Lavish Art Deco bar Atlas, ranked the eighth best bar in the world, has more than 1000 gins to choose from, but a stand-out is the locally made Tanglin gin, distilled from Singapore’s national flower, the orchid.

The dark soy-glazed chicken and rice at Hawker Chan in Chinatown Food Complex is worth the wait (there will be queues), and a second outlet has opened nearby on Smith Street to keep up with demand.

Experimental cocktails and house-made everything are the order of the day at Operation Dagger, a small underground bar ranked 23 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list. The most popular drink is The Egg – a riff on Singapore’s traditional salted egg yolk dish – a theatrical cocktail made with a boozy rum and vanilla salted egg yolk served in a jar of smoking hay.

Hainanese chicken rice is a hawker market staple across Singapore, and rightfully so, because it is damn delicious at any time of day. Get your fix at Ah Tai in Maxwell Food Centre, where the tender poached chicken is served with rice cooked in the same broth and topped fresh coriander, garlic puree and chilli sauce.

Native, which opened just two years ago in a traditional Chinese shop house, is a hip drinking den with a serious no-waste philosophy that extends from the test kitchen to the bar. The menu is inspired by owner Vijay Mudaliar’s global roamings, from a refreshing kimchi strawberry granita to a jungle green coconut, basil and grasshopper combination that riffs on Thai green curry.

The Parkroyal on Pickering hotel in Chinatown is a stunning high-rise hotel dripping with lush tropical greenery. The vertical gardens that cover the hotel resemble cascading rice paddies and the leafy view from your room or the outdoor infinity pool on the fifth floor is enough to make you forget you are in the middle of an urban jungle.

Feel the sand beneath your toes and enjoy the refreshing effects of a fruit cocktail in your hand at Tanjong Beach Club on Sentosa Island. You can catch a cable car from the mainland to this reclaimed island, which is also home to the oasis-like Capella hotel.

Singapore chilli crab may be a national dish, but the inside secret is to order the black pepper or white pepper crab, as these marinades have a far more delicate flavour. Head to Mellben, where the large round tables quickly fill with platters of crab, garlic steamed vegetables and fried Chinese buns to wipe it all up. BYO hand wipes as this is hands-on eating!

Acclaimed pastry chef Janice Wong’s cult 2am:dessertbar in Holland Village gets straight to the point with her molecular desserts. Signature and seasonal creations come with alcohol pairings, from sake to sweet wine and port. Chocaholics should order the Chocolate H2O, a 65% dark chocolate lava rock served with salted caramel and tangy yuzu sorbet. Open until 2am, Tuesday to Sunday, sweet dreams are made of this.

Singapore is a city that never sleeps, and ‘supper’ – the tradition of a late-night bite after a night of drinking and dancing – is best done at one of the Boon Tong Kee outlets across town where they serve an excellent rendition of chicken rice until the early hours.

The Warehouse Hotel, part of the chic Design Hotels™ portfolio, is a boutique stay in a converted ‘godown’ (warehouse) on a quiet bend of the Singapore River at Robertson Quay. The handsome lobby bar and mod-Chinese restaurant Po echo the craft aesthetic of the rooms (no two are the same) with local textiles, artworks and custom furniture adorning the historic building.

The indoor Cloud Forest, part of the Gardens by the Bay complex and the largest glass greenhouse in the world, is an indoor recreation of a tropical cloud forest. With a waterfall, lashings of tropical plant-life, and a temperature-controlled climate, this is a seriously cool way to beat the heat during the day.

After your first bite, you’ll soon discover that the curious local specialty of carrot cake, is neither a cake nor does it contain carrot. The savoury Singaporean ‘carrot cake’ (chai tow kway) is a classic hawker dish made from a thick steamed radish pancake that is sliced up and fried with garlic and onions and served either white or black, doused in a thick sweet soy sauce.

Check into the spanking new Andaz hotel, designed by acclaimed architect Andre Fu, where the appeal is sleek modern design, a sky-high infinity pool on level 25 with sweeping views, and rooftop garden bar Mr Stork, where you can toast to another beautiful sunset over the city with their house-brewed IPA.

Singapore’s Botanic Gardens are the only tropical garden in the world to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The expansive gardens have a tree-top walk, a dedicated ginger garden and stunning orchid garden with thousands of varieties of Singapore’s national flower, so it’s a good thing they’re open until 2am (the orchid garden closes at 7pm).