Sentosa is Singapore's resort island, a former military base turned into a dense cluster of attractions, beaches, and hotels on a small island off the southern coast, connected to the mainland by a cable car, a monorail, and a short causeway. Its name means "peace and tranquillity" in Malay, which is a generous description of an island that holds a theme park, an aquarium, a casino, and several artificial beaches, but it remains the city's main destination for a day of organised fun.
The biggest draw is Resorts World Sentosa, which contains Universal Studios Singapore, the S.E.A. Aquarium (one of the largest in the world), and a water park. The island's three beaches — Siloso, Palawan, and Tanjong — are man-made but pleasant, lined with beach bars and the Palawan beach's suspension bridge to the "southernmost point of continental Asia." Fort Siloso, at the western tip, is a preserved coastal battery from the colonial era, the only one of its kind left in Singapore.
Getting there is part of the experience: the Singapore Cable Car runs from Mount Faber over the harbour to the island, giving the best aerial view of the port and the southern coast. Sentosa is unashamedly an attraction rather than a neighbourhood — there is nothing authentic or old about most of it — but as a day out, especially for families, it concentrates more diversions in one place than anywhere else in the country.