There are plenty of things to do with kids in Singapore! We love it there and it’s a great place to travel with kids if you’re just starting out on a nomadic way of life. Sometimes it can be a bit daunting to make the decision to actually get up and go somewhere when you’ve got little munchkins in tow. Parenting and travel are both challenging enough by themselves!
However, if you’ve made the decision that traveling with kids is on your agenda, Singapore is a nice easy place to choose as a first destination. You’ll find plenty of things to do with the little ones. It’s also a highly organized place boasting all the comforts you could ask for. [In case you weren’t aware, the Singapore airport could be considered as a destination in its own rights!]
Where to stay in Singapore
Whilst not the focus of this post, you’ll find plenty of accommodation options in Singapore. Personally, we’ve been lucky enough to always have friends and family to stay with so we haven’t ever needed to book Singapore accommodation on any of our visits. But if you do, check out the latest prices on your favorite booking engine below.
CONSIDERING YOUR NEXT TRIP?
Check Availability & Latest Prices on Your Preferred Booking Engine
We have now visited Singapore three times as a family. Our first two visits were in 2017 and our recent visit was from December 2019 to January 2020.
In the first version of this article, we shared eight of the awesome activities that we enjoyed as a family during our first two-week stay in Singapore. We republished the article in 2020 in line with the new things to do in Singapore with kids that we saw in our most recent visit.
There were also a few things that had changed since we first published the article, so we have updated those too.
New additions of places to visit in Singapore (our 2020 updates)
This is a list of the new information in this post about what to do in Singapore with kids:
Universal Studios Singapore
Additional information about the Far East Children’s gardens and other features at Gardens by the Bay
Updated information for 2020 on the Jacob Ballas Children’s garden at the Botanical Gardens
East Coast Park
Jubilee Park Playground, on the corner of Fort Canning Park. This is a new, inclusive playground in Singapore, which was built in 2019
Admiralty Park Playground in Woodlands Waterfront Park. This one is super amazing!
Amped Trampoline Park
Along with this, we offer you our personal insights to some of the quirky and interesting aspects of visiting Singapore with kids.
A popular green space for hikers, canoeists, and kayakers, MacRitchie Reservoir is an easy taxi ride from the city center. Peaceful and beautiful, you can keep the kids outdoors for several hours here. Follow one of the well maintained easy level hiking trails, or hire a canoe or kayak.
Check out the treetop walk, or just enjoy strolling alongside the water’s edge. Nature enthusiasts can check out the local wildlife – just remind the kids not to feed the monkeys!
Next on our list of things to do with kids in Singapore, is Chinatown. Chinatown is a bustling area of the city with its own unique style. Here the kids will enjoy browsing the markets, which are full of colors and knick-knacks. There are plenty of cheap and tasty places to feed their bellies and try their hand at chopsticks.
A green haven nestled right in town, nature lovers will enjoy what’s on offer at Gardens by the Bay. The whole family can enjoy the flower dome and cloud forest. These are filled with blooming plants and magnificent green sculptures. Enjoy a bird’s eye view from the skyway walk or stroll through the heritage gardens.
Gardens at the Bay can get super busy but it is so worth the visit. On our most recent trip, we enjoyed a couple of visits there, which extended into the hours of darkness. There was this really cool egg display on in the river there, which was double as spectacular in the dark when they were all lit up.
When you visit Gardens at the Bay be sure to check out Satay by the Bay. It’s a hawker center at one end of the gardens with a wide range of Asian food choices.
This is actually part of Gardens by the Bay. However, it deserves its own special mention because it’s so unique and fabulous that you could spend the whole day here with the kids. In terms of things to do with kids in Singapore, this will likely be the one your kids will want to come back to more than once!
We visited the gardens on one day, and the splash park on another. The water play area is ‘out of this world’, with a special section designed for 1-5 year olds and another for 6-12 year olds. Remember to bring your swimwear because it’s fun for grownups too.
If you’re looking for things to do at night with kids in Singapore, the water park is a fun option. It was open until 9pm on our last visit, and our daughter enjoyed a splash in the dark!
If you want to opt-out of the splash park there is plenty of seating in a shaded area. There is a basic café for snacks and microwave meals. The best part is that the splash park is free!
Don’t climb the trees!
We certainly got introduced to the rigid safety rules at the splash park. The ‘little kids’ area has these cool fish sculptures that spurt water out of their mouth. This kept our daughter entertained for ages.
There’s a big one in the middle which stands about a meter tall. In our opinion, this is a fun height to climb to. The fish was made to grip onto easily and padded surface of the ground aids a three-year-old in such a venture.
But the park ‘police’ will stop your kid from climbing up in case they get hurt and fall one meter to the padded surface. They even have whistles!
On either side of the splash area are two well-designed playgrounds. One is targeted at the younger kids and the other for older ones. We loved the sandy ground and canopy bridges in the big kids’ playground.
There is a very enticing looking tree that we would have loved to have climbed. However, there is, of course, a sign stuck to the tree advising against it.
Children’s Garden Update 2020
Upon our return to the children’s garden in January 2020, we were very happy to see that the sign has been changed. It now says “climb at your own risk!”
This is basically an entire island theme park that could keep the family entertained for days on end. Your budget will determine how much you want to do here but there are plenty of things to just walk around and look at if you want a cheap day out. You can choose to take the cable car or monorail over to the island, or simply walk across!
Once over there, the choices are virtually endless. There are options to visit Adventure Cove Waterpark, experience animal and bird encounters, visit Dolphin Island, try indoor skydiving, or have a go on a Segway, among many more things.
Simply enjoy the beaches and nature areas if you’re on a tighter budget. And there really are just so many things to look at everywhere you go. The second time we visited there were amazing sand sculptures to marvel at.
If you’re after things to do with kids in Singapore, Sentosa is a must-visit.
Universal Studios Singapore
On our most recent visit, we checked out Universal Studios, which is one of the main attractions on Sentosa Island.
Honestly, we found it pretty overwhelming and very jamp packed. We did visit over the Christmas and New Year period, so maybe it was busier than usual. Perhaps we had just gotten used to hanging out in the comparatively much quieter Legoland Malaysia. It’s located just over the border in Johor Bahru and we got annual passes and stayed close by for a couple of months.
The reality of Universal Studios was that we only got through a very small portion of what was on offer. We made a good go of it and had a 12 hour day, and didn’t even get through half of the rides. Most rides had waits of between 25 minutes and 70 minutes.
We found that it was under-staffed and some of the systems weren’t very efficient. Long wait times could certainly have been brought down with more than one staff member clipping tickets and buckling every person in to the giant Merry-go-round.
Anyway, it’s worth knowing that you can purchase annual passes, just like we did for Legoland Malaysia. That way you can spread out the activities and hopefully go during quieter times. Additionally, if you have some extra cash you can buy an additional pass to skip the lines (even on your day pass). So if budget isn’t an issue we’d definitely recommend this option.
At just a stone’s throw from the city center, the Singapore botanical gardens are a true oasis of greenery. They are a great place to get in amongst nature and they offer extensive trails and areas of solitude.
We have visited a number of botanical gardens in different parts of the world. These ones are certainly up there with the most spectacular. Enjoy the variety of gardens on offer, marvel at the sculptures, or simply relax on one of the swinging chairs. We saw more wildlife in the gardens than anywhere else in Singapore, including hornbills and lizards.
If your little ones fall over and get a little knee scrape, never fear! The park wardens carry their own kits complete with plasters and smiles. On the way out they’ll even remind you to put antiseptic on the graze when you get home!
The Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden
There is a lovely area inside the Botanical Gardens called the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden.
You can get to the children’s garden from the botanical gardens train station entrance. It’s about a 400m walk from there.
It’s set up in different areas with little learning stations along the way.
One of the things we loved about this play area the first time we visited 3 years ago was the splash park. Not quite as grand as the one at Gardens by the Bay but it was still a cool little area to keep us there a couple of hours longer!
However, this time around it was closed for maintenance and apparently isn’t due to open again until December 2020.
So if you want a splash park and playground Gardens at the Bay is your best bet for 2020!
There are many indoor playgrounds to choose from, a number of which are nestled inside malls. Mainly targeted at the pre-school age, your little ones will likely be able to spend several hours, if not a whole day here. They can be a welcome escape from the heat or sudden downpours outside.
We visited Cool-de-sac playground, inside Suntec city mall. We could barely keep up with the ‘rules’ here. First of all we needed socks so we had to purchase some for our sock-less little kiwi kid. Shoes came off, which was fine. What we found interesting was their concern around our bare feet when we wanted to return to the mall!
After your kid’s temperature is checked and you’re clear on the rule that kids can eat their snacks in certain spots but adults most certainly cannot, you’re good to go!
In Cool-de-sac playground our daughter enjoyed getting her face painted, going down the super speedy slides, dressing up as a princess, drawing pictures, playing on the play equipment, and even painting on the windows! So despite the stringent rules in place, there’s plenty of fun to be had and mess to be made once you’re inside.
This island is an easy day trip getaway from the bustle of the city. Take a taxi to Changi Village on the Eastern side of Singapore, where a number of bumboats are waiting to take you over to the island. Once you get on the boat you can enjoy life in the slow lane and feel like you’re a world away from the city.
We hired bikes for the day, which we highly recommend. It’s an awesome way to check out every corner of the island. There are a number of places to choose a bike to hire once you get there.
We found that they didn’t appear to be well maintained, so feel free to try out a few before you settle on one. We had no problem finding a bike with a seat for our daughter, and saw that bikes of all sizes and types were available.
The roads are well marked and there is even a mountain bike park complete with both family-suitable and more advanced trails. You can choose to take a guided trip on Pulau Ubin if you prefer.
In either case, you’re bound to come across plenty of wildlife and natural surroundings. Just make sure you bring enough cash over to the island to cover you for the boat rides, lunch, snack and water top-ups.
East Coast Park
The East Coast Park in Singapore runs along the big coastal stretch of road heading from the airport towards the downtown core. It’s definitely on our list of fun places to visit in Singapore.
It’s not currently close to any train stations, so you can either take a grab taxi or download a local bus app and ride the bus like we did!
Not to be missed is the Marine Cove Playground, where the kids should stay entertained for hours.
Jubliee Park Playground
Next up in our list of amazing playgrounds in Singapore is Jubilee Park Playground, on the corner of Fort Canning Park (right near the MRT stop).
This is the playground we spent the most time at on our most recent trip since it was only about 20 minutes’ walk from where we were staying and is also right next to the MRT Station.
Fort Canning park itself is great for a look around. There is a big hill in the middle of it so you can get your sweat on and explore the paths and some of the sites around the park.
The playground itself is pretty new. I believe it was only built in 2019. It’s super well designed as an inclusive playground that fits in well with the natural park surroundings.
There is a nature-focused log climbing play area, nets to climb (with greenery growing underneath) and of course the hills for endless climbing and running down (even mama gave it a go ??).
The slides are etched into the hill and they’re pretty fast ones, doubly so when it’s raining ☔?.
The huge see saws are even comfy for grown-ups (although the signs do say they’re designed for 5-12 year olds) and you can take a relaxing break on a swinging seat.
The swing area is well designed with gorgeous soft sand underfoot and all the settings facing in towards each other.
There are even escalators going up the hill for those who need them! We love this playground and would definitely recommend it if you’re in the hood.
Admiralty Park Playground
Admiralty Park playground is located just down from the Woodlands Waterfront Park at the North end of Singapore. It features high on our list of attractions in Singapore for kids.
It was a bit of a trip up from the city and back but well worth it! This is the playground with the awesome big kid /little kid swing you can see in the Instagram post below.
There is an extensive playground here with big nets to climb, slides that go underground, and interesting roller slides. The roller slides seemed pretty slow and the kids were complaining that their backsides hurt… But we saw kids going down on their feet in a squat position which seemed to work a lot better!
Amped Trampoline Park
If its a hot or rainy day or the kids just need to burn some energy, take them to Amped Trampoline Park in the river valley in Singapore.
It is great fun for kids in Singapore. It’s also good for big kids!
It’s $12SGD per hour on a Monday, $15 from Tuesday to Friday and $18 over the weekend. Bring your own grip socks or purchase some there (you have to have them for safety).
There are plenty of tramps to jump around as well as a couple of pits for practicing tricks, and rings to climb. They’re not the bounciest trampolines but fine for some fun playtime. You can also borrow a board to strap to your feet and practice tricks and they even have a couple of foam rollers to help your body prepare and recover!
Family-Friendly Hikes in Singapore
If you’ve been following us for a while you might know that I (Elly) love hiking, so I take every opportunity to explore hiking trails wherever we go.
Although Singapore isn’t exactly wilderness-like there are plenty of areas to enjoy walking and hiking. All the ones we’ve been to are family-friendly.
Download maps.me and then it’s super easy to see where you’re headed.
The second time we visited Singapore I took Ayla on an epic (for a 3 year old) hike starting at the Henderson Waves, along the Southern Ridges trail and down along the Labrador coastal walk.
On our most recent visit it was “mama only” hiking time! I started from beauty world train station and walked to Bukit Timah nature reserve to start my hike. I explored the well-maintained trails there and then headed along the park connector trail up to chestnut point and around the nature reserve there.
My 1-way hike took about 2 hours of brisk walking (including a bit of time taking pics and looking at wildlife) and I came out and walked to Bangkit station to head home.
The trails are well marked although I’d highly recommend using an offline map so that you really know where you are. I changed course quite a few times when I was there because they had very clearly allocated separate walking and biking trails which I wasn’t aware of from my offline map (Singapore is a super organized place so it doesn’t surprise me though!).
I’d definitely recommend this route as a nice way to connect with nature that’s easy to get to and from via taxi or public transport (allow 2 hours walking and 2 hours travel time). And although my family didn’t join me on this occasion it would also be a great family-friendly trail. That’s why I’m including it in this list of places to go with family in Singapore.
Other parks and playgrounds in Singapore
A couple of other green areas which are worth a mention if you’re traveling with littles, are Tiong Bahru playground and Pearl’s hill city park. They can both provide fun for kids in Singapore. You can read a bit about them via the instagram post below.
A friendly place with plenty to do
We found the people of Singapore to be very friendly. A few people seemed to adopt the pet name of ‘Princess’ for our wee girl shortly after meeting her.
Many people asked us if they could take photos of our daughter. We offered the decision over to her. Sometimes she would say yes, but by the end of two weeks the stimulation of all the bright lights and colors had probably worn her out. At this point, she just screamed in response instead!
With a kiwi kid in tow who likes to go barefoot, we did get approached from a few concerned strangers. Along with politely asking us not to let our child climb on a variety of structures, they were most concerned that she would stand on something and hurt her foot. We found this somewhat interesting considering how immaculately clean Singapore is. However, it provided a very clear indication of the kind intentions of those who live there.
We hope this article about things to do with kids in Singapore will be useful for you! There are loads of other Singapore attractions, such as the Singapore Flyer. This was actually on our list of places to go the last time we were in Singapore. However, the flyer was closed due to technical issues for the whole duration of our visit.
Maybe we’ll visit again, and if so we’ll update the list again…hopefully after experiencing a ride on the Flyer!
CONSIDERING YOUR NEXT TRIP?
Check Availability & Latest Prices on Your Preferred Booking Engine
Elly has been inspiring people to make sustainable changes to their health, fitness and lifestyle for 20+ years. She takes a holistic approach to wellbeing, is the creator of the Holistic Health Highway and is the author of the Amazon 5-star reviewed book ‘Burning Fat for Good’ which you can get here.
Did you enjoy this blog? Have you been inspired by any of our other content such as our social posts or videos? Did you know you can now ‘Buy Us A Coffee‘! Just click the link or button and express your gratitude however you see fit.
![Logo-Parenting and Passports [Red&Yellow] [248x83]](https://parentingandpassports.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Logo-PP-RedYellow-248x83-PNG.png "Logo-P&P-Red&Yellow [248x83]"){kind=logo}
