24 hours in Changi: what to do during a layover at Singapore airport?

The city-state's international airport is renowned for holding the top spot as one of the world's best airports according to Skytrax rankings, and has done so since at least 2000.

It even held this prestigious position without being dethroned for 8 years in a row from 2013 to 2020, before giving way the following year to Hamad Airport located in Qatar (which I also used to transit to France).

24 hours is a very long stopover, but it remains a possibility that could happen with bad timing in the choice of schedules and prices depending on your destination. In my case, this is the challenge that I had set for myself, by choice, and not by constraint.

Indeed, as part of my outings outside Thailand, in order to renew my stay in the land of smiles, I decided to go and test the reputation of this airport which is well established. The opportunity to test what can be done there to occupy oneself for a full day.

An atypical visit, in an equally atypical context, because to put it in time, it was the end of February 2020, when covid was starting to close the borders and empty the airports. So I didn't want to stay out of Thailand for long, to avoid getting stuck.

This is one of the reasons that led me to this choice, the other being economic, because in the idea, I did not want to sleep in a hotel but more or less stay up all night and spend a maximum of time exploring (spoiler alert, I still ended up taking a nap).

Arrival at Terminal 4

To understand the timing of my day, I will give times based on the blocks of activities that I was able to do. And to start, it is at 10:30 am I landed at Changi, ready to take up the challenge for his 24 hours, my flight the next day being at 10:55.

I arrived at the Terminal a little away from the others, Terminal 4. Even if I didn't stay there for long, the time to get off the plane and take a few photos in the terminal, It was already 11:30 when I decided to exit the terminal and actually begin my exploration.

Come on, let's go for 24 hours!

As soon as I arrived, I had to take a photo.

During this time, I walked around the terminal, noted that there was a luggage storage area if necessary, and noted that the directions for where to go are clear.

To get to Jewel, I took a bus provided, giving me the opportunity to discover the exterior of the airport, already very green.

Luggage storage, if ever.

And hop, a little bus ride.

Jewel, the all-purpose hub

This was my priority when I arrived. If the airport has 4 terminals (and soon a 5th, currently under construction), it also has a hub in its own right, next to Terminal 1, The Jewel. If we had to summarize what it contains, I would say that it is 50% a shopping mall and 50% a theme park.

Yes, because the latter has a whole floor with activities (paid, I'll come to that later), which offers something to keep you busy and to feast your eyes on. When I use this term, I want to remind you that we are then in an airport, but that the general feeling gives the impression of walking inside the country itself as the scenery and the nature that surrounds us is just abundant.

My first steps upon arriving at Jewel.

Head towards the center with the vortex.

Let's say that I'm extrapolating and abusing the superlative, but nonetheless, that's still the feeling I had at the time.

And the first thing I wanted to see was obviously its main attraction, the rain vortex at its center (HSBC Rain Vortex in English, because it is sponsored by the famous bank). In addition to the unusual aspect of having a massive waterfall inside the building, it turns out to be the highest indoor waterfall in the world.

And indeed, it's impressive, because in addition to this central 40 m waterfall, we are then surrounded by a whole forest arranged in a staircase. And the magic happens. We know we are indoors, but the sound of the water and the speakers broadcasting birdsong, the freshness and the greenery really give us the feeling of being somewhere in nature.

Welcome to the turf.

The whole thing has a futuristic aspect since we can see a bridge that crosses the dome, with the tram connecting the terminals running there. Tram that I took later for the fun of seeing what it gives as a view as it passes.

I already knew when I started photographing the place from every angle that I would definitely come back to hang around and stop there later. In the meantime, the time to wander around this invigorating room took me a good half hour before I decided to go upstairs, where the attractions of The Jewel are located.

Once at the top, I quickly get my bearings on where to go, notice a few restaurants with nice terraces that could be useful to me later. Immediately, I go to the counter to pay for the ticket allowing me to experience the attractions possible on this last floor of Jewel. Having time in front of me, I took a fairly complete package including 6 attractions (Bundle Package 2):

1. Canopy Park (Including Discovery Slides, Foggy Bowls, Petal Garden, Topiary Walk)

2. Canopy Bridge

3. Hedge Maze

4. Mirror Maze

5. Walking Net

6. Bouncing Net

Note that when taking your ticket, a schedule will be defined for you to access certain attractions (Bouncing Net, the net courses, in my case).

Canopy Park

Basically, the Canopy Park is 3/4 of the entire upper floor where I am, so without a ticket, you can basically only access the area with the restaurants. Because of the proximity, I started as an appetizer by sneaking into the Mirror Maze, understand labyrinth of mirrors.

One of the restaurants on the upper floor.

A ticket, please.

At the entrance, we are given a sort of foam chip that we can then use to find our way without eating an ice cream in the face. Without realizing it, I have a chaouïa struggle to find the exit, finding myself several times in the central area of ​​the labyrinth.

I also especially enjoyed seeing myself from all angles, including, and believe me it's weird, seeing myself from behind, because with the particular orientation of the mirrors, it's possible!

Where is the exit?

I stayed there for about 1 minutes before finally finding the exit and continuing my visit to the upper floor. For the rest, it was mainly floral decorations in the form of animals in particular (peacock, parrot, elephant, etc.), and an area also wooded and dotted with ponds.

I trip in front of the robot distributing bottles of water before continuing my walk. I pass in front of an area with a green carpet and refreshing water vapor filling the place intermittently. A perfect area to sit down for a while, which I did, while waiting another 1 minutes for it to be my time slot and access the suspended net course (Walking Net) by showing my ticket to the staff watching over the entrance.

The vending robot.

More and more forest.

This walk in the nets allows you to gain a little height to observe Jewel's heart and, by taking your time, certainly allows children (and big children) to have a little fun jumping, bounding, rolling (even if I'm not sure it's possible to do all that officially).

I was alone to do this circuit, which was quite enjoyable. There are narrow parts, and others, wider. Most of it is on the same level but there are also descents. As an anecdote, this attraction is the work of a French company! It is Chien Noir, based on the island of Groix, which is also at the origin of the concept of "Parcabout", these aerial parks composed of giant nets suspended in the trees.

Again, I spent about 15 minutes on the course before landing on the other side, in a flowery area.

Another view of Jewel's heart.

The view from the nets.

View of the canopy bridge I was heading towards next.

All I had to do was cross the "Canopy Bridge", a suspended glass bridge that offers another view of the central waterfall. The Bouncing Net is a net placed above the void (8 m below your feet), it allows, as its name suggests, to swing on it to feel light.

This attraction was not available on the day of my visit. The last attraction of my package, the Hedge Maze is a simple course through a small maze of bushes (so mainly aimed at children).

Flowery area.

Better not be afraid of heights.

Shopping and restaurants

It took me about 1h30 to go around the attractions included in my package. If you have the budget, there are other things to see. There is notably the Changi Experience Studio, which, according to the explanation on their website, is an attraction centered on the history and development of the airport. This is done via 20 different interactive touch points, spread over 10 content zones. A way to go behind the scenes at Changi and have fun playing games simulating the functions of the airport.

I was just passing by the Changi Experience Studio as my next step was to wander around the lower floors that make up The Jewel and form the shopping centre section. An opportunity to see the different shops that the building has to offer, and above all, a way for me to spot the restaurants available, because it was time to sit down and eat.

I smiled as I passed a Thai restaurant, but I also passed tapas, the classic Japanese restaurants and a bit of everything in fact. It remains a hub and you can find all styles of cuisine so I'm not worried about finding your rare gem.

After comparing prices and the dishes on offer, I finally set my sights on one of the restaurants I had spotted earlier on the upper floor.

Other terminals

Still following my timing, I started eating around 14 pm and I lingered at the table for a good two hours despite my simple dish. It was already 16 pm when I finally decided to move again. And the next step was to take a tour of the other terminals, just to see the atmosphere and architecture of the latter.

And I started with the biggest one, Terminal 3. I took a long corridor with a moving walkway. Inside, I walked around for a while, there is a large central area with souvenir shops, and something to eat upstairs. Before moving to Terminal 1, I took 2 minutes to go outside, just to.

The Jewel seen from Terminal 3.

Singapore Airlines stewardess class.

At least I would have stepped outside once.

In Terminal 1, I come across one of the works exhibited in the airport, “Kinetic Rain”. Kinetic Rain, or “Pluie Cinétique” in good French, is a moving sculpture, composed of 1 bronze droplets, symbolizing rain.

The whole thing moves in a graceful and slow wave. This work has been in the check-in hall of Terminal 1 at Changi Airport since 2012. And for the record, with its surface area of ​​75 square meters and a height of 7,3 meters, it is considered the largest kinetic sculpture in the world.

Kinetic rain.

Shortly after, I came across another "attraction", note the quotation mark, since I found myself seeing and tripping in front of... a billboard! I'm talking about those displaying schedules, destinations and flight numbers, and, in the digital age, it was deliberately chosen here to place an old-fashioned billboard.

By that I mean those famous panels with the kind of small rotating black panels which, when the information changes, start to wiggle to reveal the new message.

By staying in front for a while to immortalize moments of this old-time mechanism on video (knowing that the information doesn't change every minute either), I stayed there for almost half an hour!

Jewel at night, another atmosphere

I had been wandering around the terminals adjacent to Jewel for 2 hours when I decided to return to the latter. It was then 18 p.m. and in these latitudes, like in Thailand, night falls quite early. So I wanted to return to the “jungle” of Jewel to make the most of the sunset light.

I was not mistaken, because the sun's rays filtering through the bay window of the ceiling, combined with the humid ambient air from the waterfall give a beautiful side to the scene. I like the atmosphere all the more so that after having tested several points of view for photos of this moment, I decided to stay in the middle of this jungle to rest a little in the cool by landing at the foot of the waterfall.

And I stayed there reading my emails and the news for a good hour. In fact, the time to wait for the famous sound and light show that takes place at night at the Rain Vortex. Every day of the week, you can attend a mini show where the flowing water serves as a "screen" where shapes and colors are projected with epic music in the background that makes it all a little captivating.

I took a little height to watch this first version, which started at 19:30 p.m., then I decided to go and eat a bite upstairs at Canopy Park, because it was definitely time for dinner.

A little pizza and a beer later and it was already time for the 3rd show of the evening, the 2nd having taken place during my evening feast. I decided to go see it too, already from a different point of view, going downstairs this time, but also because I wanted to see if it would be different from the first (and the answer is yes!), well and also because basically I had nothing else to do.

I stayed downstairs waiting for the 4th show, which already brings us to 22:30 p.m. Note that apart from this little show of a few minutes, the waterfall is illuminated at night by colored projectors, varying over time, which is also the case for the trees surrounding the vortex. After the last show, the vortex stops and silence is felt, it's weird.

Atmosphere in the mall in the evening.

And there was silence.

Where to sleep at Changi Airport?

So I've been exploring and wandering around the airport for 12 hours now, half of the total time. I admit that at this point, I'm starting to wonder what I'm going to do the rest of the time.

Because of budget concerns, I didn't plan on sleeping, at least not in a lounge or dedicated place. And for that, there are some. You can sleep at Jewel even at Yotel Air if you feel like it, but then hello budget... Sure, the latter offers small, pretty rooms, a lounge with a view of the Vortex Rain, free coffee and tea and apparently cheap food, but the night costs at least €200!!

Entrance to the Yotel Air, seen early in the day.

As I was starting to feel tired (it was 23pm), I decided to opt for an intermediate solution, to take a package for a few hours in one of the airport lounges. Being present at Jewel and not being lazy to move elsewhere, I looked at my options and their cost especially and decided to go to the Changi Lounge.

When I came, there was a 3-hour package at $38 (SGD, or about €30), the next one being at $58 for 5 hours. I hesitated for a long time but remaining on my small budget objective, I stayed on the 3-hour option.

I was enjoying the quiet of the lounge (not that it's noisy outside) and especially the comfortable armchair in which I was sitting down to rest a little... By that I mean, take a nap that felt like a short night, because given the circumstances, I didn't expect to fall back asleep afterwards. Except that I was wrong...

Entrance to Changi Lounge.

Let's go for a good big nap.

The three hours flew by so quickly that I actually slept well (note that theoretically, lounges are not made for that, but hey, I had wedged myself into a corner out of sight of the hostess…) and, it is then 2am. The empty atmosphere of Jewel is then ghostly and sleep pushes me to continue taking a nap…

So I look for a quiet corner with seats that could do the trick and end up finding one, with another person already dozing at that moment. I think to myself, well, perfect. I put my backpack down as a "cushion" and here I am in turn returning to the arms of Morpheus. Before being woken up some 4 hours later, not because I was finishing my night, but by a guard...

The latter, as well as my neighbour who is always present, informs us that it is forbidden to sleep here... Given its overall rating on Skytrax, I would have thought this airport more tolerant and welcoming for that, even if I must point out that I am then in Jewel... However, I think that tolerance is more in order in one of the terminals...

My space for my 2nd part of the night, at Jewel.

And while I'm on the subject, note that if you stay in the transit halls, you will find dedicated and free rest areas (called "snooze lounge", snooze meaning "to take a nap"), with reclining seats available. You will find them here (at the time of writing this article, those of terminals 2 and 4 are closed with no announced reopening date...):

Terminal 1

• Snooze Lounge, Level 3, Departure Transit Hall East

Terminal 2

• Sanctuary Lounge, Departure Transit Hall North Pier (opposite Gate E5)
• Oasis Lounge, Departure Transit Hall North Pier (opposite Gate E11)

Terminal 3

• Snooze Lounge, Mezzanine, Departure Transit Hall North (near Singapore Food Street)

Terminal 4

• Snooze Lounge, Level 2M, Departure Transit Hall

Fortunately, between my 3 hours in the lounge and the 4 hours I had just spent, I considered my night to be over... It is 7am, activity is slowly starting to pick up again in the airport and the sun is rising.

All that remains is to reach my terminal 4 and check in, which took me another 45 minutes. It was almost 8am and I still had 2 hours to wait before boarding my flight home. And that concludes these 24 hours spent in this extraordinary airport.

And that concludes these 24 hours at Singapore airport!

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