What to do in Singapore

Singapore

10 More Free Things to do in Singapore (pt 3)

Just when I think Singapore can’t get any better, I visit again and discover even more great places to go and things to do. Some are things I just hadn’t yet discovered. But most are new places, new events or new activities that have been created since my last visit. No matter how often I visit, I’m never at a loss for what to do in Singapore.

The city center is constantly growing and developing, due to a well-organized long-term development plan for the entire country, which includes ever-expanding natural, leisure and public spaces; great architectural projects; and environmentally sustainable development.

When I visited in early 2012, I enjoyed so many new adventures that I couldn’t help but write yet another post in my series ’10 Free things to do in’ the world’s best city. Many take place around the new Marina Bay Sands complex and neighboring parkland spaces. A few are located in other parts of Singapore.

Starting at Marina Bay, here are some great new free activities in this fascinating city-state:

Marina Bay City Gallery – Singapore

1. Marina Bay City Gallery

Singapore City Gallery

This is a branch of the URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority), the organization responsible for Singapore’s long-term planning and growth. While the main URA gallery in Chinatown showcases overall Singapore planning, the Marina Bay Gallery focuses solely on the new Marina Bay area.

This gallery displays a huge 3-D map/model of Marina Bay that has descriptions of the bay’s main points of interest and several fun interactive displays where visitors can learn the history of the area, how it’s being developed and fun things to do.

The Gallery building itself was designed and built with several eco-friendly environmentally sustainable features including LED lights, solar panels and floor to ceiling walls of glass which greatly reduce the amount of electricity required.

Marina Bay and Financial district – Singapore

2. Five Walking Tours at Marina Bay

URA has laid out 5 different walking tours around Marina Bay, each focusing on a particular theme: architecture, running paths, public art, heritage buildings and the waterfront. Informative brochures for each theme give distances, expected walking/running times, and points of interest along the route. Distances are generally 4-6 km, tour times about one hour.

Each tour showcases 12-20 points of interest. Each feature is illustrated in the brochure with a photo and a description. The self-guided tours are a fantastic way to observe things you might have otherwise missed and to learn about Singapore’s iconic buildings, history and newest additions to the city.

Three running trails are suggested, ranging from 3.5 km to 9.5 km. Locals are really taking advantage of their new public running spaces! You’ll see dozens of joggers around Marina Bay every evening.

Marina Bay Sands Multimedia Laser Show – photo courtesy Marina Bay Sands

3. Marina Bay Nighttime Water-Laser show

Every evening at 8 pm and 9:30 pm Marina Bay presents a phenomenal, state-of-the-art multimedia water front show that encompasses video, music, laser lights, blasting water and fireworks. According to their website, the original music score was created and recorded by a 140-piece orchestra. The complete presentation took 3 years and 100 specialists to pull together. With all that preparation, it’s not surprising to hear it’s the largest light / water show in SE Asia.

If you’re anywhere around the bay during show times, including across the bay at the Merlion, the Esplanade or One Fullerton Place, you can’t fail to notice something exiting happening over at Marina Bay Sands waterfront. Rather than wonder what’s happening and missing a very cool show, plan to be over there one evening. Most people sit on the outdoor stone steps provided.

Friday and Saturday nights there’s a third show at 11 pm. Be sure to catch the show at least once while you’re in town. Although I personally found the theme pretty cheesy, the technical wizardry is quite spectacular.

Super Trees – Singapore

4. Super Trees and botanic gardens

Super Trees Grove

Singapore’s new high-tech Supertrees mimic functions of real trees, including producing energy (via solar panels), catching rain water, moderating temperatures and providing shade. The 18 steel structures, ranging in height from 25-50 M (80-160 ft), are covered in vines, flowers and ferns. They create a unique and impressive, lush forest on reclaimed land at the gorgeously landscaped Bay Gardens South.

Eleven Supertrees are fitted with solar panels. Several others serve as air exhaust receptacles for the two nearby plant conservatories, dubbed Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. Still others have large rain water catchments. A sky walkway connects two of them, offering spectacular views over the gardens and the city. One of the 50 M trees has a restaurant on top.

Entrance to Bay Gardens South is free. Visitors are welcome to stroll around the extensive landscaped gardens and admire the Supertrees from ground level. On the other hand, the two conservatories and Supertrees Skywalk have entrance fees. Marina Barrage (below) is also located within Bay Gardens South, further out along the outer harbor.

Marina Barrage – Singapore

5. Marina Barrage

Marina Barrage is a unique eco-friendly building featuring a wide spiraling roof of grass that creates a giant open field on top of the building. It’s been designed with the country’s youth in mind as a place to fly kites, have picnics and generally hang out.

The rooftop offers phenomenal views of the city, the outer harbor and the immediately surrounding botanical gardens.

new botanic gardens and conservatories

6. Bay East Gardens

Bay East Gardens and Bay Gardens South are both part of the larger Gardens at the Bay Botanical Gardens, all recently opened in 2012.

Bay East Gardens lie across the canal from Bay Gardens South and the Marina Bay Sands complex. The beautifully-landscaped East Gardens run along the canal for two km, offering paved pathways and open fields for walking, jogging, cycling and relaxing. There are also stunning views of Singapore and the outer harbor from the gardens.

Gardens South and East are connected by a pedestrian bridge at Marina Barrage, out at the far end of Gardens South. The gardens are so large that it would be easy to spend a half day or full day strolling around, admiring the landscaped gardens and city views, picnic-ing, photographing or exercising.

night view from Orchard Central Shopping Mall – Singapore

7. Free Rooftop City Views – Orchard Central Shopping Mall

Quite to my astonishment, a passing tourist turned me on to this amazing spot to enjoy sweeping views over the city. While I was standing on Orchard Road one afternoon examining the crazy escalators located on the outside of Orchard Central Shopping Mall, a woman noticed me and stopped to fill me in on her own great discovery.

She told me to go up to the roof and view the city for free. “Who needs to pay $20 to go up to Marina Bay Sands Hotel observatory when you can see the city here?” she exclaimed.

As soon as I had a chance, I went up to see for myself. I thank that woman to this day for her great discovery: sweeping views of Singapore in all directions all the way to the harbor, to Marina Bay, to Sentosa island, inland towards Malaysia and the immediate area of skyscrapers around Orchard Road.

Stunning sunsets unfold there at dusk. Orchard Central’s outside-the-building escalator ride up to the roof is cool, too.

Elevated Walkways on Southern Ridges

8. Hike the Southern Ridges

Southern Ridges

I discovered the extensive southern ridge hiking trails in 2012 from URA’s informative pamphlet, ‘Rediscover Singapore’.

URA is bent on a serious mission to incorporate more natural spaces and outdoor activities into Singaporean life. Several projects are slowly connecting various parts of the country via walking, hiking and cycling trails. The Southern Ridges region is one of those projects.

They’ve already connected Mt. Faber as far as Labrador Nature Reserve. And they’ve done it with quite a flare! There’s an extensive section of elevated walkways through a forest, an award-winning bridge over a major highway, a huge horticultural park and gardening center, a jungle canopy walk and another beautifully-designed over-highway bridge connecting these once separate areas. When the project is complete, the walkways will continue all the way to Harbor Front area at the coast near Sentosa Island.

As of mid 2012 you can easily hike 2-3 hours in each direction, which will give just about anyone but die-hard mountain climbers a good work-out entirely surrounded by nature in the middle of the city.

view of Singapore from Southern Ridges hiking trails

I started my hike on top of Mt Faber along the Faber Hill Loop. That connects to Henderson Waves, the uniquely designed wood-lined pedestrian bridge arcing 36 M above a major freeway. From there I enjoyed a lovely jungly hilltop walk on Telok Blangah Hill Park. That gives way to my favorite park of the hike, dubbed the Forest Walk, which is an extensive system of elevated steel scaffolding-like walkways and stairs set at the level of the tree tops.

Next came Alexandra Arch, a graceful curvy steel bridge, which leads to a long walk through extensive landscaped gardens at the horticultural center. Finally I reached the Canopy Walk through more lush forest.

I could have continued further, but I’d had enough for the day. I walked 5.5 km in each direction, 11 km total (6+ miles), which took about one and a half hours in each direction.

Get detailed info for each section of the hike and free download maps/descriptions at Singapore National Parks website

one of the zany displays at Haw Par Villa

10. Haw Par Village

As I mentioned in my post Five Unique Things to do in Singapore, Haw Par Village is a park you’ll find nowhere else on the planet. It’s a unique attraction that I visited on my very first trip to the country back in 1992.

The entire park is so unbelievably kitsch, ridiculous, and over-the-top, that I spent an entire morning with my jaw agape and eyes bulging, while I gasped, “ohhh!” and “Look at that!” and Holy SH**” to my companion.

Har Paw Garden was built by the same Chinese Singaporean brothers who invented the wonderful, multi-purpose Tiger Balm ointment. I personally swear by Tiger Balm, which I regularly use for sore muscles, insect and marine stings, headaches, and all manor of minor skin irritations. I carry it with me on all my travels.

On the other hand, I certainly would not want to immerse myself in their Haw Par Villa on a regular basis. But it’s definitely worth one visit while you’re in Singapore, especially considering there’s no entry fee. Go on out there- you’ll be amazed.

For more great activities to do in Singapore without spending a dime, check out my previous posts in this series:

pt #1 here and pt #2 here

———————————————————————————————————————

QUESTIONS:

Which of these activities would you most like to do?

Do you know any other great free things to do in Singapore? Share them here!

——————————————————————————————————————————————

100 Free Things to do in Asia

If you found this post useful, you’ll love my FREE eBook, 100 Free Things to do in Asia. It describes 10 fun activities in 10 different Asian cities and destinations.

Check out my eBook here

——————————————————————————————————————————————

——– get my FREE eBook ——– 100 Free Things to do in Asia

10 More Free Things to do in Singapore (pt 3)