'Jewel has serious Jurassic Park vibes': YouTuber Safiya Nygaard spends 24 hours at Changi Airport

Whether you have a long layover or your flight is delayed, travellers usually don't like being stuck in airports.

But YouTuber and former Buzzfeed staff Safiya Nygaard recently headed to Changi Airport a whole 24 hours before her flight to Kuala Lumpur, putting the former world's best airport through its paces to see if it could be a travel destination on its own.

Here are the highlights of her visit.

Jewel Changi Airport

Firstly, Safiya and her husband Tyler Williams headed to the Rain Vortex indoor waterfall.

"I don't think this was intentional, but we kind of think this whole part of Jewel has serious Jurassic Park vibes," Safiya noted. "I think it's the tropical plants meets giant glass dome roof."

The prehistoric feel continued as they saw some children on dinosaur-themed rides through the mall and a dinosaur sculpture later on.

Safiya observed one downside to the greenhouse structure, which houses 900 trees and 60,000 tropical shrubs — it was quite hot. And as the couple headed to the Canopy Park at the top floor, it was even worse.

Though they could not get on the Canopy Bridge, which is only open to Mastercard holders, Safiya and Tyler still enjoyed the other attractions.

They got lost in the hedge maze, went to the Topiary Walk — which provides "a few great unobstructed views of the waterfall that you don't even need a Mastercard for" — as well as the Walking Net, a rope course above the mall.

"I was determined to traverse this thing, but as the footage can attest to, I was pretty terrible at it on account of it requiring any semblance of balance," Safiya said.

"And, as we all know, my centre of gravity is high and flimsy."

Staying at Aerotel Singapore

The couple spent the night at the Aerotel Singapore transit hotel, which has an unassuming front desk in the middle of the airport with the actual rooms down a hallway.

Their room cost $318 per night and looks relatively modest, mostly grey with hints of orange in the carpet, but Safiya found it "pretty solid, clean and relatively spacious". 

It has a window that can be accessed behind a sliding wooden door and takes up "a comically small percentage of the far wall", according to Safiya.

But with their view being Gate D40 and the runway, there was not much to be seen anyway.

The hotel also boasts a rooftop pool, and Safiya and Tyler had to traverse the airport in their swimsuits and towels to get to it.

"Overall, the whole place is pretty cute," she said. "It's vaguely safari-themed, with fake trees, lanterns and an aero bar."

You can also hear the "not-so-faint humming" of planes at the nearby gates, but that was a plus to Safiya, as it was a reminder that she was soaking in the pool instead of having to wait to board a flight.

Terminal 4's Heritage Zone

The next day, Safiya and Tyler visited the Butterfly Garden and movie theatre at Terminal 3 before hopping on a shuttle bus to Terminal 4.

While the terminal has attractions like a 16m-tall play structure and an indoor slide, the couple were most drawn towards the Heritage Zone, a shopping and dining area with facades designed to look like Peranakan shophouses.

Safiya explained: "This design was a signature of pre-World War II Singapore, which gives this corner of the airport some serious historical flair, but they take it to the next level when the facades open up to display a short film."

At the end of their trip, Safiya and Tyler were both left wishing that they could have stayed longer. 

Safiya concluded that it was probably the best airport she's ever been to, and that she would like to return.

"Overall, I do think Changi is a pretty great airport," she said.

"It's a little frustrating as an attraction because it has so many things — shops, gardens, activities — and they're so spread out among the different terminals that it's hard to visit them all and feel like you saw the whole thing."

But Safiya thinks that's the point.

"The obvious answer is that it's not meant to be visited in one go," she said.

"It's more supposed to have a sprinkling of nice amenities everywhere, so whatever part of the airport you end up in, there's something new for you to experience."

The 32-year-old rose to prominence as the host of Buzzfeed's series Ladylike between 2015 and 2017, before leaving to focus on her YouTube channel, which boasts over 10 million subscribers.

She is known for her fashion and beauty videos, particularly her series Bad Beauty Science where she mixes makeup products together, and also her travel content.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHAGBmkiQnw[/embed]

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drimac@asiaone.com