The Fullerton Hotel

There is no greater pleasure at the end of a long day of sightseeing than siting down in the bar of a grand hotel for a well made cocktail (or two). The Fullerton Hotel in Singapore is one such place. Following the closure of The Raffles Hotel for refurbishment until the middle of the year it is a good alternative place to go if you want to spend a little time in one of the city’s grand old buildings and it is a landmark on the Singapore waterfront.

The Fullerton did not actually become a hotel until 2001 but the building itself dates back to 1928. In the intervening time it has been home to various government departments, a General Post Office, the offices of the inland revenue and has even had a lighthouse on the roof.

Today cocktails are served in The Post Bar, once the area where you would buy stamps and carry out all other post office related business. There is even a red post box in the entrance. The area is spacious with an old charm that belies its modern transformation. There is even access to an outer terrace if you fancy relaxing with a drink in the warm evening air.

As for the cocktails, well I thoroughly enjoyed the Coconut El Presidente (rum, white vermouth, coconut juice, orange curaçao and grenadine). The good news is that during happy hour many cocktails are only 15SD. The extra good news is that happy hour is from 5pm until midnight on a Saturday. How good is that?

Singapore – the old and the new.

Singapore is a place of great contrast with new skyscrapers vying for space with old style colonial buildings. It makes for  a remarkable skyline, especially at night when the buildings become almost a city wide art installation.

Singapore River Skyline
Singapore River
Fullerton Building now Hotel

The Fullerton Hotel, (building opened in i928), is dwarfed by the financial buildings that make up the backdrop.

By Night

Singapore is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and is quite an amazing place. The tropical climate gives a temperature in the high twenties/low thirties but humidity is high and there is a rainy season between November and February but after the cold of a British winter I can put up with that.