The Marina Bay Sands describes itself as the most spectacular hotel in Singapore. It was officially opened in June 2010.

It is owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corp and, in true American style, it is big and bold with 2,561 hotel rooms and suites, a huge casino, a convention and exhibition centre, a theatre, a museum, an ice skating rink and a shopping mall complete with its own canal.

The shopping mall also boasts a number of restaurants owned by celebrity chefs.

The hotel features a novel design with three “curvy” 55-storey towers topped by a platform shaped like a giant ironing board.

This made for a challenging construction project with a hefty price tag of US$5.5 billion, making it the world’s second most expensive building after the Abraj Al Bait in Mecca.

The “ironing board” supports Skypark, a 2.5-acre roof deck which includes a 150-metre-long vanishing edge swimming pool, 57 floors up in the sky.

There must easily be a thousand people at the pool and observation deck at any given time with 99% either taking selfies or posing for photos.

Marina Bay Sands achieves an occupancy rate close to 99% despite charging a fortune for its rooms. While the rooms are comfortable and spacious, it’s nothing amazing. The view is great though.

The room came with “exclusive” use of The Club where complimentary drinks and bites are served at tea time and early evening.

It could not have been that exclusive as it was packed with people knocking back the free Piper Heidsieck champagne rather like an airport business or first class lounge.

Marina Bay Sands has a good location close to Gardens By the Bay and the Singapore Flyer with great views over downtown Singapore.

With the mall next door there is no need to go far for shopping. The hotel and casino are very popular with tourists from China, with tourists from India being the second most frequent visitors.

This article first appeared in http://thriftytraveller.wordpress.com