Sentosa and the Southern Ridges: Beaches, forts and high bridges
Choose a side, not both: Sentosa for a lazy beach day with the children, or the Southern Ridges for a half-day walk over treetop bridges that ends at Bukit Chandu.
Pick sand or canopy: the south does both, with a short stretch of water in between.
The south gives you two very different days out, and the only hard part is choosing. Sentosa is built for families and beach time, with lagoons, a theme park and no expectation that you'll do anything strenuous. The Southern Ridges, across the water, belong to walkers who want forest, views and some history, with long bridges carrying you over the traffic and through the treetops. Both get busy at weekends, though only one of them has a queue for the Minions.
Best forBeach DaysFamily Days OutNature WalksHistoryTheme Parks
From HarbourFront, climb to Mount Faber and cross the 274-metre bridge, 36 metres above Henderson Road. The curved ribs make shaded alcoves with seats, which you'll want on a morning walk; from 7pm LEDs pick out the curves, so come back at dusk another day if you want it lit.
Forest Walk
A 1.3 km step-free elevated walkway through the secondary forest of Telok Blangah Hill Park, rising from three to 18 metres above the ground. All the canopy views, none of the scrambling.
Cross Alexandra Arch, the 80-metre bridge into HortPark's Floral Walk, and take your time over the themed gardens, the grey-and-white Silver Garden included. The off-limits prototype glasshouses are where the systems for Gardens by the Bay's domes were tested.
Kent Ridge Park Canopy Walk
A 280-metre boardwalk at eye level with the treetops. It's suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs, so nobody has to wait at the bottom.
Finish at the Second World War interpretive centre in a black-and-white bungalow on Pepys Road, which tells the story of the Malay Regiment at the Battle of Pasir Panjang. The hill's name comes from the opium-packing plant that once stood at its foot.
What reviewers say
Labrador's jetty is the place to sit and do nothing at the end of a southern day. Bring insect repellent and your own water, and check NParks first for what's open.
Fort Siloso is the Sentosa stop with a real story: a British fort, a prisoner-of-war camp during the Occupation and open to visitors since 1975. Pair it with the beach at the same end.
For Universal Studios, go on a weekday outside school holidays and arrive before opening. If Minion Land is the reason for the trip, do it first, before the day's queues build.
In HortPark, make for the grey-and-white Silver Garden: the one corner of the walk that looks nothing like the rest of the tropics.
Resorts World Sentosa's Season of Joy runs 27 November 2026 to 3 January 2027: a free eight-metre tree at WEAVE, 15 nights of fireworks inside Universal Studios and two K-pop silent discos at the Singapore Oceanarium.
Barossa Steak & Grill at VivoCity has reopened after a revamp and sells its Australian F1 wagyu oyster blade for S$12 instead of S$68 until Sunday 15 November: 100 a day, walk-in and dine-in only, one each. Be there at 11.30am on a weekday.
The first Singapore Book Street runs 2–8 November at VivoCity. Entry is free, and more than 1,200 Singapore titles can be paid for with Culture Pass credits.
Alexandra Village's family zi char since 1970, and the coffee pork ribs are why. Book for six, go to the Bukit Merah Lane original, and order the ribs before anything else.
Redhill's neighbourhood hawker centre, worth the walk for Fatty Cheong's char siew and Ah Er's Bib Gourmand soup. Go before the lunch rush with a back-up stall in mind.
S$4 gets you across by train, and the beaches, Fort Siloso and the Sensoryscape lights are free. The rides and shows are where the money goes, so choose one or two and leave the rest.
A floating boardwalk that rises with the tide, a lagoon that holds the sea and reef life in the pools at low tide. Pack lunch and water: the island sells neither.
Pilgrimage season runs until 8 November: boatloads of devotees, special ferries only. After that it's two lagoons, a tortoise sanctuary and far fewer people.
Imported sand, a crescent lagoon and, since the St John's jetty closed, every ferry landing here. The quiet beach is a little less of a secret, and still our pick of the islands.
Singapore's old quarantine island, now a lagoon, a picnic lawn, a cat colony and a skyline view. The ferry lands on Lazarus, and the walk across is the price of the quiet.
Where: Southern Islands
Price: Under S$30
The story of Sentosa & the Southern Ridges
Sentosa was once Pulau Blakang Mati, a name usually translated as the island behind which lies death. The British fortified it, completing Fort Siloso in the early 1880s, and during the Japanese Occupation the fort was used as a prisoner-of-war camp; it reopened to visitors in 1975. In 1972 a naming contest settled on Sentosa, Malay for peace and tranquillity, and the island was remade as a resort right down to its beaches. Siloso is one of three with swimming lagoons created in the 1970s and 1980s on sand shipped in from abroad.
For families with a day to spend, the pick is Universal Studios Singapore, home to Minion Land, or the Singapore Oceanarium at Resorts World, which replaced the S.E.A. Aquarium; one of them is plenty for a day. For dinner, Fico, the Puglian restaurant from East Coast Park, has a second branch at Tanjong Beach Club. If the main beach is a crowd scene, walk west along Siloso towards the fort and leave the busiest stretch behind.
The Southern Ridges are the better half-day if you would rather walk than queue. They link Mount Faber, Telok Blangah Hill and Kent Ridge parks with Labrador Nature Reserve. The headline is Henderson Waves, a 274-metre bridge riding 36 metres above Henderson Road and the tallest pedestrian bridge in Singapore, with a nutmeg tree at the Mount Faber end to recall the hill's plantation past. From there the elevated Forest Walk, Alexandra Arch and HortPark's themed gardens carry you west to the Kent Ridge Canopy Walk and Reflections at Bukit Chandu, which tells the story of the Malay Regiment at the Battle of Pasir Panjang in 1942. Haw Par Villa, the Tiger Balm brothers' sculpture garden, and the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at NUS are nearby for the curious.
Imported sand, anchored tankers and the odd crocodile. The honest ranking: Lazarus for the beach, Palawan for children, Changi for barbecues and East Coast for a work night.
