It’s the Easter weekend of 2014, and this is probably one of the only long weekend since we got here to Singapore where we are not flying off to some nearby countries for a holiday. After all Wai Kuan is now 26 weeks (~6.5 months) pregnant, and flying is probably not what she wants nor advisable by her doctor. So, we decided to take a ‘staycation’ not far from where we live (about 8km away by car) at the Sentosa Island.
So what is a ‘staycation’? It’s a concept that I only learnt in Singapore, and after this trip, I must say I am all for it! According to online dictionary, it is defined as:
“a holiday spent in one’s home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions”
Does staying at W Singapore @ Sentosa Island for 2 nights count? It’s definitely in Singapore where I am staying at the moment. But it’s not a day trip or time spent at home. Having said that, we could literally see a bit of the resort from our apartment. Does that still count as a ‘staycation’?
The money saved by not flying, instead went towards a so-called ‘fabulous room‘ at the 5-star W Singapore hotel. Is it really that ‘fabulous’? I’ll let you decide:
It certainly had a nice view from the rather spacious balcony:
Apart from that.. I would describe the hotel as rather ‘pretty’ with plenty of fancy decors, which means expensive art pieces hanging on the walls, gorgeous chandeliers lit up the hallways, and lots of seats that look like they popped out a UFO by accident..
Did we do much during our 2 nights stay? Hmm.. We’ve been to Sentosa Islands many times, so we weren’t all that interested in exploring the island itself. However, W Singapore is located towards the eastern end of the island, where it’s fairly quiet and fairly exclusive spot that usual tourists to the island would not normally venture to. We were introduced to Quayside Isle, where there are a row of restaurants, and an atmosphere very similar to Docklands in Melbourne.
It’s right next to a marina full of very very expensive boats. Not that I will ever own one of those, so we moved on to what we can afford and of interest to us right now.. and that’s food! As you can imagine, we definitely didn’t hesitate trying out the food on offer there…
The variety of restaurants here are fantastic! For a minute, this ‘staycation’ felt every bit like a fancy overseas trip! Of course, if we had the time, we would have liked to try a few more of the restaurants on offer here. We didn’t get to try any of the coffee/breakfast, given that the hotel included buffet breakfast. Nevertheless, the breakfast on offer at W Singapore was definitely one of the better ones on offer in any hotel in Singapore.
Problem with buffet.. was that we generally stuffed ourselves to the point, where we no longer have any room for lunch. Instead.. lunch hours were spent shopping for baby clothes at Vivo City!
Apart from eating though… we spent quite a bit of time in the room itself. After all.. it was not a cheap room! At one point, we were bored enough to just mess around with the little mustache on the mirror near the entrance door:
And of course, now that we’re expecting a third member of the family soon.. we had to take a family portrait with ‘Maxi’ (temporary name of baby before we work out his real name)..
And why wouldn’t you laze around, when the stereo sound out of the TV comes from a set of Bose speakers?
Once we were done lazying around the room, the next best feature of the hotel would have to be the pool! It was big… really big.. with a very pretty looking pool bar as well…
The pool itself is also open 24 hours a day.. so we couldn’t resist but came back for more..
Yes.. the pool was good enough such that we spent a good few hours by and in it. There is also a nice spa, which I don’t have photos to show for. That’s probably because it’s not all that great. Besides, the staff was quick to point out to Wai Kuan that she’s pregnant and use of the spa is not recommended.
All in all.. we were both happy with the staycation. It certainly ‘soothed’ and relaxed me, after a hectic week of work last week. Is it the kind of holiday I normally would plan? Absolutely no. Would there be more holidays like this in the future? Probably yes..
