Singapore

Singapore is small, hot, and ruthlessly well-run. The food is the reason to come: hawker centres serve some of the best cheap eating on earth, a block from three-star restaurants. Add gardens engineered like science fiction and neighbourhoods that reward walking. Two or three days is plenty, and it pairs with anywhere in the region.

Days here are eating itineraries. Breakfast is kaya toast and kopi, lunch a hawker centre — chicken rice at Maxwell, char kway teow at Old Airport Road — then a walk through Kampong Glam or Tiong Bahru before the heat peaks. Gardens by the Bay at dusk, satay at Lau Pa Sat or a rooftop bar after. The MRT gets you everywhere for pocket change; what you spend depends entirely on whether you eat hawker or hotel.

The flip side: it's expensive for the region — alcohol especially, thanks to heavy duties — and the heat and humidity are relentless year-round. There's little grit or spontaneity, and some travellers find it sterile after a week in Vietnam or Indonesia. Sentosa is skippable without kids. Stay past day three and you may run out of things to do. As a two-to-three-day stop, though, almost nowhere delivers more per hour.