Designed for optimum comfort and open to non travellers, Changi’ Airport's easy-on-the-eyes Terminal 3 could be Singapore’s new top spot for chilling out, says Marguerita Tan

Changi Airport’s new $1.75-billion Terminal 3 (or Schwarzenegger-worthy ‘T3’ for short) opened its doors on 9 January 2008 for business. Comprising a space equivalent to 60 football fields, it is the largest of Changi’s three terminals. The seven-storey building, with four levels above ground and three basements, will play host to China Eastern Airlines, Jet Airways, Qatar Airways, United Airlines and national carrier Singapore Airlines. And here’s the best part: you don’t need to fly out of the country to enjoy the facilities. Here are seven things you can do in public areas around T3:

1. Watch planes fly and land. The floor-to-ceiling Viewing Mall on level four overlooks runway one, and you can get a relatively unblocked view of the planes, as long as the glass windows’ sunshade panels are inclined at 90 degrees. There are benches in the spacious stretch, but you can also opt to plane-watch in either of the two F&B outlets sandwiching the gallery, Swensen’s and Harry’s Bar. This is also where the massive A380 fleet resides, so you should be able to gawk at one here.

2. Check out the malls. T3 has ten per cent more retail and dining establishments than T1 and T2 combined, with two floors in the public areas totally dedicated to shopping and dining. Mall@T3 in basement two boasts dining options ranging from American fast-food chain Popeye’s to Ya Kun kaya toast and Mr Bean’s soy bean drinks and biscuits. Shoppers will find services such as the Body Contours & Nail Spa and an M1 Shop; shops selling watches and spectacles; and even a full-sized NTUC FairPrice supermarket. Above ground, outlets at 3-Top (level three) include restaurants serving Asian cuisines, such as Lerk Thai and Dian Xiao Er, plus shops as diverse as lingerie boutique Blush!, local bookstore chain Harris, and Periwinkle and Kidz Time, stores featuring branded toys and apparel for children. Also on this level is the first Artisans d’Angkor outlet in Singapore, a speciality store selling hand-made Cambodian crafts and accessories.

3. Have a cuppa. You can find at least one coffee joint on every floor; for instance, there’s KOPI and Ya Kun in B2, and Tosto, McCafé and The Coffee Connoisseur (TCC) at the Arrival Hall on level one. During off-peak hours, you can easily find a table to enjoy a hot drink on your own, or have a quiet meeting with a friend. One nice spot is TCC, located at one end of 3-Top (level three), directly opposite the Harris bookstore, where you can read at a cosy corner table. If you are in an outlet at the Departure/Check-in Hall on level two, you can even spend some time admiring the energy-saving roof (see No. 4). Located close to the exit of the MRT station are The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Wang Café.

4. Admire the building design. The terminal has two architectural features that the management is very proud of. First is the unique roof, which has 919 skylights with reflector panels that adjust the amount of natural light allowed into the building. The other is a five-storey, 300-metre-long vertical garden, which is interspersed with four cascading waterfalls. Yes, they are nice to look at, but if truth be told, the best design element in T3 is the high number of easily accessible restrooms – at least four on every floor and not all located at the far corners – plus the truly cool-looking, see-through elevators linking the seven floors.

5. Enjoy people-watching. At the right end of the Departure Hall (level two), peer into the Immigration Arrival Hall and catch passengers rushing to pose amid seven rows of immaculately landscaped flowering beds with orchids (but of course), leafy palms and ferns before clearing customs. Another good people-watching spot is on the walkway linking 3-Top and the Viewing Mall, where – thanks to T3’s see-through layout concept – you can have a bird’s-eye view of departing and transit passengers in the restricted Departure Transit Mall. Some will be lounging around in the Fullerton Hotel’s Post Bar, with its waterfall centrepiece, while others browse through the stores that the public can’t poke their nose in. (See sidebar below.)

6. Take a ride on the Skytrain. Initially known as the People Mover System (‘PMS’ for short; go ahead and snigger, we already have), then the Automated People Mover, before wisely being renamed the Skytrain, this $135 million, ten-carriage transport system will ferry you between T1, T2 and T3 in minutes. Enjoy a bout of train-spotting at Station B, located at the far right end of the Departure Hall and one of three Skytrain stations in T3, where you can get a good view of the trains arriving. For the fun of it, hop on the system from one end of T3 to the farthest gates (stretching 1.7km) at a speed of seven metres per second, or take the Skytrain from here to T2 for a three-minute, panoramic view of the airport and the control tower. Free rides have never been more fun.

7. Finally, take away a memento. The ultra-modern design of T3 just begs to be documented on film (or digicam). The best spot in T3 to take a photograph proving you were there is on the curbside, outside door four or five of the Departure Hall. There, you can pose with the iconic airport control tower behind you, a shot that will definitely look grand as your Facebook profile pic or mobile phone wallpaper. For sure, this spot will become one of the prime photo-op locations for families of four travelling through T3.

If only you had a boarding pass…

Three speciality concept stores, two brand outlets and two food establishments in T3 are first-of-their-kind, but they are all located in the restricted Departure Transit Mall on level two. So, buy a ticket for a flight out of T3 if you are dying to…

• Visit the first FIFA World concept outlet in the world; the first Ferrari travel retail shop outside Europe; the first Vertu airport boutique in SouthEast Asia; the first Sony Style airport outlet in the world; and fashion brand Fat Face’s first outlet outside Europe.
• Eat at the first Hard Rock Café in a major international airport, and the first Guylian chocolate café located outside Belgium and inside an airport.
• Powder your nose (if you’re a woman, that is) in the extravagant women’s room – an all-in-one dressing room, make-up area and restroom, located at the far left end of the Transit Hall.