taking a walk along the Singapore riverfront to the Merlion Park and Marina Bay Sands (MBS), where she visited the ArtScience Museum.
The ticketed Future World attraction cost $30. This was followed by a visit to the SkyPark Observation Deck, for which she paid $36.
Admitting that tickets to the Observation Deck were slightly pricey, she reasoned: “It will be super cool to see the amazing view.”
Alina then headed down to Gardens by the Bay’s Supertree Grove to enjoy the free music and light show, before getting dinner – an $11.90 chicken rice set – at MBS’ Rasapura Masters foodcourt.
On the price of her meal, she reflected: “For hawker centres it’s expensive but for Marina Bay Sands it’s pretty good I guess.”
In total, Alina calculated that she’d racked up a total of $136.20 for a full day out for one person.
“In a way I guess that’s reasonable for a city like Singapore,” she said.
She acknowledged that part of the reason for her lower expenditure was that she chose to stay in a hostel, which cost her $43 a night.
“Obviously staying in a hostel really brought down my total. If I had stayed even in a budget hotel you could easily add another $100 on top of that,” she concluded.
In the comments section, netizens appeared to be impressed by how much she spent, with many agreeing that it was a reasonable amount.
“Thank you for showing the world that it is possible to have fun in Singapore on a S$100 daily budget,” said one.
Another quipped: “Finally a Western traveller that doesn’t purposely go to all the expensive restaurants and do only expensive attractions and exclaim, ‘Omg Singapore is soooo expensive’.”
Granted, her costs could definitely be higher too, had she chosen to visit the ticketed attractions at Gardens by the Bay or opted to dine at restaurants.
Rather than focusing on her expenses, however, several viewers appeared to notice how Alina had eaten her soft-boiled eggs bare without any soy sauce and thought to teach her the ‘proper’ way of eating it.
Wrote one helpful commenter: “You should also try their thick soya sauce which is a bit sweet, and dip your kaya bread into the soya sauce with white pepper. That’s what locals do.”
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