Finding rest in the insanely fast-paced Singaporean lifestyle can be tough. With so many boutique hotels coming up and the throng of people veering towards them, it can be hard to find respite even during a staycation.
Despite being a stone’s throw away from the hustle of Orchard Road, the weekend I spent at Sheraton Towers Singapore felt as though I was on a private retreat. The hospitality here makes it even possible to bring the entire family for the weekend here for a perfect escape from the demands of the world.
From dining at the base of a waterfall to lounging right by the waters, here are the 10 ways that Sheraton Towers Singapore will make you think twice about choosing to book an island resort for your next vacation.
Cabanas are basically the hut-like structures along beaches that James Bond would nua in with a martini in hand. Now imagine those huts on steroids and transformed into a luxurious room. The Cabana Rooms are exactly that.
With the Cabana Rooms located on the pool level, we were greeted by the tranquil water and dozens of day beds whenever we leave the room for our activities. It also meant that we didn’t have to share an awkward lift ride with other hotel guests in our swim gear.
There is even an outdoor balcony that allows for an unobstructed view of the sunset. Just be sure not to be here too early in the evening, the sunlight can be a little harsh.
This set of mattress and bedding is worth $3,700!
I’ll admit it: As much as I love my bed at home, it’s as though there’s a “human magnet” stuck under the $3,700 beds in Sheraton’s rooms. The incredibly soft beds from Simmons were created specially for Sheraton’s guests. Waking up before noon for the day’s activities has never been this hard.
If you’re unwilling to brave the Singaporean heat and humidity, there’s no better way to spend your weekend than rolling around a fluffball of a bed with your favourite soundtrack on replay, tea by your table, and the ambient noise of the pool outside. La dolce vita.
With the pool right at our doorsteps, giving it a pass would be blasphemous. Being the only people at the pool on a Friday took TGIF up a notch. No need for fancy dinners or skipping out of the office at 3PM – just a poolside frolic right after a classy afternoon tea.
If you’re not planning to get wet at the pool, you’d not want to miss out chilling on the day beds with bae as the canopy shields you from the sun — the perfect ambience for some HTHT.
With the pool on a separate wing from the main building, your tanning efforts won’t be ruined by the shadows of adjacent buildings. An afternoon at the poolside was exactly what we needed to drown in those resort vibes.
From its regal exterior, you will not expect Sheraton Towers Singapore to have anything nature-related as a centrepiece. Upon walking through the doors of the hotel, we heard the sound of water gushing.
Dismissing it as some random water feature, we were astounded as we looked across the hotel’s main restaurant – The Dining Room – and realised that there was a man-made waterfall right outside the dining area. We sat right beside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows with the waterfall less than five steps away. This is one sight that we never got tired of.
Get real: It’s 2017. Move away from your plain backgrounds for your #ootd and add different aesthetics to your feed – VSCO can make virtually any background look white for your outfit shots. Your staycay’s going to be more memorable when you look back at it with the numerous spots you can have mini photoshoots here. Here are just some of the few photo spots we loved.
Perfect for an idyllic wedding solemnisation.
Just a skip away from The Dining Room, this little pavilion is where many wedding solemnisations take place. With the pitter-patter of the waterfall setting the mood amidst the lush greenery, it is no wonder that this little pavilion was awarded the Best Garden Solemnisation Venue by HerWorld Brides magazine.
The Grand Staircase is the second most stunning backdrop after the waterfall. It’s perfect for reliving your Beauty and the Beast fantasy, which we would have done if we were dressed appropriately.
We also went to the Towers Executive Lounge, where suite and speciality room guests have complimentary access and can enjoy evening cocktails and hors d’oeuvres served daily . Stepping in there felt as though we were living the high-life in Upper East Side with silkscreen blinds and marble decor.
Lunch at The Dining Room with the perfect backdrop.
Being a nitpicker when it comes to food other than my grandma’s cooking, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and diversity of food offered by the restaurants at Sheraton Towers Singapore.
While you have the option of heading down to Newton Circus with some of Singapore’s best hawker food just a quick 6 minute walk down the road, there are 3 top-tier dining establishments here: The Dining Room, Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant and Lobby Bar.
The Dining Room is the main restaurant of Sheraton Towers Singapore with all-day dining that includes buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner ,. The spread was beyond extensive — they offer everything from laksa and smoked salmon to foie gras.
We were especially wowed by the buffet lunch menu. The live stations consistently delivered succulent roast beef and buttery foie gras. There were cuisines from all over the world. On our first round, we got satay, three different types of keropok, melt-in-your-mouth cuts of sashimi, chilli crab, mantou, and a penne salad — all from only one of the two lines you can grab food from.
Equally impressive was the dessert spread. The variety is as diverse as the main buffet line’s – there’s dessert from almost all over the world brought together in one room. If there ever was a day when you craved both macarons and lapis sagu, you’d be lucky to find yourself here.
The item that we loved the most was Sheraton’s signature: the Crunchy Chocolate Praline Cake. A slice was all it needed to get us hooked. Rich in cocoa, the mousse was the first thing we noticed. The layer of sponge cake was so light and airy that it simply melted on our tongue, but the star of the cake was the layer of feuilletine at the bottom of the cake. The crackle at the end was a refreshing twist to the possible jelak-ness that we all know too well.
The Dining Room
International Buffet Breakfast: $44++ per pax
Continental Buffet Breakfast: $36++ per pax
Lunch Buffet: $52++ (adults), $26++ (children 6 to 12 years old) for weekdays and $55++ (adults), $27++ (children 6 to 12 years old) for weekends.
Dinner Buffet: $62++ (adults), $31++ (children 6 to 12 years old) daily
W.O.W Promotion: Ladies enjoy 50% off buffet dinner on Wednesdays. U.P. $72++ (adults), $36++ (children 6 to 12 years old).
Afternoon tea at the Lobby Bar is an unreplicable experience. Running by the same theme of pleasing the palette of an international crowd, Lobby Bar offers Japanese Afternoon Tea which presents itself in an array of mochi, daifuku and of course, sushi.
That aside, if you feel like sipping on Earl Grey tea and speaking posh Queen’s English, go for the three-tier English Afternoon Tea. Having tea in posh chairs and dim backdrops felt as though we travelled back to the time of noon tea dances.
Lobby Bar
English Afternoon Tea/Japanese Afternoon Tea: $36++ per pax on weekdays, $40++ per pax on weekends (2pm to 5pm).
If knowing that the tables at Li Bai are set with jade, silver and china doesn’t intrigue you, the fact that the Executive Chef Chung Yiu Ming once prepared a meal for the former vice-president of China should convince you of this award-winning restaurant’s pedigree.
Dining here wasn’t as intimidating as we thought it would be. The staff at Li Bai made sure that the experience was as homely as possible.
If you’ve got to have a little bit of spice as you chow down copious amounts of food like me, don’t be paiseh and ask for a dish of Li Bai’s homemade X.O. sauce. Made from shreds of whole Japanese scallops, the sauce was similar to nyonya sambal without the pungency of dried shrimps and accompanied by an added sweetness from the shellfish.
Here, breakfast doesn’t have to be all about queuing up and waiting for your turn at the egg counter. Other than The Dining Room, we had the option of having our omelettes and OJs in the privacy of the Towers Executive Lounge.
Even though the spread was similar to that of The Dining Room, the ambience was completely different. The Towers Executive Lounge exuded a polished quaintness while the roar and bustle of The Dining Room exemplified what a buffet breakfast should be like. You get to decide which atmosphere best fits the first meal of your day.
After gorging ourselves the entire day with the immense buffet spread, the gym is the place to be to prevent a trip down Orchard Road to buy a larger belt. Situated right beside the hotel’s spa and overlooking the pool, the gym is opened all day errday for gym-rats.
To impress the #fitspos in your life, you’ll be glad to know that there are fitness professionals manning the gym till 10pm to learn the right postures and exercises from. Quick tip: the later you work out in the day, the lesser people there will be and the less paiseh it is when you are huffing and puffing.
Upon checking into our room, we found ‘Handy’, a smartphone docked right beside the hotel’s landline. Granted, this will be more useful for tourists, but it also helped us to save our data by making sure that we immortalise our time online without depleting our data.
We could download every app that we needed and with its free unlimited data, we were sponging off every bit of its goodness looking at Instastories and YouTube.
Handy also automatically seeks out the best deals for the major attractions in town. We found tickets for Universal Studios Singapore at 20% off! You will always have something out there in town for you to do.
With Sheraton Towers Singapore located just 2 minutes from Newton MRT Interchange Station, it was a sign to start pretending to be tourists, trotting from one attraction to another. On foot, we were able to reach ION Orchard in 10 minutes and if we were to take the train, we would take 5 minutes to reach the Botanical Gardens.
It was convenient to the point that I was tempted to head out to Bugis, just a 6-minute train ride away, for supper and then catch the last train back to the hotel. Thanks, Downtown Line.
You don’t get to wake up to a chandelier every day.
There are only 18 Executive Suites in Sheraton Towers Singapore and they are all themed after famed cities in the world. We got Washington DC. With the chandelier as the statement piece in our suite, we felt as though we were business moguls living the high life.
Furthermore, being perched on the 20th floor of Sheraton Towers Singapore meant that we could literally be away from our hectic lives to take time out just to admire the skyline that we at times, take for granted.
Away from the daily grind of chiong-ing from place to place and meeting tight deadlines, Sheraton Towers Singapore brings respite to the busiest of people by offering a quiet retreat in its Cabana Rooms. Having gone through major refurbishments, the hotel offers a staycation where you can cast all your real world troubles the minute you step through its doors.
From the service staff that makes you go awww with their heartfelt gestures to the beachside vibes of the room, we were spoiled the entire weekend. And we loved every moment of it.
For the resort vibes and dining by a waterfall, this is all you need to do to win a 2D1N staycation in the Cabana Room, inclusive of buffet breakfast, access to Towers Executive Lounge, and other Sheraton Club benefits!
All you have to do is:
The contest ends on 21 April 2017. Good luck everyone!
* Redemption of the staycation is valid till 20 Oct 2017.
Check out the list of promotions they offer here!
Address: 39 Scotts Road, Singapore 228230
Price: Deluxe Rooms from $216 ++, Cabana Rooms from $376 ++, Executive Suite from $496 ++
Phone: 6737 6888
This post was brought to you by Sheraton Towers Singapore.
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