Sentosa Staycation: Amara Sanctuary Resort & FOC {Review}

Sometimes you just need a break and if you can’t travel, you can always have a staycation and explore your own country, in our case, Singapore. That’s what my friend Arlyn and I did last month. We booked a night’s stay at Amara Sanctuary Resort in Sentosa so that we’d at least be near a touristy spot and totally feel like we were really travelling. 😆

Tapas Club @ Vivo City

Before checking in, we decided to have lunch, so we headed to Vivo City, the nearest mall to Sentosa. Though there are restaurants in Sentosa, there are more options in Vivo.

We chose Tapas Club because we were roped in by their affordable lunch set and the view outside.

The lunch set costs less than S$20 for a main and two tapas of your choice and for a S$3 top up you can get sangria! To be honest, the food was so-so but the sangria was good.

The view and ambiance outdoors is really good, though, so I think it’s worth going there if you’re availing of the lunch set.

Amara Sanctuary Resort

We did a bit of shopping around Vivo City before finally heading to Sentosa. You can take the Sentosa Express or a cab there. If you do the latter, make sure to tell the driver to tell the gate people that you are hotel guests so you don’t need to pay entrance fee to Sentosa. Then we checked into Amara Sanctuary Resort.

We were primarily impressed with the gigantic king size bed in our room. It’s so big that three or maybe even four people can fit in it. We had a very sound sleep later that night.

There is a bathtub inside the bathroom, but we didn’t get to use it. I was also impressed with their big smooth bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. They are bigger than the usual ones and I was actually tempted to bring them home and reuse the bottles for my travels because they look very sleek. In the end I didn’t do it coz I already have my own reusable bottles and Marie Kondo won’t approve my hoarding!

On the top floor they have a mini infinity pool, so obviously we had to have a swim in it the next day. It has a nice view overlooking the sea.

The resort has expansive grounds and you should definitely walk around to explore it and look for their majestic pet peacock.

There is a free bus that you can take to explore Sentosa island, and they also have free shuttle rides to take you to Vivo City.

Siloso Beach

Arlyn and I have both lived in Singapore for over a decade, so we’re no stranger to Sentosa island, which used to be the main tourist attraction when we first moved here.

Back then, Marina Bay Sands and Universal Studios hadn’t even been built yet, so whenever we had guests from the Philippines, this was where we would bring them.

I don’t know how many pictures I had with this SILOSO signage! I even attended a few of their famous Siloso beach new year’s eve countdown parties. But now I can’t even recall when was the last time I was here!

We didn’t do much that day, just took some shuttles to look around the island to browse in the cute shops around Universal Studios, hang out at the beach side and drink smoothies to alleviate the humidity.

But there’s actually so many things to do in Sentosa. You can check out the Sentosa official site for the full list. Some of the ones I’ve tried: Skyline luge, Mega Adventure Park, SEA Aquarium, Maritime Experiential Museum and Universal Studios. I’ve linked all my former posts about them so you can click on the links to read about those experiences. Someday I would want to try the iFly, Madame Tussauds, and Dolphin Island.

FOC Sentosa

Dinner time came quite quickly and for some reason we ended up having Spanish food again, this time at FOC Sentosa. This was definitely better than lunch, though! Not just the quality of the food, but that view from our table right on the beach, too!

We managed to catch a beautiful sunset on the FOC beachfront. Isn’t it dreamy?

The food was super delicious! I highly recommend the prawns. The sauce was so good that I couldn’t resist dipping the bread in them once we ran out of prawns.

But my favourite order of all is the cider sangria, which is probably the best alcoholic drink I have ever had in my entire life. It is so refreshing and delicious and I am definitely gonna go back for this!

This is my idea of the perfect dinner: delicious food and drinks, relaxing music, sea breeze blowing through our hair, sand in our toes, sunset at the beach – who needs to travel when you can have all these in your own country?

Hans Im Gluck

After checking out the next day, we took the shuttle to Vivo City and landed in Hans Im Gluck for lunch. I chose the place because I was enamoured by its unique design.

I mean, where else can you find actual tree trunks inside a restaurant? I’ve never seen such a thing before.

I was also really impressed that they have a naked option for their gourmet burgers, so I didn’t have to awkwardly ask if they could remove the buns or for me to remove them and give them away to someone else or just waste them, which happens when you’re trying to eat low carb.

They have a good lunch special until 5pm. You can just top up S$7 to any burger and get a side and a drink. I had the birkenwald burger which came with mushrooms topped with sour cream-scallion sauce, a German salad, and a cucumber-basil lemonade.

The drinks are really cute and refreshing, too. They also play soft music so I would recommend the place for good food and ambiance.

Library @ Harbourfront

We looked around Vivo City before heading home. I checked out their new pretty library which has a nice view of the ocean. I definitely recommend hanging out here if you need to study or just, you know, read a book.