Kallang: Ice World and the River Walk

Come up at Stadium MRT (CC6) on the Circle Line and the dome is right in front of you, roofing 55,000 seats with the Kallang Basin spread out behind it. Most people arrive for a concert and leave through a mall. We'd come in daylight for the water instead: walk the river, give Ice World two hours if it rains, and eat lunch at Geylang Bahru, a short ride away, where the tables belong to the people who live around it.

Since 2025 the whole precinct has gone by The Kallang, though the building at its centre, at 1 Stadium Drive, is still the National Stadium. If you've spent the morning among the hardware shops of Jalan Besar, this is where the city opens out onto the water. The one thing to save for another trip is the Sports Museum, which is closed for an upgrade until 2027.

Around the National Stadium

Stadium MRT has two exits worth knowing. Exit A is for Gates 1 to 5 and 18 to 23 and the Promenade on Level 3. Exit B is for Gates 6 to 17, and it's also the quick way to Leisure Park and OCBC Arena. You can also walk in from three nearby stations. Tanjong Rhu on the Thomson-East Coast Line is about 12 minutes and 750 metres from its Exit 2, Kallang on the East-West Line is about 15 minutes and 900 metres from Exit A, and Mountbatten, one stop further along the Circle Line, is about 15 minutes from its Exit A.

Gate 6 is the administration entrance, open 9am to 6pm on weekdays and shut on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, so give a weekend taxi driver another gate. The stadium sits under the world's largest free-spanning dome, with a retractable roof, and the seating bowl opens to you on a match night, at a concert or on an organised tour. Football means a ticket for a set date. HSBC SVNS puts rugby sevens matches back to back in the stadium, and day tickets are sold if a whole weekend is too much.

The Indoor Stadium opens its office only on event days, so look up what's on at SISTIC first. The concourse and the waterfront are free whether or not anything's happening, and strolling them is what most people mean by the Sports Hub walk.

Pools, courts and giant chess

OCBC Arena, about four minutes and 300 metres from Exit B, is open daily from 7am to 10pm. It has six indoor halls for badminton, basketball, netball, volleyball and table tennis, plus a gym on Level 2. The Singapore Open badminton World Tour stop usually plays at the Indoor Stadium, and the hall gets loud. OCBC Aquatic Centre at 7 Stadium Drive is about eight minutes and 500 metres from Exit A. Its World Aquatics pools, 50 metres long, host competition and training, and there's public lap swimming too. It's open 7am to 9.30pm every day except Tuesday. A visiting adult pays from about S$2.60 an entry off-peak, and residents pay less. Leave the cash at home, because the counter takes only Visa, Mastercard and PayNow.

Splash-N-Surf is closed for renovation, and enhancement works on the community spaces run into 2028. The Singapore Sports Museum at 6 Stadium Walk is closed too, for an upgrade, and plans to reopen with a new experience in the second quarter of 2027. On the same walk, Giant Chess is open daily from 7am to 10pm, a board you stand on to play. When you need air-con, Kallang Wave Mall is open daily from 10am to 10pm. Climb Central sits in the basement of the same mall, with auto-belays and bouldering for first-timers and a short safety briefing before you start.

For a game of your own, ActiveSG Badminton means public courts in sports halls across the island. Book on the ActiveSG app before you go, because courts get taken, and bring your own racket if you have one.

Ice World at Leisure Park

Kallang Ice World is on Level 3 of Leisure Park Kallang, at 5 Stadium Walk #03-08, a few minutes from Stadium Exit B. Since The Rink at JCube closed in August 2023, it's the only full-size rink of real ice left in Singapore. There's no booking: it's walk-up and first come, with room for about 150 skaters a session. A two-hour session costs from about S$20 for adults and S$18 for children aged 5 to 12, and skate hire is usually included. Gloves and socks are compulsory, so pack both.

From Sunday to Thursday, sessions typically run from 9am, with the last from around 7.20pm to 9.20pm. On Fridays and Saturdays, sessions run later, with an extra one from about 9.40pm to 11.40pm. Times shift, so check the board at the counter when you arrive. It's our pick for a rainy afternoon with children, and two hours of cold air feels like a small holiday when it's 32°C outside.

If you'd rather have a booked slot, Ice Penguin at Clarke Quay Central is a much smaller rink of synthetic ice, about 1,000 square feet, and runs on bookings. For children who'd rather jump than glide, Bounce has trampolines at Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road, by Somerset MRT Exit B. It's up in Orchard, so save it for a day you're shopping there.

Along the Kallang River

Kallang Riverside Park runs for 5 hectares along Kallang Road, Stadium Road and Crawford Street, and it's open 24 hours. The paths are wheelchair accessible, but the park has no accessible toilets. If you're driving, Kampong Bugis Carpark has 18 car lots and 10 for motorcycles, and parking is charged. Look out for the Kallang Gas Holder, the remnant of Kallang Gasworks. Dating from 1862, the gasworks was the first site to make street-lighting gas from coal.

Smooth-coated otters turn up along this stretch, but nobody can promise them. From September to March, look for little egrets and grey herons at the water's edge. There are cycling tracks if you'd rather cover the park on two wheels, and the walk is at its best after 5pm, once the worst of the heat has gone. If you've brought a frisbee, the disc-golf course in the park is free, with no tee times, and is run by the Singapore Flying Disc Association.

The kayak counter is at the Water Sports Centre, 8 Stadium Walk. It rents sit-on-top kayaks to walk-ins at Level 1, so bring photo ID. It's open Monday and Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 8pm, except on selected public holidays, and the last kayak goes out at 5pm. A standard adult pays from about S$18 at peak times and S$15.50 off-peak. Paddlers must be at least 7, and children aged 7 to 12 need an adult with them. Events on the basin close the boats, sometimes for a whole week, so check The Kallang's website before you go.

For company on the water, the Dragon Boat Taster is a two-hour session for 16 to 20 paddlers from the same Water Sports Centre, on set dates. PUB asks paddlers to stay off its reservoirs between 7pm and 7am, so book a late-afternoon slot on the basin for the cooler air.

Lunch at Geylang Bahru

Geylang Bahru Market at 69 Geylang Bahru is where the surrounding blocks eat, and it's right across the road from Geylang Bahru MRT on the Downtown Line. It's a hawker centre, one roof over many small cooked-food stalls, and each stall keeps its own hours. The centre is typically open 6am to 11.45pm from Monday to Saturday and 7am to 11.45pm on Sundays, but it's the stall that decides whether you eat.

The Michelin Bib Gourmand stall here is Hui Wei Chilli Ban Mian at #01-58. It typically cooks from 11.30am to 9.30pm, Saturday to Thursday, and closes on Fridays. Ju Xing Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice at #01-01 typically runs from 10am to 7pm and closes on Mondays. Early risers and night owls both end up at Low Seng Kim at #01-53, which typically starts on mee siam and mee rebus from about 1.30am, Tuesday to Sunday, and is done by 10am. When you've finished, take your tray back to the return rack.

To get from here to the stadium, change from the Downtown Line to the Circle Line, or take a short taxi. Jalan Besar MRT is two stops back along the Downtown Line. From Marina Bay, you can also ride the Circle Line to Nicoll Highway, the stop before Stadium, and walk in.

A day on the basin

Eat at Geylang Bahru around 11.30am, on any day but Friday if Hui Wei is the reason you came. Ride down to Stadium and, if it's raining or the children still have energy to burn, give Ice World its two hours. Paddle while the kayak counter is still renting, then walk the riverside as the heat eases. Fit in a concert only if you already have a ticket. For supper, Singapore's late-night meal, Chomp Chomp in Serangoon Gardens is a taxi ride away.

Kallang works well on a Monday, when the arena, the pools, the rink and Hui Wei are all open, though Ju Xing and Low Seng Kim are closed that day. Carry water, since even the short walks between venues are hot. Then finish on the river path with the dome behind you and the city lights coming up across the basin.