Filming locations in Singapore

Crazy Rich Asians did for Singapore what few films manage for a real place: it turned a whole city into a single, glittering set piece. The glossy 2018 romance soaks up the bayfront skyline, and the most famous frame of all belongs to Marina Bay Sands, whose three towers are crowned by a vast rooftop and that cantilevered infinity pool, the city laid out far below. The pool itself is for hotel guests, so the only way to swim into the shot is to book a room.

Even without a room, the rooftop is yours: the SkyPark observation deck is ticketed and open to everyone, and the bay promenade at the foot of the towers costs nothing at all. From up there the whole geography of the film snaps into focus, the water, the towers, the gardens, exactly as the camera found it.

A short stroll away lies the film's other showstopper, Gardens by the Bay, where the glowing Supertree Grove rises like something from a future century. Those towering steel canopies and the nightly light show are free to wander, while the cooled conservatory domes and the treetop skyway ask a ticket. Come in the evening, when the heat eases and the trees light up, and the spectacle is at its most cinematic.

The beauty of Singapore for a set-jetter is how tightly everything packs together. The Sands, the gardens and the promenade all ring the same stretch of bay, walkable in an afternoon, and the whole city is famously easy to cross by its cool, fast metro. Base yourself near Marina Bay and the headline scenes are essentially on your doorstep.

Singapore is hot and humid the year round, so plan the outdoor spots for early morning or after dusk and duck into the air-conditioned domes and malls through the worst of the midday glare. Pair the film locations with a hawker-centre dinner and the city delivers exactly the sheen the screen promised, with a far better meal at the end of it.