It was my first time trying out Capitol Kempinski hotel in Singapore. I remember staying at the Kempinski Munich airport hotel many years ago on a family trip. I was supposed to go on this staycation with my wife, but due to last minute contingencies, I went with the kids instead. To say that we enjoyed the staycation was an understatement.

Kempinski has been running several promotions to entice people to book with them. For example, last year there was a HSBC promo – First 50 bookings made from 15 to 17 October 2021 shall enjoy 1-night stay in Grand Deluxe Room at S$325++ but unfortunately I was too slow to secure it.

Next, during the 11.11 sales, I managed to secure a classic room for $280++. Special rate includes daily free-flow a la carte breakfast at 15 Stamford restaurant, 20% dining discount at 15 Stamford by Alvin Leong and restaurants at Arcade @ The Capitol Kempinski (excludes alcohol, set menus, minibar, promotion and merchandise items), 20% privilege at The Spa, complimentary parking, Wi-Fi and in-room tea and coffee making facilities.

We arrived at the hotel around 2.20pm and our room was ready to check in. The staff kindly helped me to take our bags to the room even though we were not carrying a lot of stuff. The classic room is 38 sq m, so it is considered the smallest on the property. There was a long hallway which I think was a waste of space. There could be a sofa placed along the hallway so that we could lounge on the sofa.

The standard amenities provided in the room include a coffee machine, tea bags, kettle, magazines, spa menu etc.

We were supposed to celebrate our anniversary at the hotel so I had arranged for a surprise for my wife. It ended up being the kids who enjoyed the slice of cake. It was a slice of red velvet cheesecake, which was delicious. I liked the small touch by the hotel staff and their attention to details.

The tea selection was quite unique, with Mist Valley instead of the usual TWG. Apparently, Mist Valley is a local brand. They have bases in China — the birthplace of tea — and Sri Lanka, the home of Ceylon tea, where our team of expert professionals work together to share their passion for pure tea with our customers around the world.

The bathroom was beautifully designed, with two sinks, a bathtub, and three different kinds of showers for the uninitiated. The showers had a handheld shower, a normal shower head and a rain shower. We definitely enjoyed trying all the different kinds of showers. The bath set of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel were from Salvatore Ferragamo, an Italian luxury goods company. The shower and shampoo were really fragrant, making it soothing and relaxing for a bath.

With three kids, taking a bath is the fastest way to get them washed. And also to entice them to take a bath, I actually bought a bath bomb from Lush for all of us to enjoy. This special bath bomb even has a rose petal inside and it turns the water a lovely shade of dusty pink and you can enjoy the sakura/rose type of flower left at the end until it melts into tiny petals.

After checkin, our first priority was to head to the swimming pool. I saw on the online reservation that there was no one who booked between 2-3pm, so I thought the kids could swim for about half an hour first before their original time slot at 4-5pm. It turns out that not everyone who made the booking turned up for their timeslot, so the staff allowed us to stay there from 3-4pm as well. After which, the kids had enough splashing around and we went back to the room. Here is the link to book your pool slots in advance as you do not want to check in to the hotel on the day itself, only to be disappointed with the limited or lack of slots left.

The pool is really small, with a maximum capacity of 11 pax due to the prevailing government measures. It has a 1.2m depth and jacuzzi by the sides. They provided goggles for the kids and also swimming foam noodle for them to play with.

For dinner, we headed over to Raffles City which is a convenient 5 minutes walk from the hotel. At night, we chilled in the room by playing board games and Nintendo Switch, by hooking up the game console to the TV.

The next day, breakfast was served at 15 Stamford by Alvin Leung. It is one of their signature restaurants at Kempinski. I shall save the food review of breakfast for another post. The restaurant has a very nice interior, and the four of us were allocated a comfy sofa seat. The kids ordered as much as they liked, although the girls were full quite fast. Me and the nephew tried almost everything on the menu, eating to our heart’s content. The last order was at 10.30am and since we only managed to book for the 9.30am timeslot, we had about an hour for breakfast.

At night, Capitol Singapore offers some form of entertainment such as the arcade claw machine or the sidecars displayed neatly on the grass patch. Visitors can sign up for a tour in one of these sidecars around the Civic District. Of course it doesn’t come cheap, it is $180 for an hour’s tour.

Serving as the first-of-its-kind mothership launchpad, Capitol Singapore will be the starting and ending point of the seven-stop tour that will take you through iconic heritage landmarks – Capitol Theatre at Capitol Singapore, Hill Street Fire Station (Singapore’s oldest surviving fire station), Fort Canning (where early colonial settlers resided), Armenian Street (already in existence before 1835), The National Museum (Singapore’s oldest museum with a history that dates back to 1849) and Padang (which has borne witness to key events throughout Singapore’s history), the traditional coffee shops of Purvis Street and finally CHIJMES, which houses two national monuments – CHIJMES Hall and Caldwell House – before looping back to Capitol Singapore and passing by two of its conservation buildings, Stamford House and Capitol Building.

Overall, Capitol Kempinski has fulfilled our expectations of a wonderful staycation in Singapore. The room we had was on a high floor, but did not have much of a view. We made use of the facilities and also had an enjoyable breakfast. Hope that they would run more sales so that we can book another night with them. For the price that I paid for one night at Kempinski, I could easily stay at other properties in Singapore such as Goodwood Park, so it really depends on the individual if you are looking for which area of town to have a staycation.