Things to do in Singapore for Students

We begin our guide with that most essential of student staples: cheap, delicious street food. Singapore’s hawker centers are the stuff of legend. There are around 100 of these epic covered food courts scattered all across town. Inside, sensational street food – Singaporean, Malaysian, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian – awaits.

Get the tastebud party started with zingy chili crab, Singapore’s (unofficial) national dish. Slurp great steaming bowls of laksa. Sample sweet, sticky satay skewers. Gorge on umami oyster omelet. Heck, you can even go rogue and try out-there local specialties like turtle soup, century egg and – for guts of steel only –  fried pigs’ fallopian tubes in kung pao sauce. Er… yum?

Whatever your poison, the great news is that prices for hawker center plates tend to begin and end in student-friendly single figures. In other words, you can fill your face with some of the best food in the world for less than S$10, and often way less. Dig in!

Pro-tip: if you only visit one hawker center in Singapore, make it Lau Pa Sat in the CBD, celebrated for both the food and its octagonal Victorian architecture. Lau Pa Sat features in our guide to the best cheap eats in Singapore here.

When not sustaining their bodies with life-giving Hainanese chicken down the hawker centers, there’s only one place a Singapore student should be. No, not the pub, but Singapore’s quite excellent public libraries. Many of these great cathedrals of knowledge run free events – readings, film screenings and the like – but it’s mostly about the books. And the architecture. Library@Orchard (pictured) is particularly eye-catching, with long, wavy shelves containing hundreds of volumes on lifestyle, art and design. There’s a Library of Botany and Horticulture at (where else?) Singapore Botanic Gardens, while Tampines Regional Library comes with its own auditorium, indoor running track and children’s playground.

Two great reasons for students to lace up their boots and pound the pavements of Singapore: 1) it can be very culturally enriching and 2) it doesn’t cost a dime. 

Our favorite Singapore stroll reveals the hotch-potch of national identities that have shaped this wonderful island state. Start with a stroll through the labyrinthine lanes of Chinatown, where markets and temples may be just about enough to distract you from all those heady street-food aromas. Fill your Insta feed with color as you meander through Kampong Glam, the city’s vibrant Muslim district. Don’t miss the old-school Peranakan shopfronts, contemporary street art at the open-air Gelam Gallery and, of course, the extraordinary golden dome balanced atop the opulent Sultan Mosque. A well-earned lunch of tandoori chicken and fish-head curry awaits at journey’s end: the temple-filled streets of Little India.

Discover more things to do in Kampong Glam here.

Singapore has some quite excellent museums; ideal for broadening young minds with a thirst for knowledge. The country’s National Museum is housed in a great neoclassical edifice and showcases centuries of artifacts from the country’s history, while ArtScience at Marina Bay Sands brings visitors kicking and screaming into the present/future with its immersive exhibitions and VR artworks. Student discounts are available at both.

For further discounts on Singapore museums and other activities and attractions, check out the Singapore pass from Go City. The pass can save you up to 50% when visiting dozens of major Singapore attractions, including Universal Studios, Singapore Zoo and the Sentosa cable car. Click here to find out more and get your Singapore pass.

Singapore has a bit of a reputation for being expensive, but there are plenty of ways to have fun here for free. Here’s a rundown of our fave free things to do in Singapore for students…

• Gardens by the Bay. Sure, you’ll pay through the nose for entry to the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome (unless you have a Singapore pass, that is). But did you know you can wander among the enormous trunks in Supertree Grove for free? Well, now you do. 
• Merlion Park. Can you even say you’ve visited Singapore if you didn’t grab a selfie by the island’s monolithic mythical mascot while you were there? No, dear reader, you cannot. Hotfoot it down to Merlion Park, just across the water from the iconic Marina Bay Sands resort, where the 70-tonne statue – half fish, half lion – can be found spouting geysers of water from its (feline) head. Don’t miss its cute little (well, three-tonne) Merlion Cub progeny nearby. 

• Jurassic Mile. Jog, cycle or stroll the roar-some Jurassic Mile, part of the 3.5-kilometer Changi Airport Park Connector that runs between the airport (obvs) and Singapore’s east coast. Along the way, you can meet, pet and otherwise dodge several life-sized dino models, from docile brontosauri to vicious velociraptors and even a fence-trashing T-rex!
• City Lights. Singaporeans just love a light show and there’s barely a day goes by that the city skies aren’t filled with apocalyptic pyrotechnics or laser light shows. You can catch two of the very best down Marina Bay way, where the Sands Resort’s Spectra light show turns the skies technicolor daily at 8PM and 9PM. Over at Gardens by the Bay, experience the eye-popping spectacle of the supertrees bursting into luminous life every evening at 7.45PM.

• Back to Nature. Visitors to Singapore often overlook The Great Outdoors in favor of futuristic city attractions. But beyond (and even within) the city limits, there are stacks of ways to enjoy the gloriously free fresh air. Hike the woodland trails at MacRitchie Reservoir (pictured), keeping peepers peeled for lazy monitor lizards and cheeky macaques. Grab a picnic and some pals for a Southern Ridges trail hike that takes in Henderson Waves, the highest – and most striking – pedestrian bridge in Singapore. Or splash out and rent a bike to explore the seaside at East Coast Park or – if you’re feeling particularly energetic – to cruise all 75 epic kilometers of the Round Island Route.

Check out our guide to Singapore’s top natural attractions here.

Students can explore dozens of Singapore attractions for one low price with the Singapore pass. Click the buttons below to find out more and choose your pass.