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If you're a member of a club back in London, check to see if it has a reciprocal with the Royal Bombay Yacht Club - if not try blagging! Food and bar is very cheap - really nice views of the bay and it's got a 'last days of the raj' feel to it.

If you’re looking for somewhere to wind-down, there are plenty of sedate but hip options in Singapore. Art-bar fusion is currently a big thing in the city. The Majestic Bar features the 7.6m tall ‘Living Man’ metal sculpture by Zadok Ben David and other works by regional artists Yuki Chong, Donna Ong and Sandra Lee. And Night & Day – Bar + Gallery + Friends, which opened in September. Set up by Kelley Cheng and Randy Chan – founders of iSh magazine and zArch Architects, respectively – the revamped four-storey Art Deco building serves as a space for gallery-goers to chill out with a drink in hand, while soaking up graphic art. Another option is the Merbau Gallery Bar. It’s ultra-trendy and has recently hosted architectural photography exhibitions, social events and networking cocktails.

But if all this hipness turns you off, try the Post Room at the Fullerton. Its modish décor and comfy couches and chairs are wonderful, and it might just be the best place in Asia to enjoy oysters with Dom Perignon. Finally, Harry’s Quayside Bar is the best place for jazz on the island, ideally positioned on the beautiful Boat Quay and was the haunt of renegade Barings Bank broker Nick Leeson. You can't really ask for more than that!

The new Singapore has drawn in some of the world’s best known DJs and the Ministry of Sound. Like its London division you'll find house, trance, progressive, techno and breaks here. It’s the place to be seen but, unlike its Elephant & Castle counterpart, not at all closed to a slightly older crowd who might have thought their hardcore clubbing days were behind them. In fact, the clientele is so mixed and the atmosphere unintimidating that even the relatively conservative Business Traveller magazine (a bible to so many business travellers!) was touting its virtues earlier in the year.

Located in a Manchester-style old warehouse, Singapore’s most fashionable and famous club is always rammed with a variety of folk. And despite the incredibly hip vibe, it’s extremely friendly. If you want a breather from the mad action downstairs, hit the quieter Member’s Bar on the second floor.

Fancy a boogie? Sound Bar and Enclave are your passes to the best late-night hedonism Chicago has to offer. The former has two levels and is invariably packed: downstairs plays hip-hop music and upstairs grooves to an unrelenting house beat. You can engineer your very own oasis of calm, though, by booking a table in the VIP room. The drinks are phenomenally cheap, you get waitress service and the chance to retreat if the music becomes too much or the people too raucous. Not the best club in the world, but a good laugh nonetheless. Altogether better is Enclave. This upscale location has undergone a full year of renovation: new floors, new (clean) bathrooms, new furnishings, impeccably styled bar areas, etc. And it’s been worth it. This is now the premier dance spot in Illinois, with beautiful people to match. Get a table in the circular, curtain-swathed VIP area and forget all about work.

Fancy a swim? Believe it or not, you can swim outside in London. Shoreditch House – owned by Nick Jones, the man who brought us Soho House – is situated in east London and has a heated rooftop pool.

It also has a fabulous set of places to drink inside, an onsite bowling alley and a Cowshed spa. Very possibly the best place to chill out in the capital.