We booked our trip to Singapore a solid eight months in advance, which meant we had quite a bit of time to research the perfect hotel for our stay. We considered a whole bunch of hotels before settling on the perfect family hotel room in Singapore: the Pan Pacific Singapore.
Before I get into the details of our amazing stay, let me talk a bit about what we were looking for in a hotel and why we decided to stay at the Pan Pacific.
Check out this vlog of our first day in Singapore for a full walkthrough of our hotel room at the Pan Pacific Singapore.
WHAT WE LOOK FOR IN A HOTEL WHILE TRAVELING WITH KIDS
Generally, when we go on vacations Joseph and I prefer to have our own private space. I love family travel but I also think that it's important for mom and dad to get to be alone together and have quality time as a couple at night. To accommodate our need for personal space, we tend to have to bump up our lodging budget quite a bit.
We try to find hotels that offer at least a one bedroom suite. Typically the living area will also have a pull out couch, which is perfect for Alexis. Then we either bring along a pack and play for Reeves or use a hotel crib. That's exactly what we did on our trip to Great Wolf Lodge Williamsburg. If it is more economical, we sometimes purchase two rooms, like we are doing for our cruise to the Bahamas in the fall.
I usually don't have any problem finding hotel
s that can accommodate our preferences at a reasonable price. And then we decided to go to Singapore.
FINDING THE PERFECT FAMILY HOTEL ROOM IN SINGAPORE
If you haven't heard (because I hadn't before I bought our tickets on a whim), Singapore is an incredibly expensive city–especially when it comes to lodging. Basic hotel rooms were easily $200 a night. Many of them were quite small and a good number only slept two people.
Having traveled almost entirely in the U.S. up to this point, I was pretty shocked. I assumed that double queen beds were the basic hotel standard. But many of the hotels in Singapore had standard rooms with a maximum occupancy of 2-3 people, which was a no go for our family of four.
We also wanted our hotel to be in the city itself with easy access to the MRT, Singapore's public transportation system. That ruled out all of the hotels on Sentosa Island, which tend to cater specifically to families. It also ruled out the more economical hotels outside of the city.
Then I stumbled across the Pan Pacific Singapore Hotel.
A HOTEL THAT LOOKS EVEN BETTER IN PERSON
You know how sometimes you see pictures of a place and think that there's no way that your actual experience is going to look exactly like that? That's kind of how I felt about the Pan Pacific. The pictures of the deluxe city view room made the place seem massive, which was surprising considering how small the other hotel rooms we considered were.
Well the pictures didn't do it justice. The room was even bigger than it seemed in the pictures. The main living space included a large dining table with chairs, a mini-fridge and coffee bar area, and a couch with a pull out bed. Oh, and did I mention that there was a half bath? No fighting over the sole toilet in the room!
The master bedroom area was similarly massive with a king sized-bed and a large walk-in closet, complete with a sit-down mirrored vanity. The mattress was so comfortable and the linens were crisp and luxurious. Our room had layers of lighting: general overhead fixtures, rope lighting around the tray ceiling, more rope lighting around the bed, lights over by the closet area, and lamps on each side of the bed–all of which was control via a single remote.
Both living spaces had a full wall of glass facing the gorgeous pool area down below. And the motor-operated shades had both a blackout option and a privacy curtain that still let it plenty of light.
The main bathroom was clean and well-appointed with a separate soaking tub, a glass-walled shower, and a bidet. I couldn't quite get on board with the bidet but Alexis and Joseph were ecstatic after trying them the day before during our seven hour layover in Japan.
The room was amazing. We all instantly felt at home and at peace which is really all you can ask for when you are staying in a space that isn't home. But there were a lot of other wonderful things about this hotel aside from the accommodations.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED ALL UNDER ONE ROOF
If there's something parents traveling with kids can appreciate, it's convenience. So first off, there's the pool. It was huge and never too crowded with plenty of lounge chairs available whenever we looked out (not that we really got a chance to go to the pool). The hotel also has a spa onsite and a fitness center. Again, neither of which we used thanks to our packed itinerary.
The Pan Pacific Singapore has five restaurants right on site, including the award-winning Edge restaurant. It also has a delicious room service menu available 24 hours a day, which I got to sample at 3am thanks to being up with a jet-lagged baby.
The hotel staff was incredibly friendly and accommodating, even with a toddler running through the lobby in the wee hours of the morning. Which, by the way, was also how I discovered that there was a pretty swanky night club right next door. I couldn't hear a thing, but I could see nicely-dressed people coming and going from a line of cabs so I asked the front desk about it.
And if all of that wasn't enough, the hotel is actually attached to a massive mall. Millennia Mall is huge and has a phenomenal food court that we took advantage of for dinner on a few nights. And best of all, it was home to a popular restaurant known for its traditional Singaporean breakfast: kaya toast and coffee. Every morning we'd wake up, head over to Ya Kun Kaya Toast and order several “sets” of kaya toast and coffee in addition to a honey lemon tea for me and a few hard boiled eggs. All for less than $10!
NEARBY ATTRACTIONS, SIGHTS, AND FOOD
One of the main things that attracted us to the Pan Pacific Singapore (aside from its beautiful and spacious rooms) was its proximity to many of the attractions on our list. It was in walking distance of the Singapore Flyer, Singapore's epic waterfront ferris wheel, the Marina Bay Sands and Skypark, and the Gardens by the Bay.
Plus there was an MRT station right at the corner, which makes it really easy to get around the city from the hotel. Although we ended up cabbing around the whole time so we could see as many sights as possible on our all-too short stay, the MRT is a great (and economical) option if you have a leisurely vacation planned.
The Pan Pacific Singapore Hotel was the perfect hotel for our family's vacation to Singapore with kids. We'd stay there again in a heartbeat!
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