HarbourFront and Sentosa

www.sentosa.com.sg

Sentosa is a tourist resort island with three beaches stretching along its southern coast and various activities including a man-made volcano, a 4D theatre, a luge ride, a laser-lit merlion statue, an oceanarium, a butterfly park and a Second World War museum. There are also five-star resorts and a couple of golf courses.

 has three stops: Mount Faber (the highest point in Singapore, with scenic views and seafood restaurants - worthwhile), the Cable Car Tower adjacent to the HarbourFront and the Cable Car Plaza on Sentosa.

. It's highly recommended and is the highlight of any visit to Sentosa. A 100-m tunnel, with a moving conveyor, allows a glimpse of some of its 350 underwater species and 5000 specimens. Giant rays glide overhead, while thick-lipped garoupa and spooky moray eels hide in caves and crevices. The 'creatures of the deep' tank, with giant octopus and spider crabs, is impressive. Smaller tanks house turtles, reef fish, corals, sea urchins and others. There is also a touch pool where the curious can have a close encounter with starfish and baby sharks. It is possible to dive with sharks and dugongs here.

, on the westernmost point, is Singapore's only preserved coastal fort, built in the 1880s to guard the narrow western entrance to Keppel Harbour. It provides an informative visit, especially if you're interested in the fall of Singapore. It is possible to explore the underground tunnels, artillery nests and bunkers, experience a mock firing of a seven-inch gun, run riot over the assault course and play various interactive computer games with a martial tinge. The fort was built to guard against a seaward attack, but, as every amateur student of Singapore's wartime history knows, the Japanese assault was from the north. The guns of Fort Siloso were turned landwards, but could do little to thwart the Japanese advance. When news of the surrender came through, the soldiers of the Royal Artillery (many from the Indian subcontinent) sabotaged the guns to prevent them falling into enemy hands.

. Daredevils wear safety harnesses to enjoy heart-stopping swings.

 is an award-winning night spectacular featuring pyrotechnics, lasers and 40 m-high water jets. Shows last 25 minutes.

 is a stupendous symbol of Singapore. The Merlion can be climbed either up to its mouth or its crown for views over Sentosa, the city and port. There is a shop here - since nothing can be built on Sentosa without some merchandising outlet - themed as a Bugis shipwreck. The Bugis were the feared Malay seafarers who sailed from southern Sulawesi and controlled the seas of the Malay archipelago long before the Europeans arrived. They have often been likened to the Vikings and, like the Vikings, they were famed for their fearlessness and for their seafaring skills and for the terror they instilled in the hearts of coastal communities.

, offer a well-displayed history of Singapore, focusing on key figures from the origins of the city state as an entrepôt, through to the modern period and also telling the traumatic Second World War story. The wax models are not up to Madame Tussaud's standard, but the history is well told.

 is situated near Tanjong Beach. So-called pink (although they are more white in colour) Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins have been trained to do rather banal and demeaning tricks.

, very close to the ferry terminal, have 10,000 plants and over 200 species of orchid. Within the gardens is a restaurant, a fish pond with koi carp, a Japanese tea room and various other gazebos, boulders and associated paraphernalia, and - yes, you've guessed it - a souvenir shop.

Cineblast, www.cineblast.com.sg, is a high-tech movie extravaganza. Combining high-definition film with state-of-the-art sound and seats, raised on hydraulic jacks, it creates what is rather ambitiously called 'hyper reality'.

The other integrated resort is at Marina Bay and can clearly be seen from the bridges near Clarke Quay. This resort, the Marina Bay Sands Resort (www.marinabaysands.com), features three 55-storey hotel towers topped with a 1-ha sky garden on the roof with what promise to be spectacular city views. The resort opened in mid-2010.