Tailor made holidays: Singapore is a city which 'defines our age'

People planning tailor made holidays to Singapore may be pleased to know they are in for a thoroughly modern experience after a travel expert named the country as one of the cities that define our century.

Singapore - a "forward-thinking" city-state made up of 63 islands - shares its only border with Malaysia.

Brenden Sainsbury, in an article published on the Lonely Planet website this Friday (April 1st), said that the south-east Asian country has the perfect make-up for a modern 21st-century conurbation.

"Take a former British colony in Southeast Asia; fill it with Chinese, Malay, and Tamil immigrants; endow it with one of the world’s great hybrid cuisines; and then grant it political independence," he said.

"Singapore epitomises … a slick forward-thinking city: a prime Pacific Rim location, an eclectic melting pot of different cultures, unrivalled economic clout".

Mr Sainsbury has written many books for the travel guide company, including the Lonely Planet guides for Havana and Puerto Rico.