Every Saturday morning in Singapore begins the same way: somebody asks what we’re doing today, nobody has an answer, and by 11am you’ve defaulted to the same mall you went to last week.
This is the antidote: a permanent list, not a what’s-on. Nothing here’s a one-weekend event that expired months ago. These are places you can go this weekend, next weekend, or in two years’ time, sorted by the things that decide it: what it costs, whether it’s raining, and how old your kids are.
Bookmark it. That’s what it’s for.
Free things to do with kids
Start here. Singapore’s free options rival its ticketed ones, and on a weekend where nobody wants to spend money, this is the section you want.
Parks and gardens
- Singapore Botanic Gardens: the UNESCO site, and its Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden is arguably the best free children’s space in the country. Water play, suspension bridges, treehouses, climbing.
- Gardens by the Bay outdoor gardens: the Supertree Grove and surrounding gardens cost nothing. Only the conservatories and the OCBC Skyway are ticketed. The Garden Rhapsody light show runs nightly and is free.
- Marina Barrage: a rooftop lawn built for kite-flying, with the skyline behind it. Bring a picnic and a kite; it’s one of the best free hours in Singapore.
- East Coast Park: 13km of beachfront, playgrounds, cycling and hawker food.
- Fort Canning Park: history, gardens, and that spiral staircase everyone photographs.
- HortPark: gentle, shaded, good for younger children.
- Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve: mudskippers, monitor lizards, and if you’re lucky, crocodiles. Wild.
- Pasir Ris Park: mangrove boardwalk and a large playground.
- Your nearest park connector: the PCN network is enormous and under-used. Scooters, bikes, no entry fee.
Free water play
- Coastal PlayGrove at East Coast Park (Carpark B2): water play plus Singapore’s tallest outdoor play tower. Closed Mondays except public holidays.
- Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden water play, in the Botanic Gardens.
- Marina Barrage water play area.
- Sengkang Riverside Park and many neighbourhood water playgrounds. Check your own estate first, most towns have one.
Towel, change of clothes, sunscreen. Always. They’ll get wet even if you swore they wouldn’t.
Free and indoors
- National Gallery Singapore: Keppel Centre for Art Education. Free, air-conditioned, and children can paint on walls and build things. One of the best wet-weather options in the country.
- Your public library. NLB branches run free storytelling and craft sessions most weekends. Air-conditioned, free, and the toddler sections are excellent.
- Jewel Changi Airport: the Rain Vortex, Shiseido Forest Valley and hours of wandering, all free. The Canopy Park attractions are ticketed; the rest isn’t.
- Singapore City Gallery: a giant model of the whole island. Surprisingly gripping for children who like maps.
- Changi Airport terminals: a legitimate outing. Free play areas, the koi pond, the slides, plane-spotting.
Free and cultural
- Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Chinatown
- Sri Mariamman Temple: Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple
- Sultan Mosque, Kampong Glam
- Thian Hock Keng Temple
- Haw Par Villa: a thousand statues of Chinese mythology, and the famously unsettling Ten Courts of Hell. Older children love it; sensitive younger ones may not.
- Esplanade free performances: free music, dance and theatre most weekends at the outdoor theatre and concourse.
Free walks and neighbourhoods
- Southern Ridges: 10km from Mount Faber to Kent Ridge, including the Henderson Waves bridge. Do a section instead of all of it with kids.
- MacRitchie and the TreeTop Walk: a 250m suspension bridge over the forest canopy. It’s roughly a 7km round trip, so aim it at ages 7+ and start early.
- Changi Point Coastal Walk: 2.2km boardwalk, sea breeze, kampong feel.
- Little India, Kampong Glam, Chinatown, Joo Chiat: street art, shophouses, and food. Free to wander.
- Merlion Park and Marina Bay waterfront, with the Spectra light show at night.
Indoor options when it rains
It rains hard here, often without warning, and every parent needs a mental list. Beyond the free indoor options above:
- Science Centre Singapore: hands-on, and reliably a few hours.
- ArtScience Museum: the digital installations are hypnotic for children of any age.
- National Museum of Singapore and the Children’s Museum Singapore, which is built specifically for under-12s.
- Indoor playgrounds: most malls have one, and they’re a fair trade for two hours of rain.
- Trampoline and climbing centres: good for older kids with energy to burn.
- Bowling, ice skating, indoor karting: a solid rainy-Sunday reset.
- The cinema. No shame in it.
Animals and nature
- Singapore Zoo: still the benchmark, and the open-enclosure design makes it good for small children.
- Bird Paradise at Mandai: Asia’s largest bird park, with eight walk-through aviaries. This replaced Jurong Bird Park, which closed in 2023, so ignore any older guide that still lists it.
- River Wonders: manatees, giant pandas, and mercifully shaded.
- Night Safari: a different experience, though the late timing suits older children better.
- Rainforest Wild at Mandai: the newest of the group, opened 2025.
- Sungei Buloh for wild, unticketed nature.
- Pulau Ubin: take the bumboat from Changi Point, rent bikes, and spend a day in the Singapore of forty years ago. One of the best days out available, and cheap.
Beaches and water
- Sentosa’s beaches: Palawan (best for young families), Siloso (busier, more activities), Tanjong (quietest).
- Palawan Pirate Ship: a free water play ship on Palawan Beach.
- East Coast Park beach and the long cycling path.
- Singapore Wake Park at East Coast (Carpark E1): cable wakeboarding, ages 6 and up.
- Kayaking at MacRitchie or the Kallang Water Sports Centre.
- Public pools: Singapore’s ActiveSG pools are cheap and several have excellent water play areas. Jurong East’s wave pool is a rite of passage.
The big ticketed attractions
Worth doing, worth budgeting for, and worth checking for combination passes or Singapore-resident rates before you book:
- Universal Studios Singapore: best for ages 7+; younger children will still enjoy half of it.
- Gardens by the Bay conservatories: Cloud Forest with its indoor waterfall, and the Flower Dome. Cold, which after a morning outdoors is the entire appeal.
- The aquarium at Resorts World Sentosa: reliably good with small children.
- Adventure Cove Waterpark.
- Marina Bay Sands SkyPark observation deck.
- Singapore Flyer.
- Sentosa attractions: Skyline Luge, cable car, iFly, Mega Adventure zipline.
- Snow City: real snow, in the tropics.
For older kids and teenagers
The hardest group to please, and the one most family guides ignore.
- Skyline Luge at Sentosa: reliably a hit well into the teens.
- Xtreme SkatePark at East Coast Park (Area F): one of Singapore’s largest.
- Escape rooms: good for a group of teenagers plus reluctant parents.
- Indoor climbing gyms, which have multiplied across the island.
- Changi Jurassic Mile: a 3.5km cycling connector lined with life-sized dinosaurs.
- Kranji countryside: farms, and a side of Singapore most residents never see.
- Haw Par Villa’s Ten Courts of Hell, which teenagers find hilarious and unsettling in roughly equal measure.
Less obvious ideas
- Take the bumboat to Pulau Ubin and cycle to Chek Jawa.
- Ride the whole length of an MRT line with a small child who loves trains. Costs a couple of dollars and buys you an hour of contentment.
- Kranji or Bollywood Farms: see where food comes from.
- Sunday morning at a wet market, then breakfast at the hawker centre upstairs.
- The Southern Islands: St John’s and Lazarus, by ferry from Marina South Pier.
- Plane-spotting at Changi Beach Park, directly under the flight path.
- A neighbourhood you’ve never visited. Tiong Bahru, Katong, Tampines, Woodlands. Get off at a random MRT stop and walk.
Quick picks by age
|
|---|
| Age |
Free |
Worth paying for |
| Under 3 |
Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden, library storytime, Marina Barrage |
River Wonders, the aquarium |
| 3–6 |
Coastal PlayGrove, Marine Cove, water playgrounds |
Singapore Zoo, Bird Paradise, Snow City |
| 7–12 |
TreeTop Walk, Pulau Ubin, Jewel, Haw Par Villa |
Universal Studios, Skyline Luge, Adventure Cove |
| Teens |
Southern Ridges, skatepark, Jurassic Mile |
Escape rooms, iFly, climbing gyms |
Making the weekend work
- Go early. Out of the house by 9am beats everything else on this list. Cooler, emptier, and you’re home before the meltdown.
- Have a rain plan. Decide the indoor alternative before you leave, because deciding in a carpark in a downpour with tired children goes badly.
- Check opening days. Several attractions close on Mondays, including Coastal PlayGrove.
- Water, hats, sunscreen, a change of clothes. Every time.
- Book ahead at weekends for anything ticketed, and look for resident rates and combination passes.
- One thing, not several. The most common weekend mistake is over-scheduling. One outing plus lunch is a good day.
The bag that makes the difference
Most weekend days out fall apart for the same few reasons: someone got too hot, someone got wet, and lunch became an emergency. A bag packed for those is worth more than any itinerary.
If you’re still choosing a stroller for days like these, the compact folds, the Joolz Aer 2 and the UPPAbaby Minu V3, are the ones that go up a bus ramp and into a boot without a fight. A raincover isn’t optional here.
Motherswork is theAsianparent’s retail partner in Singapore. We only feature things that match the advice above.
Common questions
What are the best free things to do with kids in Singapore?
The Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden at the Botanic Gardens, Marina Barrage for kite-flying, Coastal PlayGrove at East Coast Park, the National Gallery’s Keppel Centre for Art Education, Jewel Changi Airport, and free storytelling sessions at your local library. Singapore’s free options compete with its ticketed ones.
What can we do in Singapore when it rains?
Science Centre Singapore, ArtScience Museum, the Children’s Museum Singapore, the National Gallery’s free art education centre, your public library, Jewel Changi Airport, indoor playgrounds, trampoline parks and climbing gyms. Decide your rain plan before you leave the house.
Is Jurong Bird Park still open?
No. It closed in January 2023 and was replaced by Bird Paradise at Mandai, which opened in May 2023 and is Asia’s largest bird park with eight walk-through aviaries. Older guides still listing Jurong Bird Park are out of date.
Where can we go with a toddler in Singapore?
Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden, library storytime sessions, Marina Barrage, River Wonders and the aquarium all work well for under-3s. Look for shade, proximity to toilets and a short walk from the carpark. Those count for more than the attraction itself at that age.
What’s there to do with teenagers in Singapore?
Skyline Luge, escape rooms, indoor climbing gyms, the Xtreme SkatePark at East Coast Park, cycling the Changi Jurassic Mile, and the Southern Ridges walk. Haw Par Villa is also a reliable hit with that age group.
How much does a family day out in Singapore cost?
It can be nothing. A morning at a water playground, a picnic at Marina Barrage or a walk at Sungei Buloh costs only transport. At the other end, a major ticketed attraction for a family of four runs into the hundreds, so mix them, and keep a few free options in reserve for the weekends in between.
Getting out the door
You don’t need a plan, a budget or a booking to have a good Saturday here. You need to leave the house before 9am and have one destination in mind.
Save this page. Next time nobody can think of anything, open it, pick one, and go.
More for family weekends
Opening hours, closure days and ticket prices change. Check before a special trip, particularly for anything ticketed or anything you’re travelling across the island for.
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