Travel information with destination guide in Sentosa by GuideRooms.com   

Sentosa, which means tranquillity in Malay, is a popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some two million people a year. A major tourist attraction, it hosts a sheltered beach of more than two kilometres in length on its southern coast, a now defunct musical fountain which used the interaction of lasers against water particles to create three-dimensional images, and historical fortifications in Fort Siloso, dating from World War II. There are also two golf courses and two five-star hotels.

Formerly known by the rather unattractive name of Pulau Blakang Mati ("The Island of Death from Behind" in Malay) and the centerpiece of Britain's spectacularly unsuccessful "Fortress Singapore" strategy in World War II, Sentosa has been rebranded and resculpted into one big tourist attraction, popular among Singaporeans as a quick island getaway. The island offers a few star attractions (notably Underwater World) and Singapore's best beaches, but many of the would-be-attractions are duds and the general trend of overpricing everything makes the island a tourist trap. However, the island is presently halfway through a multibillion construction program that will see Singapore's second casino and a Universal Studios themepark open in 2010.

The small southern islets of Kusu Island, St. John's Island, the Sisters Islands and Pulau Hantu are managed by Sentosa. Various plans to develop them have not come to much and they remain off the beaten track, but by no means undiscovered. The first two can be reached by public ferry, for the rest you will have to charter a boat.

How to get there

Sentosa can be reached from the Singapore mainland via a short causeway or Cable Car, which originates on Mount Faber and passes through HarbourFront en route.

The island is also accessible by the SGD$140 million Sentosa Express monorail, which has four stations on Sentosa. Opened in 15 January 2007, the terminus of the line is at the VivoCity shopping mall on the mainland, which is in turn served by the HarbourFront MRT Station of the North East MRT Line. The journey takes four minutes. The WaterFront Station of the monorail is expected to open in 2010.

Within Sentosa there are four bus services, identified as Blue, Yellow, Red and Green lines, and a tram service called the Beach Train. Since 1998, passenger cars have been allowed to enter the island.

Product

Every corner of Sentosa is inundated with gift shops filled with all the plush Merlion toys you will ever need (and then some).

• VivoCity, HarbourFront MRT. This giant complex on the mainland just next to the Sentosa bridge is Singapore's largest shopping mall, featuring anchor tenants like The Gap, two giant food courts and creative landscaping. There is a huge hypermarket featuring Singapore's largest organic supermarket. The Sentosa Express monorail station is integrated into the mall, and the Singapore Cruise Centre is connected to VivoCity via a bridge to the HarbourFront Centre, where there are also other shops as well.

Sentosa attractions

Sentosa has lots of self-proclaimed attractions, but many if not most are pathetic; for example, the "Enchanted Grove of Tembusu" consists of a couple of badly painted concrete totem poles. The following list is limited to those that somebody might actually find attractive. For all attractions below, a "child" is defined as being between three and twelve.

• Carlsberg Sky Tower, near Cable Car (blue/green bus). 9 AM-9 PM daily. Asia's tallest observation tower. It takes you up to a height of 131m above sealevel and offers a 360-degree view of Sentosa, Singapore and the Southern islands. On clear days the outlines of Malaysia and Indonesia can be seen. $10/7 adult/child.
  
  
• Dolphin Lagoon, Tanjong Beach (yellow/red bus). Has cute pink dolphins doing all the usual tricks (jumping through hoops, balancing balls, etc). Shared ticket with Underwater World.
  
  
• Fort Siloso, near Underwater World (all buses, then transfer to tram). 10 AM-6 PM. Formerly the largest British naval base in Fortress Singapore, its guns staring balefully out towards the sea in preparation for enemy attack. The Japanese rode bikes down the peninsula instead; after your visit here, be sure to visit the Battle Box at Fort Canning Hill to find out what happened next. Now turned into a museum, you can follow a tour through the area (complete with lots of wax figures) to find out what the life of a recruit was like. Nearly doubled in size in 2004. $8/5 adult/child.
  
  
• Images of Singapore, near Cable Car Station (green, blue bus). 9 AM-7 PM. A sugar-coated, kid-friendly retelling of the official Singapore story, where people of many races have come together to live in harmony. Renovated in 2006 and now uses the latest technology, but there is not all that much substance under the glitz. $10/7 adult/child.
  
  
• Sentosa Merlion (Monorail Imbiah). 10 AM-8 PM. A stretched-out 37-metre version of the statue by the Singapore River, which is lit up at night and shoots lasers from its eyes. Admission enables you to take the elevator up into its mouth and gaze out over the nearby Port of Singapore, as well as experience some seriously cheesy exhibits downstairs. $8/5 adult/child.
  
  
• Underwater World, near Siloso Beach (all buses). Claims to be Asia's largest tropical oceanarium, it features a walk-through aquarium with lots of sharks and fishes and many smaller tanks. $19.50/12.50 adult/child, includes admission to Dolphin Lagoon.

There are a few sights of minor interest on Kusu Island, reachable by ferry. The name means "Turtle Island" and there are indeed lots of reptiles scampering about, but don't expect an unspoiled tropical paradise: the island was thoroughly reworked with land reclamation in 1975 and looks exactly like the rest of Sentosa.

• Da Bogong (Tua Pekong) Temple, Kusu Island. An unassuming little Taoist temple dedicated to the Merchant God. During the yearly Kusu Festival (Oct-Nov), this is the focal of pilgrims coming to pray for prosperity.
  
  
• Keramat Kusu, Kusu Island. An unusual Muslim shrine (not a mosque) atop a small hill, dedicated to the saint Syed Abdul Rahman and his family, who lived here in the 19th century. The shrine is painted bright yellow and is visited by particularly by childless couples.