👍 Amazing 'away from the city' getaway ambience, luxurious and large rooms, good service.
👎 Location's a bit inconvenient if you don't plan on lazing around all day.
Just before the Singapore government
instructed us to all be CB, the
darling and I managed to sneak in a Sentosa Staycaytion* at
Capella Singapore! Capella is one of the highest-profile hotels in Singapore thanks to last year's Trump-Kim summit, one of the most luxurious, and consequently one of the most expensive: Even in these Covid-19 times we still had to pay s$584++/night for their 'Sentosa Staycay' package. Thanks to our
Discovery Black membership we do think the money spent was worth it, though!
* Hotels in the Staycay tour:
Raffles Hotel | Capella Singapore | Marriott Tang Plaza | The St.Regis Singapore | Grand Hyatt | The Fullerton Bay Hotel | Parkroyal Collection, Marina Bay | Marina Bay Sands.
We arrived at
Capella Singapore by taxi at 1pm for our 'early' check-in. The lobby is in a restored colonial-era bungalow, so the lobby has no super high ceilings with huge chandeliers, but has a more intimate décor. Check in was quick and efficient, and we didn't even have enough time to savour the welcome drink and cookie. Thanks to the Discovery Black membership we got upgraded to the
Constellation Room, which seems to be the hotel's top-tier non-suite / non-villa room.
And what a room it is! Spread out over 828 sqft / 77 sqm on the highest floor of the hotel, the Constellation Room is huge, spacious, and has an amazing view over the swimming pool and the Singapore Straits beyond.
Day and night blinds, curtains, lights and air-conditioning settings are controlled via tablet, which we found extremely simple and straightforward to use.
The Constellation Room's
pièce de résistance though is its outdoor, heated, private jacuzzi and day bed. This feature turned out being way more useful than we first thought: We ended up relaxing on the balcony a lot during our three day stay. The jacuzzi's location is also really private, tucked away well enough that you could totally skinny dip without any risk of unintended exposure (as to whether we did or didn't skinny dip ... we'll leave that to your imagination).
Heading back into the room, there's a walk-in wardrobe neatly tucked away sort of in-between the bed and bath rooms. One slight criticism here, perhaps, is that the two bathrobes are of the same, small, size, so my 6'0", 190 lbs body made it look like I was wearing a child size.
Speaking of the bathroom: It's a full-featured one with two sinks, bathtub (which we didn't use), separate toilet and shower. The toilet unfortunately has no bidet or hand spray, so it's toilet-paper only for those of us used to more moist ways of cleaning up.
Amenities are by Aēsop; I can't tell the difference between the
effectiveness of the various skin/bodycare brands, but I did really like the scents of these Aēsop shampoo / body wash: Strong notes of Citrus and Lemongrass.
Afternoon tea is served daily at
The Library. There's coffee, tea, soft drinks, juices, and a decent selection of fruits, cakes, and pastry on offer.
There are three separate swimming pools: A relaxation pool for adults only, a relaxation pool for families (it has an infinity edge, which our baby sadly didn't seem to appreciate), and a small lap pool for serious swimmers.
The gym seems well stocked, and spacious. There's also a spa, which we didn't visit.
The vast green areas around the hotel mean that peacocks can roam the grounds quite comfortably.
Our Singapore Staycay rate came with s$100 in dining credits, which we used for a rib-eye steak (decent for room-service standards) and a chicken breast ceaser salad. No drinks, because the water, juices and soft drinks in the minibar are complimentary / included in the room rate.
Capella Singapore's main restaurant is
The Knolls, which serves up Mediterranean fare for lunch and dinner, but a less exotic, more standard breakfast. The eggs benedict from the ala-carte breakfast menu was really good; the laksa less so.
There is also a buffet line for the rest of the breakfast items. Compared to the rest of the hotel, the breakfast spread was perhaps a little ... ordinary? I mean, it was a
good breakfast spread, just not as outstanding as I might have expected given the hotel's positioning. Oh, the egg tarts were really good though.
Overall, the
darling (and the kid) and I enjoyed ourselves a lot at
Capella Singapore! It's our first Staycay in Sentosa, and it was really really refreshing to be away from the city with that beach/island getaway 'feel.' The flip side of that isolation is, of course, that it's not as convenient as a city-centre hotel when you want to buy something or go shopping - but at least there's a half-hourly shuttle bus to the nearby Vivocity.
We're sincerely hoping that the Covid-19 situation & lockdown ends sooner rather than later so that we can plan our next visit!
