Things to do in Tampines Singapore

By <a href="#author-bio">Stuart Bak</a>
By Stuart Bak
Published: July 18, 2024
Skyline of Singapore's Tampines neighborhood.

Long considered the Orchard Road of eastern Singapore (primarily thanks to its proliferation of shopping opportunities), Tampines is a green and leafy suburb with plenty of cool things to do. We’re talking fruit-themed playgrounds, Insta-tastic architecture and more fantastic parks than you can shake a very large stick at. And shopping. Lots of shopping. Read on to discover our favorite things to do in Tampines, Singapore, including:

  • Shopping malls galore
  • Tampines Eco Green
  • Hawker centers
  • Sun Plaza Park
  • Tampines Quarry
  • The Chinese Temple
  • Tampines Regional Library

Scratch Your Selfie Itch

Insta-tastic photo opportunities abound in Tampines, where architectural wonders and sassy street art are sure to zhuzh up your social media feeds. Get snap happy on Avenue 9, where monochrome apartment blocks bring a modern twist to ye olde English Tudor style. Check out the beautifully hand-painted 3D-effect paper crane mural on the side of the Tampines West Community Club building and conjure up yet more Instagram magic at the dramatic Chinese temple, complete with a huge dragon sculpture on its roof. You can even become part of the art yourself at Block 478 Tampines Street 44, where benches and tables allow you to sit and blend with local artist Francis Theo’s colorful 1960s mural, featuring a barbershop, provisions store and traditional Peranakan houses.

Tampines Eco Green

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Nature lovers will be in clover in Tampines, where vast green spaces teeming with native flora and fauna abound. Tampines Eco Green is one of the finest tracts of parkland in the district, with 88 acres of tropical rainforest, grasslands, wetlands and more to explore. A trio of trails offer splendid opportunities for walkers, joggers and keen photographers to enjoy the landscape. Pause at the bird hide to spot superstars of local wildlife including the towering purple heron, noisy red-breasted parakeets and – if you’re lucky – the brilliant blue flash of a collared kingfisher diving for its supper.

Foodie Fantasia

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One of the best things to do in Tampines (as indeed in just about any Singapore neighborhood worth its salt) is to sample local street food at a hawker center. Chief among these is the Tampines Hub Hawker Center where more than 40 stalls serve up Malay-Chinese-Indonesian fusion specialities and the aromas of sizzling BBQ pork, lime-drenched chili crab and zingy fried noodles are enough to make a grown man weep. Try local favorite satay bee hoon – rice vermicelli with pork or prawns liberally smothered in spicy hot sauce – for the win.

Sun Plaza Park

Sun Plaza Park provides yet another opportunity to enjoy Tampines’ abundant natural wonders. Kids will love the sensory garden with 10 interactive play areas including tactile walls of plants, musical tubes and chimes and much more. Challenge your friends to a contest on the woodball course or – if all that sounds a little strenuous – enjoy a lazy picnic on the manicured lawns. There’s even an amphitheater that hosts outdoor concerts, exhibitions and performances when the weather is fine.

Hike Tampines Quarry

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If you’re looking for hidden gems in Tampines, then look no further! Abandoned to nature many years ago, Tampines Quarry is now a lush oasis, thick with tropical vegetation. Space-age water towers mark the beginning of the trail at the northern entrance, leading to dirt tracks that lead to the lake at the bottom of the quarry. Negotiate rickety makeshift bridges across tiny streams and keep your peepers peeled for colorful native butterflies like the Plain Tiger flitting among the dense undergrowth. You might even be lucky enough to spot the occasional monitor lizard dozing on the banks of the lake.

Tampines Central Park

This lush green space pays homage to Tampines’ illustrious fruit-farming past, with kids’ playgrounds that contain rides, slides and various other structures in the shape of mangosteens and watermelon slices. It’s a fab community space, where locals gather to gossip beneath swaying palm trees, to jog the many marked pathways and to watch regular musical events and theatrical performances. Nearby, Our Tampines Hub is a community-led initiative that features a climbing wall, laser tag, play areas, a swimming pool and a rooftop running track with park views.

Shop ‘Til You Drop

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You’ll find not one, not two, but THREE major shopping malls within stumbling distance of Tampines MRT station. Tampines 1 boasts hundreds of shops and restaurants over seven floors, as well as a swimming pool for showcasing that expensive new swimwear you’ve just treated yourself to. Nearby Century Square and Tampines Mall offer more of the same, adding food courts, cinema screens and other entertainments into the mix. Spending money has never seemed so easy; they don’t call this neighborhood the Orchard Road of the east for nothing, you know!

Chinese Temple

An extraordinary 270-meter-long dragon sculpture stands sentry atop this traditional pagoda-style temple, an amalgamation of the 12 Taoist temples that stood in Tampines prior to its redevelopment in the 1980s and 90s. Inside, colorful altars, murals and shrines provide a place for quiet reflection and, of course, some of those all-important photo opportunities.

Tampines Regional Library

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If you’re looking for a place to chill in Tampines, you could do far worse than the epic five-story library at Our Tampines Hub. Kids can enjoy the vast collection of children’s storybooks, many in English, and let off some steam in the playhouse on the ground floor, while adults find a cozy nook and lose themselves in a good book. There are coding and programming labs for teens and you can even get involved in cookery workshops by the cookbook section. Suffice to say, it's no ordinary library!

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Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
Freelance travel writer

Stu caught the travel bug at an early age, thanks to childhood road trips to the south of France squeezed into the back of a Ford Cortina with two brothers and a Sony Walkman. Now a freelance writer living on the Norfolk coast, Stu has produced content for travel giants including Frommer’s, British Airways, Expedia, Mr & Mrs Smith, and now Go City. His most memorable travel experiences include drinking kava with the locals in Fiji and pranging a taxi driver’s car in the Honduran capital.

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Singapore in December

December heralds the beginning of Singapore’s northeast monsoon season. This, as festive vacation planners will no doubt be delighted to learn, is the season’s ‘wet phase’, when heavy persistent showers are all but guaranteed to sweep in and ruin your stroll in the late afternoons and early evenings. In spite of this, the last month of the year remains a popular time to visit the Garden City, largely thanks to its epic Christmas lights and awesome New Year’s Eve celebrations. Read on for our whistlestop guide to what to expect of Singapore in December. Visiting Singapore in December Temperature: 77–85°F • Average Rainfall: 25 days/month • Average Sunshine: 6 hours/day The temperature in Singapore remains pretty uniform all year round. We’re talking hot days and balmy nights. December brings higher humidity and monsoon downpours into the mix, meaning choosing which outfits to pack can be a little like learning to play the ancient Chinese game of mahjong for the first time. In short: tricky. Light cottons and linens are your friends and Singapore’s proliferation of covered walkways and air-conditioned megamalls probably means you can leave the novelty umbrella hat at home. But do pack a pocket poncho and a light hoodie or sweater to see you through those wetter/cooler moments. If you’ve never experienced a Singapore monsoon before, you’re in for quite the treat. Usually heralded by darkening skies and a brisk breeze, the rains move in fast. And boy, can they be vicious. It’s not unusual to spot newly arrived tourists bounding frantically across rapidly rising puddles like Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain, but without the slick Hollywood moves. If you are planning to visit Singapore during its glittering festive season, we’d recommend you get your flights and accommodation booked as far in advance as possible. In spite of the rains, this is a very popular time of year and booking early can often (if not always) help to beat the December price hikes. Things to do in Singapore in December It’s all about Christmas in Singapore in December. Well, almost. Certainly, you’d be forgiven for thinking the entire planet’s electricity supply is being channeled into the festive light displays here, which are so bright they might well be visible from the planet Zork. See some of the most extravagant Christmas decorations in town on an evening stroll along Orchard Road, Singapore’s most famous luxury shopping thoroughfare. The street’s strangely titled ‘Christmas on A Great Street’ boasts not one but three Christmas villages crammed with carnival rides, games, street food stalls and, of course, pop-up gift stores. There’s even a full-on street party on Christmas Eve, complete with live music and dance, carol singers and a huge Christmas market. The evergreen Gardens by the Bay turns the charm offensive right up to eleven in December with its annual Christmas Wonderland event. Take a romantic stroll along the Walk of Lights which, with somewhere in the region of 75,000 light bulbs, more than lives up to its name. Swap rain for snow at the Blizzard Time exhibit, visit (but please don’t nibble) the life-size gingerbread house in Gingerbread Grove, and try your luck on the carnival game stalls in Frosty’s Fairground. Heck, you can even get your festive kicks at the airport. As anyone who has ever traveled through it will tell you, Changi is no ordinary airport, with attractions such as a butterfly garden, a three-story slide, a Pokémon center and the world’s tallest indoor waterfall making it a tourist destination in its own right. No surprise then that it also hosts one of the city’s finest Christmas villages. We’re talking candy-themed rides and games, a snow house with ice sculptures, and luges and marching bands – it’s the stuff Christmas dreams are made of! What’s on in Singapore in December? Of course, it’s not just Christmas and monsoon-dodging that make Singapore a fun place to visit in December. The island’s other annual end-of-year events are designed to appeal to as broad a church as possible. First up is the Singapore Marathon, which takes place (almost) without fail on the first Sunday of December. The epic route (all 26.1 miles of it) takes in some of the city’s finest sights, including a sprint through Marina Bay, a shuffle past Merlion Park and a shimmy within sight of the famous Sentosa cable car. You’ll need to register (and train) to take part and, for those who prefer their runs a little… shorter, half-marathon, 10km and even 5km routes are also available on the day. The entertainment juggernaut that is Comic Con also rumbles into town during December for two extraordinary days of toy-, game- and comic-based events at Marina Bay Sands. Book your spot for the chance to ogle rare vintage toys and comics, as well as the opportunity to meet your favorite comic book creators, Marvel movie stars and more. Marina Bay is also the location for Singapore’s epic New Year countdown and fireworks. Of course you can see the flamboyant pyrotechnic display from just about anywhere across the city, but Marina Bay is where it's at for ringside seats and the best Insta snaps as the colorful display kicks off and an epic, soul-soaring soundtrack booms out across the water. Save on attractions and activities in Singapore Save on admission to Singapore attractions with Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
View looking up at skyscrapers in Singapore's CBD on a sunny day.
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Singapore in June

Hot, steamy and sticky, June sees Singapore’s peak season get into full, glorious swing. The streets teem with sightseeing vacationers, the summer shopping season peaks during the Great Singapore Sale and hotel prices rise more sharply than the midday mercury. In short, it’s an expensive but fun time to visit, assuming you can stand the heat. Here’s our expert guide to what to expect when vacationing in Singapore in June. Visiting Singapore in June Temperature: 75–88°F • Average Rainfall: 19 days/month • Average Sunshine: 8 hours/day If you remember to pack just one thing for your June break in Singapore, make sure it’s sunscreen. The sun is hot and relentless at this time of year, even when there’s cloud cover. So do yourself a favor and slap on the factor 50 to avoid the shame (and discomfort) of a ‘Singapore tan’. The heat and humidity also encourage the wearing of light, loose-fitting cotton or linen clothes and broad-brimmed hats. Heck, maybe even stuff a parasol in your backpack along with the water bottle and city map, just to be on the safe side. You’ll also want a proper umbrella: June sees the start of the southwest monsoon season, with regular afternoon downpours that increase in intensity, frequency and duration as the month progresses. Nicknamed the ‘Sumatra squalls’ these sudden, heavy downpours are usually heralded by strong gusty winds and peals of thunder. If you spot the signs in time, we’d advise ducking into the nearest café or mall until the rain passes because, frankly, no umbrella is going to keep you completely dry when torrents of accumulated water begin gushing around your feet, like a miniature version of The River Wild. Hotel prices do also increase at this time, but not crazily so. As always, we advise booking your accommodation as far in advance as possible to lock in the best deals. Things to do in Singapore in June It’s just too damn hot to do most anything other than meandering gently down a lazy river in a giant donut, right? Right! Good news! Singapore is just a hop and a skip from its tiny island sibling of Sentosa, reachable via road, monorail, pedestrian bridge or (hands down the most fun and scenic option) cable car. Once there, you have access to a veritable playground of sunny day activities including, yep, the biggest and best water park in Singapore. Hit up Adventure Cove for the aforementioned lazy river, with 14 different zones that include a verdant jungle garden, a secluded grotto, and a spectacularly trippy underwater tunnel teeming with tropical marine life. Hop over to the park’s Rainbow Reef, where another 20,000 or so watery critters are waiting to say hello to snorkeling tourists. There are fun wave pools for the kids as well as, inevitably, a handful of heart-pounding high-octane flumes for adults. Ever wanted to know what it feels like to be flushed down the loo? The Riptide Rocket and Spiral Washout rides have your name written all over them! Adventure Cove is part of Sentosa’s enormous Resorts World complex, where there are more drinking and dining options than you can shake a stick at, as well as an aquarium, the awesome Universal Studios Singapore theme park, and more. Want beaches? Sentosa has those, too. Whether a history buff, an adrenaline fiend or, you know, simply in the market for sipping cocktails beneath the shady fronds of a coconut palm, the island’s man-made trio of sandy beaches will have something for you. Stroll the elevated walkway through the treetops to Fort Siloso, soar high over Siloso Beach on a giant swing, or strap on your snorkel and flippers for a spot of marine sightseeing in the emerald-green waters that lap the shore. A free shuttle operates along the southwest coast, linking the three beaches. There are plenty more activities to keep outdoor types occupied in Singapore in June. Take to the waters in a kayak around the coastal waters and mangrove forests of Pulau Ubin, a boomerang-shaped island just off the northeast coast. Slap on the sunscreen and hit the 26 kilometers of lush cycling trails around the Northern Eastern Riverine Loop, pausing for breath in wetlands, woodlands and beach parks along the way. Commune with nature at the MacRitchie Reservoir, or meet the ferociously cute inhabitants of the sprawling Singapore Zoo. And if the June heat doesn’t have you scurrying for the nearest air-conditioned building, the afternoon downpours surely will. In fact, they’re as good an excuse as any to while away a few hours browsing the vast collection of Singaporean and Asian art in the National Gallery or indulging in a traditional tea ceremony in Singapore’s biggest and oldest traditional teahouse, a venue once visited by Queen Elizabeth II, no less. And if it’s good enough for Her Majesty... What’s on in Singapore in June? You’ll also want to spend time in the malls. Regardless of what the weather’s doing outside, June is prime time for picking up a bargain as the annual Great Singapore Sale gets into full swing. You might want to pack an empty suitcase for this one, because it’s a whopper. We’re talking hundreds of participating stores offering unheard-of discounts of up to 70% on designer goods, big-brand electronic gadgets, homeware and more. Head to the famous malls along Orchard Street for some of the most sensational bargains in town and a veritable festival atmosphere amongst feverish shopaholics. You’ll also find some fine bargains in and around the atmospheric lanes of Kampong Glam (pictured above), where even the independent boutiques and souvenir stores are getting in on the action. Easily June’s most enjoyable Singapore spectacle, the Dragon Boat Festival has its roots in a tale about ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan. It’s said that when he threw himself into a river in despair after being banished by the king, locals beat the water with oars and threw in rice dumplings to prevent fish from devouring his body. Weird, right? Anyhoo, this annual festival commemorates that legendary event by way of colorful dragon boat races along the island’s rivers, accompanied by a loud beating of drums and the sound of millions of Singaporean’s tucking into those delectable little dumplings – glutinous, sticky blobs of rice warped around any number of delectable sweet and savory fillings. Yum. Save on attractions and activities in Singapore Save on admission to Singapore attractions with Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak

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