Leave the Island for Batam, Bintan or JB

Singapore has three easy ways out for the day, and you'll only have time for one. Batam is about 45 minutes by ferry from HarbourFront, for cheap seafood and spas. Bintan is a high-speed boat ride from Tanah Merah to a resort beach. Johor Bahru, which everyone calls JB, sits across the causeway in Malaysia, with the food and the outlet malls. All three need your passport, and all three work best when you're on the first departure out and back in Singapore for dinner.

Picking your exit

We'd only leave on a trip of more than four days; with 48 hours, stay in Singapore. If you've got the time, our pick is Bintan, because its beach feels like a different country and the resort day pass takes care of lunch. The catch is the longer ferry and an early check-in. JB is the better day if you're going for the food. Go on a weekday if you can, when immigration moves faster, and keep to one exit per day: the Batam and Bintan boats leave from different terminals, and each island takes a full day. Visa rules depend on your passport, Indonesia's for Batam and Bintan and Malaysia's for JB, so check yours before you book.

Batam from HarbourFront

Batam is the cheap day out, with S$15 massages and S$10 seafood, some outlet shopping if you want it, and time to get back for supper, the late-night meal, in Chinatown. The island is a little chaotic, mostly in a useful way. Catch the first boat out and choose a return with room to spare, because the last ferry leaves on schedule whether or not your massage ran over.

Boats leave from the ferry terminal at HarbourFront, 5 HarbourFront Avenue, in the Singapore Cruise Centre building about 70 metres from the old counters in HarbourFront Centre. Head there rather than into VivoCity. BatamFast checks in at #01-07 and Sindo at #01-11, and you'll want to be there 45 minutes before your sailing. BatamFast's first boat to Batam Centre leaves at 7.40am. Some trips on its board are run by Sindo and the Gold Coast sailings are suspended, so read the day's table before you pick a return. Keep your passport in a pocket you can reach while you're juggling boarding cards.

Sindo Ferry and Majestic Fast Ferry run their own timetables from the same terminal, with Sindo's first boat to Batam Centre at 8am and Majestic's at 8.10am. Majestic's ticket price includes the departure and terminal fees, while Sindo's S$28 fare doesn't, so add the S$10 departure fee when you compare.

If you'd rather stay over, Horizon Fast Ferry sails direct to Nirup Island, a resort off Batam, once a day in the afternoon. With one boat out and one back, it works as a short stay, not a day trip.

Bintan from Tanah Merah

Bintan is the beach day. The ferry takes about an hour and 10 minutes, and the sand at the other end is white enough to photograph and organised enough that a resort day pass makes sense. You buy the pass from the resort, since the ferry ticket covers only the boat. It comes with the pool and lunch, which matters. At home you'd eat at a hawker centre, a big open-sided hall of small cheap stalls; there's nothing like one on that beach.

Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal is at 50 Tanah Merah Ferry Road, a taxi ride from Expo MRT. It's a separate place from Changi Airport and Jewel, and too far to walk from Jewel. It's also easy to confuse with Changi Point, by Changi Village in Changi, where the bumboats (small wooden motorboats) leave for Pulau Ubin. Tanah Merah is where the Bintan boats leave. Your passport needs six months' validity, and Indonesia's e-Arrival Card is mandatory, so sort it out before you travel.

Bintan Resort Ferries sails from Tanah Merah at 8.10am, 11.10am, 2pm and 5pm Singapore time from Monday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday add a 9.10am boat, and Sunday adds afternoon sailings, including 2.35pm and 4.35pm. Bintan runs an hour behind Singapore, so check which clock your return time is on.

Bintan Resort Ferries asks you to check in 90 minutes before sailing, and the counter closes 40 minutes before. On the way back, be in the terminal an hour ahead of the last boat, and take that time from your ticket rather than a group chat. The September-to-October Getaway Perks deal, from S$90 a person, is a promotion rather than the regular fare, with peak blackout dates from 6 November.

Johor Bahru by road or rail

JB is a food trip, as long as you go hungry and use licensed transport. The catch is the border. The queues at Woodlands Checkpoint on the causeway and at Tuas Checkpoint on the Second Link can each take up a whole morning, and they're longest at weekends and on the eve of a public holiday. A Friday evening in December is the one to avoid. A booked day tour deals with the checkpoint for you, which is what keeps the day feeling like a holiday.

If you'd rather skip the car queue, the KTM Shuttle Tebrau runs from Woodlands Train Checkpoint, a different building from Woodlands MRT, and you book it through KTMB. You still clear immigration, so bring the physical passport; digital copies won't get you across. Once you're in JB, eat around JB City Square or wherever your driver eats, rather than at the first food court past immigration. Head home through the same checkpoint with plenty of time in hand, because the return queue is the one that catches out people who only timed the way over.

LEGOLAND, Desaru and further into Johor

LEGOLAND Malaysia is the causeway plus a theme park, and it's worth the trip with children under 12. Without them, we'd spend the day in Singapore. Desaru Coast is a longer Johor day, with beaches and a waterpark, reached by ferry from Tanah Merah or by private transfer. If sand is the whole point, Bintan still wins.

Further west, Kukup serves seafood in restaurants on stilts at the southwestern tip of Johor, a longer and slower day than lunch in JB City Square. Tanjung Piai is the southernmost tip of mainland Asia, and what you get there is a mangrove boardwalk and a monument.

Pulau Kukup, a mangrove island park nearby, is a Johor national park too. Both parks charge a small entry fee, about RM20 for a foreign adult, and neither has a direct bus from JB, so go by car or taxi and book your ride back.

Johor Premium Outlets is the day to pick if shopping is the point. Forest City is for the curious: a largely empty development on reclaimed islands, with no beach, and worth a look if the outlets felt like a mall you already have at home.

Quieter days and race week

A Monday exit is kinder than a Saturday one: the first boats run on their weekday timetables and the causeway queue is usually shorter in the morning. It's also a reasonable day for LEGOLAND if this is your second trip to Singapore. From 9 to 13 October, the Formula 1 race closes roads around Marina Centre and trains run late. Batam boats still leave from HarbourFront as usual. If a race-week concert is on your list, keep the full buffer on the last ferry anyway.

Whichever way you leave, come back for dinner on this island. After a day of ferries and queues, chilli crab tastes like a decision you'd happily make again.