With rooms made from repurposed buses, The Bus Collective at Singapore's Changi Village is a unique and charming resort that will delight both kids and adults.
Have you ever had a staycation in a bus? Well, we just did at The Bus Collective, a new resort at Changi Village Singapore with rooms made of repurposed buses. Yes, you heard me right - their rooms are retired SBS single deck buses refurbished into luxury suites. Talk about being eco-conscious!
The Bus Collective is Southeast Asia's first resort hotel using decommissioned buses and when I first heard of it, I thought it was a really unique concept. Now after staying in one, I can tell you it is an absolutely refreshing and one-of-a-kind experience. Whether you live here in Singapore or you're a tourist, I think The Bus Collective is a great place for a memorable staycation and vacation. Read on about our 2D1N stay and our review of The Bus Collective!
When we arrived at The Bus Collective at 5 Telok Paku Road, we couldn't wait to check out our rooms. But first, we had to feast our eyes on our lovely surroundings.
These former SBS buses painted green and pink at the 8,600 sqm compound is quite a sight to behold.
There are 20 buses/rooms each of 45 sqm with a mix of family rooms, rooms with bunk beds and bath tubs, rooms suitable for elderlies and rooms that can accommodate up to 3 or 4 adults.
If you're wondering if there is any difference between the pink and green buses, not really - the buses whether green or pink have their own configurations and differ according to some of the features I mentioned above.
Our green bus is a family room that can sleep four. It comes with bunk beds near the front of the bus.
And of course at the front of the bus is the driver's seat with its steering wheel, signal stick, dashboard, pedals, windscreen and wipers still intact!
The driver seat is really cool. We all had fun sitting there, steering the wheel and fidgeting with the signal stick and pedals.
This is definitely something that I think will keep younger kids entertained for a while! Well, even hubs and I were pretty entertained! In fact, the seat is so comfortable I think it makes a great reading nook too.
Beside the bunk beds and driver's seat is a TV and minibar, and the latter is complimentary. Here's what's in our fridge.
The snacks in your room are complimentary too. Most of the time, minibar items are chargeable at hotels, so I thought this is really generous and thoughtful, especially since kids might need some snacks during their stay.
In the centre of the bus is the toilet and shower. The former comes with your standard hotel toilet amenities like hand wash, toothbrushes, shower caps etc.
The shower, which is separate from the toilet, is next door. Shampoo, shower gel and towels are provided too. Check out the rain shower head!
Towards the back of the bus is a king-sized double bed. There's also a TV in front of the bed which comes with free-to-air channels. You can also connect to streaming services like Netflix on the TV if you have the streaming platform's account. Complimentary WIFI is available!
Our room doesn't come with a bath tub but if you want one that does, you can book accordingly by checking out The Bus Collective's website which comes with the room configurations and features. I believe our room is the Pioneer North room.
I really like that there are rooms at The Bus Collective that can sleep up to four adults. Usually hotels count those above 12 years old as adults and because Big E is already 13, we usually have a hard time finding hotels that can accommodate 3 adults and 1 child - many have max capacity of 2 adults and 2 or 1 child. So we end up forgoing hotels that can't take all of us in one room or is too costly to book 2 rooms. So the max 4-adult capacity at The Bus Collective is definitely very attractive for families like ours as it's cheaper than booking 2 rooms in a hotel.
Rates at The Bus Collective starts from S$398 and is inclusive of breakfast. Rates are different based on room configuration, so do browse its website and book according to the features and beds you want. BTW The Bus Collective has started taking bookings for stays from 1 December onwards. Bookings can be made at its website😉
For dinner, we had BBQ! Every bus comes with its own BBQ pit, an outdoor sink, and dining table and chairs at its patio. BBQ food is not included in room rates but you can cater from the resort by pax.
I think BBQ outside your bus is definitely an experience you should include in your stay. I really like the atmosphere barbequing and dining at our bus patio.
This is the view from our patio
This is next to our patio.
It is kind of surreal seeing the illuminated buses.
Every patio also has a large parasol which shelters the dining table and chairs. It only started raining when we were almost done with our BBQ (phew!) but we stayed to eat at the patio because the parasol kept us all sheltered. The BBQ pit can't be sheltered but luckily large umbrellas are available in our room! So this was how we BBQ-ed near the end. Haha!
If you don't want to BBQ, Changi Village Hawker Centre is just next door. See the background in the pic above? Yup, it is that near. There's a side gate at the resort which you can use your key card to enter the resort after going to the hawker centre to dabao food.
At night, we were all able to sleep comfortably given that there are enough beds to go around. Having enough beds for everyone is an important consideration for me when we book hotels whether for staycation or holiday overseas! The beds here were really comfy and everyone had two pillows each.
Because of the resort's location, you can often see and hear planes flying by. When it's quiet at night, I can hear the sound of flying planes quite clearly. I usually sleep with ear plugs as I'm a light sleeper, so this wasn't much of an issue for me. My girls are heavier sleepers, so they didn't have any issue with the sound at all. So if you're a light sleeper like me, I'd suggest bringing your own ear plugs if you don't want to be roused by the sound of planes at night.
Actually, seeing and hearing planes flying overhead is one of the charms of The Bus Collective. When we were dining at the patio, I really like seeing the airplanes flying by. Some had just taken off from or will soon land at Changi Airport such that you can see them quite clearly and they are such magnificent sights. So to me the sound of planes at night is just a very (x10) small inconvenience for light sleepers.
In the morning, we got breakfast at Changi Village Hawker Centre. Breakfast is included with your room but as the hotel's cafe is not up and running yet (we were there in November as media to review our stay before The Bus Collective officially opens on 1 December), we went hunting for good food in the vicinity. We dabao-ed kaya toasts and eggs back and paired them with coffee from the resort.
We really enjoyed dining al fresco here. And despite being mosquito magnets, we didn't get bitten by mozzies at all when we dined at the patio! Here's our view during breakfast. Spot the plane in the distance?
Oh and our coffee, they are complimentary from the resort. Their coffee latte at the reception area is so good we helped ourselves to a few cups during our stay! Hehe.
Here's my cuppa which looks a bit like a panda 😄 The coffee is so nice I'm missing it already. Boo hoo!
BTW if you're wondering what activities are available at The Bus Collective, there isn't a pool or gym or kid's club there but I think this is what makes the resort special - it complements Changi Village's ecosystem. You are surrounded by nature and history, so you ought to be exploring them, no?
The Bus Collective has history and nature tours which you can sign up for. We were supposed to go on a 2-hour Changi Coastal Adventure Walk but unfortunately there was Category 1 weather warning right before our tour so it had to be cancelled. This is standard practice for walking tours, so there wasn't much we could do about it.
Nonetheless, we were really lucky that Summer from A Happy Mum blog was also there with her family and her husband, Xavier, knows the area really well. They decided to head out despite the weather, so we tagged along! 😁
In case you're wondering what's in the vicinity, there are actually loads to see and explore at Changi Village. Even without signing up for a tour, I think you can Google and look for the places of interest. Here's a sign we spotted at Changi Point.
Changi Beach is also just a 5-minute walk away.
You can also go on the Changi Point Coastal Walk and visit the Changi East Boardwalk.
Here are some of our snaps along the way.
The view's really lovely.
We also found the Heritage Tree during our walk.
And spotted wild life like parrots, hornbills and roosters.
You can also head to Pulau Ubin because the Changi Point Ferry Terminal is just a stone's throw from the resort.
Alternatively, you can rent a bicycle from the resort and cycle around the area. Changi Beach also has bike rental but I heard rates are cheaper at the resort😉
We walked with Summer and fam for about an hour and really enjoyed taking in the sights at Changi Village (there are mozzies though, remember to wear repellant!). Unlike hotels in the city, The Bus Collective's location is great for enjoying nature and exploring the Changi area, something we seldom do as it's quite far from our place.
If you're looking for a short staycation in Singapore, we highly recommend The Bus Collective. In particular, I think those with children who love vehicles like buses and planes will really like this place!😉
We were there for 2D1N and we only managed to explore the vicinity for an hour or so as we also wanted to hang and chill in our bus. We would have loved to stay another night to see more of Changi Village! If you want to explore more of Changi Village and even Pulau Ubin, you can consider a 3D2N stay.
If you're a tourist looking for a unique experience in Singapore, The Bus Collective, is definitely one to consider. You can plan a one-night or two-night stay and explore Changi Village and Pulau Ubin, which I'm sure when compared to staying in a city hotel, will make for a more unique experience as you get to see the rustic side of Singapore.
Thank you, The Bus Collective, for having us - this will go down as one of the most memorable and unique staycations and hotels we've ever been to!
Bonus tips for your trip:
i) Check in at 2pm, check out 12pm
The check-in and check-out timings at The Bus Collective is better than standard hotels which are usually at 3pm and 11am respectively. If you arrive earlier, you can always leave your bags with the resort and explore the area. Likewise if you've checked out and still want to go around Changi Village!
ii) Enter the resort from Telok Paku Road
If you're driving or going by Grab, just key in 'The Bus Collective' in the GPS. I'm not sure if it's because Google Map hasn't updated on this area yet but in the map, it wasn't showing a road leading into The Bus Collective from Telok Paku Road. It shows that you have to cut across a field to get there but there's actually a road leading into the resort from Telok Paku Road.
iii) Park at public carparks
Parking is not available at the resort, so you'll need to park your car at the nearby public carparks. Google says it's a five-to-six-minute walk if you're coming from the Changi Village Hawker Centre's car parks but this is the case if you're entering from the main gate at Telok Paku Road instead of the side gate, which is probably what you have to do before check in as you won't have a key card to access the side gate near the hawker centre. The hawker centre's car park would be the nearest if you can enter via the side gate.
Another car park which is also about a five-minute walk away from the resort's main entrance at Telok Paku Road is Changi Beach Car Park 1. If you need to park overnight, this would be a cheaper alternative to Changi Village Hawker Centre's car park as it has free parking after 5pm and on Sunday and public holidays. But do note that this beach carpark uses digital coupons as there are no gantries.
iv) The side gate leading to the hawker centre is near the playground
Using the side gate will take you to the hawker centre much faster. The side gate is just beside the playground.
v) Best to bin your uneaten food and packaging at the bin outside
As your rooms are essentially in the outdoors (unlike rooms in a building), you may find tiny ants in your room. So it's best to throw any food packaging or unwanted food items into the bin at the patio.
Disclaimer: My opinions and reviews here are strictly my and my family’s own.
©Vivian Teo. All content and photos are copyrighted to Vivian Teo unless otherwise specified.