Sixty years ago most of this shoreline was sea, and Singapore still isn't quite done with it.
Bring a bike or hire one, start early and give the east a whole day: East Coast Park in the morning, a ten-minute bumboat to Pulau Ubin, the Changi boardwalk at sunset and dinner by the sea. It suits cyclists, families with scooters, birdwatchers and anyone who wants a long walk where the air actually moves. The catch is shade, of which Ubin's roads have little, so keep the middle of the day for lunch in the village rather than for cycling. The hills are mercifully few until you reach Ubin.
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The walk · A full day
Ubin by Bumboat, Then the Long Way Home
Changi Point Ferry Terminal
Bumboats to Pulau Ubin leave once 12 passengers are aboard and take about ten minutes, which is just long enough to get windswept. On quiet weekdays you may wait a while for the boat to fill, so bring patience along with the sunscreen.
Walk or cycle past granite hills and flooded quarries, and climb Puaka Hill, the 74-metre high point, for the view down over Ubin Quarry. The stalls and provision shops in the village near the jetty are your refuelling stop.
Chek Jawa Wetlands
About 3 km from the jetty, six habitats meet, from seagrass lagoon to mangrove. Climb the 21-metre Jejawi Tower to look out over the canopy, and time your visit for a low tide if you want to see the shore life.
Changi Point Coastal Walk
Back on the mainland, pick up the 2.2 km boardwalk from the ferry terminal and follow it past the beach and Sailing Point to the Kelong Walk, raised on stilts over the water.
Sunset Walk
The boardwalk signs off among boulders with the sea laid out in front of you. It's lit in the evening, so stay for the sunset; there's no need to race the dark home.
What reviewers say
Book Fico's early-evening slot so the sunset arrives with the pasta; the communal table means sharing with strangers.
Pack swimwear for the children at Coastal PlayGrove, because they will get soaked, and go early or late rather than at midday, when sun-baked slides are nobody's friend.
At the PlayGrove tower, the four colour-coded levels get wobblier as they go up, from swaying wave nets at the blue base to a wobbly platform at orange on top, so smaller children are happiest low down and older ones will head straight for the top.
For the Rain Vortex, skip the first railing, watch from the Forest Valley stairs and wear flat shoes, as the floor is often wet.
Porta Porta, the Muslim-owned Southern Italian restaurant at 32 Jalan Pari Burong, closes for good on Thursday 31 December 2026 after 33 years. Lunch and dinner Tue-Sun until then; book on Chope or by phone.
The 7–8 November starter parade at Jewel has been and gone, but the free PokéXciting displays in Forest Valley, including a 3-metre Pikachu and the Snorlax Zone, stay until 31 January 2027, and the card-game trail runs to 3 January.
TWG's biggest shop anywhere is airside at Terminal 3, with a museum of antique samovars and tea ice cream. You need a boarding pass to see it, so get to your next T3 flight early.
An eight-seat counter in Bedok's East Village where one Japanese chef cooks and serves. Go at opening, alone or in a pair, and start with the Special Shio.
Where the Ubin ferry and the cycling clubs refuel: two rival nasi lemak stalls, Ipoh hor fun and fried bananas. Just back from October repairs, so check it's open first.
Rival bak chor mee stalls in neighbouring units, hotplate stingray and charred wings late into the night. Bedok 85 is where the east goes for supper. Bring a group and split the queues.
The hawker centre at the end of the East Coast cycle path: charcoal satay, stingray in banana leaf and a sea breeze no fan can match. Arrive by bike, late afternoon.
A Pugliese farmhouse on the East Coast Park cycle path, with a Bib Gourmand and a kiosk that turns the park into the dining room. Not cheap, and a car helps.
A brewery at the end of the island, with 20 copper taps, a 15-hour brisket and the sea at the bottom of the road. It is ulu by any measure, and that is the reason to go, not the excuse.
A free, timed 5km every Saturday morning on the flat seafront path at East Coast Park. Register once, print your barcode and turn up before the heat does.
The east's barbecue beach: book a pit with NParks, bring a bike and watch the planes come in over the sea. Wear covered shoes on the rocks, and don't count on the Coastal Walk.
Singapore's war told through what the Changi prisoners kept: a hidden camera, a Morse set in a matchbox, a 400-page diary. Allow an hour, and note it shuts on Mondays.
The name says Goodman Arts Centre; the wheels are at 71 Ubi Crescent. Worth it for a family or team afternoon, if you ask what firing and glazing cost first.
A heartland park left wild on purpose: marsh, dead trees kept for woodpeckers, bird hides and around 75 bird species. Bring binoculars; don't expect amenities.
Jets low over Changi Beach while it's light, a shared hawker supper, then 20 taps and a smokehouse at Little Island Brewing Co. Worth the trip for a group; sort the ride home first.
The war at Changi told through what internees kept, nasi lemak with the Ubin ferry crowd, then jets low over the sand. Make it a half-day, and not a Monday.
A 280-metre practice loop for wobbly cyclists, Singapore's tallest outdoor slide, then charcoal wings by the sea. Effort first, food last, and nobody minds damp hair.
Where: East Coast
The story of East Coast, Changi & Pulau Ubin
East Coast Park is built on land that wasn't there sixty years ago. Reclamation began in 1966, the park opened on the new shoreline in the 1970s, and it now runs for more than 13 kilometres over about 180 hectares. Hire a bike or skates, try the cable ski park, or let the children loose at Coastal PlayGrove, rebuilt around the old Big Splash tower, whose 1977 slide was once billed as the world's longest and highest. The Thomson-East Coast Line stops at Siglap and Katong Park, and with URA's 'Long Island' coastal-protection plan in the works offshore, there is more coast to come.
Further east, the coast exhales. Pasir Ris Park has six hectares of mangrove you can walk through on a boardwalk, and at Changi Village a 2.2-kilometre boardwalk follows the shore past moored yachts before striding out over the sea on stilts. From the ferry terminal next door, bumboats cross to Pulau Ubin: granite hills, flooded quarries, regrown forest and a small, shrinking village. At its eastern tip is Chek Jawa, slated for reclamation in 1992 until public appeals led the government to defer the plan in 2001. Go and see what very nearly wasn't.
For dinner, book a sunset table at Fico, the Puglian restaurant in East Coast Park with a Michelin Bib Gourmand. And when the sky has other plans, head for Jewel at Changi Airport, designed by Moshe Safdie and opened in 2019, where the Rain Vortex drops 40 metres through seven storeys and is designed to channel rainwater through the dome. It's the one downpour in Singapore people stop to watch on purpose.
Start with East Coast to Changi on a Sunday morning: flat, coastal, breakfast at the end. The Rail Corridor for atmosphere, the Coast-to-Coast for distance. Leave at first light.
