Jurong's Weird West: Hell and Dinosaurs

Ride the MRT west and Singapore gets stranger: a science centre with a dome cinema, a hillside of mythological statues with a museum of hell inside, three sauropod skeletons on a university campus and a lake garden with room to breathe. Out in Jurong the crowds thin, and the price is the train ride. Budget 25 to 40 minutes from City Hall, and more from the east.

Our pick for a first visit is the Science Centre in the morning and Hell's Museum after lunch, which makes a full day with a change of trains. With small children, pair the Science Centre with Jurong Lake Gardens instead. It's a gentler day, and the playground is free. Give each place about 90 minutes plus the ride out, and save the dinosaurs for a day of their own unless you're happy with a long afternoon.

Science Centre at Jurong East

Science Centre Singapore sits an eight-minute walk from Jurong East MRT, and its galleries are built to be touched. Opening hours run Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm, with last entry at 4.15pm, and it closes on Mondays except public holidays and gazetted school holidays. Next door, the Omni-Theatre shows its films on a dome screen. Book a slot and arrive 10 minutes early.

KidsSTOP is the children's gallery for under-8s, in its own building next door at 21 Jurong Town Hall Road rather than inside the Science Centre halls. It keeps the Science Centre's days and runs two sessions: 10am to 1pm, with last entry at 12.15pm, and 2pm to 5pm, with last entry at 4.15pm. It closes from 1pm to 2pm for cleaning in between. Book ahead, because walk-ups are turned away. Every child needs an adult aged 18 or over, every adult needs a child, and everyone needs socks for Dream Climber, Small World and Little Ant Kingdom.

The ice rink at JCube closed in August 2023, so skating now means Kallang Ice World, on Level 3 of Leisure Park Kallang by Exit B of Stadium MRT. Two-hour sessions start from about S$20 for adults and S$18 for children aged 5 to 12, and you'll need gloves. It's a Circle Line trip across town, so keep it for another morning.

Haw Par Villa's Ten Courts

Haw Par Villa is the grown-up side of the west: a hillside park of some 1,000 statues from Chinese mythology, colourful and strange in a way nothing else in Southeast Asia attempts. The outdoor park has been partly closed for maintenance since December 2025, until further notice. Haw Par Villa MRT on the Circle Line is a one-minute walk from the gate.

The part to plan around is Hell's Museum, the ticketed indoor museum, which has stayed open with the Ten Courts of Hell inside. It opens daily from 10am to 6pm, with last entry at 5pm. Tickets are S$22 for adults and S$12 for children aged 7 to 12, and under-6s go free. Free highlight tours start at 10.30am, 12.15pm, 1.30pm, 2.45pm and 4.15pm. Register at the lobby, first come, first served.

The Ten Courts are graphic, and the museum isn't recommended for children under 9, so preview it if you have kids with you. Because it opens every day, it's also the west's best answer to a Monday.

The hill has an after-dark season too. Haw Ror Villa 5 runs on selected evenings from 8 October to 15 November, 6.30pm to midnight. Treat it as a night out of its own rather than an add-on to a museum day.

Dinosaurs at Kent Ridge

Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, on the NUS campus, has three real sauropod skeletons and about 2,000 specimens of Southeast Asian wildlife. It's the museum we'd send any dinosaur-mad child to first. Take the Circle Line to Kent Ridge and walk across the campus, or take a taxi from Haw Par Villa if you're already out west.

It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm, with last admission at 4.30pm, and closes on Mondays. Tourist tickets are S$27 for adults, including the SISTIC booking fee, and S$18 for residents. Book ahead for weekends. NUS Museum next door is free, so do both while you're on campus.

Around Jurong Lake

Jurong Lake Gardens is 90 hectares of free parkland around the lake, Singapore's third national garden and its first outside the city centre. Lakeside Garden is open 24 hours, but go early, before the heat. From Lakeside MRT it's about three minutes to Lakeside Plaza, and from Chinese Garden MRT about five minutes to the Chinese Garden Bridge. NParks is trialling a free shuttle that loops the gardens from South Carpark, from 9am to noon and 4pm to 7pm.

For children, head to Forest Ramble, the playground at Lakeside, which opens with the SkatePark from 8am to 10pm, Tuesday to Sunday and on public holidays. Clusia Cove, the water play area, keeps the same days from 8am to 7pm. All three close on Mondays for maintenance except public holidays, and when a Monday is a public holiday they close on the Tuesday instead. The Dog Run is open daily from 8am to 10pm, and the information counters open at 8.30am. On the water, PAssion Wave @ Jurong Lake Gardens runs its kayak counter from Tuesday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, and closes on Mondays and public holidays.

Jurong Central Park, by Boon Lay MRT, is a town park with life-sized board-game features, including the Ludo Garden, and a clock tower that generates random numbers for the game. It's a stroll if you're already at the lake, though a long trip across the island to make just for this.

Pagodas by the lake

The Chinese Garden has reopened inside Jurong Lake Gardens, and it pairs with the Japanese Garden for a slow loop of pagodas and bridges. Both gardens are open from 5.30am to midnight. The Grand Arch and Twin Pagoda are typically open from 7am to 10pm, and the Cloud Pagoda is on controlled access. The Bonsai Gallery opens Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 7pm.

Around Mid-Autumn, Lights by the Lake hangs free lanterns across Lakeside Field and both gardens in the evenings. The turtles that once lived in the Chinese Garden have moved: the Live Turtle Museum is now at 11 Chencharu Close in Yishun, a 10-minute walk from Exit B of Khatib MRT, and it closes on Tuesdays.

A Monday out west

Monday is the west's quiet day. Lee Kong Chian closes, and so do the Science Centre and KidsSTOP unless it's a public or school holiday. At the lake, Forest Ramble, the SkatePark, Clusia Cove and the Bonsai, Jurong Lake Gardens and Breathing galleries shut for maintenance except on public holidays. Hell's Museum keeps its usual hours and Lakeside Garden never shuts, so spend a Monday in the Ten Courts before the 5pm last entry, then walk it off round the lake.

Lunch and the long way home

Eating out here is about convenience. JEM and Westgate, the big malls at Jurong East, will feed you between stops. If you're riding the East-West Line anyway, aim for Clementi 448, a hawker centre, where small stalls cook to order around shared tables. Singapore Discovery Centre in Jurong leans more to story than science, with nation-building exhibits and flight simulators. Younger children get a city built just for them. It suits a family curious about Singapore itself, while the Science Centre is the one for experiments.

Nearer the lakes, Jurong West 505 Market is a neighbourhood hawker centre with about 60 cooked-food stalls and 130 market-produce stalls, and it fits neatly around a visit to the Science Centre or the lake. Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre began in 1972 as Yung Sheng Food Centre, with 60 stalls, which earned it the name 60 Stalls, and it's a stop on the Jurong Heritage Trail.

West Coast Park is the west's big seaside park, 50 hectares and open 24 hours, with barbecue pits and a huge playground, and ships lined up out on the strait. There are nine pits, and you book them in advance. The Area 1 footpath is closed until 31 December. Our guide to West Coast Park and the strait has the whole morning mapped out.

Kent Ridge Park is the western end of the Southern Ridges, with a canopy walk, and Reflections at Bukit Chandu pairs well with it after the dinosaurs. It's a long way from the bay, and that's half the charm.