
15 September 2026 · 15 min read
Punggol Park is in Hougang. It sits at the junction of Hougang Avenue 8 and Hougang Avenue 10, about as far from Punggol town centre as a parent can get and still be in the north-east. That misnaming is a small joke on the estate, and it also explains why so few guides cover this part of Singapore properly. Hougang, Kovan and Serangoon Gardens run into one another across three MRT stops, the good things are spread across all three, and the round-ups that do exist stop at Serangoon Central.
So this is a guide to the whole strip. Seventeen places, verified in September 2026 against NParks, ActiveSG, the National Library Board, the National Environment Agency and each operator's own site. Six of them are free. Two more cost 50 cents for a child. One of them, the library most search results still recommend, is shut, and we say so rather than sending you there.
If you are looking one stop further up the North East Line, the Punggol guide covers the waterway and the rooftop parks.

Photo: User:Sengkang, Wikimedia Commons, Copyrighted free use
Punggol Park is an NParks park built around a 5 hectare lake, and the entrance is on Hougang Avenue 8. The lake is the point. It is big enough to walk right round with a pushchair, there are designated fishing spots along the edge, and the paths are wide enough for inline skating and learner cyclists who still wobble. There is a playground, a set of fitness facilities, therapeutic gardens and a bike rental stand. The park is wheelchair accessible throughout.
The car park along Hougang Avenue 8 has 25 car lots, 5 motorcycle lots and 1 accessible lot, and parking fees apply. On a Saturday morning it fills early, so come before nine or take the train.
Why kids will love it: The lake has fish in it and people catching them, which buys twenty minutes of watching before anyone has touched the playground. Older children can do a full loop on a scooter without crossing a road. Bring a hat. Most of the waterside path has no shade at all, and by eleven it is punishing.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: NParks, Punggol Park
Address: Junction of Hougang Avenue 8 and Hougang Avenue 10. Google Maps
Opening hours: Open 24 hours.
Price: Free. Parking fees apply at the Hougang Avenue 8 car park.
Nearest MRT: Buangkok (NE15) or Hougang (NE14).
Upper Serangoon Park is small, and we are including it for one reason: it is the only other park in this town that NParks actually lists. It runs along Upper Serangoon Road and Recreation Road, it is open all hours, and what is there is a fitness corner and mature trees. There is no playground and no water.
Treat it as a stop rather than a destination. It works as the shady halfway point on a walk between Kovan and Serangoon, and it works for a family with a toddler who needs to be let out of the pram for ten minutes.
Why kids will love it: The fitness corner is the draw, because the pull-up bars and the step machines are exactly the sort of adult equipment children want to climb on. Best for ages 4 and up, and best before 10am. Do not make the trip on its own. Pair it with Kovan Market, which is a seven minute walk away.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: NParks, Upper Serangoon Park
Address: Along Upper Serangoon Road and Recreation Road, Singapore. Google Maps
Opening hours: Open 24 hours.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Kovan (NE13).

Photo: User:Sengkang, Wikimedia Commons, Copyrighted free use
The Serangoon Park Connector is 4.2 kilometres long. It starts at Tampines Road, runs along Hougang Avenue 7 and Buangkok Drive, and ends at the junction of Sengkang East Road and Buangkok Green, tracking Serangoon Reservoir and Sungei Pinang for most of its length. NParks names Grey Heron, Little Egret and two kingfisher species, the Collared and the White-throated, as the birds you are most likely to see from it.
It also connects. The 4.4 kilometre Hougang Avenue 3 Park Connector runs off it towards MacPherson and Airport Road, and the Serangoon connector is the link from Punggol Park into the North Eastern Riverine Loop.
Why kids will love it: Water on one side and a flat sealed path on the other, which is the combination that makes a first long cycle possible. Give a seven-year-old the stretch between Punggol Park and Buangkok Drive and they will do 4 kilometres without noticing. Buses 80, 82, 87, 88, 89, 89e and 119 stop at Blk 458 if you want to start halfway.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: NParks, Serangoon Park Connector
Address: Tampines Road to Sengkang East Road, along Hougang Avenue 7 and Buangkok Drive. Google Maps
Opening hours: Open 24 hours.
Price: Free.
Getting there: Buses 80, 82, 87, 88, 89, 89e and 119 stop at Blk 458. Nearest MRT is Buangkok (NE15).

Photo: Jungle
This is the news in Hougang. The whole sport centre closed for more than a year of rejuvenation works and reopened in 2026, and the swimming complex came back with two things it did not have before. The training pool is now sheltered, so lessons and training carry on in the rain. The wading pool has been refreshed and now includes a water play feature, which is the part that matters if your children are under six.
There are three pools: a competition pool, a teaching pool and the wading pool. The complex closes every Tuesday for maintenance, and that is a full day, not a morning. If Tuesday falls on a public holiday it opens 8am to 9.30pm as normal.
Why kids will love it: A proper wading pool with water play, at 50 cents a child on a weekday, which is the cheapest hour of fun in this guide. Older swimmers get a competition pool and the new sheltered training pool. Go on a Wednesday or a Thursday. Saturday afternoons at a newly reopened pool are exactly as busy as you would expect.
View on Jungle: Hougang ActiveSG Swimming Complex
Website: ActiveSG, Hougang Swimming Complex
Address: 95 Hougang Avenue 4, Singapore 538830. Google Maps
Opening hours: 8am to 9.30pm daily except Tuesday, when it is closed all day for maintenance. Monday, Wednesday and Friday 6.30am to 8am, competition pool only.
Price: Citizens and PRs, $0.50 a child on weekdays and $0.60 at weekends, $1.00 and $1.30 for an adult. Standard rate $0.80 and $1.00 a child, $1.30 and $1.70 an adult. Rates effective 25 August 2026.
Nearest MRT: Hougang (NE14), then a short bus ride.

Photo: Jungle
Serangoon Swimming Complex sits inside Serangoon Sport Centre on Yio Chu Kang Road, four minutes' walk from Kovan station. ActiveSG lists two pools here, a competition pool and a normal pool, and no wading pool. That is the honest difference between this one and Hougang: it is a swimmer's pool rather than a splash-about pool.
The maintenance day is Thursday, and it closes for the whole of it. Hougang closes on Tuesday. Between the two you can swim in this town six days a week, which is worth knowing when one of them is shut.
Why kids will love it: Fifty metres of open lane with no queue on a weekday morning, which is what a child who has just learned to swim actually wants. Best for confident swimmers from about age 6. If your children are still in armbands, go to Hougang instead.
View on Jungle: Serangoon ActiveSG Swimming Complex
Website: ActiveSG, Serangoon Swimming Complex
Address: 35 Yio Chu Kang Road, Singapore 545552. Google Maps
Opening hours: 8am to 9.30pm daily except Thursday, when it is closed all day for maintenance. Monday, Wednesday and Friday 6.30am to 8am, competition pool only.
Price: Citizens and PRs, $0.50 a child on weekdays and $0.60 at weekends, $1.00 and $1.30 for an adult. Rates effective 25 August 2026.
Nearest MRT: Kovan (NE13).

Photo: ProjectManhattan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
On the roof of NEX, on level 4R, is a free water playground built around a pirate ship. It splits into two. Pirates Sea Adventure is the wet half, for ages 5 to 12, with a giant octopus slide, water-spouting trampolines and tipping splash buckets on the ship itself. Pirates' Hangout is the dry half, for ages 2 to 5, with low climbing frames, short slides and swings.
Two practical notes. There are changing rooms but no showers, so bring a towel and a full change of clothes. The playground closes during adverse weather, which in a rooftop location means it shuts the moment there is lightning nearby.
Why kids will love it: A pirate ship that tips buckets of water on their heads, for nothing, ten metres from an air-conditioned mall and a library. No footwear is allowed past the edge of the rubber floor, so socks and shoes come off at the line. Come at 11am when it opens, not at 3pm.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: NEX, kidzPLAY
Address: 23 Serangoon Central, Level 4R, NEX, Singapore 556083. Google Maps
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday, 11am to 7pm. Closes in adverse weather.
Price: Free.
Ages: 5 to 12 for the wet play area, 2 to 5 for the dry play area.
Nearest MRT: Serangoon (NE12/CC13), direct from the station into NEX.

Photo: S5A-0043, Wikimedia Commons, Attribution
Serangoon Library is on the fourth floor of NEX, one level below the water playground, which makes it the single most useful pairing in this guide: soak the children, then dry them out among the picture books. It has been the estate's default rainy Sunday for years.
Note the public holiday rule. It is closed on public holidays, and it shuts at 5pm on the eves of Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year. That catches people out every December.
Why kids will love it: A children's section with beanbags and an entire floor of a mall to get lost in, then a lift straight down to lunch. Borrowing is free with a library card, and the reservation lockers run on library hours. Best paired with kidzPLAY in the same trip, in that order.
View on Jungle: Serangoon Public Library
Website: NLB, Serangoon Library
Address: 23 Serangoon Central, #04-82/83, NEX, Singapore 556083. Google Maps
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday, 11am to 9pm. Closed on public holidays. Closes at 5pm on the eves of Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Serangoon (NE12/CC13).

Photo: Jungle
Little Bear's House is a 2,500 square foot indoor playground in a shophouse on Lichfield Road, in the quiet residential part of Serangoon Gardens. It is built for small children rather than for older ones, and it takes babies from 9 months, which very few play spaces in Singapore do.
Sessions are two hours. A ten-visit pass costs $238, is valid for six months and can be shared between siblings, which works out at $23.80 a visit and is the cheapest way in if you are going to be a regular.
Why kids will love it: Soft play sized for legs that have only just started working, with no eight-year-olds charging through it. Anti-slip socks are compulsory and cost $3.50 if you forget yours, so pack a pair. Weekdays are $3 cheaper and much emptier.
Book on Jungle: Little Bear's House
Website: Little Bear's House
Address: 21 Lichfield Road, Singapore 556841. Google Maps
Opening hours: Weekdays 10am to 7pm. Weekends 9am to 7pm.
Price: $25 a child on weekdays, $28 at weekends and on public holidays, for a 2 hour session. Anti-slip socks $3.50. Ten-visit pass $238, valid 6 months.
Ages: 9 months and up.
Nearest MRT: Serangoon (NE12/CC13), then bus 315 or a 10 minute taxi.

Photo: Jungle
Forte Bowl is a twenty-lane bowling alley inside the JForte Sportainment Centre on Hougang Avenue 1, a short walk from Kovan station. There is an arcade and a cafe in the same building, which is the reason a rainy afternoon here stretches to three hours.
One caveat, and it is why this entry has no price. The operator's website has been returning a maintenance page on every URL, including its rates page, throughout September 2026. We will not print a bowling rate we cannot confirm at source, so ring 6289 2121 before you set out. Bumper lanes for younger children need to be requested at the counter.
Why kids will love it: Ten pins, a ball that comes back up a chute on its own, and an arcade twenty steps away for whoever gets bored first. Bumper lanes make it work from about age 5. Ask for shoes in the smallest size when you book, because they run out at weekends.
View on Jungle: FORTE BOWL
Website: JForte Sportainment Centre
Address: 50 Hougang Avenue 1, Singapore 538885. Google Maps
Opening hours: Ring 6289 2121 to confirm. The operator's site is down, and the hours on directory listings, Monday to Friday 12pm to 11pm and weekends from 10am, could not be verified at source.
Price: Contact provider for pricing.
Nearest MRT: Kovan (NE13).

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Copyrighted free use
This entry exists to stop you making a wasted trip. Cheng San Library, on level 3 of Hougang Mall, is closed for renovations. The bookdrop closed on 23 October 2025 and the reservation lockers closed on 1 October 2025. Most search results, map listings and parenting round-ups still show it as open from 11am to 9pm.
What is there instead is an NLB Browse-n-Borrow kiosk on level 1 of the mall. It holds a curated selection of English and Mother Tongue language books for all ages, you can borrow from it, and you can collect reservations there. Returns and payments are not supported, so anything you take out has to go back to a working library. NLB names Serangoon, Sengkang and Punggol as the nearest three.
Why kids will love it: Honestly, they will not love a vending machine for books. But it saves a Saturday, and a child who has chosen their own book from the kiosk on the way past the supermarket is still a child with a book. Treat it as a pickup point, then read at home.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: NLB, Cheng San Library
Address: 90 Hougang Avenue 10, Level 1, Hougang Mall, Singapore 538766. Google Maps
Opening hours: Mall opening hours. NLB does not publish separate kiosk hours. The library itself on level 3 is closed for renovations.
Price: Free.
Nearest MRT: Hougang (NE14).
Hougang Sport Centre reopened in 2026 after more than a year of rejuvenation works, and it is now the best value sports afternoon in the north-east. The gym nearly doubled, from 570 square metres to 940. The indoor hall came back with 4 dedicated pickleball courts and 8 multi-purpose courts for badminton, basketball and volleyball. The swimming complex, at number 4 above, is part of the same centre.
Hougang Stadium is across the way at 100 Hougang Avenue 2 and has an 8 lane running track. It opens at 4.30am, and before the main entrance opens at 7am the public gets in through the side gate.
Why kids will love it: Pickleball. It is the easiest racket sport for a nine-year-old to be immediately competent at, the court is small, and four courts means you will get one. A badminton court is $3.50 an hour off-peak. Take a child who has outgrown playgrounds and is not yet interested in the gym.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: ActiveSG, Hougang Sport Centre
Address: 93 Hougang Avenue 4, Singapore 538832. Stadium at 100 Hougang Avenue 2, Singapore 538856. Google Maps
Opening hours: Sport centre daily 7am to 10pm. Stadium daily 4.30am to 9.30pm.
Price: Gym $2.50 an adult and $1.50 a student for citizens and PRs. Badminton court $3.50 an hour off-peak and $7.40 peak. Basketball court $15.00 an hour off-peak. Rates last updated 25 August 2026.
Nearest MRT: Hougang (NE14).

Photo: ProjectManhattan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Serangoon Sport Centre holds five things: the swimming complex at number 5, Serangoon Stadium, an ActiveSG gym at Serangoon Central, Burghley Squash Centre and Burghley Tennis Centre. The two Burghley centres are the reason to know about it, because public tennis and squash courts on this side of the island are thin on the ground.
Burghley Tennis Centre is a few minutes away at 43 Burghley Drive, on the edge of Serangoon Gardens, and is open daily from 7am to 10pm. Book online through ActiveSG rather than turning up.
Why kids will love it: A tennis court to themselves for $3.50 an hour off-peak, which is less than a coaching session costs for ten minutes. Squash suits slightly older children who can already rally. Book the 7am to 9am slot at a weekend: it is off-peak, it is cool, and nobody else wants it.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: ActiveSG, Serangoon Sport Centre
Address: 35 Yio Chu Kang Road, Singapore 545552. Burghley Tennis Centre at 43 Burghley Drive, Singapore 559020. Google Maps
Opening hours: Sport centre daily 7am to 10pm. Burghley Tennis Centre daily 7am to 10pm.
Price: Tennis court $3.50 an hour off-peak and $9.50 peak for citizens and PRs. Gym $2.50 an adult and $1.50 a student. Rates last updated 25 August 2026.
Nearest MRT: Kovan (NE13).

Photo: Jungle
BearyFun Gym runs a 2,500 square foot children's gymnastics space on the second floor of Ci Yuan Community Club, on Hougang Avenue 9. It is fitted out for small bodies: cushioned flooring, soft modules, miniature bars, low beams, trampolines and climbing elements, rather than adult apparatus scaled down.
Classes run by age band from 18 months to 12 years, with Bearytots for 1.5 to 3 year olds, mid bands for 3 to 6, and Fitness Teen levels from 7. Weekday sessions are mostly late afternoon, and weekend slots run from 8.30am to 4.30pm. The gym does not publish its prices, so book a trial through Jungle and ask.
Why kids will love it: Bars low enough to actually hang from and a trampoline that is theirs, supervised, for a full hour. This is the class to book for a child who cannot sit still, and it is the one place in this guide that takes an 18-month-old seriously. The hawker centre downstairs solves lunch.
Book on Jungle: BearyFun Gym
Website: BearyFun Gym, Hougang
Address: 51 Hougang Avenue 9, #02-02, Ci Yuan Community Club, Singapore 538776. Google Maps
Opening hours: Class times only. Weekday sessions run from about 4pm to 6pm, Tuesday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday sessions run 8.30am to 4.30pm.
Price: Contact provider for pricing. Trial classes are bookable.
Ages: 18 months to 12 years.
Nearest MRT: Hougang (NE14), then bus 72, 109, 112, 116 or 159.

Photo: Jungle
Studio Asobi is a working pottery studio in an HDB flat on Hougang Avenue 2, near Kovan. It is a home studio and it does not open daily, so everything here is by appointment. The format that suits families is the Living Clay Pottery Workshop, a single session rather than a term commitment, and the Play-Time open sessions.
Getting there needs a small amount of planning. Drive in via Upper Serangoon Road, where there is HDB parking, or take any bus from Kovan station Exit B and get off two stops later at Opp Blk 370.
Why kids will love it: A real wheel, real clay and something they made that comes home a week later after firing. This is a one-off treat rather than a weekly class, and it lands best with children aged 7 and up who can follow instructions with wet hands. Wear clothes you do not mind losing.
Book on Jungle: Studio Asobi
Website: Studio Asobi
Address: 705 Hougang Avenue 2, Singapore 530705. Google Maps
Opening hours: By appointment only. The studio does not open daily. Ring 6557 1644.
Price: Contact provider for pricing.
Ages: 5 to 18.
Nearest MRT: Kovan (NE13), then any bus from Exit B, two stops to Opp Blk 370.

Photo: ProjectManhattan, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Chomp Chomp is the most famous thing in Serangoon Gardens and the one place on this list people travel across the island for. It is an NEA hawker centre at 20 Kensington Park Road, in the middle of the Gardens estate, and it is a satay, hokkien mee and barbecued chicken wing sort of place rather than a chicken rice one.
It is not really a lunch stop. It is an evening centre, and stalls set their own hours, so a family arriving at noon will find most shutters down. Come at six, after the pool or the park connector, and accept that you will queue.
Why kids will love it: Barbecued chicken wings and sugar cane juice, eaten outdoors at a plastic table with the smoke going past. Take a child who likes strong flavours. Take a fussy eater and you will end up at the fried carrot cake stall, which is fine, because the fried carrot cake is very good.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: NEA, hawker centre management
Address: 20 Kensington Park Road, Singapore 557269. Google Maps
Opening hours: Set by each stall. NEA does not publish a single opening time for the centre, and most stalls here trade in the evening.
Price: Free to enter. Each stall sets its own prices.
Nearest MRT: Serangoon (NE12/CC13), then bus 315 or 317.
Ci Yuan Hawker Centre sits on the ground floor of Ci Yuan Community Club on Hougang Avenue 9, under the gymnastics gym at number 13. It is run by Fei Siong Social Enterprise rather than directly by NEA, it holds 40 cooked food stalls, and the operator counts more than 500 individual dishes across them.
The useful thing about it is the hours. Stall times run from about 6.30am to 10pm, wider than a normal hawker centre, and one stall trades 24 hours. It is also indoors, seated and air-conditioned in parts, which matters with a tired four-year-old at 2pm.
Why kids will love it: Forty stalls means the child who will only eat noodles and the child who will only eat rice get served at the same table, and nobody has to compromise. It is the best mid-outing lunch in Hougang. Come off-peak, between 2pm and 5pm, and you will get a table near the fan.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: Ci Yuan Hawker Centre
Address: 51 Hougang Avenue 9, Singapore 538776. Google Maps
Opening hours: Set by each stall. Most trade between 6.30am and 10pm, and one stall is open 24 hours.
Price: Free to enter. Each stall sets its own prices.
Nearest MRT: Hougang (NE14), then bus 72, 109, 112, 116 or 159.

Photo: Kbseah, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Kovan Market and Food Centre at Blk 209 Hougang Street 21 is the other half of the eating story, and the more interesting half if you have young children. It is a wet market as well as a food centre, managed by Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, with market stalls alongside the cooked food.
Go for the market rather than the meal. A wet market is the cheapest way to show a six-year-old where a fish comes from, and it is two minutes from Kovan station.
Why kids will love it: Live crabs, whole fish on ice and a fruit stall that will let them smell a durian at arm's length. Go early, before 10am, while the market is still full. Wear closed shoes, because the floor is wet, which is the entire point of the name.
View on Jungle: not yet listed
Website: NEA, hawker centre management
Address: Blk 209, Hougang Street 21, Singapore 530209. Google Maps
Opening hours: Set by each stall. Market stalls trade in the morning and most close by early afternoon.
Price: Free to enter. Each stall sets its own prices.
Nearest MRT: Kovan (NE13).
Jungle lists 41 class locations inside these three estates. Hougang Street 21 alone, the block behind Heartland Mall, holds seven of them. These are the ones worth knowing, each linked to the right branch.
| Place | Price | Best age | Nearest MRT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punggol Park | Free | 2 to 12 | Buangkok NE15 |
| Upper Serangoon Park | Free | 4 and up | Kovan NE13 |
| Serangoon Park Connector | Free | 6 and up | Buangkok NE15 |
| Hougang Swimming Complex | $0.50 a child on weekdays | 1 to 12 | Hougang NE14 |
| Serangoon Swimming Complex | $0.50 a child on weekdays | 6 and up | Kovan NE13 |
| kidzPLAY at SkyGarden, NEX | Free | 2 to 12 | Serangoon NE12 |
| Serangoon Library | Free | All ages | Serangoon NE12 |
| Little Bear's House | $25 to $28 for 2 hours | 9 months to 6 | Serangoon NE12 |
| Forte Bowl | Contact provider | 5 and up | Kovan NE13 |
| Browse-n-Borrow, Hougang Mall | Free | All ages | Hougang NE14 |
| Hougang Sport Centre | Courts from $3.50 an hour | 7 and up | Hougang NE14 |
| Serangoon Sport Centre | Tennis from $3.50 an hour | 7 and up | Kovan NE13 |
| BearyFun Gym at Ci Yuan | Contact provider | 18 months to 12 | Hougang NE14 |
| Studio Asobi | Contact provider | 7 and up | Kovan NE13 |
| Chomp Chomp Food Centre | Pay by stall | All ages | Serangoon NE12 |
| Ci Yuan Hawker Centre | Pay by stall | All ages | Hougang NE14 |
| Kovan Market and Food Centre | Pay by stall | 4 and up | Kovan NE13 |
Hougang, Kovan and Serangoon Gardens do not have a headline attraction, and that turns out to be the point: what they have instead is a 50 cent pool, a free pirate ship and 41 class locations within three MRT stops.
Start with Punggol Park on a Saturday morning, then see the rest of the north-east on Jungle.





Weekend picks, holiday camps with remaining spots, and the odd story from parents we talk to.