How to save on a vacation to Singapore

As you know, Singapore is one of the most expensive countries in the world not along Asia but it's also an attractive travel destination amongst SEA first time travellers. I recently visited this country and would like to share some tips for future travellers who plan to visit it for business/pleasure.

• Flights and Accommodation: Plan your trips just before or after the peak seasons. February, June-July, September (F1 season) are considered peak seasons. I booked my flights about 2 months in advance and got a roundtrip flight for under ₹18K and that too with Singapore Airlines. If solo or with 1-2 friends, I suggest either a hostel or if with family I suggest you get a service apartment via Airbnb. Most budget hotels in there are very compact. I've found Agoda, Ixigo to offer the best deals.
• Travel and Communication: You can pre-book (at a discount) a 2 in 1 tourist EZ-Link travel card from Klook or Agoda and pick-up at Changi Airport on the day of your arrival. I pre-booked and got a card with free $3 loaded. Singapore has an extensive public transportation system made up of metro and buses and travel on these requires an MRT card (no tickets) or a credit/ debit card with tap and pay. You can load these cards with money at all metro stations via cash/CC/DC. Grab/Gojeck are most used cab hailing services and prices are comparable to Uber in Indian metros during peak time.
• Food and Drinks:  Eating out in Singapore is an expensive affair but they have a huge hawker centre culture where you can get an average meal at $5-$15 with a variety of Asian options. An apt comparison for hawker centre would be the food court in malls with a common seating area. It's self-service and after eating you're expected to return your food trays to the designated station. Alcohol is pricy due to high local taxes, so I suggest you pick-up your booze from Changi Duty Free during arrival or depend on convenience/grocery store if you want to get tipsy.
• Activities: You can save a lot on your activities if you pre-book on Klook/Agoda. Personally, I used Pelago (owned by Singapore Airlines) and Agoda. If you fly via SIA you can use your PNR to get 30% discount ($20 cap) twice for bookings on Pelago. I was able to save $20 on a Universal Studio + meal + SEA Aquarium combo pass and collectively saved $50 on across all bookings.

Miscellaneous tips and tricks

• Card acceptance is universal, just enable tap and go but do carry USD to convert into SGD for your food expenses since hawker centres are mostly cash only. Rates are similar across forex dealers.
• Singapore is a shopper's paradise with great deals available on certain categories and there's also a GST refund scheme for tourists. If you shop over $100 in a single bill at a physical retailer, you can avail the scheme. Just need to mention at billing and give your passport to map the transaction. During departure, you can go to GST refund self-service kiosk where you insert the passport and validate your transactions to get the refund on your CC/DC. (valid only on non-consumables and make sure to visit the counter before you check-in baggage cause sometimes you may need to show that the goods are with you, and you've not abused the scheme for a local friend/family)
• Mustafa centre is like an all-in-one mega retailer where you can buy everything from gold (rates are good and low workmanship charges) to groceries. If you want to get huge discounts from brands like Nike, Coach, Michael Kors, Steve Madden etc, I suggest you go to IMM which is an outlet mall where you get almost 50-80% discount throughout the year. I managed to save 60% from Nike outlet store and even saved 15% on a watch and sunglasses purchase.
• You can carry snacks into most attractions as baggage checks aren't that thorough.
• Changi Duty Free has cheaper rates compared to Duty Free in India (ishopchangi even offers $20 off 1st purchase if you prebook) for liquor/chocolates/beauty products.
• 6-7 days is enough to explore Singapore and cover top-rated attractions and activities at a leisure pace.

Do fell free to add more tips.