Singapore offers a lot of choice when it comes to accommodation. Being a modern city with a lot of skyscrapers, hotels are the main type of accommodation. There are a range of hotels to choose from depending on your budget, area of Singapore to stay in, and amenities.
There are a lot of accessible accommodation options in Singapore. In fact, Singapore laws mandate that hotels have at least one accessible room per 200 rooms. Many hotel websites unfortunately don’t have detailed information about their accessible rooms, so expect to take some time doing your research when booking accessible hotels.
Read on to find the best areas to stay and my review of the Voco Orchard Hotel.
Which area of Singapore to stay in?
When it comes to places to stay in Singapore, there are a lot of areas to choose from.
Orchard Road
This is the central shopping district. If you like shopping, this is the place for you, there are tons of skyscraper and underground shopping centres along Orchard Road.
In the shopping centres, you will find restaurants, food halls, and along the street you will find some fast-food options such as Starbucks. There are also convenience stores along the street. In my experience, the more expensive designer stores were at street level of the shopping centres. Head underground for some cheaper options.
This area is very close to the MRT, giving you easy access to other areas of Singapore. Hotels in this area are mostly mid-range to luxury in terms of budget.
Sentosa Island
This island is for the resort lovers. Here, you will find Universal Studios and other family friendly activities. There are several beaches, with water sport activities on the island. Hotels on this island are mostly on the pricier side (e.g., Sofitel) although there are some cheaper family friendly options available as well.
Sentosa is a little further out from the city but is well-connected to the public transport system with connections to the MRT.
Marina Bay
If you want picture postcard Marina Bay waterfront views from your hotel, this is the place for you. Here, you can either stay in the famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel or stay at a nearby hotel with views of the Marina Bay Sands.
However, the amazing views do come with a price tag, with hotels in this area being some of the most expensive. This area is a great place to stay if you want to be within walking distance of the main attractions and waterfront restaurants. There are also several MRT stations around the bay, giving you convenient access to other areas of Singapore.
Clark Quay
This area overlooks the Singapore River and is the place to stay if you are looking for nightlife. This area is home to some great restaurants and bars, and nearby Fort Canning and other nice parks.
Here, you can get some nice views from your hotel of the river. Accommodation ranges from budget through to luxury in this area.
Some hotels can be a little bit further from the MRT, so may require a little bit of a walk (10-20 minutes) to get to a station.
Chinatown and Little India
These are separate areas of Singapore but similar in terms of accommodation options. Here, you will often find some more boutique, budget, and midrange hotel options.
Both Chinatown and Little India are close to MRT stations, so convenient for accessing other areas. Both areas have amazing Hawker Centres for authentic Singaporean food. These areas also provide more of a cultural experience, with great street food, markets, and temples.
Airport
There are several hotels in the airport area, including the Crowne Plaza hotel, which is located inside the airport terminal. The airport hotels are perfect if you are having a short stopover.
The airport is itself a tourist attraction, so you can spend several hours checking out the “Jewel” indoor waterfall, airport butterfly garden, movie theatre, day spa, shopping, and other attractions.
If you do want to venture into the city or other areas of Singapore, there is an MRT station in the terminal that connects you to the city and under 30 minutes.
We have decided to stay at the airport hotel on our next Singapore trip for its convenience. Since we are only sleeping at the hotel, staying at the airport will save us transporting our huge amount of luggage to a hotel and arranging transfers. Instead, we plan on catching the MRT to the city. It also means it will be quick and easy for us to get to check-in.
Finding accessible accommodation in Singapore
If you search for Singapore accommodation in Google, you’ll find over 1000 hotels or apartments to choose from. While we generally prefer 2-3 bed apartments or entire houses for the 4 of us to share, Singapore accommodation is mostly hotels or small apartments.
There are a range of budget, midrange, and luxury accommodation options. Overall, we found Singapore to be on the pricier side for accommodation. There was a lot of variation in the size of accessible rooms, depending on the price of the hotel. Most hotels I looked at had a pool, air conditioning, restaurants, and were close to public transport.
Just like searching for accessible accommodation anywhere in the world, researching Singapore accommodation was time-consuming. Very few hotel websites provide information about accessible rooms, so expect to do some digging.
I found the generic Google, booking.com, and similar sites to be a good starting point to narrow down hotels by travel dates, area, price range, and other features you may want (e.g., A pool and air-conditioning were a must have for mum with the heat in Singapore).
When you do the search, make sure you switch on the search filters for accessibility options. In Google, the accessibility filter is quite broad, but generic booking sites have some more specific filters for things like twin beds, roll-in showers, et cetera.
I found the IHG Hotel group to be the best in terms of providing accessibility information on websites, with details about room accessibility features. These even allowed you to book the accessible rooms online. It’s worth joining up as a member as well for the member discounts on room bookings.
Other hotel chains’ websites were less easy to navigate. Some mentioned accessible rooms, but you had to contact the hotel directly to book or to find out details.
Hotel review: Voco Orchard, Singapore
We stayed at the Voco Orchard hotel, a mid-range IHG brand hotel on Orchard Road.
The online booking system was super easy – we were able to book an accessible room directly from the website, without needing to contact the hotel. What I loved about this hotel was that several days before our stay, we received an email confirming our accessibility requirements and arrival time.
This hotel had a great location, with the MRT station less than 500 m away. There are a couple of convenience stores next door as well as a few fast-food outlets (Starbucks and Shake Shack) close by. There are also several high-rise and underground shopping centres with food courts and restaurants surrounding the hotel.
The hotel has a driveway/entry off the main road, with room to unload luggage and the wheelchair from the vehicle. There is a small ramp onto the curb, and then a steeper ramp up into the main reception area, with automatic doors at the entrance.
The reception area has some comfortable seating, a patisserie with some enticing cakes, and a mid-price restaurant, as you head towards the elevators. The elevators were reasonable in size, fitting my wheelchair, and the 4 of us easily. We had a twin accessible room for my carer and I, and premium king room next door for my parents.
The accessible room was 37 m² which is on the larger side of hotel rooms. The beds were on the soft side and very comfortable. We did need to use our bed lifters underneath the bed to get the Hoyer lift under the bed.
Typical of many hotel rooms, the room was over furnished, with a large desk and several seats cluttering the room. To give me enough room to manoeuvre my wheelchair and the Hoyer lift around the beds, we pushed the beds across the room a bit and stacked the furniture in a corner. The rest of our luggage was stored in my parents’ room.
The bathroom was quite roomy. We had a roll-in shower with shower hose that fitted my shower commode easily. The bathroom also had a toilet with grab rails and vanity.
Our room was on the 7th floor. We had a nice view of Orchard Road Street, looking across to another building. Given that accessible rooms often have no views (or views of the bin, car park, or brick wall), this was quite nice. The room was quiet with no road noise.
The hotel has a rooftop pool, which you can access via the elevator followed by a small ramp to the rooftop. The door to the rooftop is not automatic and has a code, so I had to have someone let me in and out. There is a restaurant at this entrance which looks out to the pool area.
The rooftop has a lovely view of the city skyline. Manoeuvring close to the walls, I was able to see across to nearby buildings that had greenery growing out of the side of them. There is plenty of pavement to park your wheelchair beside the pool. The pool does not have a pool hoist or ramp for accessibility access.
Next to the pool area, there are some poolside banana lounges at pool level, but no shade for a wheelchair to sit in other than the shade of the building at certain times of the day. There are some raised undercover areas with tables and chairs, but these were up several steps and inaccessible for the wheelchair.
As a “cold frog” a.k.a. person who doesn’t cope well with cold temperatures, I found the hotel air-conditioning to be very cool. For that reason, I spent a lot of time on the rooftop basking in the warm sunshine.
Ratings (Voco Orchard hotel)
Overall, we found the rooms to be clean, comfortable, and meeting our accessibility requirements. The staff were friendly, welcoming, and helpful. For the ease of online booking, comfort of the rooms, friendly service, and location, I would highly recommend this as accessible accommodation.
Wow factor: 3/5 Comfortable, great service, and excellent location.
Barrier free barometer: 4/5 Mostly accessible. Less clutter, accessible pool facilities, and space under the beds would improve rating.
Want more?
For more information on accessible accommodation in Singapore, check out the accessible Singapore website.
You can also check out my other posts on accessible Singapore:
How to See Singapore in a Wheelchair
Getting around Singapore in a Wheelchair
Gardens by the Bay In a Wheelchair
Disclaimer
All opinions expressed in this blog are my own and all reviews are non-solicited. I understand that every disability is different, and what works for me may not work for everyone – it’s important to do your own research on any destination or accommodation to make sure that it meets your accessibility requirements.