I had a wonderful stay at Raffles Sentosa Singapore recently. I booked the Garden One-Bedroom Pool Villa — the entry-level villa, and I say “entry-level” while fully aware it is 2,271 sq ft, which is pretty cool..
But happiness is when I arrived at the hotel, I was automatically upgraded to Signature One-Bedroom Pool Villa. The Signature is 2,530 sq ft, so about 260 sq ft more than what I paid for. It is a slightly better position on the hill, a longer pool terrace, and much better light in the afternoon. The next level upgrade is Sunset One Bedroom Pool Villa but I was told it was fully booked (wow) and hence even though I was an ALL platinum member, I was not upgraded to Sunset.
But it is okay.. the Signature One-Bedroom Pool Villa is damn awesome. REALLY !!
Table of Contents
Raffles Sentosa Singapore : Getting there, and the strange feeling of leaving Singapore without leaving Singapore
Raffles Sentosa Singapore sits at 4 Bukit Manis Road, on the southern side of Sentosa, up on the hill that used to be British military ground. It opened in March 2025 — 62 villas across roughly 100,000 sqm of greenery, and it’s Singapore’s first all-villa property. No tower block, no lift lobby, no corridor of doors. Just villas scattered through the trees. And it sits next to its sister property, Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa, which I had stayed a while ago.
The drive in is short and completely disorienting. Fifteen minutes ago I was in mainland Singapore, on the expressway leading to Sentosa Gateway. Now there’s a peacock crossing the road in front of the buggy like it owns the lease.
Raffles Sentosa Singapore : The Lobby
Arriving at the hotel, your car will be parked by the valet. Don’t worry. Parking is free for hotel guests.
And you are welcome into the hotel….
You don’t queue at a counter. Someone walks you through it while you sit down. And serve you drinks while you wait for your butler to check you in and bring you to your room. Small thing, but it sets the tone.
My Welcome drink while waiting for check-in was my order of Ice Lemon Tea. HA.
And after you checked in, you are driven to the villa….
The Signature One-Bedroom Pool Villa
The butler brought us to the villa. And then served us two cups of Sentosa Sling — their rework of the Singapore Sling, lighter, watermelon-forward, made with stuff from the resort garden. It’s actually VERY DAMN GOOD, which surprised me, because the original Sling is a drink I’ve always thought of as a tourist tax rather than a cocktail.
Two zones, essentially. A living pavilion and a bedroom pavilion, with the pool and terrace stitching them together. In this photo, the living room is on the left, and the bedroom is on the right. YES, A VILLA WITH TWO SEPARATE ROOMS.
The Living Room
The living side has the sofa you sink into and regret standing up from, a wall mural of local flora and fauna, a chess set that I don’t know how to use properly, and a drinks setup that is frankly dangerous — Nespresso, Bacha coffee, TWG teas, and a minibar that is stocked with lots of titbits and drinks.
Drinks are free flow and only the liquor are not. The 4 bottles of small hard liquor at the top are very tempting. We ended up drinking one. It is not cheap 😂
The fridge holds drinks and water cooler for the hard liquor. HA.
Of course Bacha…
And TWG tea bags
And definitely very nice welcome card with macarons and chocolates. It tasted great with the Sentosa Sling 😊
Bedroom Villa
The bedroom side has the bed, the ridiculous bathroom, and the tub.
The bed is huge and right in the middle of the villa room. And it is very comfortable.
There is a sofa in front of the huge bed and it faces the TV and definitely the pool. What a view in the afternoon.
You can then see the huge toilet too..
And you can see the tub (ask for a bath tub preparation from the butler at night ! Totally worth it!). With a view of the cabana and the pool.
The bath tub comes with all the necessary stuff for a nice romantic bath but you can ask the butler to prepare a special one for you too.. And that is an iPad holder…..
The view is pretty awesome.
Opposite the bath tub is the he/she counter and the separate shower and separate toilet.
You can stay the whole day inside the shower room….
Toiletries are full available and even has a mouth wash. I love that.
The Pool and Cabana
But the actual room is the outside. The terrace, the pool, the canopied daybed. It’s not a plunge pool — it’s a proper swim-a-few-strokes pool, private, no one overlooking you, screened by planting. In Singapore. Privacy is guaranteed. We swam naked… sometimes…
The Signature villa’s terrace faces the way it does, and from roughly 5.30pm the light comes in low and gold across the pool, bounces off the water, and does about eighty percent of the work for you. No reflector, no fill, nothing.
The Cabana..
Evening view
Night View is so romantic
The Private Pool
This is the part where I admit I mostly went for the photos. And our model was there too …
We were there to celebrate her graduation ! See NUS bear is here too !
Swimming Pool
You have your own pool in the villa but there is also a main pool (and another one near to the gym)….. and no one to fight with you for seats and cabanas here.. it is so quiet and peaceful…. unlike those resorts hotels…..
Thoughtful Raffles Sentosa… Sunscreen SPF50.. Service is fantastic here….
And ice cream by the pool….
And pro tip.. Go for walk around the resort grounds around the main pool, early morning, before anyone’s awake. Mist still sitting in the trees, peacocks doing their thing, and you basically have a Bali set to yourself. Go at 7am. Nobody’s there.
No.. really PEACOCK ! See…
And one in full glory…
Or take a look at the hundred year old ficus trees in the garden…
The Gym
The Gym is pretty cool and very little people used it.. so you will have a good time there. There is another pool here too…
And a view of the pool from Sentosa Raffles Gym
And there is an unique pool there too…
If money is not an issue, you might want to do a spa treatment too !
Food
Five or six outlets depending on how you count the lounges.
Empire Grill is the signature — modern Italian, Tuscan-leaning, wood fire, poolside, tableside theatrics. This is also where breakfast happens, and breakfast is à la carte rather than a buffet, which I’ve come around to. Buffets make me eat like it’s a competition. Here you order, it arrives, you’re done, you feel like a human. [Add what you ordered — the laksa and the local-style options get talked about a lot.]
Royal China is the Cantonese room, floor-to-ceiling windows onto greenery, dim sum through to Peking duck. Iyasaka by Hashida is the 12-seat omakase, and 12 seats means you book ahead or you don’t go. Le Jardin is fully plant-based, no butter no dairy.
Chairman’s Room is the speakeasy-style bar — whiskies, cognacs, and the Sentosa Sling again. This is where I’d send you for a nightcap rather than the afternoon tea at Raffles Room, though the ficus tree view at tea is very nice if that’s your thing.
And then there’s in-villa dining, which is available round the clock and is the reason a fair number of guests apparently never leave their villa. I get it. If you’re paying for 2,500 sq ft of privacy, walking to a restaurant starts to feel like a design flaw. And I highly recommend it……
As we had a great in-villa dining experience…
And you definitely need to try out the Chocolate Royaltine Cake !!! I ordered it to celebrate our model’s graduation !
The stuff nobody puts in the brochure
It’s isolated. Genuinely. The resort is on the quiet southern side, and most of Sentosa’s attractions — USS, the beaches with the bars, the shops — are east. There’s no convenience store you can walk to at midnight. If you’re planning to use this as a base to see Singapore, you’re going to spend real time in buggies and cars. If you’re planning to use it as a base to see the inside of your own villa, perfect.
No kids’ club. Families do stay, and the villas suit them, but manage expectations…. really the swimming pool is probably the only place where the kids can enjoy themselves…
It’s not cheap. I’m not going to pretend otherwise, and I’m not going to be coy about the number either — $1,500 a night for the Garden Villa, before the upgrade. That’s a lot of money to sleep 20 minutes from your own bed. And adding in stuff like in-room dining, spa etc and you are looking at $2,000 a night. But it is a great experience.
So — worth it?
Here’s how I’ve settled it in my head.
As a hotel, it’s very good but not magic. The service is warm without being stiff, the food is strong, the grounds are beautiful, and nothing broke.
As a product, it’s smarter than that. What Raffles Sentosa is actually selling isn’t a room — it’s the ability to be completely unobserved in a country where that’s almost impossible. Singapore is 6 million people on a small island. Private pool, private garden, nobody’s window facing yours, and you can swim at midnight in whatever you like. That’s the scarce thing. Everything else — the ficus tree, the Sling, the Jungle Book on the nightstand — is dressing on top of it.
I totally recommend this for a special occasion for your loved one. Birthday. Anniversary. Graduation.
