I lived in Singapore for 1.5 years, and have had many people ask where to do outdoor activities in Singapore. During my time there I have explored a lot of walking and biking trails since I used to go “hiking” and biking pretty much weekly.
For walking or “hiking”, my favorite will always be the 10 km Southern Ridges trail: https://www.sparks.gov.sg/gardens-parks-and-nature/parks-and-nature-reserves/the-southern-ridges. This is also the trail I take my visiting friends and they have always loved it. It’s not out of the city center per se - it starts and ends in HarbourFront - but you get to “hike” (Singapore is flat so it’s difficult to find a trail with ascents) to see Singapore from Mount Faber and you get some nice coastal walk too.
For something a little bit out of the city center, some other of my favorite parks and each of its highlights:
- MacRitchie Reservoir park: various trails, greens, the reservoir for sure, there is a TreeTop bridge too
- Thomson Nature park: not much variety but lots of greens
- Bishan-AMK park: ponds and small lakes
And of course, there is also the Singapore’s Coast to Coast Walk (40 km) that can also be completed in sections, although I must say again and again that the Bishan-AMK park was dead boring and I wish I could have skipped it.
For biking, my weekly biking route was Queenstown to Marina Bay Sands through park connectors. I’d extend it further to East Coast Park if I feel like it, or even all the way to Changi Bay in the east. There is a bike path that connects you all the way to Changi Bay (which is also a park) in the eastern part of Singapore, passing by East Coast Park and Tanah Merah Coastal Road so you’ll be biking along the coast in the latter half of the route.
I’ve explored a variety of other biking routes too: Queenstown - Yishun, Queenstown - Punggol, Woodlands - Mandai - Bukit Timah and others I don’t remember. However I always found them a bit annoying - more often than not I’d have to carry my bike up over the pedestrian bridge to cross the roads, which was not fun when it’s 30 degrees and it’s lunchtime and I’m hangry. Sticking to park connectors is key here!