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8 Best Tour Companies in Singapore (October 2026)
My picks of the 8 best tour companies in Singapore for 2026, covering walking, food, heritage and private tours, with real prices.
This guide is part of Terris Recommends, my researched, hands-on picks of the best local businesses and services in Singapore. Every recommendation is researched and ranked by me.
See all recommendationsI have lived in Singapore for years, and I still take tours here. Not because I need directions, but because a good local guide turns a street I walk past every day into a story I did not know. That is what you are actually paying a tour company in Singapore for: not the route, the person.
Which is why this guide leads with something most listicles skip. In Singapore, guiding tourists for money without a licence is illegal, and the good operators are proud of their licensed guides while the chancers go quiet when you ask. I will show you how to check in about a minute, then give you the eight companies I would actually book, from big-name walking tours to a one-of-a-kind trishaw ride.
This is the hub of my Tours and Sightseeing series. Once you have picked a company, my spokes go deeper on walking tours, food tours and hiring a private tour guide. For a self-guided day out, see my things to do in Singapore guide, and for anything on the water, my sunset cruise picks.
Five things, and the first one is genuinely non-negotiable.
- An STB Tourist Guide Licence. Under the Singapore Tourism Board Act, anyone who provides in-person guiding to tourists for payment needs a valid licence, earned through a 120-hour training programme. This is not red tape, it is a real filter: a licensed guide has been trained in the history and taught how to research and tell it properly. You can look up any guide by name in the STB TRUST tourist guide directory. Reputable companies will tell you their guides are licensed without being asked.
- Small groups or private. The difference between a great tour and a forgettable one is almost always group size. Eight people around a guide who can hear your questions beats forty trailing a flag. If a tour does not state its maximum group size, assume it is large.
- A named specialism, not everything. The best operators are known for something specific: this one owns heritage, that one owns food, another owns private and bespoke. A company that claims to be the best at all of it usually is not the best at any of it.
- Real reviews with guide names in them. On a good tour, people remember their guide and name them in the review. Scroll the recent reviews and see whether individual guides come up by name. That is the clearest sign the experience is about a person, not a script.
- Honest pricing and inclusions. A food tour should tell you how many tastings. A private tour should tell you the hourly rate and what transport and entry fees are included. If you would rather plan your own stops, a limousine company that hires by the hour will give you a car and a driver for the day. Vagueness on price is usually vagueness you will pay for later.
Singapore is genuinely one of the safest and easiest cities in the world to explore alone, so you never strictly need a tour. You take one to understand the place faster and deeper than you could on your own. Judge every company on whether it delivers that.
The range is wide without being unfocused: heritage walks through Kampong Glam and Chinatown, a genuinely good Singapore Street Food and Night Tour along the river through Boat Quay and Clarke Quay, and private options if you want a guide to yourself. What keeps showing up in the reviews is the guides by name, which is exactly the signal you want. People remember Mui, Ping and the rest because the tours are built around them, not a script.
If you only have time to research one company, this is the one. It is the reliable centre of the market that the others define themselves against.
- Best known for
- Award-winning walking and street-food tours with named local guides
- Location
- Tours across Singapore, central meeting points
- Google Rating
- Excellent, on 6,500-plus reviews
- Website
- monsterdaytours.com
Their sweet spot is Peranakan heritage: the shophouses, food and history of Joo Chiat and Katong, woven together by a guide who can move from architecture to a plate of food to a family story without missing a beat. Reviewers single out guides like Royston for exactly this, being deeply knowledgeable and generous with their time.
Because it leans private, it costs more than a scheduled group walk, and it is worth it when you want depth and the freedom to follow your own curiosity.
- Best known for
- Private, local-expert guided tours and Peranakan heritage
- Location
- Private tours across Singapore, strong on the east
- Google Rating
- Excellent, Travellers Choice recognised
- Website
- tribe-tours.com
That breadth is the reason to start here when you are not yet sure what kind of tour you want. You can browse a genuinely varied catalogue, compare formats, and book in one place, which is easier than piecing together three specialists. Reviewers consistently praise guides like Barani for adapting the tour to the group's interests rather than running a fixed loop.
The trade-off with any wide-range operator is that no single tour is quite as specialist as a company that only does that one thing. For most visitors, the convenience wins.
- Best known for
- The widest range of tour formats, all STB-licensed
- Location
- Tours across Singapore
- Google Rating
- Excellent, STA award winner, 50,000-plus guests
- Website
- letsgotoursingapore.com
What sets them apart is the seriousness of the storytelling. These are guides, many of them local Singaporeans, who weave in their own family memories, and the tours are built for people who genuinely want the history rather than a photo stop. Their war and cemetery trails in particular are handled with a gravity that mass-market operators cannot match.
Come here when the subject matters more than the selfie. For the wider heritage-walk field, including their rivals, see my dedicated walking tours guide.
- Best known for
- Serious heritage and WWII history walks
- Location
- Heritage trails islandwide, including Changi
- Google Rating
- Excellent, long-running award winner
- Website
- journeys.com.sg
They run more food formats than you would expect, from a next-generation hawker tour that spotlights young hawkers preserving the trade, to a street-food night tour, to a self-guided audio option for people who want to eat at their own pace. Some of their guides are chefs, which shows in how they talk about the food.
This is a place where being hungry is the only preparation you need. For the full food-tour field, see my food tours guide.
- Best known for
- Licensed-guide hawker and street-food tours
- Location
- Hawker centres and markets across Singapore
- Google Rating
- Excellent, strong repeat mentions of guides
- Website
- woknstroll.com.sg
This is the company for travellers who have already done Marina Bay and want to see how Singaporeans actually live and eat. The tours skew toward the eastern neighbourhoods, real hawker culture, and the kind of streets you would never think to explore on your own. It is a smaller, more grassroots operation than the big names above, and that is exactly the appeal.
Come here on a second visit, or a first visit where you want to skip the postcard version.
- Best known for
- Real, non-touristy Joo Chiat, Katong and Geylang tours
- Location
- 200 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore, plus eastern neighbourhoods
- Google Rating
- Very good, grassroots following
- Website
- betelboxtours.com
A trishaw ride through the Singapore River, Little India, Kampong Glam and Chinatown is unashamedly nostalgic, and it is one of the few tours that works brilliantly for older travellers or anyone who cannot manage a long walk in the heat. It pairs beautifully with a walking or food tour: ride the trishaw to rest your feet and see the sights, walk the neighbourhoods you want to explore in depth.
Manage expectations on price, because a heritage trishaw ride is a premium novelty rather than a cheap taxi. What you are buying is the experience, and there is only one place to buy it.
- Best known for
- The only licensed trishaw tours in Singapore
- Location
- Singapore River, Little India, Kampong Glam, Chinatown
- Google Rating
- Very good, unique format
- Website
- trishawuncle.com.sg
This is the format that suits returning visitors, families with specific interests, and anyone travelling with someone who has mobility needs or a tight attention span, because the pace and content bend to you. The trade-off is that fully bespoke costs more than a scheduled tour, and it is worth it precisely when a scheduled tour would not fit what you want.
Come here when your ideal day out does not appear on anyone else's booking page.
- Best known for
- Fully bespoke, tailored private tours
- Location
- Custom private tours across Singapore
- Google Rating
- Excellent, boutique operator
- Website
- everydaytourcompany.com
Pick by what kind of experience you actually want, not by whoever ranks first on a booking site.
| Company | Best for | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Monster Day Tours | An all-round safe first pick | Group and private walks, street food |
| Tribe Tours | Private depth and Peranakan heritage | Private, local-expert led |
| Let's Go Tour | Widest choice of formats | Bike, boat, food, city, cooking |
| Original Singapore Walks | Serious history and WWII | Heritage walking and coach |
| Wok 'n' Stroll | Food and hawker culture | Food walks, day and night |
| Betel Box | The real, non-touristy city | Eastern neighbourhood food walks |
| Trishaw Uncle | Nostalgia and low-mobility comfort | Licensed trishaw rides |
| Everyday Tour Company | A day built around you | Fully bespoke private tours |
Prices vary hugely by format and group size, but here is the honest range so you can budget before you browse.
| Tour type | Typical price | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Group walking tour | S$40 to S$90 per person | Usually 2 to 3 hours. The best value in guided tours. |
| Group food tour | S$70 to S$130 per person | Tastings usually included. Confirm how many. |
| Trishaw ride | S$50 to S$100 per person | A premium novelty, priced as an experience. |
| Half-day private guide | S$300 to S$500 | For the whole group, not per person. Often the better deal for 4-plus people. |
| Full-day private or bespoke | S$500 to S$900-plus | Transport and entry fees may be extra. Ask. |
| Pay-as-you-wish walks | You decide at the end | Some heritage operators run these. Tip fairly for a good guide. |
For a group of four or more, a private guide often works out similar per head to individual group tickets, with the whole tour bent to your interests. Do the maths before you assume private is the expensive option.
Search their name in the STB TRUST tourist guide directory. Every legally operating guide is listed there, so a name that does not appear is a genuine warning sign.
Under the Singapore Tourism Board rules, in-person guiding for payment without a licence is an offence, so a licensed guide is both the legal choice and the trained one. Reputable companies never mind the question. If asking makes someone defensive, that is your answer.
Strictly, no. Singapore is one of the safest, cleanest and easiest cities in the world to explore alone, with world-class public transport and English everywhere. You will never be stuck.
You take a tour to go deeper and faster than you could solo. A good guide gives you the history behind the shophouse, the story behind the dish, and the shortcut to understanding a neighbourhood that would take you days to piece together yourself. If you have three days, one guided half-day is often the best-value part of the trip.
Start with a half-day walking tour of the historic core, Chinatown, Kampong Glam and the Civic District, with any of Monster Day Tours, Let's Go Tour or The Original Singapore Walks. It gives you the map in your head that makes the rest of the trip make sense.
Then add a food tour on a separate day, because trying to do heritage and hawker food in one go means you do neither justice. For a first visit, one good walk plus one good food tour covers more than a week of wandering.
For couples and solo travellers on a budget, a small-group tour is excellent value and perfectly good. For families, special interests, or groups of four or more, private is often the smarter buy: the per-head cost narrows, and the whole day flexes to your pace and curiosity.
The deciding question is not money, it is fit. If a fixed itinerary suits you, book a group tour. If you have specific interests or people who need the pace adjusted, book private and enjoy the freedom. My private tour guides guide goes deeper on this.
If you want a single recommendation, book Monster Day Tours for your first tour and you will not go wrong. Want private depth or Peranakan heritage, go to Tribe Tours. Want to eat your way through the city, Wok n Stroll. Want the format nobody else has, ride with Trishaw Uncle.
Whichever you choose, do the one-minute licence check first. It costs you nothing, it is the clearest quality signal in this industry, and the good operators are proud to pass it. The best tour company in Singapore is the one whose guide you remember by name a year later, and a licence is how that person got so good at the job.
On a separate note, if you run a tour or travel business in Singapore and your website is not turning searchers into bookings, that is what I do. You can see how our web design service works or get a free quote.
That licence check works the same way for outbound travel. My guide to the best travel agencies in Singapore lists each agency with its TA number, and explains why your deposit has less protection here than you would assume.
For a night away in your own city rather than a day out in it, my guide to the best staycation hotels in Singapore covers why a weeknight costs 25 to 50 percent less than a Saturday.
