Time of stay: December 2024

Room booked: 2 Single Beds

Price: 26,000 IHG points per night. The cash prices vary by season, but are typically 175-220 USD per night.

This is a mid-range hotel located in the Clarke Quay area, close to Chinatown.

Room

The room was small (as expected for a Singapore hotel room), but felt fairly modern. The beds were comfortable. Although one pillow was labeled firm and one was labeled soft, I thought both were too soft.

The AC was adjustable, worked well, and was quiet at night time. There is a small desk located near the window. You can roll the window shades down, but it was on a ball and chain mechanism that was difficult to use.

The view from my hotel room faced the neighboring condo.

There is a ironing board, kettle, mini-fridge. The closet is quite small with only a few hanger spaces.

Near the beds, you will not be able to open a 28″ luggage. I had to open my luggage in the doorway.

Bathroom

The bathroom was also small and closed via a sliding door. There was a hair dryer attached on the wall. Dove brand hand soap, body wash, and shampoo was provided. No conditioner was provided.

There was a hose-style bidet provided.

The in-bathroom filtered drinking water faucet was extremely convenient. However, if the hot water was used anywhere else in the bathroom recently, the drinking water also came out warm.

There is both a rain shower and detachable shower head.

Hotel Amenities

You could do self service laundry for 10 SGD per cycle (though I did not try it out).

There is a pool and gym, however I did not visit either.

As with all Holiday Inn Express locations, this hotel had a free breakfast buffet. While the selection was varied, I thought the food was quite terrible. The coffee from the coffee machine was not even hot. Don’t waste your stomach space eating this for breakfast when in Singapore and go out and get something else in Clarke Quay/Chinatown instead.

I was able to get late checkout (2PM) for my last morning. The hotel has a locked luggage storage area, so they can hold your bags – however, this luggage storage area is located outdoors, so you would not be able to store anything that shouldn’t be kept in hot, humid weather.

The hallways for the rooms are open air (not indoors/no air conditioning). My room was also located a bit of walk away from the elevator.

Breakfast buffet options

Crossaint; pain au chocolat; cinnamon roll

Croissant, apple turnover; cinnamon roll

Yogurt

Sandwich egg mayo

Coconut porridge

Baked beans; chicken franks

Sambal fried rice

Scrambled egg; mashed potato

Vegetable bao

Fruit: mandarins, watermelon, honeydew

Pineapple, apple, and orange juice.

There was also a coffee machine.

Proximity to public transportation

This hotel is located:

• 650m or about 10 minutes walk away from Clarke Quay station (purple, NE) MRT line
  • Most of the walk is covered, but you definitely will work up a sweat walking to the station
• 750m or 12 minutes walk away from Fort Canning station (blue, DT) MRT line

The MRT is a far enough walk away that stopping off at the hotel mid-day via public transportation would take at least 1 hour.

There is a bus stop mid-way to the MRT station, but it doesn’t really service any useful routes for tourists.

Getting to/from airport

Because the nearest MRT station is ~10 minutes walk away, in order to get to the airport, the easiest method would be Grab especially with luggage. I took Grab and my ride cost $25 SGD and took ~35 minutes.

Nearby attractions

This hotel is a 15 minutes walk away from Chinatown, which has multiple hawker centers, great restaurants, and shopping.

You can along the Singapore River, and even walk all the way to Merlion Park (30 minutes, so you’ll definitely sweat, but I did it!).

Chinatown is very central Singapore. From any of the MRT stations nearby the hotel, you are no more than 30 minutes away from any tourist attractions or other popular areas. For example, Orchard Road is a 14 minutes away via walking and bus.

Conclusion

The room at this hotel is average, given the price and location. Other hotels in the Chinatown area, at the same quality, are going to be much more expensive. However, the 10 minute walk away from the MRT station definitely discouraged me from going places or being able to stop off at the hotel mid-day.

I think this hotel is great if you are staying in Singapore for a few nights, and most of your activities are located in the Chinatown area. Because it is not my first time in Singapore, I did enjoy being able to walk to Chinatown as that is where most of my itinerary was.

If it is your first time in Singapore, or you are staying for more than 4 nights, I would recommend staying closer to a MRT station.

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