Bukit Timah: Old forest, a quarry lake and some famous otters
The best half-day hike you can do without leaving town: Singapore's highest hill, a quarry gone to the birds, an old railway line turned trail and a former storm drain where otters became celebrities.
Singapore's highest hill is 163 metres tall, which your calves will find very hard to believe.
Come early, in proper shoes, and the middle of the island gives you the closest thing Singapore has to a real hike: shade, steep steps, birdsong and a summit you can honestly say you climbed. It suits walkers, trail runners, birdwatchers and families who want wildlife without leaving town; it doesn't suit a midday start or anyone in slippers. Do the hill and the quarry in one morning, then let the old railway line walk you to coffee.
Best forHikingNature WalksBirdwatchingRailway HeritageFamily Days Out
The walk · Half a day
Hill, Quarry and Railway
Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
Begin at the visitor centre at the end of Hindhede Drive and climb towards the 163-metre summit. It's short but steep, so take it slower than your pride suggests, and check NParks' advisory first for any works at the top.
Enter from Hindhede Drive and follow the Rambai Boardwalk and trails to the Quarry Wetland. Then sit quietly in the Waterhen Hide for longer than feels natural: yellow bitterns and white-breasted waterhens have been recorded here, and patience is the only equipment you need.
Colugo Deck
The lookout sits 31 metres above the old Sin Seng Quarry, one of the tallest viewing points in Singapore's nature parks, and it's the view of the day. The 582-metre Colugo Trail up to it is steep, so choose your route before you start rather than halfway up.
Drop down to the old railway line and walk south along the Central section, 4 km between Hillview and Bukit Timah Railway Station; it's flat, which your legs will appreciate after the hill. The corridor is left dark at night for the wildlife, so finish before dusk.
Bukit Timah Railway Station
The 1932 station now holds a heritage gallery with the original signal levers and ticket booth, and during its restoration every sleeper, clip and spike went back where it came from. The former staff quarters is now a café. Coffee, earned.
What reviewers say
Rifle Range's old quarry is all granite cliffs and still green water; bring binoculars and give the kingfishers time to show up.
Take the gentler stair route up to the Colugo Deck with young children or unsteady walkers; the shorter scramble over big stone steps is for people who want to feel it in their legs tomorrow.
Go to Bishan–Ang Mo Kio Park for a chance of the otters rather than for a hike: it's flat, open and an easy first nature outing for children who haven't yet learned to care about birds.
Walk the Bishan river and remember it was a concrete canal: the park won a professional landscape award in 2016, and the otters appear to agree with the judges.
The place to eat after the Botanic Gardens: nasi lemak sets named after poker hands, plus Bib Gourmand mutton soup and prawn noodles, in one low building by the flyover.
About 10km of roots, hills and narrow paths around Singapore's oldest reservoir, with a swaying treetop bridge in the middle and macaques who know what a gel wrapper means. The city's proper long run.
The Ford boardroom on Upper Bukit Timah Road where Singapore was surrendered in 1942, still there and still plain. Come at the weekend for the free volunteer-led tour.
Roughly 100,000 graves under old trees in the middle of the island, Sikh guard statues, flying lemurs and a self-guided trail since 2025. Go on a dry weekday morning, dressed for a light hike.
A spa inside Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park where each of the 12 treatment rooms has its own courtyard and outdoor bath. Expensive, so save it for an occasion and book the longest courtyard time.
A concrete drain turned back into a river, with lawns built to flood and otters that arrived on their own. Walk one stretch, not all 3km, and route around the bridge works.
A free garden where children up to 14 run the show and adults need one to get in. Water play for under-12s, a flying fox for older ones; the Tree House is closed.
Where: Bukit Timah
Price: Free
The story of Bukit Timah & the Central Nature Reserves
Bukit Timah Nature Reserve covers 163 hectares around the 163-metre Bukit Timah Hill, the country's highest natural peak, and is one of two ASEAN Heritage Parks in Singapore. To the east, the Central Catchment Nature Reserve wraps around the reservoirs. Its star turn is the TreeTop Walk, a 250-metre freestanding suspension bridge strung between the reserve's two highest points and reached on a round trip of about 7 km from Windsor Nature Park.
Just south of the hill, Rifle Range Nature Park spreads over 66 hectares and takes in the old Sin Seng Quarry, once among Singapore's deepest, which stopped working in 1998 and is now a freshwater wetland with the Colugo Deck hanging 31 metres above it. Along the park's western edge runs the Rail Corridor, a 24 km green line on old railway land returned in 2011. Its restored 1932 Bukit Timah Railway Station holds a heritage gallery and a café, and Hume station makes the central stretch easy to reach.
For a gentler kind of nature, head north-east to Bishan–Ang Mo Kio Park, where the Kallang River used to run in a concrete canal. It now winds as a naturalised river through 62 hectares of lawns, ponds and wildflower banks, and the lawns are designed to flood in a storm. More than 90 bird species have been recorded here, and the smooth-coated otters have become minor celebrities. Not bad for a former storm drain.
