Fancy a staycation in Singapore? Staycation seems to be getting popular for many people here in Singapore. Every now and then, you hear of people having staycations in one of the hotels or resorts here in Singapore. Being a tourist in your own country can quite fun!
The wife and I got invited to have a vacation in Singapore, courtesy of The Quincy Hotel. (Arranged by Far East Hospitality and Dice Studio)
The Quincy Hotel? Where's that?
It's a boutique hotel by the Far East Hospitality Group and it's located at Mount Elizabeth, just a few minutes walk from Paragon Shopping Center at Orchard Road! It has been rated the Trendiest Hotel in Asia and Seventh in the World by the 2011 TripAdvisor Travelers Choice Awards!
Let me share with you what Momo and I think of this hotel.
The hotel stay will costs $318++ a night. (Update: From 18 Nov onwards, it's $328++) The unique thing about this hotel is that the price includes EVERYTHING! Yes, things that other hotels will charge you extras for, it's all included in the price.
For example, the following are all included:
- Yoga or baking class and movie night by the pool (Registration required. Subject to availability.)
- Daily buffet breakfast, set lunch & dinner
- Unlimited broadband Internet access
- Local telephone calls
- Complimentary cocktails from 6pm to 8pm nightly
- Complimentary minibar, replenished daily
- Complimentary bottle of red wine
- All day coffee and tea
- Late check-out till 3pm (Subject to availability)
- T&C apply
*** THE ROOM ***
Momo and I checked in The Quincy Hotel on Friday, 19 August and stayed for a night.
We had our luggage all packed and went checked in to the hotel right after work!
We stayed in the Studio Room. (There's Deluxe Studio, that includes Nespresso machine as well).
That's the bed we slept on. A King size bed and 400-thread-count sheets. Yes, they were comfortable. Down feather pillows with micro fibre pillows as well. We had a good night sleep.
If you are into gadgetry like me, you will like this place. iPod/iPhone chargers, a huge flat screen TV and guess what? Automated blinds in the room! What you see is the day curtains. There is a total black out blind that comes all the way down behind the day curtains with a push of a button by the bed side!
Many hotels are having the 'transparent' or 'see thru' bathroom design, and Quincy has it too!
For couples, this can be quite ahem 'interesting'! You can lie on the bed and watch your partner shower.
The view from inside the bathroom out. You might feel like a fish in an aquarium!
I like the WC! It's a modern toilet from Toto! They were really quite comfortable to sit on!
Yup, it comes with a bidet. :-)
Oh yes, they use Morton Brown bath amenities here.
The Morton Brown bar soaps and shower gel's excellent! Nice fragrance and non drying too.
(Momo and I think the shampoo's no good though, it dries out the hair, so BYO shampoo!)
The mini bar was stocked with beer, pepsico's softdrinks and yeo's packet drinks.
It's all included in the price and replenished daily. Drink them all!
When we travel, we usually don't touch the snacks and drinks because it costs a bomb to have them.
But here, just eat and drink!
*** DINNER ***
The room rates includes 3 meals. Our first meal after we checked in was dinner on the 1st level. The food's prepared by the chef from Modesto's if I remember correctly.
Dinner was a set dinner. We order the mains that we wanted from the menu.
Momo had the spaghetti.
I had Curry Chicken and Rice. We both ordered from the Today's Special section. The chicken curry was more delicious than the spaghetti. ;-) But we spied at other table's steak! They looked even better!
There's free flow of soup and also a slice of a slice of delicious Tiramisu to end the meal.
Since it's so near Paragon, Momo and I strolled down to Paragon after dinner. Oh no, the wife saw shoes on sale and bought a pair. Come to think of it, that money spent on shoes would have been air fare if we travelled overseas!
*** YOGA ***
The next morning at 8 AM, I went for the Yoga workout. Stretching and breathing exercise so early in the morning. On vacation, I don't usually wake up so early, but some exercise will do me some good!
I don't have any photos as I was exercising!
But you can see the photos
here by the 'official photographers' ;-)
*** BREAKFAST ***
After some exercise, I was really hungry and with the rest of the people who exercised, I ate quite a bit! It's a buffet breakfast. Not a huge spread, but there's enough variety to stuff you up!
Had eggs, hash brown, sausage, pork bacon, and fried rice too! I saw some pastries and took a chocolate roll and a croissant.
Picked a few items from the salad / cold meats / cheese section. Can you imagine I ate some roti prata after eating the more western cheese and hams? The prata was really crispy and delicious though!
I wanted to try more stuff, and had some porridge. I did not have the cereals though. I stole a snap from someone else's breakfast! More photos of the juices, buffet tables on
my Flickr album.
*** NAP and EXERCISE ***
Oh too much food made me really sleepy! I went to have a nap a short while after breakfast!
Around noon, the wife said, she's going to exercise. She has missed her gym sessions earlier that week and after all those food, it's time to burn them off. OK, I joined her at the gym upstairs.
Beside the gym, there's a swimming pool too!
If you like water, swim! Look how cool the pool is!
*** LUNCH ***
We had a late lunch because we went to exercise. So after exercising, we tried to have a healthier meal.
Eating salad alone will be too extreme right? There's free flow of salad.
As it was a set lunch, just order the mains. The drinks, sides and ice cream are all free flow!
Momo had the Club Sandwich. Looks good ya!
It tasted as good as it looks too!
That's the complete plating of the order on the left. On the right, is showing you what's inside. Chicken Sausages.
I had the beef burger. I saw a few persons around me order it too!
It's not huge, but it's big enough for me. The potato wedges were really nice!
*** BAKING LESSON ***
For the package that they are offering now, you can either choose a Yoga Session or a Baking Class for the staycation.
Our baking instructor, Zeti A David! She has a shop along Shenton area I think.
She's taught us how to make cup cakes!
I heard on some weeks they will be making Tiramisu. There were mamy couples and families at the session, and it is quite fun! We made everything from scratch!
Sugar, Butter and Eggs. We had to cream them first. Oh, it was a big workout! We were just given whisk and not the electrical ones! We had to beat till it was creamy. Hard work!
Oops, who was the silly person who put the whole egg without cracking into the mixing bowl?!
After creaming it with all our might, the instructor finally said OK to consistency of our mixture. We added in the flour and cocoa powder and folded the ingredients till they combined. Next was to put them into cupcake holders! It's that simple!
Our instructor putting our cupcakes into the oven. Just like on TV, while our cupcakes are in the oven, cool down ones appeared! It was decorating time!
We enjoyed decorating. We had a few designs and since we had time, we took 4 extra cupcakes to decorate. We called it the Presidential cupcakes! When we showed the cupcake to friends who happen to visit our home when we got back, they wanted to throw away 3 of the cupcakes above! It's just cupcakes! Many people are very very serious about the Presidential Elections!
After baking, we checked out and went home. We still kind of miss the short little staycation we had. It's been about a week and we still have good memories of it.
Do you want to enjoy an all-inclusive staycation at The Quincy Hotel for only $318++?
You can fill up this form below provided by the hotel and get a free upgrade to the Deluxe Studio. (We stayed in the 'normal' Studio) The hotel will get in touch with you within 2 working days.
If you can't see the form below, click here:
http://bit.ly/nPBn0Z
Have a great stay!
For more information about Quincy Hotel, you can surf on to:
http://www.quincy.com.sg
Update:
More Qool Activities
On top of Yoga and Cupcake classes, the hotel has introduced Happy Feet - Learn Foot Massage! Also, Friday and Sunday check-in guests are now welcomed to join us for some fun as we have open up more available time slots for guests. Here are the available activities:
Friday Check-ins
Happy Feet - Learn Foot Massage! (9pm-10.30pm; Available from 20 November onwards)
Yoga class (11am-12pm, Saturday Morning; Valid Until 30 November Only)
Cupcake Baking class (2.30pm-4pm, Saturday Afternoon)
Saturday Check-ins
Cupcake Baking class (4.30pm-6pm)
Movie Nights by/in pool (9pm)
Sunday Check-ins
Happy Feet - Learn Foot Massage! (3.30pm-5pm; Available from 20 November onwards)
Movie Nights Nights by/in pool (9pm)
As usual, prior registration is required and activities are subject to availability/a minimum group size. Interested guests are encouraged to confirm the activities availability from the hotel at +65 6738 5888.
Qool Prizes
Exclusive Lucky Draw for Qool Weekend Guests
(1 night = 1 entry. Increase your chances of winning by booking more nights!)
Weekly Draw
- Win a 6" Cold Stone Ice Cream Cake worth $44
- 1 winner each week. Check out the hotel's Facebook Page for the results! First draw starts on 18th November 2011.
- 5 flavours to choose from.
Overall Campaign Draw (4 winners)
- Top Prize : OCHRE Dining Voucher worth $200 (1 Winner)
- Runner Up: Orchard Central Vouchers worth $100 (3 Winners)
- Results will be announced on 10 February 2012 at the hotel's Facebook Page
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