Singapore Staycation
AN HONEST REVIEW OF CAPELLA
We recently booked a staycation at Capella on Sentosa in Singapore. It was our first proper staycation (my husband and I did do one night away last year but this hardly counts) so I feel like we were late to the party on this staycation trend. Neither of us felt compelled by the concept of a staycation - Singapore is so incredibly small that it seemed a bit frivolous to spend money to stay in a hotel when our home was literally 20 mins down the road.
But after a year of no travel and having spent an inordinate number of days in our home, we finally decided to take the plunge and attempt a staycation as a way to give us that “we are on holiday” feeling. Did it work? And what was Capella like? Here is my honest review of staycations and Capella as a place to stay.
Let’s Start with Staycations in general…
Going into the staycation with the lowest of expectations may have somewhat altered my feelings towards them, but I can say without any reservation, that leaving our home (yes, even if it was only down the road) and staying somewhere else was all kinds of wonderful. I hadn’t expected just how lovely it was to not be at home. I love where we live so I wasn’t sure that leaving it was the answer - I felt more like leaving Singapore for a spell was what I was craving - a true change of scenery and weather. But I was wrong - it was enough to just have left our home for a couple of nights. And all of us agreed that getting in the car and driving down the road to go on holiday was infinitely better than the faff of air travel.
What was it like to stay at Capella?
In one word, glorious. Almost everything about Capella is wonderful and there were few things that I didn’t feel were perfect. We stayed for 3 nights and on our last day we tried to extend our stay (sadly they were fully booked so we weren’t able to) and we are already eyeing it for our next staycation in the summer holidays.
what is great about cappella?
There is much that is great about Capella. Let’s start with the design of the resort. Located at the top of a ridge and benefiting from a sloping site, the hotel (despite being at capacity while we were there) didn’t feel full. The original building is utterly beautiful and I adore the design of the contemporary wings that provide a contrast with the historical building. In addition to the main hotel building, villas are dotted down the slope and it’s this spread out nature of the resort that helps to keep it feeling quiet (we knew a couple of other families that were staying there at the same time as us, but we barely even bumped into each other).
the staff
The staff were exceptional - all of them were friendly and attentive and I was impressed with the service across the whole resort. I booked our stay online but prior to arrival, the reservations team called to confirm our booking and our request to have the rooms next to each other. They also discussed the activity program and helped us to book in for our breakfast each morning.
the rooms
We are a family of four and the most cost effective way for us to stay was to book two Premier Garden Rooms next to each other. Our kids are 10 and 13 so they are fine to have their own room with no interconnecting door and having two separate rooms was the perfect solution for everyone. The rooms are spacious and comfortable and each have a small balcony. I adored the bathrooms (but I realise this might be because I live in an old home so any kind of modern bathroom is nirvana to me) and the rooms were lovely and quiet.
the pool
There are three pools at Capella but if you are a family, there is only one pool that the kids are allowed to swim in. I actually love this because we never had to stress that our kids splashing in the pool might be disturbing someone trying to gently do some breaststroke while keeping their hair looking nice. Sun loungers by the pool are on a first come first served basis and despite turning up at the pool at various times in the morning, we always managed to get a spot. Because of Covid restrictions on numbers, the sun loungers are meant to only be used for 2 hours at a time but because they were never totally full, or nobody was waiting, we were able to stay by the pool for the better part of the day. Staff periodically came around and served iced treats and cold water is provided as well.
The pool itself doesn’t have any attractions (it’s just a lovely pool) but they do have the utterly gorgeous Oliver James sun loungers to float about on in the pool and they also provided a couple of other kid friendly floats. My only criticism of the pool area was that the sun loungers by the side of the pool were looking a little worn and were a bit uncomfortable.
The restaurants
Breakfast is served in The Knolls restaurant. It is a fixed per person cost with a menu that you can choose from as though it was a buffet. Prior to check-in the hotel enquired what time we would like breakfast each day so they can manage the numbers in the restaurant for Covid restrictions. Tables cannot be booked - it is on a first come first served basis, but each day we were able to get a table outside (although I think we were quite lucky). The breakfast menu has plenty of variety from fruits and cereal to cooked items like eggs, bacon, pancakes and waffles etc. They also had the most delicious pastries (I highly recommend their signature pandan coconut pastry - delicious).
Each day we ate lunch by the pool on the sun loungers (why move?). The food was OK. Not amazing, but it ticked the box for sitting by the pool. The menu included pizza, fish tacos, salads etc.
On one of the evenings we ordered room service and sat on the balcony to eat - the food was (again) OK - just very typical hotel room service food. On another night we ate at Bob’s Bar which is an outdoor lounge bar overlooking the canopy of trees and the pools below. Similar to the pool side menu, the food is pretty relaxed - fish and chips, chicken satays etc but it is quite a nice atmosphere to sit outside on comfortable lounge chairs to eat.
The location
There is a path that runs from the beach up to Capella which is handy if you fancy dipping down into Sentosa itself to partake in fun activities. While we were there, the kids did Hydrodash one evening and we also did the rope climbing, mega jump and mega zip line one afternoon as well.
GYM AND SPA
We didn’t end up using either of these facilities on this stay - a slot in the gym needs to be booked through the touch screen app in your room and I would guess the spa treatments probably need to be booked ahead of time. I didn’t use the spa on this holiday but I have been previously, and I highly recommend it. The space is beautiful and the massage I had was really good.
overall - the verdict
So, the verdict on staycations is a 10 out of 10. Staying at Capella we all felt that we had a true holiday. It didn’t feel like we were ‘just down the road’ - it really felt like we had escaped and the time away was really needed. All of us, including our 13 year old son, remarked on how nice it was to be away. Prior to this break I think we were all feeling quite stressed and with only a couple of days away, we reversed this feeling. We all left feeling relaxed, happy and re-connected with one another. We intentionally spent almost our entire days in the resort so that we could suspend the feeling that we had escaped Singapore. I think this helped.
Location - 10 / 10
Premier Garden Rooms - 9 / 10
Having your kids stay in a different room from you - 10 / 10
Pool - 7 / 10
Breakfast - 8 / 10
Lunch and Dinner - 6 / 10
RESORT EDIT - SHOP THE LOOK
