A City in a Garden
Singapore calls itself a City in a Garden, and for once the slogan undersells the reality. Nearly half the island is covered in greenery, park connectors stitch the neighbourhoods together, and within an hour of the business district you can be watching monitor lizards from a jungle boardwalk or cycling past a village that time forgot. Best of all, most of the green side of Singapore costs nothing and sits within easy reach of the MRT — all you need is an early start and a bottle of water.
Singapore Botanic Gardens
In 2015 the Singapore Botanic Gardens became the first and so far only botanic garden inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The grounds, tended for over 160 years, open daily from five in the morning until midnight and entry is free: locals jog the loop around Swan Lake before work, families picnic on the lawns by the bandstand, and the rainforest patch in the middle is older than the city itself. The one paid section is worth every cent — the National Orchid Garden (around SGD 15) displays more than a thousand orchid species and hybrids on a landscaped hillside, including the celebrity orchids named after visiting heads of state and royalty. Take the MRT to Botanic Gardens station on the Downtown or Circle line and you step out straight into the greenery.
MacRitchie and the TreeTop Walk
MacRitchie Reservoir is the closest thing Singapore has to a jungle trek. The full circuit is roughly 10 km of shaded forest trails and boardwalks hugging the water, and its star attraction is the TreeTop Walk: a 250-metre suspension bridge strung about 25 metres above the forest floor, right at canopy level, where you look down on the tree crowns with long-tailed macaques rustling somewhere below. The bridge is one-way and closed on Mondays, so plan a morning start — count on three to four hours for the loop. One rule matters above all here: do not feed the macaques, keep food inside your bag and out of sight, because even a visible plastic bag reads as an invitation.
The Southern Ridges
The Southern Ridges link a chain of hilltop parks into a roughly 10 km walk from Kent Ridge to Mount Faber, most of it on elevated walkways gliding through the treetops. The undisputed star is Henderson Waves, an undulating timber bridge arching 36 metres above the road — the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore and a photographer's favourite, especially after dark when it glows with soft lighting. Finish on Mount Faber for harbour views, and if your legs still cooperate, ride the cable car straight down to Sentosa and reward yourself with a beach.
Islands and wetlands: Pulau Ubin and Sungei Buloh
To see the Singapore of fifty years ago, catch a bumboat from Changi Point Ferry Terminal (about SGD 4 each way, boats leave when twelve passengers gather) to Pulau Ubin — home to the country's last kampung, a traditional village of tin-roofed houses and unhurried dogs. Rent a bicycle at the jetty and pedal the dirt tracks to Chek Jawa, where a coastal boardwalk loops over seagrass lagoons and mangroves; at low tide the mudflats crawl with crabs and mudskippers. Back on the main island, the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in the north is the top spot for birdwatching, with migratory flocks between September and March, otters, giant mudskippers — and the occasional estuarine crocodile, which is exactly why you stay on the marked paths.
Rail Corridor and practical tips
Still hungry for green? The Rail Corridor, a trail running some 24 km along the former Malaysian railway line, slices through the whole island and passes the beautifully restored Bukit Timah railway station. A few rules make every one of these outings better. Start early: the trails are at their best between 7 and 10 in the morning, before the heat peaks. Carry at least a litre of water per person, sunscreen and insect repellent. Check opening days — the TreeTop Walk rests on Mondays, Chek Jawa depends on the tides. And remember that everything here runs on public transport: an MRT ride plus a short bus hop covers every place in this article, and apart from the orchid garden and the boat to Ubin, it is all completely free.