What should I avoid in Singapore?

The Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel's Long Bar runs about S$37 now, and the drink itself tastes like cough syrup mixed with pineapple juice — the recipe has been sweetened over the decades to suit tour-group palates. The floor is covered in peanut shells. That's the gimmick. Take a photo of the facade, skip the cocktail, and walk ten minutes to Atlas Bar on Beach Road if you want a proper gin drink in a room that earns the price tag. Clarke Quay's riverside restaurants charge S$25-40 for pad thai and fish and chips that taste like airport food. The neon lighting looks nice at 9pm, but you're paying triple for the view. Cross the river to Boat Quay or, better still, grab a cab to Old Airport Road Food Centre where a plate of char kway teow runs S$5 and the uncle working the wok has been frying it for thirty years — the smoky wok hei hits you from three stalls away.

Sentosa gets sold as a full-day destination. It's not. Universal Studios Singapore is fine if you have kids, but the rides feel small compared to the Orlando or Osaka parks, and the S$82 adult ticket buys a lot of hawker meals elsewhere. The Trick Eye Museum, the wax museum, and the zip-line run S$25-45 each and deliver about twenty minutes of entertainment apiece. The beach on Sentosa's south side has imported sand, a faint whiff of diesel drifting from the shipping lanes just offshore, and water that's warm but murky. If you want a beach day, take the bumboat to Pulau Ubin instead — S$4 each way, with dirt trails winding through secondary forest and the kind of quiet you forget exists in Singapore. Worth noting: Haw Par Villa on the mainland is free and stranger than anything Sentosa charges for.

Changi Airport's MRT connection runs directly into the city. A taxi costs S$25-40 to most central hotels; the train costs about S$2.50 and takes 35 minutes with air conditioning that feels like a walk-in fridge after the jet bridge. Cab only if you land after midnight when the trains stop. Singapore's fine system is not a joke and not just a sign at the airport — jaywalking is S$50 on the spot, littering starts at S$300, and eating or drinking on the MRT is S$500. Chewing gum has been restricted since 1992; you can get therapeutic gum from a pharmacist with your ID, but regular gum gets confiscated at customs. These laws are enforced. The heat is the other thing nobody prepares you for properly. At 32°C with humidity above 60%, the real feel sits above 37°C by noon. Plan indoor time between 12pm and 3pm — the National Gallery, the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay, or frankly any mall will do. Trying to walk from Chinatown to Marina Bay Sands at 1pm will drain you faster than you expect.

Singapore has almost no street crime, but a few things still catch first-timers. Money changers at Changi offer noticeably worse rates than the ones at Mustafa Centre on Syed Alwi Road or the arcade inside People's Park Complex in Chinatown — the difference on S$500 can be S$15-20. Sim Lim Square, the electronics mall on Rochor Canal Road, has a long history of bait-and-switch pricing on cameras and phones; check the model and price on Lazada before you hand over cash. Skip the DUCKtours — those amphibious vehicles that waddle into the water at Marina Bay. S$45 for thirty minutes. The narration is a script you could read on your phone. Mind you, the Merlion itself is worth the five-minute walk from Raffles Place MRT for a photo — just don't let anyone steer you into a 'free' walking tour nearby that turns into a hard sell for river cruises or dinner packages.