Singapore among world's most expensive cities for tourists: Time Out

By Hoang Phong December 22, 2025 | 02:54 pm PT

Tourists pose for photos at the Merlion Park in Singapore, Jan. 28, 2020. Photo by Reuters

Singapore joined a list of 15 most expensive cities for tourists in the world as voted by British travel magazine Time Out based on a survey of over 18,000 people.

South Korea's Seoul was named the most expensive city, followed by Istanbul (Turkey) and Oslo (Norway).

The magazine asked people in over 100 cities to rate the affordability of a bunch of day-to-day activities: eating out to a restaurant, going to see a movie, grabbing a coffee, going to see art, going to see theater or comedy, going to see live music, getting a drink in a bar and going on a night out.

Based on the percentages of respondents who answered "cheap or free" and "affordable,"Time Out crunched the data to figure out the world's cheapest and most expensive cities to travel.

Many tourists complained about high cost of living in Singapore and even claimed they only eat one meal a day to save costs.

According to the Global Wealth & Lifestyle Report 2025, Singapore has once again claimed the title of the world's most expensive city.

Data from Numbeo, the world's largest database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide, shows the average single person's estimated monthly expenses in Singapore are S$1,506 (US$1,121).

Singapore received over 13 million foreign tourists so far this year.