Best time
Go on a dry-season morning and start early; there is little shelter, the boardwalks are exposed and afternoon storms end the ride abruptly.
At a glance
- Eat
- Village seafood lunch, €1024 Rate 2026-08-26. Eat at the jetty village before the afternoon boats fill. There is no food once you are out on the tracks, so carry water either way.
- Book ahead
- Nothing is bookable. Boats leave when they fill rather than to a timetable, so go early and do not plan anything tight for the same afternoon.
- Skip
- A late-afternoon crossing. The heat, the storm risk and the wait for a boat back turn a good ride into a bad one.
Pulau Ubin is reached by a small boat from the north-east corner of the island, which leaves when it has enough passengers rather than at a set time. On the other side there is a village, a row of bicycle-hire shops and a network of tracks through secondary forest, disused granite quarries and the mangrove boardwalks of the wetland reserve at the eastern end.
It is a morning, not a day. Hire a bike at the jetty, ride the quarry loop and the boardwalks before the heat peaks, eat at the village and take a boat back by early afternoon. There is almost no shade on the exposed sections, no shops away from the jetty and nothing to do if a thunderstorm arrives, which is why this belongs on a longer trip rather than a first three days.
Sources
- Singapore tourism information, Singapore Tourism Board, accessed
- Climate of Singapore, Meteorological Service Singapore, National Environment Agency, accessed