Raffles Sentosa Singapore

Raffles Sentosa Singapore

The drive up Bukit Manis Road climbs through secondary forest to a hilltop on Sentosa, 15 minutes from Singapore’s central business district, where Raffles opened the country’s first all-villa resort on 1 March 2025, its second address in the city that gave the brand its start, Raffles Singapore having opened in 1887. The resort spreads across 100,000 square metres of tropical greenery on ground once home to British military barracks, and there are 62 villas, each with a private pool and outdoor terrace, from a one-bedroom of 211 square metres to the four-bedroom, 650 square metre Royal Villa. It was built and is owned by the Royal Group, which also owns the neighbouring Sofitel, the property company of billionaire Asok Kumar Hiranandani, with his son Bobby Hiranandani as co-chairman, and both hotels are run by Giovanni Viterale, cluster general manager. Yabu Pushelberg designed the villas around floor-to-ceiling windows onto the gardens, and the public spaces carry the more theatrical gestures, among them crystal chandeliers by the Czech glass house Lasvit over the ballroom staircase and one of two heritage trees on the grounds, framed from the Raffles Room in the lobby, where the brand’s afternoon tea is served. Royal China and Empire Grill take their names from former restaurants at the original Raffles Hotel, the first cooking Cantonese under executive Chinese chef Ling Heng Yao, the second modern Italian under Bjoern Alexander, while Iyasaka by Hashida runs an omakase counter of 12 seats for Kenjiro “Hatch” Hashida, whose eponymous restaurant on Amoy Street has been a Singapore fixture for more than a decade, and the Chairman’s Room pours whisky. The spa occupies Block 59, a 1930s barracks that received the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Architectural Heritage Award, with 13 treatment rooms, a 22-metre lap pool, steam rooms and an outdoor whirlpool, plus Le Jardin, a plant-led restaurant cooking with local produce. This is not an attempt to recreate the grand dame on Beach Road, and it makes no effort to be a tropical copy of it, which is to its credit. The experience is the villa: the pool, the butler, the garden walls, the long stretch of afternoon in which the casino and theme parks on the other side of the island feel like a rumour, and reviewers have noted that guests end up questioning why they ever left their villa. The kitchens are uneven in the way new resorts tend to be, with one reviewer finding Empire Grill a little underwhelming and Royal China terrific, singling out honey-glazed char siew and wagyu in spicy vinegar sauce, and Royal China’s dim sum is the meal people talk about afterwards. You should not come if you want the colonial atmosphere of the original, a city you can walk out into, or a hotel with a social scene, because there is no lobby bar crowd here and the spa building is shared with the Sofitel next door. Nor is it modest, with opening rates starting from $2,000 a night. You should come if you are breaking a long-haul journey and want three days of privacy with a pool of your own, if you are travelling as a family who will use a multi-bedroom villa properly, or if you live in the region and want Singapore without the city, near enough to Changi that the flight home starts slowly. The short version: Singapore’s first all-villa resort, opened in March 2025 on a forested Sentosa hilltop, with 62 pool villas by Yabu Pushelberg, a spa in a 1930s British barracks, and Raffles butler service, fifteen minutes from the city.