What's a good 3-day itinerary for Singapore?

Start Day 1 at Gardens by the Bay at 8:30 AM, before the tour buses arrive. The Cloud Forest conservatory hits you with a wall of cool mist — a real relief when it's 32°C outside. Spend ninety minutes between the two domes (S$53 combined ticket, about US$41), then walk across the Dragonfly Bridge to Marina Bay Sands. The SkyPark observation deck costs S$26, and on a clear morning the view stretches past the container port to Indonesia. Lunch at Lau Pa Sat, the cast-iron hawker centre on Boon Tat Street — get the charcoal-grilled satay from stall 7 or 8 at S$1.20 per stick. Afternoon: National Gallery Singapore for the Southeast Asian collection in air-conditioned quiet. By 5 PM the heat breaks slightly — walk the Jubilee Bridge to the Merlion, then grab a seat for the free Spectra light show at 8 PM.

Day 2 strings three heritage districts together on the same MRT line, so you never backtrack. Start in Chinatown at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple by 9 AM — it's free, the interior smells of sandalwood incense, and the rooftop garden on the fourth floor is the part most people miss. Walk five minutes to Maxwell Food Centre for Tian Tian Hainanese chicken rice at stall 10, S$6 a plate. The queue is fifteen minutes on a weekday, thirty on weekends — worth it. Take the MRT one stop to Kampong Glam for Arab Street's textile shops and the golden-domed Sultan Mosque. Afternoon in Little India: Tekka Centre for a masala dosa lunch, then browse the spice shops along Buffalo Road. The whole route covers about seven kilometres on foot with three short MRT hops filling the gaps.

Day 3 starts slow at the Singapore Botanic Gardens — a UNESCO World Heritage Site with free entry. The National Orchid Garden inside costs S$5 and houses over a thousand species; go before 10 AM when the light filters through the canopy at its best. From there, MRT to HarbourFront and take the Sentosa Express (S$4) to the island. Skip the big-ticket Universal Studios unless you have kids — instead, walk the free Siloso Beach boardwalk and the Fort Siloso Skywalk, a treetop bridge eleven storeys above the jungle floor. Lunch at a beachfront hawker stall rather than the overpriced resort restaurants. Head back to the mainland by late afternoon and end the trip at Tiong Bahru, Singapore's oldest housing estate turned café district — Forty Thieves for coffee, then the wet market downstairs for a final bowl of chwee kueh before your flight.