For more details visit lastminute.com.au

$86 gets you first night accommodation at the Albert Court Village Hotel – a quality hotel located in Little India.  Little India is about 5-7 minutes to the city by Taxi.

Break up your trip and stopover in Singapore staying at a handpicked selection of hotels, which also include airport/hotel transfers and the SIA Boarding Pass Privileges program – giving you great discounts on shopping, food, sightseeing and attractions.

Valid for hotel stays 01 Apr’10 – 31 Mar’11. (Blackout dates apply: 23 – 26 Sep’10)

For more details visit Travel.com.au

Or fly to one of Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia or Indonesia for just $30 more!

To get these  specials book by 23 July, 2010 and these deals are valid for departures between 28 July and 31 October only.

To book or see more great Asia deals with Singapore Airlines visit Travel.com.au

Holiday Goddess Editors recommend taking the train to Orchard MRT for quick, cult European label shopping (don’t miss Zara) and fast sushi or noodles.

Sometimes life just needs to be simple. If you only have an hour in Singapore then don’t worry about maps, taxis or enormous itineraries. Hop on the train to Orchard on the easy-peasy Singapore MRT train system, and hop off for great shopping, fast Asian food, internet access and more.

As soon as you exit the train station you’ll find yourself in a typical Singapore mall, which in turn feeds a second mall. The best of British and American shopping is on offer here (from Borders to Marks & Spencer) along with truly convenient options, like quick sushi upstairs and a classic Asian noodle hall downstairs.

If you haven’t shopped at Zara before, then see why women from Madrid to London are addicted. These inexpensive, beautifully cut and sewn copies of catwalk looks are stacked from floor to ceiling. It’s hard to emerge without at least a belt, and you may come out with an entire wardrobe.

Orchard MRT fronts Orchard Road which is a whole day’s shopping experience. So don’t go there. Just switch from mall to mall, then hop back on the train. You’ll feel like you’ve done Singapore without doing a single thing. Promise.

Faith Bleasdale survived London-Singapore flights for years. In economy. This is how she did it…

When I lived in Singapore it felt as if I spent most of my time on a plane. The eleven hour flight between the UK and Singapore became my second home. Travelling in economy class is a grim ordeal that I think would perhaps rehabilitate prisoners; I had to develop my own way of surviving. Most people are flying to go on holidays, which means that they are more forgiving of the flight but still, I thought I would share with you my tips for making it as painless as is possible!

When I started my carry on bag was full to the brim of things I thought I would need, by my last flight I had mastered it as much as I ever would, being the sort of person who is always a tad over-prepared. My first tip is to organise your handbag, making sure that everything is easily accessible. When you are first squeezed into your seat and everyone is trying to board the plane getting your essentials to hand is a skill that needs practice.

But first to what to take?

Posh always looks amazing when she steps off the plane, although she obviously doesn’t go ‘cattle class’. However I would always travel in jeans and take a pair of yoga trousers and a long sleeved T-shirt with me to change into, along with my favourite woollen socks. I didn’t feel great stepping off the plane in what looked like my pyjamas, and although the airplane loos aren’t exactly great changing rooms, they are just about manageable. Also take a big scarf or pashmina with you to cosy up in.

Sleeping on the plane isn’t always easy but if you want to rest your eyes, which will help with the looking good at the other end, take a good quality sleep mask and invest in a pair of earplugs.

Planes dehydrate, especially if you indulge in some of the free wine they serve (which I always do), so drink plenty of water. It’s simple but crucial both to avoid water retention and to help your skin. In addition it’s important to carry the right products. Due to recent events you are allowed to take 100ml bottles, which is the perfect excuse to try to blag sample sizes of your favourite products. Take a good facial moisturiser, and apply it frequently, as well as a soothing eye cream, and a lip balm. Deodorant is obviously essential and I always pack some baby wipes which are just really useful for a whole multitude of things! Then, before landing you can reapply your make-up, get changed and you will look ready to face the paparazzi!

Got something to add? Post your best long-haul flight survival tips to Holiday Goddess on Facebook.

Faith Bleasdale goes in search of the perfect Singapore Sling

cc. Flickr.com / Chang'r

There are two things stand out about Singapore – the shopping and the cocktails. Shopping is a national pasttime and for such a small place, the amount of malls is quite astounding. But I want to focus on the aprés shopping – the cocktail hour (or two).

Singapore is famous for its Singapore Sling, and when visiting there is only one place to go to sample this – The Long bar at Raffles hotel – Walking into the hotel is like stepping back into colonial times, and you might feel slightly underdressed even in an evening gown. The far more casual Long Bar itself is strangely pub-like, and as they give you free monkey nuts, the shells also decorate the floor (warning to anyone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, it is rather messy)! The cocktail itself I found overly sweet but I think it would be churlish not to try it…

Highly recommended is the New Asia Bar at Swiss Hotel at The Stamford. Not for those with vertigo, it’s on the seventy-first floor, with amazing views of the city, and a pretty extensive cocktail list. Its decor is modern, and sleek, and they offer Sundowners (half price wine, champagne and cocktails) from 3pm until 9pm daily. Genius. However, it’s normally pretty busy and service can be slow. You have been warned.

My hands-down favourite place is the Martini Bar at Mezza 9, in Singapore’s Grand Hyatt. This glass-encased bar has the best martini list in the whole of Singapore (and to be honest anywhere else I’ve been). Fabulous bar, great central location, friendly service, it really is the perfect place for the perfect cocktail. My recommendation is the watermelon martini, which is mouth-wateringly good. As in many Singapore bars they often crank the air-conditioning up quite high, remember you can ask for a wrap and a pashmina will be provided.

Photo Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chang-er/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Louise Hawson uncovers the flip-side of this conventional island.

Tell anyone you’re going to Singapore and they’re likely to exclaim, “Why, it’s so boring!” It’s considered by many to be useful for  long-haul stopover, but you wouldn’t go there otherwise.

Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple © Louise Hawson

Or would you? I recently spent a weekend in the sunny island state expecting to find nothing of interest except what lay between the pages of a good book by the hotel pool. How wrong I was.

The old kampongs I remember peering at through bushes when I lived in Singapore as a kid are long gone. But what I did find kept me so busy I never once opened the book or made it to the pool.

My top five tips:

1. Little India and its Hindu Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, for a blast of colour and “just-like-being-in-India” feeling.

2. Kampong Glam, the Muslim corner of Singapore. Head down Bussorah Street for a cooling drink at one of the cafes and a great view of the golden domed Sultan Mosque.

3. Chinatown and its pretty multi-coloured shop houses.

4. The Peranakan Museum for an insight into the fascinating Baba Chinese culture, a mix of Chinese and Malay with influences from Dutch, Portuguese and Thai.

5. Brunch at the Bukit Timah Saddle Club, a popular retreat in lush, green countryside.

Chinatown © Louise Hawson

I am into my 19th hour of a 21 hour-long stint in transit at Singapore’s Changi Airport.

Maybe it’s the recycled air being pumped into every cranny of my cellular structure or the bizarre sense of time suspended – a symptom of the relentless artificial light and 24-hour services that have done away with the concept of night and day – but I am feeling strangely contemplative.

Periods of time waiting in the limbo of transit for connecting flights are an inevitable by-product of travel and are usually regarded in the negative. I’m not sure though. Transit has a bad rap and I’d like to offer another perspective because – and I’ve had a long time to think about this – I’ve concluded that the powerlessness of lengthy, incommunicado stretches in transit bring an intoxicating freedom. I am in global limbo. Officially I’m not actually in Singapore. Yet I am. Officially, legally, I am apparently not anywhere at all. So, if I fall over in a forest will I make a sound?

Ah dear Reader, my apologies – I did warn you that my mood was an introspective one. Kindly humour the philosophic ramblings triggered by hours of aimless wandering through thick-carpeted, climate-controlled lushness interspersed with frequent spells in one of the airport’s public houses. A venue called Harry’s, which boasts live jazz in the evenings, a smoking room and non-stop sport on Plasma TV screens above the bar.

Admittedly, I am sitting in Harry’s right now. I’ve settled in at one of the establishment’s small glass tables, my only companions are a silver dish of no doubt well-fingered peanuts and a rum and diet coke. It may only be noon in Singapore but I’m still on New Zealand time where it’s 6pm.

Perhaps the rum has as much to do with my mood as the recycled air (if we’re being truthful with each other, my valued Reader, I owe it to you to admit that I’m onto my third) but I feel like one of those people who report near-death experiences.

They are, apparently, between worlds for some moments – neither here nor there. There are similarities with the lot of the in-transit traveler. Although, if the limbo land between here and the after-life is anything like Changi Airport, it will be filled with happy souls asking for “just another half hour on the foot massager” before they have to return to their bodies on the operating table. Because, say what you like about the Singaporeans and, sure, they may be questionably hardline re chewing gum offences but nobody does transit like they do.

During the last 20 hours, I have taken advantage of the many free services on offer. I have spent a whole hour having my feet and calves vigorously massaged in one of the many massage chairs, called USqueeze, that are dotted around Changi’s three terminals – an area so vast, I might add, that even in 20 hours I haven’t covered more than a third of it.

Other facilities on offer at Changi include free internet access, video gaming and movies at a proper cinema as well as massage and reflexology therapists, a gym and swimming pool, hairdressing and beauty salons, as well as endless opportunities to shop, drink and eat. This place has prayer rooms, family rooms, tranquil garden areas with koi-filled ponds and an art area where you can make your own woodblock print of Singaporean icons.

In transit travelers at Singapore’s Changi Airport can get in a few laps between flights…  so remember to keep your swimming trunks in your carry-on baggage. (Source: Changi Airport)

If you’re feeling grubby, you can have a shower for S$8. If you’re knotted up, a massage costs from S$23 to S$38. If you need to sleep, a six-hour stint in one of the Ambassador Transit hotels starts from around S$58.65 for single occupancy (S$65.91 for a couple). There’s even oxygen therapy. Twenty minutes spent breathing 98 per cent pure oxygen infused with lavender essential oil will cost you S$23.

Ah yes, there’s worse way to kill time in transit. Next time you’re held over at Singapore’s Changi Airport treat yourself where there’s everything from aromatherapy to reflexology. (Source: Changi Airport)

Me, I’ve spent a lot of time taking advantage of the many public computers with free internet connection and watching television in the Hi-D lounge. Changi is the world’s first airport to feature a full HD-themed entertainment lounge, it showcases the latest state-of-the-art interactive entertainment technology available in the world. Even for someone like me who’s never once curled her fingers around the phallic joystick of a Playstation box, it’s impressive. This is the home of the world’s largest HD Plasma screen. How big is it? A whopping 103 inches.

Big telvision sets and free movies are all very well but it would be a woman of steely resolve who could spend 21 hours in Changi Airport without shopping. This is Singapore after all. Hundreds of duty-free shops spreading as far as the eye can see. All the gorgeous designer fabulousness a girl could wish for. This is a golden opportunity to lather, splash, spray and rub all the lotions and potions most ordinary humans can’t normally afford. For me, this means a La Prairie orgy. The only limiting factor is how much surface skin I have on which to apply the horrifically-priced concoctions.

Take for example (and I did) La Prairie eye gel at S$205 for a jar not much bigger than a matchbox. My beauty editor friends tell me eye creams should be applied in rice-kernel sized amounts but clearly such advice doesn’t count when faced with a tester pot and, since arriving in transit, the skin around my peepers has been slathered every few hours with the equivalent of a plateful of biriyani. If the advertising spiel is to be believed, I’ll have the youthful skin of a 12-year-old by the time I get home.

I’m getting signs though that my time here is almost up. Strange, disembodied voices are calling me, urging me to walk towards the light.

“Calling all passengers on Singapore Airlines flight 483 bound for Dubai, your plane is now boarding. Please make your way to gate 52.”

See you on the other side.