At a Glance
Compared to this destination's peak season November is the best-value month of the Singaporean year, sitting between the October F1 weekend (the most expensive week) and the Christmas peak. Two spikes to note: the Deepavali weekend (Sun Nov 8, 2026 plus the Mon Nov 9 holiday) fills Little India from mid-afternoon, and rates begin climbing again in the final week as Christmas demand builds. The Singapore Writers Festival runs Nov 13–22 and Black Friday lands Fri Nov 27. Note that SGIFF has MOVED to October (21 Oct–1 Nov 2026) and is no longer a November event. Fares rose 27 Dec 2025 (adult card S$1.28–2.57).
Singapore in November — Travel Guide
By Harry Nara · Last updated
Singapore in November offers some of the best conditions of the year, ideal for deepavali visitors, value seekers & foodies. Expect temperatures of 24–31°C, around 19 days of rain, and low-medium crowds across the city. Daily budgets typically land around $55–1,100+ for mid-range travellers. Rooms are easy to find last-minute and hotel prices stay noticeably softer through the season.
Contents14 sections
#Weather in Singapore in November
Singapore in November averages 24–31°C (75–88°F) with around 19 days of rain, and crowds are low-medium.
November marks the start of the Northeast Monsoon. Rainfall climbs sharply, humidity thickens, and the storms lengthen: expect roughly 250mm across 19 wet days, against daytime highs of 29–31°C and overnight lows of 24–26°C. Where a September storm is a violent 45 minutes, a November system can settle over the island for two or three hours, and the sky can stay grey for the rest of the afternoon.
That is the honest cost.
The compensation is that November is one of the cheapest months of the year to be in Singapore, sitting in the trough between the October F1 weekend (the most expensive week of the year) and the Christmas-to-New-Year peak. Hotel rates in the first three weeks of November are as soft as they ever get.
#Getting Around
Changi Airport (SIN) connects to City Hall on the East-West MRT in around 30 minutes, entirely under cover.
Grab or taxi to Marina Bay runs S$25–45.
Fares rose on 27 December 2025. Adult card fares now run from S$1.28 for a short hop to roughly S$2.57 for a long cross-island journey, following the Public Transport Council's 2025 fare review. Use an EZ-Link card, or simply tap a contactless Visa or Mastercard through SimplyGo, which charges identical fares with nothing to buy.
In November the MRT is not merely convenient, it is the plan. Sheltered stations and underground links connect most of the CBD, and a rainstorm that paralyses the taxi network has no effect at all on the trains.
#What to Do in Singapore in November
Deepavali: Sunday 8 November 2026
Deepavali is the reason to be in Singapore in November, and it is astonishing that so many November guides omit it.
In 2026 the festival falls on Sunday 8 November, with Monday 9 November gazetted as a public holiday.
For weeks either side, Little India is transformed. Serangoon Road is strung with illuminated arches, peacocks and oil-lamp motifs that stay lit deep into the night, and the surrounding lanes fill with the Deepavali Festival Village bazaar around Campbell Lane, selling garlands, saris, brassware, sweets and fairy lights by the kilometre.
The Indian Heritage Centre on Campbell Lane runs an open house around the festival, typically with free entry, henna artists and rangoli demonstrations. Almost all of it costs nothing. Confirm this year's light-up window on VisitSingapore's Deepavali page.
The Deepavali temple circuit
Little India's temples are the emotional centre of the festival and they are open to visitors, free, and genuinely welcoming. Three are worth the walk, and they sit within about twenty minutes of each other.
Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple on Serangoon Road is the one most visitors see: a dense, vividly painted gopuram of stacked deities, dedicated to Kali, and one of the oldest Hindu temples in Singapore. It is busiest at dawn and at dusk, when the oil lamps are lit and the bells begin.
Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple, further up Serangoon Road, is the quieter and in some ways the more moving of the two. It is a Vishnu temple, and it is also the starting point of the Thaipusam procession in January, which gives it a particular gravity.
Sri Thendayuthapani Temple on Tank Road, a short ride away, is the Thaipusam destination and one of the most elegant temple interiors in the city.
At all three: remove your shoes at the entrance, dress to cover shoulders and knees, and do not photograph anyone mid-prayer without asking. Nobody will mind you being there. They will mind a camera in a stranger's face.
Little India beyond the festival
Even without Deepavali, Little India is the most sensorially intense district in Singapore and the least sanded down by tourism.
Tekka Centre is the anchor: a wet market on the ground floor, a hawker centre beside it, and a first floor of textile and sari merchants. The banana-leaf rice here is the real thing and costs a fraction of what it does in a restaurant.
Mustafa Centre is open around the clock and defies description: four floors and two buildings selling gold, saffron, electronics, luggage, pharmaceuticals and groceries to a crowd that never fully thins, at 3am as much as at 3pm. It is the single most extraordinary shop in Singapore and it is free to wander.
The shophouses along Kerbau Road and Dunlop Street carry the district's best surviving architecture, and the Indian Heritage Centre on Campbell Lane gives the whole neighbourhood its historical spine in about ninety minutes.
Christmas on A Great Street switches on
Orchard Road's Christmas light-up begins in early-to-mid November (the 2025 edition switched on 8 November) and runs to 1 January.
The display covers the full 3.1km from Tanglin to Dhoby Ghaut, with a 14-metre Christmas tree, two temporary Christmas Villages, projection mapping on the Hilton Singapore Orchard facade, and nightly artificial snowfall shows. It is free, it is enormous, and in November it is far less crowded than it becomes in December. Dates are confirmed on the official Orchard Road Christmas site.
Christmas Wonderland at Gardens by the Bay opens in the last days of November (the 2025 edition began 29 November), taking over the Supertree Grove with a European-style Christmas market, luminarie light arches, carnival rides and a nightly snowfall.
Timed-entry sessions run from 6.30pm to 11pm.
Advance tickets started at S$9 adult and S$7 child in 2025, rising to S$11–15 for same-day purchase; any guide still quoting S$5 is years out of date.
The marathon takes over the first weekend of December
Worth knowing if you are here in late November: the city's flagship race, now the BYD Singapore International Marathon presented by adidas (formerly the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon), runs 4 to 6 December 2026. Road closures build across the Marina Bay and Esplanade area, hotel rates in the centre stiffen, and the city fills with runners from about the Wednesday. If your trip runs into early December and you are not racing, plan around it.
Singapore Writers Festival: 13 to 22 November 2026
One of Asia's major literary festivals runs across ten days in the Civic District, with The Arts House as the festival ground. Expect a programme spanning fiction, poetry, translation, graphic novels and public conversation, in all four of Singapore's official languages. Many events are ticketed cheaply and a good number are free. Programme and tickets appear on the festival site.
The film festival has moved (and it is no longer a November event)
The Singapore International Film Festival now runs in October. The 37th edition takes place from 21 October to 1 November 2026, a deliberate shift from its traditional late-November-to-early-December slot, announced by SGIFF. Only the closing weekend now spills into November.
Black Friday: Friday 27 November 2026
Black Friday has taken firm hold in Singapore, and the discounting now runs for roughly a week either side across Orchard Road, the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes and every major online retailer. It is one of the two heaviest discounting windows of the Singaporean year (the other being the post-Christmas sales from 26 December), and it matters more than it used to, because the old centralised Great Singapore Sale ended after 2022 and no longer exists.
The quiet-month dividend
With the F1 circus packed away and Christmas not yet arrived, November is when Singapore's paid attractions are at their most pleasant.
Universal Studios Singapore runs its shortest queues of the year, and rides continue to operate in light rain (they pause only for lightning).
The S.E.A. Aquarium, the National Gallery, the ArtScience Museum and the Mandai wildlife cluster (the Zoo, Night Safari, River Wonders and Bird Paradise) all run normally and are noticeably emptier.
The Mandai parks are the interesting case: they are open-air, which sounds like a problem in the wettest month, and in practice is not. The zoo is heavily shaded by mature rainforest canopy, the boardwalks are covered in long stretches, and the animals are frequently more active in cool, wet, overcast weather than in the blazing heat that flattens them in April. A grey November morning at the Singapore Zoo is, counter-intuitively, close to the ideal conditions for it.
If your idea of a good trip involves not queueing, this is the month.
#Food & Dining
November is a two-cuisine month, and both halves are excellent.
Deepavali food is the seasonal event.
Little India's sweet shops fill with murukku, ladoo, jalebi and gulab jamun, sold by weight and consumed at a rate that would alarm a dentist.
Banana-leaf rice at Tekka Centre or on Race Course Road is the classic sit-down meal, eaten with your right hand, rice replenished until you fold the leaf toward you to signal that you are done.
Expect S$8–15 and expect to be full.
Christmas menus open for booking through November. The hotel restaurants (Raffles, the Fullerton, Mandarin Oriental, the Ritz-Carlton) release their Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve set menus around October, and the good ones are gone by late November. If a festive dinner is part of the plan, book it now rather than in December.
Monsoon food is the other half. The dishes locals actually want in a storm are the ones that travel worst in the sun: bak kut teh, the peppery Teochew pork-rib soup, at Founder in Balestier; laksa at 328 Katong, coconut-heavy and eaten with a spoon; claypot rice, cooked to order over charcoal and worth the twenty-minute wait; and bak chor mee, minced-pork noodles, at the Michelin-starred Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle.
The year-round backbone holds regardless: chicken rice at Tian Tian in Maxwell Food Centre (S$5–7), chilli crab at Jumbo or Long Beach (S$60–90 a head), and satay on Boon Tat Street outside Lau Pa Sat from about 7pm, under a roof.
At the top end, Odette at the National Gallery holds three Michelin stars, Burnt Ends is the modern-barbecue institution, and Candlenut in Dempsey Hill was the world's first Michelin-starred Peranakan restaurant. November is one of the few months in which you can plausibly get a table at short notice.
#Nightlife
November's rain pushes everything indoors, which is where Singapore's best drinking happens anyway.
Atlas in Bencoolen, with its art-deco gin tower, is the most photographed bar in the country.
Manhattan at the Conrad Centennial is a permanent fixture of the World's 50 Best Bars, and Jigger & Pony is a perennial regional number one.
28 HongKong Street remains the original speakeasy, and Native on Telok Ayer builds every drink from Southeast Asian ingredients: ants, rice wine, jackfruit. None of them care what the weather is doing.
For a rooftop with cover, CÉ LA VI at Marina Bay Sands has sheltered seating, and watching an electrical storm break across the bay from 57 floors up is a genuinely memorable way to lose an evening.
Note that 1-Altitude at One Raffles Place is closed for redevelopment, despite its stubborn presence on rooftop-bar listicles that nobody has updated.
Zouk at Clarke Quay runs full weekend line-ups, and by November it is already promoting ZoukOut, its beachfront festival on Siloso Beach in December.
#Shopping
The Christmas windows go up along Orchard Road from mid-November: ION Orchard, Paragon, Ngee Ann City, Takashimaya and Mandarin Gallery all run elaborate themed installations, and the street outside them, with its 3.1km of lights, costs nothing to walk.
Black Friday, on 27 November 2026, is the month's retail event. Discounting runs for roughly a week either side, across the Orchard Road malls, the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes and every major Singaporean online retailer. It matters more here than it used to, because the old centralised Great Singapore Sale ended after 2022 and there is no longer an island-wide sale season to wait for.
Beyond the malls: Mustafa Centre in Little India, open around the clock, is the place for Deepavali goods, gold, spices and electronics.
Tekka Centre has the textiles and saris.
Bugis Street Market is the cheap, chaotic end.
Haji Lane in Kampong Glam has the independents, and Tiong Bahru the design shops and bakeries, both of them sheltered enough to work in a downpour.
#Culture & Etiquette
- Deepavali etiquette: temples are open to visitors and welcoming.
Remove your shoes, dress modestly, and ask before photographing anyone at prayer. If you are invited into a home during the festival, it is polite to bring sweets.
- Christmas here is civic, not religious. The decoration is universal across a multi-faith city and nobody regards it as a statement of belief.
- Umbrella etiquette matters in November. Shake and fold it at the entrance; most malls and MRT stations provide umbrella bags or stands.
- The MRT eating and drinking ban is enforced (up to S$500). So is littering (from S$300).
- No tipping. Service charge and 9% GST are added to the bill.
- Vaping penalties rose to as much as S$10,000 on 1 May 2026, and devices are routinely detected at Changi. Leave it at home.
- Drug laws are extreme. Trafficking carries a mandatory death penalty.
#Essential Local Phrases
Singapore has four official languages plus Singlish (a localised English-Malay-Hokkien-Tamil blend). You'll get by in plain English everywhere, but a handful of local words will help you read menus, order at hawker stalls, and understand what people are saying.
| What you want to say | What you'll hear in Singapore |
|---|---|
| Yes / OK | Can lah (Singlish) |
| No / Cannot do | Cannot (Singlish) |
| Delicious | Shiok (Singlish) |
| To eat / Let's eat | Makan (Malay, universally used) |
| Iced coffee at a hawker stall | Kopi peng (Hokkien) |
| Spicy | Pedas (Malay) |
| Bill, please (at a restaurant) | Mai dan (Mandarin) |
| Thank you | Terima kasih (Malay) / Xie xie (Mandarin) |
| Sentence emphasis | Lah (added at the end) |
#Packing List
- Cotton or linen clothing. Synthetic fabric is miserable at 90% humidity.
- A sturdy compact umbrella. November is among the wettest months of the year.
- A lightweight rain shell for the days when the wind makes an umbrella useless.
- Closed shoes that cope with wet pavements, plus sandals.
- One smart-casual outfit, for a rooftop bar or an early Christmas dinner.
- A light layer for interiors. Singaporean air conditioning is genuinely cold.
- Insect repellent for evenings.
- A plastic bag or umbrella sleeve for the wet umbrella in your day bag.
- A Type G adapter (the same three-pin plug as the UK).
- A refillable water bottle. Tap water is safe and excellent.
#Backup Plans (Rainy Days)
In November the backup plan is not a contingency, it is half the itinerary, and Singapore is unusually well equipped for it.
The indoor complexes are enormous and interconnected: the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes, ION Orchard, VivoCity, Suntec City and Jewel Changi, all with cinemas and restaurants attached.
The Cloud Forest and Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay are fully climate-controlled and, in a storm, genuinely dramatic.
The museum circuit is the strongest option: the National Gallery Singapore (from S$25), the ArtScience Museum, the Asian Civilisations Museum, the Peranakan Museum and, fittingly for November, the Indian Heritage Centre in Little India, whose Deepavali programming makes it the most seasonally relevant museum in the city.
#Budget & Costs
November is, on the whole, the best-value month of the Singaporean year. It sits between the October F1 weekend and the Christmas peak, the weather deters casual visitors, and hotel rates fall accordingly. Rates begin climbing again in the final week as Christmas demand builds.
- Budget: hostel dorm, hawker meals, MRT.
Around S$55–90/day.
- Mid-range: 3-star or good 4-star hotel, mixed dining.
Around S$110–175/day.
- Comfortable: 4-star or 5-star hotel, restaurant meals, paid attractions.
Around S$220–370/day.
- Luxury: Marina Bay Sands, Raffles or the Fullerton, fine dining.
S$550–1,100+/day.
Reference costs: hawker meal S$5–10.
Casual restaurant S$15–30.
Banana-leaf rice in Little India S$8–15.
MRT single ride S$1.28–2.57 (card fare).
Taxi from Changi to downtown S$25–45.
Universal Studios Singapore S$83.
Gardens by the Bay conservatories S$32.
Christmas Wonderland from S$9 in advance.
#Safety & Health
Lightning is November's defining hazard. Singapore records one of the highest strike densities on earth and the monsoon months are the peak. Outdoor attractions (the Singapore Flyer, the OCBC Skyway, cable cars, the Sentosa luge) suspend operations during a warning, and that is a sensible precaution rather than an excess of caution. Get under a roof when you hear thunder.
Wet surfaces are the unglamorous risk: polished mall and MRT-station floors become genuinely slippery in a downpour, and most falls happen in the first few metres indoors.
Dengue is a year-round concern and the mosquito bites during the day. Use repellent, and check the NEA dengue cluster map if you are staying outside the centre.
Heat and dehydration still bite. A grey 30°C day at 90% humidity dehydrates you just as efficiently as a sunny one.
Vaping penalties rose to as much as S$10,000 on 1 May 2026, and etomidate-laced pods are now handled under drug law. The rules apply to tourists exactly as they apply to residents.
Drug laws are among the harshest in the world; trafficking carries a mandatory death penalty. Never carry anything for anyone.
Tap water is safe and excellent. Healthcare is world class and expensive, so travel insurance is strongly recommended.
Emergency numbers: 999 (police), 995 (ambulance and fire).
#What's Changed for 2026/27 Travellers
- The Singapore International Film Festival has moved to October. The 37th edition runs 21 October to 1 November 2026. It is no longer a late-November event, and a great deal of published advice has not caught up.
- Deepavali falls on Sunday 8 November 2026, with Monday 9 November as the public holiday.
- The Singapore Writers Festival runs 13 to 22 November 2026 in the Civic District.
- Black Friday lands on 27 November 2026 and is now one of the two biggest discounting windows of the year, because the centralised Great Singapore Sale ended after 2022.
- Public transport fares rose on 27 December 2025. Adult card fares now run S$1.28 to about S$2.57.
- Vape penalties rose on 1 May 2026 to as much as S$10,000, with Kpods handled under drug law.
- 1-Altitude is closed for redevelopment.
- Orchard Road's light-up now runs 3.1km, from Tanglin to Dhoby Ghaut, not the 2.2km that older guides describe.
#About This Guide
Research for this guide combined traveller reports from r/singapore and Tripadvisor's Singapore forum with primary and near-primary sources: VisitSingapore and PublicHolidays.sg for Deepavali on Sunday 8 November 2026 and the Monday holiday; the official Orchard Road Christmas site for the Christmas on A Great Street light-up window, the 3.1km route and the 14-metre tree; Gardens by the Bay for Christmas Wonderland's opening and ticket pricing; the Singapore Writers Festival for the 13 to 22 November 2026 dates and the Civic District venues; SGIFF's own announcement for the film festival's move to 21 October to 1 November 2026; the Public Transport Council for the 27 December 2025 fare adjustment; and the Health Sciences Authority for the vaping penalties that rose on 1 May 2026. Climate figures use Meteorological Service Singapore / NEA 1991-2020 normals.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When is Deepavali in Singapore in 2026?
Deepavali falls on Sunday 8 November 2026, with Monday 9 November gazetted as a public holiday. For weeks either side, Little India is transformed: Serangoon Road is strung with illuminated arches and oil-lamp motifs, the Deepavali Festival Village bazaar takes over Campbell Lane, and the Indian Heritage Centre runs an open house. Almost all of it is free. Go on a weekday evening between 7pm and 9pm rather than on the festival day itself, when Little India is shoulder to shoulder from mid-afternoon.
Is the Singapore International Film Festival in November?
Not any more. SGIFF has moved to October: the 37th edition runs from 21 October to 1 November 2026, so only the closing weekend now falls in November. It was traditionally a late-November-to-early-December festival and a great deal of published advice has not caught up. If the film festival is your reason for coming, you need to be in Singapore in the second half of October.
When does the Christmas light-up start on Orchard Road?
Christmas on A Great Street switches on in early-to-mid November (the 2025 edition began on 8 November) and runs through to 1 January. The display now covers the full 3.1km from Tanglin to Dhoby Ghaut, with a 14-metre Christmas tree, two Christmas Villages, projection mapping on the Hilton Singapore Orchard facade and nightly artificial snowfall shows. It is free to walk, and in November it is far less crowded than it becomes in December.
Are hotels cheaper in November?
Yes, and materially so. November is the best-value month of the Singaporean year: it sits between the October F1 weekend, which is the single most expensive week, and the Christmas-to-New-Year peak. The monsoon rain deters casual visitors, school holidays have not begun, and paid attractions run their shortest queues of the year. The two caveats are the Deepavali weekend, when Little India hotels fill, and the final week of November, when rates start climbing as Christmas demand builds.