How to Travel to Singapore - Cheap Airfares

In the advent of low-cost airline carriers, the percentage of frequent Asian travelers has gained a tremendous hop. Backpacking to Singapore is popular nowadays. A lot of factors and instances that made such ordinary folks not able to pursue their endeavors. However, airline companies are bringing cheap airfares to Singapore, and that means...its travel time! ;)

Heading to Singapore from Clark taken at 6:38 AM Phils.time.

How to Travel to Singapore from the Philippines. 

First of all, Singapore is open to at least 80% of all the countries around the world requiring NO VISA! Unless you belong to the 20% then you may refer to http://www.mfa.gov.sg. The travel time ranges from 15 days up to 90 days. So if you plan to stay longer than you may need to visit the Singaporean Embassy.

Areal View of Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

Conferring about cheap airline tickets to Singapore, there are a lot of low-cost carriers who offer promos- some could even get to as much as ZERO ALL-IN flight cost. This is rare; however, if you are lucky, you could get one. As a Filipino backpacker, traveling has been a sort of a drug for me - a way of relaxation and getting into new things and perspective. Tiger Airways, Cebu Pacific, Zest Air, Air Asia, AirPhil is some local airline carries in the country that offers low cost fares to Singapore. I was lucky to get a chunk of the promo from Air Asia, which cost me 1800 PhP excluding the travel tax and terminal fee to more than 2070 PhP if I could recall. Please check out http://www.dmia.ph/faq.htm for more info.


Air Asia is operating at Clark, Pampanga. I'm from Mindanao - southern part of the country, so the traveling cost is a bit steeper than from those in the north. Depending on the carrier, you could choose your pt. A from Cebu, Manila, and Clark bound to SG (If you are from Mindanao, it is best to check promos for domestic airfares to be further lower your expenditure). On our experienced, we took a taxi from Manila to Clark where we haggle over the payment to as much as 400 PhP. We missed the bus bound for Clark (the usual bus that takes Air Asia passengers). It was already 1 AM, so we took the taxi and evenly divided the cost.

We arrived at Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, at Clark, Pampanga past 4am. So we had like less than two hours to check-in for our 6:10 am flight. It was really a relief! wheew! :)

Waiting for our flight at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.

Arriving at Changi Airport, Singapore

Welcome to the city nicknamed as "The Little Red Dot". Warm climate greeted us at exactly 10am! We are almost screwed up the in the past 9hrs, so we had that sunny smiles after we set foot on the beautiful garden city of Singapore. We don't miss any pictorials at the Changi Airport where I see it with extensive duty-free products as well as dining and leisure facilities.

Touch Down at the Airport

Having fun taking pictures with the Angry Birds at the Airport.

Going to Skytrain- Inside Changi Airport.

The people are warm and friendly. They even help us to find the exit going to the Skytrain. There is this so-called SkyTrain that eventually brings passengers from Changi to Tanah Merah via MRT lines. From Tanah Merah, we purchased an MRT Pass Card worth 15 SGD before heading out to our backpacker’s hostel.

Changi's Skytrain service to Terminal 2.

Purchasing MRT Pass Cards.

At the Hostel 

On our way to the Ideal Backpackers Hostel.

From my previous posts, the cheapest way to find lodging houses would be hostelworld.com. I was able to book a dorm good for four pax for a two nights stay at 16 SGD per night. At that cost, don't expect some lavish and luxurious amenities. There is no shower or restroom inside. I think most of the lodgers are sharing two stinky bathrooms for men and women at that level. Yeah, not really good, to think that you need to go out from your room to do some personal necessities; however, it's better than nothing, anyway; I'm not getting there for some luxurious vacation..haha..Travelling is more like a sense of adventure for me- you need to be prepared and expect something unique.

Men working below seen from our window using 300mm tamron lens.

Stunned at the cost of parking tickets in Singapore. 

The Total Cost

From Mindanao to Manila (Promo Fare via Air Philippines ) - 800.00 PhP
Manila to Clark (via Taxi) - 133.333 PhP
Clark to Singapore (via Air Asia) - 1800.000 PhP
Terminal Fee and Travel Tax (DMIA)  -  450 + 1620 = 2070.000 PhP
Check-in luggage (they are not strict) - 00.000 PhP
Sub - Total (one way fare) - 4803.33  PhP
Hostel - 32 SGD or 1042.75 at 32.6 PhP per 1SGD at the time of writing.
Total = 5845.33 PhP

The calculations shown above depend on your point of location. It might be considerably lower for some areas throughout the country or depending on your airline carrier who operates at most three major cities in the Philippines. The sub total fare is shown for one way flight might also be the same or much cheaper for return flights to Cebu, Clark and Manila...would cost you around 2000 PhP, including the travel tax from Singapore. Roughly, for a return ticket would cost you almost 6,000 PhP - 50% off. This is a huge saving to think that the raw airfare for return flights range from 350 to 400 SGD or roughly 13.000 PhP.

Off for a city walk. 

Well so long! See you on my next post - Sites and Attractions to visit in Singapore. XEXE! :)