Singapore Changi Airport to Clarke Quay at rush hour - Best way

Hey there.

I'm not sure how long you'd take to clear customs, but I usually don't take longer than 15 minutes to get into arrivals. Then again I'm local so it might be different for you. If you take about half an hour you'd still be in rush hour methinks. Usually the jam is coming from the city at this time, don't know if it's the other way round (in the direction towards the city).

But anyway, here's my opinion regarding your three options:

1) Taxi: To the best of my knowledge, flag-down is $2.80, and since you're taking a cab from Changi Airport, there's an additional $5 surcharge. Also there's a peak hour surcharge from 5-8pm (35% or some percentage of total cab fare I think). This is your most expensive but most convenient option. Not sure about jam. We haven't even begun to account for the meter.

2) Airport shuttle is much cheaper if it's just $9. You should take that if it goes to or close to your hotel.

3) MRT. It'll be super duper crowded, especially when you make the transfers at Tanah Merah and Outram Park. If you don't mind the crowd (80% chance you'll not have a seat) and you don't mind that it takes about an hour and after that you still have to walk to your hotel, then this is the cheapest of the three options.

4) Here's another option. You can take a bus from the airport if you like (bus no. 36 from the bus terminal at the airport basement). You should be able to get a seat at least. To get to Clarke Quay MRT you'd have to transfer bus (to bus 195) at Esplanade though and total journey is about an hour. You'd still have to walk, but if you're trying to stinge every bit you can and you don't mind carrying luggage on a public bus you can try this. This is the route for your reference: http://gothere.sg/maps#q:changi%20airport%20to%20clarke%20quay%20mrt (click on By Bus instead of By Train + Bus)

Summary:
- Most convenient: Airport shuttle (if it brings you to your doorstep, if not then the taxi is next most convenient)
- Cheapest: Bus or MRT (bus gets my vote, you eventually get to sit down)
- Fastest: probably the Airport shuttle (if there's a jam everyone's stuck anyway, haha. But it's never that bad)

Hope you have a safe trip in Singapore. If you decide to pursue the bus route and need some more help, let me know.

We took a taxi from Bugis Junction to a place maybe a km or so away during peak traffic. Cost us as much as a taxi from half way across town in off peak. Take the train, its no big drama. Shuttles tend not to do hostels.

You can expect your cab fare to be around $30 at that time. (factor in distance, ERP, blabla)

Yeah westwood's right, the train is not too bad in terms of saving money and still getting there, it's just that personally whenever I can I avoid the MRT due to the crowds (if you travel long distance on the bus you'll eventually get a seat and some space. Well, "long distance".). But if this is not an issue for you as is it for me then MRT is the way to go. (:

#3, if you were a tourist in a strange city, do you think you'd be able to find your way round by public bus!!
I just think the MRT is so much easier for a tourist to use. The stations are clear so you dont spend the whole trip wondering where you have to get off. And OP knows there's a station close to where they have to go.

It is more convenient for a tourist and much easier to find your way, I agree.

Nevertheless, it's simply another option for Chorleyboy. After all, you get to see more while on the bus as it passes through more places. But yeah it would be inconvenient to keep counting the stops.

at that time of the day, there will be quite a crowd when making the transfer at Outram Park MRT station, especially in the direction that you are heading (from East-West line to Northeast line). expect a bottleneck when you exit the train at Outram Park - that station wasn't built to cope with the capacity that it now handles. but things will be better once you make it one floor down to the linkway leading to the Northeast line platforms (the platforms for these 2 lines are located a bit of a walk apart - it's essentially 2 stations linked by a tunnel)...& then it gets packed again on the platform for Clarke Quay-bound trains, though there will usually be staff doing crowd control at that hour. it's manageable, just don't expect to be able to get a seat on the trains as #1 said.

there is a maximum size limit of 81x51x30cm for luggage/bulky items on trains - this is not stated on the train companies' websites, but displayed on signboards at some stations, though it is not often enforced.

a reservation about the bus option is that the waiting time for service 195 can be quite long, & it's served only by single deck buses i.e. more packed, not fun squeezing past other passengers with your suitcases.

Take the cab, its always faster. There is never really a jam in singapore. the time from airport to clarke on a cab at that hour would at most take only 35 minutes.traffic conditions here are unlike KL or Bangkok for goodness sakes.

by the time you take all the public transport, and being a newbie in town, you would have reached your hotel, checked in and relaxing with a beer in your hand.

if you take the MRT, you'll be able to have a good dinner and a beer in your hand from the savings from the taxi fares.................

Thanks for all your suggestions.

I personally have been on several underground rail networks before at rush hour with a backpack, Moscow is quite memorable. I would not like to repeat that, as although I've been on the MRT before, I'm not alone this time, I have to look after my partner too. She has never been on an underground train before and as she is not the biggest person in the world, she will struggle to fight her corner with the experienced locals for a standing place.

I think we will go for the middle ground, the Airport shuttle. I was concerned when posting that it may not drop off at the hostel, but today I have booked a different hostel on Hong Kong Street for later in our trip, which is around the corner from the hostel I am staying at on arrival in Singapore and they mention in their email that the $9pp shuttle will drop you off in front of their hostel. So even if they don't drop at the hostel I am booked at, the one round the corner is closer than the Clarke Quay MRT station anyway.

Hopefully then, I should have saved enough over the taxi fare for at least a good beer for myself. I think I can get a good locally brewed beer quite close to the hostel, rather than the standard pale lager I have been stuck drinking for the last year.