Pan Pacific Orchard | Another hotel we are homesick for

Apparently, the universe occasionally responds to two women staring at hotel pictures and saying, “Oh my god, we have to stay there.” We were not about to question the process.

A perfectly respectable plan.

Our knowledge of Singapore was limited. We had sent one client there for a short trip with very specific shopping goals, so we knew about designer shopping and seemingly endless malls. Of course, being the travel goddesses that we are, we knew all about Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport. We love airports almost as much as lounges, and a really good first class lounge in a really good airport is quite possibly one of our happiest places on earth. However, leaving Changi that day, our first Blacklane driver started telling us about his country, and suddenly our relaxed itinerary had competition.

The pictures were not lying.

There are hotels you book because they photograph beautifully, and then you arrive and discover that the photographer deserves a significant raise. Pan Pacific Orchard is not one of those hotels. Designed by WOHA around four environments, Forest, Beach, Garden, and Cloud, the building makes nature part of the architecture. The Beach Terrace brings a lagoon pool and palms into the city, with a mirrored ceiling reflecting the water and greenery overhead. Someone apparently refused to choose between a tropical resort and a city hotel. We fully support that decision.

I worked poolside in the wee hours of the morning, with my legs hanging over the side of our pod. I worked in the lounge too. I am deeply grateful for work I can do anywhere, especially when anywhere happens to look like this. Those mornings became part of my attachment to Pan Pac, which is what we call it now. Apparently, we have reached the pet name stage of the relationship.

The lounge. Obviously. But also the people.

The Pacific Club Lounge became the place we kept coming back to, and Dian and her colleagues were a considerable part of why. They knew our drinks when we walked in. Jenna's iced tea with simple syrup on the side. My hot Earl Grey. Not complicated orders, but that is not the point. Someone had paid attention and remembered.

Jenna is vegetarian, and the chef had a meal prepared for her every time we arrived. She did not have to look through the options and figure out what might work. They had already thought about her. That is the kind of service we remember: thoughtful, personal, and making everything easier without asking us to notice the effort.

Upon arrival, Carmen Foong, the Guest Experience Manager, showed us to our room and gave us a wealth of information about Singapore. Between Carmen and our driver, we were quickly reconsidering how little we had planned to see. The pride people took in their country was wonderful. They wanted us to get out and experience it, so we did. Far more than we ever thought we would.

So much for staying in.

At Gardens by the Bay, we walked among the Supertrees high above the ground and explored the waterfalls and extraordinary greenery inside Cloud Forest. I don’t even like walking, and here we were, happily walking through an entirely different kind of landscape. Jenna, who loves walking, could not have been more thrilled.

Then we had the most delicious mezze lunch at Hortus, the Mediterranean restaurant by Michelin-starred chef Michael Wilson inside the Flower Dome. A genuinely wonderful lunch, surrounded by flowers, and I took the best picture of Jenna I have ever taken. Me. The one who writes, not shoots. I would like that properly documented.

But, we did not give ourselves enough time with the flowers. That is the practical advice hiding inside this love letter: do not squeeze the gardens into whatever time is left. We went out to see what all the excitement was about and ended up wishing we had left ourselves more time to simply be there.

Elsewhere, Jenna watched Formula 1 driver Fred Vesti make a tremendous amount of noise up and down Orchard Road. I escaped into the malls and underground shopping passages to avoid the heat and the possibility of sunburn and got lost for an hour. Blocks and blocks of shopping, connected to more shopping. Understanding how to get out was apparently a separate skill. Jenna got the Mercedes and I got air conditioning and an unplanned navigation exercise.

There was a light show. There was more phenomenal food. There was even a massage that involved someone walking on me. Which would perhaps have been less surprising if I had known someone was going to walk on me. I had no clue. None. These massages were nowhere near as amazing as our beloved Muare massages from Rul and Sofii, but beyond memorable to say the least.

Two hotels we would repeat.

We do not usually repeat hotels unless we are returning for an assignment. There are so many places we want to experience, and being there ourselves is the best way to understand what we recommend to our clients. But Pan Pacific Orchard and Umana Bali were the two hotels on this trip we knew we needed to experience again.

Pan Pac gave us the nature Jenna wanted, the city we both wanted, and the pool I will never stop talking about. It also gave us people we remember by name and routines we missed once we left. Early mornings beside the pool. Her iced tea, my Earl Grey, and something already prepared for her to eat. We went because we wanted to stay in that building. We want to return because of how it felt to be there.

Singapore gave us far more reasons to leave the hotel than we expected. Pan Pac gave us a reason to come back to Singapore. And for two people who are usually already looking at the next hotel, that says quite a lot.