All activities / Cycling / Bike Touring / Pulau Ubin
Cycling / Bike Touring in Pulau Ubin
A small island off Singapore's northeast coast, reached by bumboat from Changi, that preserves the last kampong village life in the country. Its dirt tracks, granite quarries, mangroves and the Chek Jawa Wetlands make it the best place in Singapore to ride off-road through old rural landscape.
Why here
Pulau Ubin is the closest thing left to old rural Singapore, and a bicycle is the way to see it. Ten minutes across the water by bumboat from Changi Point, the island is a throwback to the 1960s kampong life that the mainland has entirely built over: wooden stilt houses, abandoned granite quarries turned into jade-green lakes, fruit orchards, and forest tracks where wild boar, long-tailed macaques and hornbills still roam. You rent a bike at the village jetty or join a guided ride and follow dirt trails to the Chek Jawa Wetlands, a rare intertidal ecosystem of mangrove, seagrass and coral rubble crossed by a boardwalk and a viewing tower. The riding ranges from easy flat lanes to rooty, hilly single track, so it suits a gentle family potter or a proper off-road workout. It is a genuine nature-and-heritage escape twenty minutes from a global city, and cycling covers far more of the island than walking ever could.
Best months
Riding is possible year-round, but Singapore is hot and humid and the heaviest monsoon rain falls between November and January, when trails turn muddy and slippery. Early morning is coolest and best for wildlife. Trails mix easy sealed and packed lanes with rooty, hilly off-road sections, so choose a route to match your ability and check tyres and brakes at the rental shop. Bring water, sun cover and insect repellent, and note that facilities on the island are basic. The last bumboats back run in the early evening.
Getting there & around
Reach Pulau Ubin from Changi Point Ferry Terminal, a short taxi or bus ride from Tampines or Changi, then a ten-minute bumboat that leaves once it fills with about twelve passengers. Bicycle rental shops cluster at the Ubin village jetty and open through the day, or guided operators include the ferry and bikes in the price. There are no banks and limited food on the island, so carry cash and water. Give yourself a half to full day, and aim to catch a return bumboat before the service winds down in the evening.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
Bike Around Tour
GuideBike Around Tour is a Singapore cycling-tour operator founded by a local guide, Jeff, running rides that pair the route with the island's history and wildlife. Its Pulau Ubin bike tour is a roughly four-hour private ride, meeting at Changi Point Ferry Terminal and including the bumboat and bicycle, that threads old 1960s kampong villages, fruit farms and mangrove swamps out to the Chek Jawa Wetlands, with chances to spot wild boar, macaques and hornbills along the way.
Biking Singapore
OutfitterBiking Singapore is a local cycling-adventure company that bills itself as the country's first, offering Pulau Ubin cycling experiences alongside city rides, bike rental and team-building programmes. It runs guided island rides and rents foldable and mountain bikes, with hotel delivery and collection, safety equipment and a pre-ride orientation, so visitors without their own gear can still tackle Ubin's off-road trails and the park-connector routes across the city.