Raffles Hotel, Singapore
Storied Past
Order filet mignon in the formal dining room at the Raffles Hotel, Singapore, and you might select your cut from an antique silver serving cart, You also might hear a story about the piece's past: The cart reappeared only recently at the hotel, after it was discovered in a hiding spot where a fanner staff member had concealed it from potential looters during the Second World War. Such tales (and in some cases myths) are the hallmark of this 120-year-old, British Colonial-style hotel on the multicultural city-state island of Singapore.
In 1887, four Armenian brothers, the Sarkies, opened the then-10-room property on Beach Road, naming it after Singapore's founding father, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles Thus began a narrative that since has included a literary tradition-Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, and James Michener are among the authors who have resided and penned at the hotel-and a social scene populated with royals
and other notables from every walk of life: Today the Raffles, a national monument that became the foundation for the Raffles Hotels & Resorts chain, all of which benefited from the hotel's two-anda-half-year, $100 million restoration completed in 1991. Antique furnishings and Oriental rugs are plentiful in the rooms, and original etchings and other artworks hang on walls beneath 14-foothigh ceilings. The suites' airy ambience mimics the feel of the property's many courtyards, where birds alight on patio tables before returning to their perches among the more than 50,000 trees and flowering plants on the grounds,
Guests of the Raffles can sunbathe beside the roof top pool, shop in an arcade of boutiques, peruse the hotel's museum, and play billiards in the Bar & Billiard Room. Those who take up a game of pool on one of the two antique tables would be remiss not to ask the bartender to share a tale, In 1902, so the story goes, a tiger-the last such animal to be killed in Singapore-crept into the room and made itself comfortable beneath one of the tables.
LOCATION
A short drive (20 minutes or so) from Changi International Airport, in Singapore's financial and historic area.
ACCOMMODATIONS
The 103 suites feature teak floors, 14-foot-high ceilings, Oriental rugs, and original artworks. Each of the Raffles and Sarkies suites has two
FACILITIES
The Raffles Amrita Spa, a gym, an outdoor swimming pool, a culinary school, a hotel museum, a Victorianstyle theater, eight indoor and alfresco event spaces, and more than 40 shops. DINING
The 18 restaurants and bars include the peanut-shellstrewn Long Bar, where about a century ago bartender Ngiam Tong Boon invented the Singapore Sling cocktail.
CONCIERGE RECOMMENDS
Visit the 50-acre Jurong Bird Park, which, as the world's largest aviary, is home to more than 600 species and 9,000 birds.
RATES
From approximately $660 to $4,925, excluding the Sarkies and Raffles suites,
prices for which are available upon request.
