A Room With a View at Marina Mandarin Singapore

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Nestled in the heart of Singapore’s city centre is the Marina Mandarin Singapore, a 575-guestroom hotel. The hotel’s star appeal is its stellar location, which provides immediate access to the Marina Square Shopping Mall, the adjoining Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre, and a host of other malls within the City Hall area. Its position also means it is a stone’s throw from the central business district and attractions such as the Singapore Flyer, Gardens by the Bay and the Esplanade, making it suitable for both the leisure and business traveller.

The hotel also offers an excellent view of the Marina Bay from some of its “Marina Bay View” rooms, as I found out during a recent staycation in a Premier room. Beautiful on a clear day, the skyline looks even more spectacular at night when the lights come on. This has made this hotel a draw particularly during the annual Singapore Grand Prix Formula One night race in September, for it lies on the very side of the track. The hotel’s interior also provides its own special vista, with one of the highest atriums in the region that rises through all 21 storeys.

Day view from my room’s balcony – can you see some Supertrees at Gardens by the Bay?

Night view from the balcony – see if you can spy part of the Esplanade.

View from my floor down into the Atrium

Check-in

My Premier room came with an attached balcony and spacious work desk for me to get some writing done. Wifi access, which comes complimentary in all rooms, is fuss-free and fast. There is also a “Handy” smartphone, which you can carry out of the hotel and use for free access to 4G data, free local and international calls to selected countries, online city guides and ticket bookings to local attractions. The room also has ironing facilities, a safe, mini-bar, large television screen and both shower and bathtub in the washroom.

The Handy is particularly useful for overseas visitors without a local SIM card.

Welcome fruit platter.

Club Lounge

Guests who choose to book the Premier and Club rooms will get access to the Meritus Club Lounge on the 21 floor from 7am to 11pm, where they can enjoy a more private breakfast, use of a Boardroom within the lounge (subject to availability), all-day refreshments and cocktails from 6pm to 8pm. The Club Lounge allows for two pieces of laundry or pressing done per day, exclusive check-in and an express check-out, which I took advantage of but not before a leisurely morning spent reading.

Recreational facilities

After a first day spent wandering around the numerous malls in the hotel’s surroundings, I decided to spend my second day more wholesomely. For gym rats, there is the 24-hour fitness centre. It is however, the pool which the Marina Mandarin is known for and was the star of my stay. A NASA-patented “Carefree Ionisation System” adds silver, copper and zinc to form a mineral water pool that has only the statutory amount of chlorine. Having not swum in more than a decade due to effects of chlorine on my hair and skin, I took the plunge and spent 40 minutes doing 25-metre laps with no need for goggles in the soothing water, as the tensions of the past work week ebbed away.

With mineral water easy on the eyes and a kids’ pool, taking a dip is a must-do for families.

Breakfast

The Atrium lounge is where one can unwind with a drink amidst songbirds.

The hotel has a good mix of restaurants, ranging from the internationally renowned and upscale Ruth’s Chris Steak House to Peach Blossoms for Cantonese cuisine. There is also the Atrium lounge, where you can wine down with a drink in the midst of birds chirping and Cafe Mocha for quick bites.

While the Club Lounge does offer breakfast in a more private setting, I chose to have it at Aquamarine like the majority of the hotel guests. By day, the restaurant offers a buffet of Asian and International cuisines. Breakfast is equally sumptuous, with a range of Asian fare and Western cold cuts and salads, Notably, the buffet stations are halal-certified.



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Bottom Line

The Marina Mandarin Singapore is a great choice for both leisure and business travellers who wish for easy access to malls, key Singapore historical attractions and the business district. If I had a 24-hour to 48-hour layover in Singapore to catch key sights without the luxury of time to travel around, a hotel in a stellar location such as this would be ideal for me to get the best snapshot of what this city-state has to offer-both figuratively and literally, for the great Bay View from the rooms. Oh, and the chlorine-averse will have no qualms taking a dip in the rare mineral pool, like I did for the first time in over 10 years.

Marina Mandarin Singapore
6 Raffles Boulevard
Marina Square
Singapore 039594
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +65 68451000

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About Author

When not checking out new hotels or restaurants, Singapore-based writer Fen spends her time reading obsessively about and travelling to destinations with unpronounceable names. She also can't stop getting sentimental about vanishing trades and documenting them for posterity.

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