Singapore vacations packages | European Plan Singapore vacations European Plan Singapore vacations packages

DESCRIPTION

Officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At 710.2 km2 (274.2 sq mi),[5] Singapore, a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast Asia, is by orders of magnitude larger than Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and Vatican City, the only other surviving sovereign city-states.

The population of Singapore is approximately 4.86 million. Singapore is highly cosmopolitan and diverse with Chinese people forming an ethnic majority with large populations of Malay, Indian and other people. English, Malay, Tamil, and Chinese are the official languages

Geography

Singapore consists of 63 islands, including mainland Singapore. There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia - Johor-Singapore Causeway in the north, and Tuas Second Link in the west. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's many smaller islands. The highest natural point of Singapore is Bukit Timah Hill at 166 m (545 ft).
The south of Singapore, around the mouth of the Singapore River and what is now the Downtown Core, used to be the only concentrated urban area, while the rest of the land was either undeveloped tropical rainforest or used for agriculture. Since the 1960s, the government has constructed new residential towns in outlying areas, resulting in an entirely built-up urban landscape.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority was established on 1 April 1974, responsible for urban planning.

Tourism

Singapore is a popular travel destination, making tourism one of its largest industries. About 7.8 million tourists visited Singapore in 2006. The Orchard Road shopping district is one of Singapore's most well-known and popular tourist draws. To attract more tourists, the government decided to legalise gambling and to allow two casino resorts (euphemistically called Integrated Resorts) to be developed at Marina South and Sentosa in 2005. To compete with regional rivals like Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai, the government has announced that the city area would be transformed into a more exciting place by lighting up the civic and commercial buildings.Cuisine has also been heavily promoted as an attraction for tourists, with the Singapore Food Festival in July organised annually to celebrate Singapore's cuisine.

Singapore is fast positioning itself as a medical tourism hub - about 200,000 foreigners seek medical care in the country each year and Singapore medical services aim to serve one million foreign patients annually by 2012 and generate USD 3 billion in revenue. The government expects that the initiative could create an estimated 13,000 new jobs within the health industries.

Under the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Wireless@SG is a government initiative to build Singapore's infocomm infrastructure. Working through IDA's Call-for-Collaboration, SingTel, iCell and QMax deploy a municipal wireless network throughout Singapore. Since late 2006, users have enjoyed free wireless access through Wi-Fi under the "basic-tier" package offered by all three operators for 3 years.

Culture

Singapore is a mixture of an ethnic Malay population with a Chinese majority, as well as Indian and Arab immigrants. There also exist significant Eurasian and Peranakan (known also as 'Straits Chinese') communities.

Cuisine

Enjoying Singaporean cuisine. Hawker centres and kopi tiams are evenly distributed.Main article: Cuisine of Singapore

Singaporean cuisine is an example of diversity and cultural diffusion, with influences from Chinese, Indian, Malay and Tamil cuisine. In Singapore's hawker centres, traditionally Malay hawker stalls selling halal food may serve halal versions of traditionally Tamil food. Chinese food stalls may introduce indigenous Malay ingredients or cooking techniques. This continues to make the cuisine of Singapore a significant cultural attraction.

Local foods are diverse, ranging from Hainanese chicken rice to satay. Singaporeans also enjoy a wide variety of seafood including crabs, clams, squid, and oysters. One such dish is stingray barbecued and served on banana leaf with sambal or chili.
Amongst locals, popular dishes include bak chor mee, mee pok, sambal stingray, laksa, nasi lemak, chili crab and satay. All of which, can be found at local hawker centres around Singapore.

Singapore vacations | Our friendly travel advisors are experts on Singapore vacations and know most of Singapore hotels. Before we quote any Singapore vacations packages, we compare with other tour operators serving your departure city and provide the lowest price available. Call our reservation center and purchase your Singapore vacations with confidence, our company has maintained an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau for many years.

Singapore vacations packages | European Plan Singapore vacations European Plan Singapore vacations packages