Bali: Ubud or the coast? Choose before you book
Ubud, Canggu, Seminyak or Uluwatu: pick one and stay there, or spend a night of your long weekend in traffic. For a first escape from Singapore's pace, pick Ubud.
- Where: Bali
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Escapes
Weekends away and days over the border: Bintan, Batam, Johor Bahru, Malacca and the staycations worth booking.
Guides & stories
Typical spend per person, in Singapore dollars.
Bangkok, again: base yourself in Talat Noi, the riverside workshop district
For anyone who thinks they've done Bangkok: stay by the river in Talat Noi, where cafés share buildings with workshops, and eat across the city. Skip the rush-hour criss-cross.
- Where: Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City by metro, bowl by bowl
Stay in District 1, ride Metro Line 1 by day and work through the new Bib Gourmand noodle shops one bowl at a time. Skip a room on Bui Vien, and carry small notes for the ticket machines.
- Where: Ho Chi Minh City
Ipoh: White coffee, bean sprouts and a slower weekend
A breakfast-led weekend in the old town: white coffee on Jalan Bandar Timah, bean sprout chicken at Lou Wong, dim sum before late risers surface. A short flight, or a train from KL.
- Where: Ipoh
Kuala Lumpur by train: The electric line is finally here
Take the electric ETS from JB Sentral and arrive in the middle of KL with no airport at either end. Leave a margin at the shuttle-to-ETS change, and don't plan a tight Friday dinner.
- Where: Kuala Lumpur
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Photo: RoB, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsLangkawi is quieter this year, and that's the point
Go before the European charters arrive in November: lost routes left Singapore with the island's only direct international flights by August. Rainforest, mangroves, a cable car. Stay four nights.
- Where: Langkawi
Penang is a weekend you eat your way through
Stay in George Town, start with the three new Bib Gourmands and work back through the classics, two stalls a meal. The 2026 Michelin list has 33 on the island; you won't need them all.
- Where: Penang
Phuket for a long weekend: Start in Old Town, not Patong
Base yourself away from Patong, give Old Town a full day of eating, then go south to Rawai for seafood cooked to order. Bring cash; the best of it doesn't take cards.
- Where: Phuket
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Photo: Bryn Pinzgauer, CC BY 2.0, via FlickrSiem Reap: Angkor at dawn, then lunch and a nap
One direct flight, a new airport over an hour from town and a temple complex worth the 4am alarm. How to do Angkor properly in a long weekend, naps included.
- Where: Siem Reap
Telunas: The Riau island weekend with almost no Wi-Fi
For a weekend genuinely offline: two boats from HarbourFront, no Wi-Fi in the rooms. Beach Resort for families, Private Island for couples, and budget for the compulsory meals.
- Where: Bintan & Riau islands
Johor Bahru in a day: Breakfast, curry and the long way home
The RTS Link has slipped to February 2027, so JB is still a checkpoint-and-bus job. Done right it's two breakfasts on Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, curry fish head at Kam Long and home before the jam.
- Where: Johor Bahru
A weekend in Batam: Kelong seafood, long massages, short ferry
Batam's reputation is massages and crab, and it earns both. Choose the right ferry terminal and it's the easiest overnight escape from Singapore going.
- Where: Batam