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City-State to Coralscapes: Singapore to Raja Ampat
Few festive journeys offer quite this contrast. Singapore can provide the opening chapter, the finale, or both: a burst of cuisine, architecture, and layered cultural traditions before or after Bali’s temples and rice terraces and a private phinisi journey through Raja Ampat, where December brings calm seas and excellent underwater visibility.
CITY-STATE TO CORALSCAPES: SINGAPORE TO RAJA AMPAT
Few festive journeys offer quite this contrast. Singapore can provide the opening chapter, the finale, or both: a burst of cuisine, architecture, and layered cultural traditions before or after Bali’s temples and rice terraces and a private phinisi journey through Raja Ampat, where December brings calm seas and excellent underwater visibility.
SINGAPORE: A CAPITAL OPENING
Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands
The compact scale of Singapore belies its cultural depth. Shaped by centuries of trade and migration, the city combines futuristic architecture with neighborhoods where Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Peranakan influences remain wonderfully apparent. Explore Chinatown’s shophouses, temples, and traditional businesses, wander Little India, or spend a morning among the shops and mosques of Kampong Glam.
The National Gallery Singapore and Asian Civilisations Museum provide cultural substance, while Gardens by the Bay showcases the city’s more fantastical ambitions. Food deserves its share of attention, too. Explore one of the city’s markets with a guide for an introduction to the ingredients and traditions behind Singaporean cooking, then follow locals to a hawker center for lunch. Beyond the street-food scene, Singapore’s accomplished restaurants offer another expression of a city that takes dining seriously.
Hotels add their own character. For families, Capella Singapore offers room to spread out amid Sentosa’s greenery, with the island’s attractions close at hand. Raffles Singapore supplies the heritage credentials, its gracious courtyards and colonnaded architecture recalling an earlier chapter of the city’s history. The Fullerton Bay Hotel places guests on the waterfront, where the historic Clifford Pier and neighboring civic landmarks sit within sight of Marina Bay’s contemporary skyline. For travelers returning to Singapore at the end of the journey, New Year’s Eve brings another reason to linger, with the annual Marina Bay Countdown and fireworks illuminating the waterfront as the city welcomes the year ahead.
BALI: BEYOND THE BEACH
Mount Agung rising above Bali’s rice terraces
Bali’s beaches have their devotees, but the island’s interior makes an equally persuasive claim on a festive itinerary. Around Ubud, rice terraces give way to jungle-clad valleys, village temples and workshops where carving, painting and other crafts remain part of daily life.
Set out with a private guide to explore local markets and family compounds, or cycle along country lanes between rice paddies. The Ayung River adds an adventurous option, with rafting excursions through its forested gorge. There’s time afterward for a treatment drawing on Balinese healing traditions or an evening sampling the island’s richly spiced cuisine.
Bill Bensley’s Capella Ubud makes a suitably theatrical base, its tented accommodations tucked into a rainforest setting. Pair it with Amankila in East Bali, where suites overlook the Lombok Strait and the surrounding countryside invites further exploration. Visit salak plantations and village temples, spend an afternoon at Virgin Beach, or head toward Lempuyang for views of Mount Agung when conditions allow. For those wishing to start New Year resolutions early COMO Shambhala Estate provides the perfect setting and personalized approach to reaching your wellness goals.
RAJA AMPAT: AN AQUATIC ODYSSEY
Turquoise waters of Raja Ampat
The final chapter takes the journey into eastern Indonesia, where Raja Ampat’s jungle-covered islands rise from waters of startling clarity. December typically brings calm seas, while beneath the surface, coral gardens shelter swirling shoals of fish, turtles and reef sharks, and manta encounters that can leave even experienced divers momentarily lost for words.
A private phinisi is a fitting way to explore. These handsome wooden vessels draw on Indonesia’s boatbuilding traditions, pairing sweeping decks and a sense of seafaring romance with the comforts needed for longer voyages. Inviting cabins, attentive crews, and meals shared on deck make life aboard as much a part of the journey as the places reached along the way.
Days might involve diving a coral wall, snorkeling a sheltered reef, or paddling a kayak through a lagoon enclosed by limestone cliffs. Beach landings and island walks broaden the appeal beyond keen divers, making a private charter particularly well suited to families or friends traveling together. By evening, settle into a deck chair for cocktails as the islands darken around the anchorage, or head ashore for a seafood barbecue.
From here, travelers can return home or circle back to Singapore for a final few days in the city.
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