Sentosa is Singapore's big playground: an entire island, facing the harbour, devoted to leisure, fun and relaxation. Its name means 'peace and tranquillity' in Malay —an ironic nod to its military past—, but today it is a spread of theme parks, attractions, man-made beaches, ziplines, slides, a casino and luxury hotels, all in a tropical, landscaped and perfectly organised setting. It is the ideal destination for families, for anyone travelling with kids and for anyone who wants to swap temples and skyscrapers for a day of adrenaline and beach.
Its two big stars are Universal Studios Singapore, the movie theme park with roller coasters and shows, and the S.E.A. Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in the world, both inside the Resorts World Sentosa complex. But the island offers much more: beaches of imported sand where you can swim or have a drink at a beach club, the cable car with spectacular views of the harbour, mountain luge tracks, free-fall simulators, high-up viewpoints and even a Second World War fort that recalls the place's military past.
This guide lays out everything Sentosa has to offer: how much the big attractions cost, how to get there and get around the island (with its free internal transport), what you can do for free and how to plan one or two days to make the most of it. Whether you are coming for Universal Studios, the beaches or the cable car, Sentosa is Singapore's most playful and laid-back side, and a perfect getaway within the city.
Before becoming the leisure island, Sentosa had a very different and rather grim history. Once known as 'Pulau Belakang Mati' (usually translated as 'the island behind death'), during the British colonial period it was a key military stronghold for defending the port of Singapore, with forts and gun batteries such as Fort Siloso. During the Second World War, after the fall of Singapore in 1942, the island came under Japanese occupation and was even used as a prisoner-of-war camp. After independence, in the 1970s, the government decided to turn the island into a tourist and recreation destination, and renamed it 'Sentosa' ('peace and tranquillity' in Malay) through a public competition. Since then it has gradually filled up with attractions, man-made beaches (with imported sand), hotels and, in the 21st century, the huge Resorts World Sentosa complex with Universal Studios and the S.E.A. Aquarium, opened around 2010-2012. And so the old military island became the city-state's great amusement park. The full history of Singapore, including the Second World War, is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The leisure island next to the port has a dark military past: it was called Pulau Blakang Mati, 'the island behind which death lurks', and it held the forts meant to defend Singapore.
Read the history of Sentosa and the south →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Few of the millions of visitors who now enjoy Universal Studios or sunbathe on Sentosa's beaches know that, for centuries, the island had a sinister name: 'Pulau Belakang Mati', usually translated from Malay as 'the island behind death'. The exact origin of the name has been lost and is still debated —some link it to old tales of pirates, disease or deaths on the island—, but it makes one thing clear: this patch of land facing the harbour was not always a place of peace and fun.
Before British colonisation, the island and its surrounding waters were part of the region's old port area, used by fishermen, Malay traders and, according to some accounts, pirates who took advantage of the straits. Its position, right in front of the mouth of Singapore's natural harbour, would make it strategic once the British arrived and turned Singapore into one of Asia's great trading ports.
That strategic value sealed the island's fate for much of its modern history: instead of a place for leisure, it became a fortress. Whoever controlled Belakang Mati largely controlled access to the harbour. And so 'the island behind death' became a key piece in the colony's military defence, a role it would keep, with tragic consequences, well into the 20th century.
When the British turned Singapore into a free and prosperous port after its founding in 1819, defending that port became a priority. Throughout the 19th century they built a series of coastal fortifications to protect it from possible attacks by sea, and the island of Belakang Mati, located right at the harbour entrance, was one of the key sites. Among other defences, Fort Siloso was built there, with gun batteries pointing out to sea and tunnels dug into the rock.
For decades the island was a British military enclave, with garrisons, barracks and guns that were part of Singapore's image as the Empire's 'impregnable fortress' in Southeast Asia. That reputation for invulnerability, however, hid a weakness: the defences were designed mainly for a naval attack from the south, by sea, not for a land invasion from the north.
That weakness was tragically exposed in 1942. A famous story —nuanced by historians— says that the guns of the southern defences, including those on the island, were pointing out to sea while the Japanese army attacked overland, coming down from Malaya in the north. Whatever the details, the 'impregnable fortress' fell, and with it all of Singapore, in one of the greatest defeats in British military history.
The fall of Singapore in February 1942 opened one of the darkest chapters in the island's history. After the British surrender, Belakang Mati came under the control of the Japanese army, which occupied Singapore for three and a half years, until 1945. The occupation was extremely harsh for the whole population and included atrocities such as the Sook Ching operation, in which Japanese forces executed thousands of Chinese civilians suspected of resistance.
Because of its military nature, the island played a grim role in those years: among other things, it was used to hold prisoners of war. Fort Siloso in particular served as a prisoner camp during the occupation. Captured Allied soldiers —British, Australian and others— endured captivity in very harsh conditions, part of the vast prisoner-of-war system that Imperial Japan ran across the region, sadly notorious for its brutal treatment of captives.
When the war ended in 1945 and the British returned, the island remained in military use for a while. But the world was changing: Singapore was moving towards self-government and then independence (1965), and the old colonial fortresses were losing their purpose. The question was what to do with that island, steeped in military history and saddled with a gloomy name, so close to a city that was starting to dream big. The answer would come in the 1970s, and it would be a complete reinvention.
In the early 1970s, the young state of Singapore, in the middle of its transformation under Lee Kuan Yew, was looking to develop its tourism industry and set its sights on the military island facing the harbour. The idea was bold: turn that enclave of guns and prisoners into a place of leisure and fun for Singaporeans and tourists. But first there was an obvious problem to solve: nobody would want to holiday somewhere called 'the island behind death'.
In 1972 a public competition was held to rename the island, and the winning name was 'Sentosa', which in Malay means 'peace and tranquillity'. The change of name was also a change of destiny: the military island was completely reinvented as a leisure park. Attractions, gardens and a cable car (linking the island to Mount Faber since the 1970s) were built, and over time artificial beaches were created by bringing in sand, giving Singapore —which lacks accessible natural swimming beaches— a recreational seafront.
Over the following decades, Sentosa kept adding hotels, golf courses, museums and attractions, establishing itself as the city's main leisure destination. The decisive leap came in the 21st century with the 'integrated resorts' project: around 2010-2012 Resorts World Sentosa opened, with Universal Studios Singapore, the S.E.A. Aquarium and a casino, which propelled the island into the ranks of world-class tourist destinations. The old fortress had, for good, become an amusement park.
Today's Sentosa is Singapore's great playground: an island devoted entirely to leisure, with top-class theme parks, one of the largest aquariums in the world, beaches, adventure attractions, luxury hotels, a casino and golf courses, all perfectly organised and connected by free internal transport. It's the ideal destination for families and for anyone who, in the middle of a trip full of temples and skyscrapers, wants a day of pure fun and relaxation by the sea.
But, like so much in Singapore, Sentosa hides a much deeper story beneath its shiny surface. The island now called 'peace and tranquillity' was for centuries the gloomy 'island behind death', a military fortress and, in the darkest years, a place for prisoners of war. Fort Siloso, at its western tip, preserves and tells that story, offering anyone who wants it a thoughtful counterpoint to the adrenaline of the roller coasters.
That duality is perhaps the most Singaporean thing about Sentosa: an island able to reinvent itself completely, to go from war to entertainment, without entirely erasing its past. Exploring it means enjoying the city-state's playful present and, if you pause for a moment at the old fort, also glimpsing the most dramatic chapters of its history. Fun and memory, on a single island facing the harbour where, two centuries ago, Singapore began to be built.
