Public Pools and Courts You Can Walk Into

If you want one public pool, make it Sengkang Swimming Complex: it's sheltered, it has five water slides, and an adult swim costs a couple of dollars. The catch is Monday, when it's shut for maintenance, and the slides have minimum heights, so check your children against them at the gate. The heartland pools below are plainer and cheaper, and the courts and skate parks at the end cost nothing at all.

Pools with slides and play features

ActiveSG runs the pools, and a visitor pays the standard rate at the gate. At the two feature pools in this guide, Sengkang and Heartbeat@Bedok, an adult swim is S$2 on weekdays and S$2.60 at weekends and public holidays, and citizens and PRs pay S$1.50 and S$2. The plain complexes charge S$1.30 and S$1.70, or S$1 and S$1.30 for citizens and PRs, so the cost barely changes from pool to pool.

Sengkang's slides have height rules of 1.2m or 1.3m and there's a competition pool for anyone who came to swim lengths. Heartbeat@Bedok Swimming Complex sits on Level 5 of the Heartbeat@Bedok building. Beside two eight-lane pools it has a learner pool and an interactive pool with play features and a jacuzzi, and we'd take toddlers here. It closes on Thursdays.

Plain pools in the heartlands

Bukit Batok Swimming Complex opened in 1988 and still has a competition pool, a teaching pool, a wading pool and an ActiveSG gym. Senja-Cashew Swimming Complex in Bukit Panjang shares a building with the community club, and the Senja and Bukit Panjang LRT stations are the closest stops. Both close on Wednesdays.

Our Bukit Batok to Bukit Panjang day plan fits a swim around the quarry parks and the forest edge, which makes a full day of it.

In the north-east, Serangoon Swimming Complex on Yio Chu Kang Road gives lane swimmers the competition pool from 6.30am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Woodlands Swimming Complex is inside Woodlands Sport Centre and adds aqua aerobics to the three pools. Both are shut on Thursdays.

Out west, Jurong Lake Gardens Pool on Yuan Ching Road is the one for anyone who needs step-free access: it's on the ground floor with a ramp to the water, an accessible toilet and a shower buddy on request. It closes on Thursdays too, and it pairs with a morning in the gardens next door in our Jurong Lake to the Kilns day plan.

Courts and skate parks

The free sport is at The Kallang, on Level 3 beside the National Stadium. The Kallang Hard Courts are three outdoor basketball courts that are open to the public and free, though you book a slot. On weekdays they open only from 6pm to 10pm, so we'd come at the weekend, when they run from 7am to 10pm. From Stadium MRT Exit B, take the escalator up and follow the signs for Gate 13.

The Skate Park at The Kallang, at Gate 14, has rails, a fun-box and a mini-quarter pipe, and it's open from 7am to 10pm every day. It's a good place to watch even if you don't skate.

Skaters who want room should head west to the Skatepark at Lakeside Garden in Jurong Lake Gardens. At nearly 17,000 sq m it's the biggest outdoor skate park in Singapore, with five pods from Learn to Skate to the Big Bowl, a parkour park and a 3m bouldering wall. The Plaza Pod is sheltered, which helps in a downpour. It's open from 8am to 10pm, Tuesday to Sunday and on public holidays.

Which day to go

Each pool closes for maintenance on one weekday: Monday at Sengkang, Wednesday at Bukit Batok and Senja-Cashew, and Thursday at Jurong Lake Gardens, Serangoon, Woodlands and Bedok. Tuesday, Friday and the weekend find all seven open from 8am to 9.30pm, and a closed day that lands on a public holiday becomes an open one.