The Traveling American

View Original

Marina Bay Sands Creates A Dazzling Resort Experience For Visitors - Singapore

Singapore has become one of the top destinations for visitors from around the world seeking a safe, friendly, and comprehensive destination with modern attractions and amenities. The six-mile stretch around the Marina Bay Reservoir to Sentosa Island now features five-star resorts, gaming facilities, museums, sports facilities, amusement parks, artistic creations, gardens, performing arts venues, luxury malls, historical monuments, water transportation, and dining establishments. The Marina Bay Sands Resort is at the center of this national initiative.

AMENITIES

The Marina Bay Sands building has become an iconic symbol of modern Singapore and attracts forty-five million visitors annually. Its three towers rise fifty-five stories above the harbor and are connected on top by a 1120-foot-long park shaped like a ship. This architectural wonder which cost an estimated $8 billion to construct includes a 2,561-room hotel, casino, convention center, a luxury shopping mall, celebrity chef restaurants, and theaters. 

The rooms at Marina Bay Sands are large. Standard deluxe rooms are over four hundred square feet and club rooms, which offer access to an executive club with breakfast, drinks and snacks throughout the day, exceed six hundred square feet. Suite rooms are even larger. Seeking to appeal to a wide variety of guests, there are three categories of rooms available. “Classic Collection” rooms are designed for business and leisure travelers with nice views of Marina Bay or the Gardens by the Bay. “Piazza Collection” rooms are described as featuring “ultra luxurious style suites located on the highest floors of the hotel which are exquisitely designed, artfully curated, and served by a 24-hour butler team”. The third category of rooms known as the “Sands Collection” are described as offering “elevated luxury living in newly restored rooms and suites which are impeccably designed and fitted with stylish furnishings that reflect our love for refined craftsmanship.”

The signature amenity of the Marina Bay Sands is the sky park on the roof which provides a panoramic view of the entire city whether you are swimming in the park’s infinity pool, dining in one of rooftop restaurants, or standing on the observation deck. You need to be a guest of the hotel to access the pool, but thousands of people pay the $23 admission to take the elevators to the observation deck each day. At night, there is an outdoor light and water extravaganza that depicts Singapore’s journey to becoming a modern city and architectural marvel. 

Food and entertainment are also major features of the Marina Bay Sands. The hotel boasts that guests have access to forty-six separate food outlets located in the hotel or in the adjacent shopping mall including four signature restaurants of celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsey and Wolfgang Puck. When it comes to nighttime adventures, in addition to the adjacent casino, there are four specialty lounges including the Marquee Nightclub. The Marquee is known for presenting an international line up of entertainers and also for its amusement features like an indoor Ferris wheel, slide, and photo booths. The theater at the hotel complex presents Broadway shows like “Mama Mia” and “Matilda the Musical” along with concerts by well-known Asian headliners. Finally, a world class spa offers a variety of services for pampering the hotel’s guests.

The many amenities of Marina Bay Sands make it an attractive place to stay when visiting Singapore. While the crowds and impersonal service of such a large resort can be overwhelming for some people, the experience of staying there, swimming in the pool, and seeing the skyline of the city is worthwhile for people exploring Singapore or transiting through its gateway airport. 

AREA ATTRACTIONS

Activity is all around for guests staying at the Marina Bay Sands even though there is little need to leave the resort complex. The connected Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands offer hundreds of stores with luxury goods and international brands, and you can ride a Sampan through the canal in the middle of the mall. Another adjacent attraction is the Gardens by the Bay which have domed gardens and super trees with tropical fauna. The downtown across the Bay features colonial landmarks and Sentosa Island showcases a vibrant Universal theme park and other attractions.

LOCATION 

Singapore is located at least 19 hours away by air whether flying west across the Pacific or east through Europe and the Middle East. Fortunately, Singapore has one of the world’s best airports in Changi Airport and Singapore Airways, Cathay Pacific and United Airlines fly there from the United States. Once there, Marina Bay Sands can be reached by public or private transportation and the resort looms over Marina Bay.