Singapore, the diamond shaped island known as Asia's 'Garden City', famous for its orchids and blossoming trees lining the boulevards, lush gardens and city parks, is a colourful city. Tough on crime and mad about cleanliness, Singapore can be explored worry-free.

Singapore is one of Southeast Asia's most accessible destinations, its downtown areas packed with towering skyscrapers and shopping malls, while new towns border the centre, with their own separate communities and well-planned facilities. Visitors prepared to look beneath the state's squeaky-clean surface will discover a plethora of age-old buildings, values and traditions that have survived in the face of considerable social and geographical change.

Forming the centre of downtown Singapore is the Colonial District around whose public buildings and lofty cathedral the island's British residents used to promenade. Each surrounding area has its own separate flavour, from the aromatic spice stores of Little India, to the ramshackle backstreets of it’s Chinatown, where it's possible to find fortune tellers and calligraphers. The well-known Arab Quarter, whose stores sell fine cloths and silks. Heading north of the city, visitors will find Singapore’s two nature reserves - Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Central Catchment Area - and the Singapore Zoological Gardens. In addition, over fifty islands and islets lie within Singaporean waters, all of which can be reached with varying degrees of ease. The most popular day-trips are to Sentosa, the island amusement arcade which is linked to the south coast by a short causeway, and to Pulau Ubin, off the east coast.