A boat with no timetable that leaves when twelve people are aboard, a wetland where the guided tour is suspended, and a village where cash is the only payment method you can count on. Draw it out at Changi Village and it is the best $4 you will spend in Singapore.
Prices and opening times checked with the operatorLast checked 2 Aug 2026
What it costs
A working village on an island, ten minutes off the mainland
Nobody is selling tickets when you arrive.
Treat it as a self-directed day out with no infrastructure to fall back on, and it is one of the best things you can do in Singapore for four dollars.
- Island area
- 1,036 hectares
- Getting there
- Bumboat from Changi Point Ferry Terminal
- Crossing
- About 10 minutes
- Boat fare
- $4 per person each way
Pulau Ubin sits off the north-eastern corner of the mainland and covers 1,036 hectares. It was once five smaller islands separated by tidal rivers, joined into one by bunds built for prawn farming. Granite mining supported a few thousand settlers in the early days and the abandoned quarries are still there as flooded pools. Rubber, coffee, pineapple, coconut and jasmine were all farmed on the cleared hillsides, and forest and grassland have grown back over most of it.
The reason to go is that Ubin is the one place in Singapore that still looks like Singapore before independence. Unsurfaced tracks, timber houses, chickens, a wayang stage, a handful of family-run restaurants, and a jetty where the boats leave when they are full. Nothing about it is curated for visitors. That is also the reason people waste the trip: they arrive expecting an attraction with a ticket desk, a map board and a card reader, and find a village.
Three stations get you to the boat
NParks publishes three MRT-to-bus routes. The famous one is the longest.
Everything starts at Changi Point Ferry Terminal, 51 Lorong Bekukong, next to Changi Village. There is no MRT station anywhere near it. Four bus services reach Changi Village Bus Terminal, stop code 99009: services 2, 29, 59 and 109. The terminal is a short walk from there.
The three MRT-to-bus routes NParks publishes for Changi Point Ferry Terminal, ranked by distance
| Station | Bus | Board at | Distance | Stops | Adult card fare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampines East (DT33) | 59 | Exit B bus stop | 6.1 km | 15 | $1.59 |
| Tampines (EW2/DT32) | 29 | Tampines Bus Interchange | 10.2 km | 26 | $1.86 |
| Tanah Merah (EW4) | 2 | Exit B | 11.1 km | 28 | $1.90 |
Almost every guide to Ubin tells you to take the East-West Line to Tanah Merah and catch bus 2. Tanah Merah is the longest of the three routes NParks lists. Bus 59 from Tampines East on the Downtown Line covers 6.1 km in 15 stops. Bus 2 from Tanah Merah covers 11.1 km in 28 stops. Same destination, five kilometres and roughly twenty minutes of difference, and the fare is lower too.
The bumboat: no timetable, twelve passengers
Privately run boats. There is nothing to book.
- Fare
- $4 per person each way
- With a bicycle
- $2 extra
- Hours
- Usually on demand, 6am to 7pm daily
- Departs when
- 12 passengers are on board
- Crossing
- About 10 minutes
Get to Changi Point Ferry Terminal
51 Lorong Bekukong, next to Changi Village. Bus 2, 29, 59 or 109 to Changi Village Bus Terminal, stop code 99009, then a short walk to the jetty.
Join the queue and wait for twelve
There is no departure time to plan around, only a queue that has to reach twelve. On a weekend morning that takes minutes. On a wet Tuesday afternoon it can take a long time.
Confirm the fare before you board
It typically costs $4 per person each way, with an extra $2 if you are bringing a bicycle. Operators may leave with fewer than twelve passengers, or run outside 6am to 7pm, at a higher fare by private arrangement between you and the boatman. NParks is explicit that you should confirm the fare before each departure, which tells you something about how the pricing works in practice.
Cross in about ten minutes
These are privately run services rather than a public ferry. NParks says they usually operate on demand from 6am to 7pm daily, and each boat departs when there are 12 passengers on board.
If you want to cross outside operating hours in either direction, NParks says to arrange it with an operator in advance rather than turning up and hoping.
Bring cash. All of it, from the mainland
The one mistake that ruins the day.
Plan the whole day as a cash day and draw the money out before you leave the mainland.
This is the thing that ruins visits, so deal with it before anything else. No official source lists a cash machine anywhere on Pulau Ubin, and NParks says nothing about card payment on the island at all — not for the bumboat, the bicycle shops, the restaurants or the drink stalls. Singapore does have a cashless option small stalls accept — PayNow, an instant bank transfer made by scanning a QR code — but it is paid from a Singapore bank or e-wallet account with a local mobile number, NRIC or FIN registered against it, so a visitor cannot use it. Cash is the payment method you can be certain of.
NParks tells you to confirm the bumboat fare before each departure, which is a jetty-side transaction. Bring notes for the crossing both ways, and assume the same for the bike, the lunch and the van back.
Chek Jawa Wetlands: what is open, and what is not
The reason most people come, and the tide decides what you get.
About 100 hectares at the eastern tip of the island, and the one place in Singapore where six major habitats meet in a single area. You do not need a permit and there is no booking system for walk-in visitors.
- Hours
- 7am to 7pm daily, as of the notice dated 24 July 2026
- Habitats
- Sandy beach, rocky beach, seagrass lagoon, coral rubble, mangroves, coastal forest
- Permit
- None for the public trails and boardwalks
- Walking
- Coastal Loop 600 m + Mangrove Loop 500 m, about an hour and a half for both
- Jejawi Tower
- 21 m, seven storeys
- From the jetty
- About 3 km, a 40-minute walk
The catchThe Chek Jawa Wetlands Tour is suspended until further notice while the floating pontoon is under maintenance, and a track leading from Chek Jawa is closed for maintenance works, also until further notice. If you came for the guided tour, it is not running.
Checked 2 Aug 2026
NParks is clear on the permit: one is only needed to access off-trail areas for approved research at Chek Jawa or Pulau Sekudu, and casual visits on the publicly accessible trails and boardwalks require nothing at all. The walking is two loops from the Visitor Centre, with lookout platforms and shelters, and along the way you can climb the Jejawi Tower for a view over the canopy. It is named after the Malayan Banyan growing beside it.
Chek Jawa was slated for reclamation in 1992 and only publicly noticed in December 2000, after which the plans were deferred. Visitor facilities have been in place since July 2007: a visitor centre with viewing jetty, a 1 km boardwalk and the Jejawi Tower.
The Visitor Centre itself is worth five minutes. It is House No. 1, a Tudor-style house built in the 1930s and given conservation status by the URA in December 2003. Its original fireplace is probably the last one in Singapore, and it is closed off because a colony of pouched tomb bats lives in the chimney. Malayan false vampire bats live in the old water tower next door, which was left alone and replaced with a new tank.
Getting around: walk, bike or van
You make this decision at the village jetty, before you set off.
Chek Jawa is about 3 km from the public jetty. NParks quotes a 40-minute walk and describes it as the option for the more adventurous, which is a polite way of saying it is a long way in full sun. Add the boardwalk loops on top and you are looking at a couple of hours on your feet before you have walked back.
This is the single decision that shapes the day, and you make it in the village within a few minutes of stepping off the boat. Most people should take a bike.
Walk
About 3 km of unshaded access road to Chek Jawa, then the boardwalk loops, then the same 3 km back. NParks calls it the option for the more adventurous.
Bicycle
Hired in the main village near the jetty, from family-run shops that advertise no rate in advance. Ask at two or three before you commit, and bring cash.
Local van service
One of the local van services, also hired in the main village near the jetty, running on the designated trails.
Ketam Mountain Bike Park
Built to competition standard, and rated accordingly.
A 45-hectare park around the fringe of Ketam Quarry with 10 km of purpose-built mountain bike trails. It was the first in Singapore built to international competition standard.
- Size
- 45 hectares, 10 km of trails
- Rated by
- International Mountain Bicycling Association
- Blue Square
- Beginner — still steep slopes and narrow low-traction sections
- Black Diamond
- Intermediate — long step climbs, drop-offs and obstacles
- Double Black
- Experienced riders only
The catchDo not read Blue Square as easy. It is a beginner rating on a mountain bike course, not a park path, and the bikes you rent in the village are not all suited to it.
The village, the shrine and the rest of the island
The main village around the jetty is the centre of everything: wayang stage, provision shops, restaurants. Beyond it are the Sensory Trail garden, the Ubin Fruit Orchard, Butterfly Hill, Pekan Quarry with its floating wetlands, and the quarries themselves.
The German Girl Shrine is the island's oddest landmark and its best story. In the 1910s a German family kept a coffee plantation here. When war broke out in 1914 the British rounded them up; the daughter, around eighteen, ran into the woods and was found dead days later, thought to have lost her way and fallen from a cliff. Boyanese plantation workers covered her body with sand and left prayers and incense whenever they passed, and Chinese workers later carried her remains to the crest of the quarry hill for a proper burial. The community has tended the shrine ever since. NParks notes her identity is still unknown.
Eating and drinking on the island
Four restaurants, all of them in or near the village.
The four restaurants NParks lists on Pulau Ubin
| Restaurant | Where | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Cheong Lian Yuen | By the jetty | |
| Encik Hassan's shop | By the jetty | Around for more than thirty years, now open weekends only after a period closed |
| Sin Nam Huat | Opposite the wayang stage | Run by two sisters, walls covered in old photographs of the island. Seafood alongside proper kopi and teh |
| Season Live Seafood | Along the road towards the Ubin Volunteer Hub | Alfresco tables looking back across the water at the mainland |
The shops in the village centre sell snacks, drinks, chendol, ice kacang and ice cream. Seasonal fruit turns up at the provision stores when there is any: durian, rambutan, mangosteen, chempedak.
Ah Ma Drink Stall
A stall just before the Jelutong Bridge, run by Madam Ong Ang Kui and her daughter. Madam Ong was born and raised on Ubin and still lives there.
- Where
- Just before the Jelutong Bridge
- The bridge
- A former sluice gate from the prawn-farming days
- Run by
- Madam Ong Ang Kui and her daughter
- Durian
- From more than ninety trees planted by her late husband
The catchCarry water anyway. The village has drinks; the middle of the island does not.
Heat, terrain and the things to take seriously
No shade, no air conditioning, and the same distance back.
Ubin is an unshaded tropical island with unpaved tracks and real hills. There is no air conditioning to duck into, no MRT station to retreat to, and the walk back to the jetty is the same distance as the walk out.
Singapore's heat is not the problem; the absence of anywhere to escape it is.
Go on the first boat you can, do Chek Jawa in the morning, and be heading back to the village by early afternoon — an outward-bound morning and a flexible afternoon is the shape that works. NParks' standing advice in bad weather is to get to the nearest shelter and stay out of forested areas during and immediately after it, which on an island of forest tracks means the village or a boardwalk shelter.
When the rain arrives, and when it clears
| Period | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Late March to May | Afternoon and early-evening thunderstorms, at times severe |
| June to September (Southwest Monsoon) | Rain tends to come in the early morning, then clears |
| October to November | Afternoon and early-evening thunderstorms, at times severe |
| December to mid-January | The wettest stretch |
Half day or full day
A full day, and plan it as one.
Full day
The only version that includes Chek Jawa
- Bus to Changi Village, boat across, hire a bike in the village
- Ride to Chek Jawa, both boardwalk loops and the Jejawi Tower, ride back
- Lunch in the village, boat home
- Six to seven hours door to door from central Singapore, and it does not include Ketam
Half day
Pleasant, but you miss the point of the island
- Stay near the jetty: the village, the Sensory Trail, Ah Ma Drink Stall and back
- Three or four hours
- A genuinely pleasant morning
- You will not have seen Chek Jawa, which is the point of the island
Weekdays are quieter on the island and slower at the jetty, because the boat still needs twelve people. Weekend mornings fill fastest in both directions, which is the one argument for going on a Saturday.
Singapore's heat is not the problem; the absence of anywhere to escape it is.
What a local knows
The decision that makes or breaks the day is made at the village jetty, not at Chek Jawa, and it is bike or van. Chek Jawa is 3 km away and NParks quotes 40 minutes on foot each way, in full sun, before you have walked the 1.1 km of boardwalk loops that take another ninety minutes. Walk it and you spend most of the day on the access road. The second thing nobody prints: the return leg has no timetable either, and a boat still needs twelve people to leave the Ubin side. NParks publishes a helpline for precisely the case where no bumboat is waiting at the Pulau Ubin jetty when you want to come home, 1800-471 7300. Put it in your phone at Changi Village, along with enough cash for a van back to the jetty, because no official source lists a cash machine on the island to bail you out.
Questions people actually ask
How much is the boat to Pulau Ubin?
$4 per person each way, plus $2 if you are taking a bicycle across. There is no return ticket; you pay again coming back. Operators can charge more for a departure with fewer than twelve passengers or outside 6am to 7pm, so NParks advises confirming the fare before you board.
Is there a ferry timetable?
No. The bumboats run on demand between roughly 6am and 7pm and each one leaves when twelve passengers are aboard. Your wait depends entirely on who else turns up, which is why weekend mornings are the fastest crossings and weekday afternoons the slowest.
Is there an ATM on Pulau Ubin?
No official source lists one, and NParks says nothing about card payment anywhere on the island. Singapore's own cashless method, PayNow, is widely accepted by small stalls but needs a Singapore bank or e-wallet account linked to a local mobile number, NRIC or FIN, so it is closed to visitors. Draw cash out on the mainland before you get on the boat and budget for the fare both ways, bike hire, food and a van ride. This is the mistake that ruins the day.
Do I need a permit or a booking for Chek Jawa Wetlands?
No. NParks states that casual visits on the publicly accessible trails and boardwalks need no permit. A permit is only required to go off-trail for approved research at Chek Jawa or Pulau Sekudu. Camping and large organised group activities elsewhere on the island do need permits.
Is Chek Jawa open?
Yes, 7am to 7pm daily, including both boardwalk loops, the Jejawi Tower and the Visitor Centre. The guided Chek Jawa Wetlands Tour is suspended until further notice while the floating pontoon is repaired, and one track leading from Chek Jawa is closed for maintenance.
How do I get from the jetty to Chek Jawa?
It is about 3 km, which NParks describes as a 40-minute walk. Hire a bicycle or one of the local van services in the main village instead unless you are certain about walking 6 km in the sun on top of the boardwalks.
Do I need a whole day?
Yes, if you want Chek Jawa. Allow six to seven hours door to door from central Singapore. A half day works only if you stay near the village, and then you miss the wetlands.
What is the best time of day to go?
Early. Take the first boat you can, do Chek Jawa in the morning while it is still bearable, and be back in the village for lunch. The island has no shade to speak of and nowhere air-conditioned to hide.
Read next
Where these prices and times come from
Every price, opening time and closure here comes from the operator's own website, not from a booking site. Follow any link to check it yourself.
- NParks, Visit Pulau Ubin checked 2026-08-02
- LTA bus route and fare data, held in SC360 official-sources.json record nparks-pulau-ubin checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Pulau Ubin notices checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Pulau Ubin permits checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Chek Jawa Wetlands checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, House 1 checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Cycling on Pulau Ubin checked 2026-08-02
- Association of Banks in Singapore, PayNow checked 2026-08-02
- Meteorological Service Singapore, Climate of Singapore checked 2026-08-02