Singapore Chinatown Half-Day Small Group Guided Heritage Tour

Excellent tour with a wonderful tour guide (special thanks to Eliza and May)! Due to recent changes in COVID cases, we were not able to visit the coffee factory (so that we don't put the older workers at risk), they have brought us to a traditional coffee stall at Chinatown Market with excellent tasting coffee and seeing how the stall owner makes his coffee. Followed by visit to the Sachima and Cuttlefish snack stalls (there's tastings for both), moving on to the bakery where shopowner Jimmy who is very hospitable and very friendly, kindly showed us around in his shop with an insider view of the equipments and how he makes bread daily (with free bread tasting yummy!) Headed to the Paper House making, it was very insightful, kind sharing and very welcoming by one of the craftsman (who was taught by his father), really an eye opener as it is a disappearing trade. Overall excellent tour, very insightful into the history of these disappearing trades, Eliza is very knowledgeable and friendly as well, doing her very best to ensure to incorporate Chinese lang into the tour for seniors who did not understand English. Its no wonder that its an award winning tour! Thumbs up! 👍

My son and I had a good time. Our guide Iris was friendly and professional. I am glad we signed up for this tour as we might not have a chance to know more of these trades when they disappear in the future. It was an eye opener to us, especially so to my son. It was like an outdoor "social studies lesson" to him.

Tour will bring you off the beaten path which is interesting even for Singaporeans. Owners/workers were friendly and some were happy to chit chat with us even though there were no sales involved. Very comfortable ride on the limo bus. Well organized and good explanations given.

Use my SRV, a worthy experience tour with Lisa. A pity, didn't go to see the Nanyang coffee, but can see some interesting trades, learn some things in the tour. The trades are remarkable, and the hosts and hospitable. Some trades are daily activities or takes months to complete and doing for decades.

Very good tour that tells us facets of old Singapore that will probably disappear in 10-20 years! Our Kenneth Yeo is not only very pleasant but explains very clearly in excellent English. He is definitely the best English speaking guide from Singapore that I have encountered in my 30+ years of joining group tours.

This was perhaps the most eye-opening tour I joined on my recent Singapore trip. I learned so much about the history and culture of Singapore by visiting hawker stalls selling rare traditional snacks, an old-school bakery, and a workshop that handcrafts paper house effigies used in Taoist funerals. Our guide Eliza was an excellent storyteller!

Really interesting tour to understand our heritage more. Our guide, Iris, was super knowledgeable and ran the tour smoothly. Overall, an enjoyable activity that is bittersweet as we interact with friendly tradesmen with the knowing that these are soon to be gone.

Iris, our guide, thank you. You spoke clearly, had good enunciation, with no strong local accent but still accentuated your speech with suitable Singlish. Iris did good introductions to the disappearing trades: from mentioning family names, to the manufacturing process, to how the businesss are run today and their uncertain futures, to peppering with other tidbits and anecdotes of other disappearing trades. (Trying not to do spoilers here). She also tries to engage the people in the tour group (18 of us on today's tour) by asking questions in her narratives. The stops are: 1) black as soot coffee factory at Depot Road 2) shachima and grilled cuttlefish snack stalls at Chinatown Complex while sipping a kopi/teh 3) traditional bread bakery in Tai Seng 4) paper house (and other paper items meant for burning for ancestors) maker at Ang Mo Kio Comfortable, clean, big coach bus to drive us all over Singapore. Very basic audio guide given, and earpiece provided but suggest you bring your own so it doesn't keep dropping out of your ear. Was of course a little disappointed that we were unable to enter the coffee factory and see the machinery and work in progress close up. The uncles were in "do not disturb" mode, and, while not unfriendly, they certainly had no engagement with the group. Bringing us to Chinatown Complex to a random stall in the hawker center to make up for the absence of on-site, immediate coffee tasting was an appreciated gesture. But I think I would rather they bring us to Nanyang Coffee at the junction of Smith Street, rather than anyhow bringing us to a coffee stall where the auntie was rather loud and rude, and the kopi and teh was lackluster. Use your Rediscover Singapore voucher on this, just nice!

The guide was friendly and she shared with us a lot of the information. We been to many places and overall it was a great experience.

Our tour guide Andros gave us a lot of insight info and we love the tours as we get to see the behind-the-scene of each trade. Recommended!