Typical spend per person, in Singapore dollars.
Park or garden
A five-hectare strip between two bridges most people cross without looking: the Kallang Gas Holder, otters by Stadium Link and egrets from September to March. Calm because it's overlooked.
- Where: Kallang & Tanjong Rhu
- Price: Free
Attraction
The Ten Courts of Hell, explained at last, inside a museum on death and the afterlife at Haw Par Villa. Not for under-9s; the rest of you will talk about it all the way home.
- Where: Queenstown
- Price: Under S$30
Gallery or museum
A volunteer-run museum of ordinary Queenstown life: biscuit tins, bowling pins, a rescued neon cinema sign and more than 6,000 items gathered before the bulldozers came to Tanglin Halt.
- Where: Queenstown
- Price: Free
Attraction
One of Singapore's oldest Buddhist monasteries, completed in 1907 with craftsmen and materials from China. A National Monument among Toa Payoh's HDB blocks; give it an unhurried hour.
- Where: Toa Payoh
- Price: Free
Attraction
HDB’s 1979 terrazzo dragon, one of the few Khor Ean Ghee playgrounds still standing, sandpit included. Free and open-air: bring small children and a bucket in the late afternoon.
- Where: Toa Payoh
- Price: Free
Park or garden
A dog-friendly park with a Victorian fort under the grass, one excavated bastion on view and a tree whose bark changes colour. Half an hour well spent; the playground is shut until 12 November.
- Where: Siglap & Tanjong Katong
- Price: Free
Attraction
A small Theravada temple off Ah Hood Road built around a three-metre Buddha, carved in Mandalay in 1918 from more than ten tons of marble. Twenty quiet minutes, well spent.
- Where: Balestier & Novena
- Price: Free
Other
Two trips at one address: sunset in Ramadan for Singapore's best-known bazaar, and a quiet weekday the rest of the year for the building and the heritage gallery.
- Where: Geylang
- Price: Free
Hawker / Malay
Breakfast at the food centre, then spices, cloth and traditional medicine under the same roof. Go in the morning with an empty bag, and come back in Ramadan to see it at full volume.
- Where: Geylang
- Price: Under S$30
Attraction
The Robertson Quay footbridge Pacita Abad covered in 55 colours and about 2,350 circles in 2004, her last major work, repainted in 2019. Free, and worth the detour on any river walk.
- Where: Robertson Quay
- Price: Free
Gallery or museum
A print and paper workshop on Robertson Quay with its own paper mill and a free gallery showing what its artists in residence make. Check for a public workshop before you go.
- Where: Robertson Quay
- Price: Free
Attraction
The quiet side of Holland Village: former British forces quarters on Jalan Merah Saga, now cafés and shops a few steps from people's front doors. Come for an unplanned hour.
- Where: Holland Village
- Price: Free