
15 September 2026 · 15 min read
Singapore residents can walk into the Science Centre on a Tuesday in term time and pay nothing. Child, adult, grandparent, all free, as long as it is a weekday outside the public and school holidays and you have an NRIC at the gate. It is printed on the Science Centre's own ticket page and it is the best-kept secret in Jurong East.
The town is about to lose its most famous attraction, mind. Snow City, open since 2000 and the only indoor snow centre in the country, closes permanently on Wednesday 30 September 2026 after 26 years. The Science Centre Board announced it on 19 May 2026.
That matters less than it sounds, because the free half of Jurong East has been getting better every year. Jurong Lake Gardens finished its 90-hectare build in September 2024 when the rejuvenated Chinese and Japanese Gardens reopened. It now holds the largest nature playgarden in the heartlands, the largest outdoor skate park in Singapore, a three-hectare water playground, and a free shuttle bus that loops between all of it.
Nine of the 18 places below cost nothing. Six more cost under $10 for a child. Everything here sits inside postal sectors 60, 61 and 618, which is Jurong East proper. For the estate next door, see our guide to things to do with kids in Jurong West.
One planning note that saves a wasted trip. Most of Jurong Lake Gardens closes on Mondays for maintenance, and closes on the Tuesday instead if the Monday was a public holiday. The gardens themselves stay open. The playgrounds do not.

Photo: Jungle
Forest Ramble is 2.3 hectares, which makes it the largest nature playgarden in the heartlands. It has 13 adventure stations, and every one of them is modelled on an animal that actually lives in a freshwater swamp forest. Children glide through the air like a Grey Heron, leap between platforms like a Squirrel, and splash through the water station like a Smooth-coated Otter. The stations carry inclusive play elements, so a child in a wheelchair and a child on a rope net can use the same structure.
It sits inside Lakeside Garden, which is open 24 hours. The playgarden is not.
Why kids will love it: Thirteen stations means a four-year-old and a nine-year-old can separate for an hour and still be in sight of the same bench. The otter station gets wet, so bring a change of clothes even if you are not going to Clusia Cove afterwards. Come before 10am or after 5pm, because there is very little shade over the play equipment.
View on Jungle: Jurong Lake Gardens
Website: NParks, Forest Ramble
Address: Lakeside Garden, Yuan Ching Road, Singapore. Google Maps
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays, 8am to 10pm. Closed every Monday for maintenance, and closed on the Tuesday if the Monday was a public holiday.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Lakeside (EW26).

Photo: Jungle
Clusia Cove is a three-hectare water playground built to copy the sea. The water moves in tidal patterns, surface ripples and directional currents, so a child standing still feels the pull change under their feet. It is the only water playground in Singapore that does this.
The water runs in a closed loop. It leaves the playground into an eco-pond, passes through a cleansing biotope of sand beds and semi-aquatic plants, goes through an underground ultraviolet room, and comes back. The cove is named after the Autograph Tree, Clusia rosea, one of the plants doing the cleaning.
Why kids will love it: Warm shallow water with a current a small child can feel but not be knocked over by. There are no slides and no big structures, which is exactly why it suits toddlers better than a mall water park does. Bring swimwear, a towel and water shoes, and expect to stay two hours.
View on Jungle: Clusia Cove
Website: NParks, Clusia Cove
Address: 104 Yuan Ching Road, Jurong Lake Gardens, Singapore. Google Maps
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays, 8am to 7pm. Closed every Monday for maintenance, and closed on the Tuesday if the Monday was a public holiday.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Lakeside (EW26).
At nearly 17,000 square metres this is the biggest outdoor skate park in Singapore, and the first anywhere in the country to put a parkour park and a bouldering wall on the same site. There are five skate pods, graded by difficulty: Learn to Skate, Skate Drain, Mini Bowl, Big Bowl and Plaza. The Plaza pod is sheltered, which makes it the only part of Jurong Lake Gardens that works in the rain.
Alongside the skate pods sit a 300 square metre parkour park and a bouldering wall three metres high.
Why kids will love it: The Learn to Skate pod is flat and shallow, so a child on their first scooter is not sharing concrete with a teenager dropping into the Big Bowl. Bring a helmet and pads, because none are provided and nothing is hired out on site. Go for the sheltered Plaza pod if the forecast is bad.
View on Jungle: Jurong Lake Gardens
Website: NParks, SkatePark @ Lakeside Garden
Address: Lakeside Garden, Yuan Ching Road, Singapore. Google Maps
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays, 8am to 10pm. Closed every Monday for maintenance, and closed on the Tuesday if the Monday was a public holiday.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Lakeside (EW26).
This is not a hedge maze. The Butterfly Maze runs over a set of grassy mounds, so children climb up and down to find the way out rather than peering round corners. Built into the route are slides, quiet rest corners and signs explaining pollination and the butterfly lifecycle. It adjoins the children's section of the Therapeutic Garden, which is planted for touch and smell.
NParks asks visitors not to enter the maze between 7pm and 7am because the lighting is dim.
Why kids will love it: Getting lost on purpose, with a slide as the reward for finding the exit. The mounds are low enough for a confident three-year-old. This is the quietest of the play areas in the gardens, so it is the one to pick on a Saturday when Forest Ramble is full.
View on Jungle: Jurong Lake Gardens
Website: NParks, Butterfly Maze
Address: Lakeside Garden, Yuan Ching Road, Singapore. Google Maps
Opening hours: Daily, 7am to 7pm.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Lakeside (EW26).
Three short nature routes that join into one walk of about 45 minutes. Rasau Walk is a 300-metre boardwalk over a restored freshwater swamp, planted with Nibong, Sealing Wax Palm and Rasau, and holding more than 50 plant species. Grey Herons and White-breasted Waterhens feed along the edge.
The Logs Trail is built from recycled Rain Tree and Senegal Mahogany logs, left untreated so they age and rot on purpose. After rain, fungi push out of the channels in the wood. NParks asks visitors not to climb the logs in the fungi section, because the wood is being broken down and is weaker than it looks. The surface is slippery when wet.
The Grasslands are tall grass with three bird hides and one lone tree that raptors such as the Brahminy Kite perch on. There is no lighting in the Grasslands or at Neram Streams, so do not take children in after dark.
Why kids will love it: A boardwalk low enough over the water that a five-year-old can watch a heron fish from two metres away, then a path made entirely of logs to balance along. Take the bird hides slowly and bring water. Morning is better for birds and cooler for everyone.
View on Jungle: Jurong Lake Gardens
Website: NParks, Rasau Walk
Address: Lakeside Garden, Yuan Ching Road, Singapore. Google Maps
Opening hours: Lakeside Garden is open 24 hours. Walk these routes in daylight.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Lakeside (EW26).

Photo: FN-082, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Chinese Garden reopened on 8 September 2024 after a rejuvenation that finished Jurong Lake Gardens. The landmarks children came for in the 1980s survived it. The Cloud Pagoda is seven storeys, with 12 Chinese zodiac stone statues ringing its base and a terrace at the top. The Twin Pagoda is three storeys and is actually two towers, the Cloud Draping Tower and the Moon Receiving Tower, built as replicas of the Spring-Autumn Tower from southern China.
The rest of the garden is a Bonsai Garden, a Cascading Creek, an Edible Garden, the Stoneboat and the Grand Arch. Entry costs nothing.
Why kids will love it: Seven flights of stairs with a view over Jurong Lake at the top, then a zodiac hunt at the bottom to work out which statue matches their birth year. Climb the pagoda before 10am. The stairs are enclosed and it gets hot.
View on Jungle: not yet listed.
Website: NParks, Chinese Garden
Address: 1 Chinese Garden Road, Singapore 619795. Google Maps
Opening hours: Daily, 5.30am to 12am. Bonsai Gallery Tuesday to Sunday 9am to 7pm. Twin Pagoda daily 7am to 10pm. Cascading Creek daily 7am to 7pm.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Chinese Garden (EW25).

Photo: Jungle
The Japanese Garden reopened on the same day as the Chinese Garden. It is the calmer of the two and the better one for a pushchair, because the paths are wide and level. The Moon Bridge and the Double Beauty Bridge are the two photographs everyone takes. The Water Lily Garden, the Sunken Garden and the Floral Garden fill the rest.
The Breathing Gallery is the indoor stop, open Tuesday to Sunday.
Why kids will love it: Koi and water lilies at eye level from the Water Lily Pavilion, and a bridge steep enough that crossing it feels like an event. This is the garden to do last, when everyone is tired, because you can loop it in 30 minutes and there is a free shuttle back to the car park.
View on Jungle: Japanese Garden
Website: NParks, Japanese Garden
Address: 1 Chinese Garden Road, Japanese Garden, Singapore 619795. Google Maps
Opening hours: Daily, 5.30am to 12am. Breathing Gallery Tuesday to Sunday 9am to 9pm.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Chinese Garden (EW25).

Photo: Jungle
The People's Association runs six PAssion WaVe outlets and this is the western one, sitting on the edge of Jurong Lake. It rents kayaks, both sit-on-top and closed deck, along with pedal boats and stand-up paddleboards, and it runs dragon boating. Some craft need a valid certification, so check before you go if you want a closed-deck kayak.
The hours catch people out. Rental runs Wednesday to Sunday only, and the outlet closes on every public holiday.
Why kids will love it: A pedal boat is the easiest way to put a six-year-old on open water with no skill required, and the lake is flat. Book ahead through onePA rather than turning up, and go early because the afternoon sun on the water is fierce.
Book on Jungle: PAssion Wave
Website: onePA, PAssion Wave
Address: 100 Yuan Ching Road, Singapore 618662. Google Maps
Opening hours: Rental 9am to 6pm, Wednesday to Sunday. Closed Mondays and all public holidays.
Price: Contact provider for pricing. Rates differ for PAssion Card members.
Nearest MRT: Lakeside (EW26).
The ActiveSG pool inside Jurong Lake Gardens is a normal pool rather than a feature pool, which means no wave machine and no lazy river. It also means an adult resident swims for $1.00 on a weekday and a child for $0.50. It is an inclusive pool, built for swimmers with disabilities as well as everyone else, and there is an ActiveSG gym on the same site open daily from 7am to 10pm.
It closes on Thursdays, not Mondays. That is the opposite of Jurong East Swimming Complex, which is useful to know when one of them is shut.
Why kids will love it: Quiet, shallow and 200 metres from the Grasslands, so it is the cheapest way to end a hot morning in the gardens. Weekday mornings are near empty. Bring your own float, because none are lent out.
View on Jungle: not yet listed.
Website: ActiveSG, Jurong Lake Gardens Pool
Address: 30 Yuan Ching Road, Singapore 618664. Google Maps
Opening hours: Every day except Thursday, 8am to 9.30pm. Monday, Wednesday and Friday 6.30am to 8am, competition pool only. Closed Thursdays, unless the Thursday is a public holiday.
Price: Singapore citizens and PRs, adult $1.00 on weekdays and $1.30 at weekends and on public holidays. Child and senior $0.50 and $0.60. Standard rate adult $1.30 and $1.70.
Nearest MRT: Lakeside (EW26).

Photo: Jungle
This was the first public pool in Singapore to give the masses a wave pool, a lazy river and slides, and it opened in 2000. It is still one of eight ActiveSG feature pools on the island. Inside are a wave pool, a lazy river, a kiddy pool and a stream course.
Two honest warnings. The competition pool has been shut since 5 April 2025 and is scheduled to stay shut until 31 December 2026, so this is not the place for lap swimming or a swim class that needs lanes. And the water slides were taken out in the 2025 refurbishment and have not come back.
Why kids will love it: The lazy river, which a child can float round on a ring for an hour without being asked to do anything. The wave pool runs in cycles, so a nervous swimmer gets flat water between sets. At $0.80 a child on a weekday this is the best value afternoon in the west.
View on Jungle: Jurong East Swimming Complex
Website: ActiveSG, Jurong East Swimming Complex
Address: 21 Jurong East Street 31, Singapore 609517. Google Maps
Opening hours: Every day except Monday, 8am to 9.30pm. Closed Mondays, unless the Monday is a public holiday.
Price: Singapore citizens and PRs, adult $1.50 on weekdays and $2.00 at weekends and on public holidays. Child and senior $0.80 and $1.00. Standard rate adult $2.00 and $2.60.
Nearest MRT: Jurong East (EW24/NS1/JE5).

Photo: Jungle
The Science Centre has been on Science Centre Road since 1977 and is staying there until the new building next to Chinese Garden MRT opens at the end of 2027. Here is the fact nobody puts in a headline: on a weekday outside the public and school holidays, general admission is free for Singapore citizens and PRs. Not the child rate, the whole family. Peak days cost $4 for a child aged 3 to 12 and $6 for an adult.
Two things to plan around. Tickets can only be bought online or at the kiosk, and cash is not accepted. And you need an NRIC at the gate to get the resident rate. The Omni-Theatre is charged separately at $8 a head for one film, and special exhibitions cost extra on top of general admission.
Snow City, the indoor snow centre on the same site, closes permanently on Wednesday 30 September 2026 after 26 years. The Science Centre Board announced it on 19 May 2026. If a child has been promised snow, that is the deadline, and the farewell rate is $19 for an adult and $16 for a child.
Why kids will love it: Hundreds of exhibits they are allowed to pull, spin and push, and almost nothing behind glass. Do the Omni-Theatre in the middle of the afternoon when everyone needs to sit down in the dark. Last admission is 4.15pm, so do not arrive at four.
View on Jungle: Science Centre Singapore
Website: Science Centre Singapore, ticket prices
Address: 15 Science Centre Road, Singapore 609081. Google Maps
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm, last admission 4.15pm. Closed Mondays, except public holidays and gazetted school holidays.
Price: Singapore citizens and PRs, free off-peak for child, adult and senior. Peak, child aged 3 to 12 $4, adult $6, senior $4. Standard rate child $8, adult $12. Off-peak means weekdays excluding public and school holidays.
Ages: All ages.
Nearest MRT: Jurong East (EW24/NS1/JE5), then a 10-minute walk.

Photo: Jungle
KidsSTOP is the Science Centre's separate wing for children aged 8 and under, in its own building on Jurong Town Hall Road. It runs in two three-hour sessions with an hour in between for disinfection, and you must book a specific date and slot before you arrive.
Three rules worth knowing before you pack. Socks are required for Giant J, the Dream Climber, Little Ant Kingdom and Small World. Pushchairs are not allowed inside, though there is stroller parking. And an adult cannot go in without a child.
Four morning sessions are already blocked out for private events: 1 October, 10 November, 11 November and 19 November 2026.
Why kids will love it: The Dream Climber is a multi-storey climbing structure that older children disappear into for 40 minutes. Under-threes get Small World, which is soft and enclosed. Off-peak is the session to book: a resident child pays $5 instead of $10 and the adult pays $2.
View on Jungle: KidsSTOP
Website: Science Centre Singapore, KidsSTOP
Address: 21 Jurong Town Hall Road, Singapore 609433. Google Maps
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday. Session A 10am to 1pm, last entry 12.15pm. Session B 2pm to 5pm, last entry 4.15pm. Closed 1pm to 2pm for disinfection, and closed Mondays except public holidays and gazetted school holidays.
Price: Singapore citizens and PRs, child aged 18 months to 8 years $10 peak and $5 off-peak, adult $5 and $2. Under 18 months free. Standard rate child $23 and $20, adult $13 and $10.
Ages: 8 and under.
Nearest MRT: Jurong East (EW24/NS1/JE5).

Photo: Jungle
Three escape rooms on the Science Centre site: Museum of Humankind, Shangri-La and Dr. X. The ticket includes entry to the Science Centre itself, which is what makes the price reasonable rather than steep.
The operator recommends it for children aged 13 and above. Children aged 12 and under need their own ticket and an adult of 18 or over with them. A game runs 60 minutes. Each room takes a maximum of eight players and needs a minimum of two, or three for Dr. X, and a booking with fewer than eight may be joined by strangers who picked the same slot. Dr. X carries mild horror elements.
Why kids will love it: An hour where a teenager is the one giving instructions and the parent is following them. Book Tuesday to Friday and the resident price drops from $30 to $25 a head.
Book on Jungle: Escape at Science Centre
Website: Escape @ Science Centre
Address: 15 Science Centre Road, Singapore 609081. Google Maps
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays except public holidays and gazetted school holidays. The operator publishes different last-slot times for residents and for tourists, so confirm your slot when you book.
Price: Singapore citizens and PRs $25 Tuesday to Friday, $30 at weekends and on public holidays. Standard rate $35 and $40. Includes Science Centre entry.
Ages: Recommended 13 and above.
Nearest MRT: Jurong East (EW24/NS1/JE5).

Photo: Jungle
A rooftop playground on Level 4 of Westgate, built around a tree house 10 metres tall, with oversized insects, lily pads and a giant watering can. It is free, and it is open to children aged 2 to 12 from 10am to 10pm every day.
Two things to check before you make the trip for this alone. The wet play area has been closed until further notice, so leave the swimwear at home. And CapitaLand has taken the Westgate Wonderland page off the Westgate directory, so ring the mall on the day if the playground is the only reason you are going.
Why kids will love it: A tree house three storeys high with slides off it, in the open air, at nine o'clock at night. That last part is the trick: this is one of the few playgrounds in Singapore that is comfortable after dinner. Jem is next door through a link bridge if it rains.
View on Jungle: Westgate Wonderland
Website: Westgate at CapitaLand
Address: 3 Gateway Drive, Level 4, Westgate, Singapore 608532. Google Maps
Opening hours: Daily, 10am to 10pm. The wet play area is closed until further notice.
Price: Free.
Ages: 2 to 12.
Nearest MRT: Jurong East (EW24/NS1/JE5).

Photo: Jungle
Yooland reopened on 9 September 2026 after being rebuilt from the floor up, and the new version is a pastel space station for children aged 1 to 8 on Level 3 of Westgate. The flagship is a three-lane rainbow slide that lands in a ball pit. Behind it sit an indoor go-kart circuit with mini electric karts, a large indoor sand play area under rope nets, a tunnel slide called the Yooland Donut, a trampoline and ninja zone, and a mini supermarket.
Socks are compulsory and cost $3 a pair if you forget.
Why kids will love it: Real electric go-karts with padded barriers, indoors, for a four-year-old. Sand play with no sunscreen and no sunburn. Two hours costs $30 and is better value than one, because nobody leaves a go-kart circuit after 60 minutes.
Book on Jungle: Yooland
Website: Yooland
Address: 3 Gateway Drive, #03-36/37, Westgate, Singapore 608532. Google Maps
Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 11am to 9pm. Friday to Sunday 10am to 9pm.
Price: $23 per child for one hour, $30 for two hours. Adult $10 per hour. Socks $3 a pair.
Ages: 1 to 8.
Nearest MRT: Jurong East (EW24/NS1/JE5).

Photo: Jungle
A 1990s bowling alley on Yuan Ching Road, five minutes from Jurong Lake Gardens, and the only place on this list open past midnight. It has bumper lanes for children aged 10 and under, so a six-year-old can knock down pins on their first visit instead of rolling six gutter balls.
Rates are per game per person, or per hour per lane with a maximum of five bowlers. A student under 21 pays $3.50 a game on a weekday before 6pm. Shoes are $2 a pair and socks are another $2, and socks are compulsory with house shoes, so take your own.
Why kids will love it: Bumper lanes turn a frustrating game into a winnable one. Book the hourly rate rather than per game if you have three children, because it works out cheaper once anyone wants a second round.
View on Jungle: SuperBowl Jurong
Website: SuperBowl Jurong
Address: 1 Yuan Ching Road, Singapore 618640. Google Maps
Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 12pm to 12am. Friday and eve of public holiday 12pm to 1am. Saturday 10am to 1am. Sunday and public holiday 10am to 12am.
Price: Public $5.50 a game on weekdays before 6pm, $6.00 after 6pm and all weekend. Student under 21 $3.50 before 6pm on weekdays. Hourly lane rates from $24. Shoes $2, socks $2.
Ages: Bumper lanes for 10 and under.
Nearest MRT: Lakeside (EW26) or Chinese Garden (EW25).

Photo: Leongyy02, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
NLB calls it Jurong Library now, though most parents in the estate still say Jurong Regional Library. It occupies four floors and a basement, which makes it one of the largest public libraries in Singapore, and it has separate facilities for young readers and for teenagers. It is open from 10am to 9pm seven days a week, which is longer than most branch libraries manage.
It sits above Jurong East MRT, so it is the reliable wet-weather stop when the gardens shut.
Why kids will love it: Four floors means the under-sevens get a floor of their own and are not shushed by anybody studying. The bookdrop runs 24 hours, so a Sunday-night return is not a crisis. Check the events listing before you go, because the children's programmes run most weekends.
View on Jungle: not yet listed.
Website: NLB, Jurong Library
Address: 21 Jurong East Central 1, Singapore 609732. Google Maps
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday, 10am to 9pm. Closed on public holidays. Closes at 5pm on the eves of Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year. Bookdrop 24 hours.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Jurong East (EW24/NS1/JE5).

Photo: Kbseah, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every family day in Jurong East ends with a hungry child, and this is the answer. Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre was built in 1983 and has 60 cooked food stalls and 87 market produce stalls, which is the largest concentration of cooked food stalls in Jurong East. It is an NEA hawker centre, so prices are hawker prices rather than mall prices.
NEA closes it for two days of spring cleaning each quarter. The last closure of 2026 falls on 28 and 29 December.
Why kids will love it: Sixty stalls means nobody has to agree. A plate of chicken rice, a bowl of fishball noodles and a sugarcane juice will come to less than one main course at Westgate. Go before noon or after 1.30pm, because the lunch crowd fills the tables.
View on Jungle: not yet listed.
Website: NEA hawker centre listing
Address: Blk 254, Jurong East Street 24, Singapore 600254. Google Maps
Opening hours: Stall hours vary by stall. Closed 28 and 29 December 2026 for quarterly cleaning.
Price: Hawker prices. Most cooked food stalls charge under $6 a plate.
Getting there: Bus from Jurong East (EW24/NS1/JE5), or a 15-minute walk.
Jurong Gateway Road and Westgate hold one of the densest clusters of children's enrichment in the west. These all have a branch inside Jurong East and take bookings through Jungle.
| Place | Price | Best age | Nearest MRT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Ramble | Free | 2 to 12 | Lakeside |
| Clusia Cove | Free | 1 to 8 | Lakeside |
| SkatePark @ Lakeside Garden | Free | 5 to 16 | Lakeside |
| Butterfly Maze | Free | 3 to 9 | Lakeside |
| Rasau Walk and Logs Trail | Free | 4 to 12 | Lakeside |
| Chinese Garden | Free | 5 to 14 | Chinese Garden |
| Japanese Garden | Free | All ages | Chinese Garden |
| PAssion WaVe | Contact provider | 6 and up | Lakeside |
| Jurong Lake Gardens Pool | $0.50 child | All ages | Lakeside |
| Jurong East Swimming Complex | $0.80 child | 3 to 14 | Jurong East |
| Science Centre Singapore | Free on weekdays | 4 to 14 | Jurong East |
| KidsSTOP | $5 to $10 child | Under 8 | Jurong East |
| Escape @ Science Centre | $25 to $30 a head | 13 and up | Jurong East |
| Westgate Wonderland | Free | 2 to 12 | Jurong East |
| Yooland | $23 an hour | 1 to 8 | Jurong East |
| SuperBowl Jurong | $3.50 a game | 5 and up | Lakeside |
| Jurong Library | Free | All ages | Jurong East |
| Yuhua Village Market | Under $6 a plate | All ages | Jurong East |
Prices are the Singapore citizen and PR rates where a resident rate exists, checked in September 2026.
Jurong East is the cheapest good day out in the west, and it gets cheaper the further you walk from the malls. Start at Forest Ramble, take the free garden shuttle across to the Chinese Garden, and end at Yuhua Village with $15 between four people.
Browse more kids' activities in the west on Jungle.





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