Tanjong Pagar to Everton Park on Foot

Start at Tanjong Pagar MRT and you can finish on Everton Road in a day, past a mosque from 1903, a tea workshop, Tian Tian's chicken rice and a skybridge on the 50th storey. We'd begin with the mosque before the heat builds, have lunch at Maxwell, and save the shophouse bars for the end. All of it fits in the Tanjong Pagar, Duxton and Everton Park neighbourhood.

Palmer Road and Tanjong Pagar Road

Maqam Habib Noh and Haji Salleh Mosque is at 37 Palmer Road, at the foot of Mount Palmer, with Tanjong Pagar MRT the nearest station. The mosque is open daily from dawn prayers to 9pm. The two shrines on the hill above it keep shorter hours: 10am to 6.30pm Monday to Thursday, 2.30pm to 6.30pm on Fridays, and 9am to 6pm at weekends.

Walk back to Tanjong Pagar Road for the Yixing Xuan Tea Workshop at No. 78, a family teahouse that teaches the tea categories, a little history and the pour itself. The basic workshop is S$58 nett a person for 1.5 hours, with a two-person minimum. At 77 Tras Street, Capybara Bathing is a communal bathhouse with 90-minute slots booked online. It is for ages 16 and up.

On a hot day, Tras Link Park is a patch of green with benches and colourful garden swings, and it's open 24 hours.

Lunch, then the lanes

Lunch is at Maxwell Food Centre, by Maxwell MRT Exit 2. It's free to enter and you pay at each stall. The lunch crowd peaks between 11.30am and 1.30pm, and the queue at Tian Tian is shorter before 11am or after 2pm. If you'd like a quiet hour first, the free Harmony in Diversity Gallery at 7 Maxwell Road sits above Amoy Street Food Centre. It needs a booking online and is closed on Sundays and public holidays.

After lunch, the Tanjong Pagar Conservation Area starts to show. Duxton Hill is a short, quiet rise of two- and three-storey shophouses with bars tucked inside, on the stretch of Duxton Road that links Neil Road and Craig Road. Keong Saik Road is three blocks of restored shophouses given over to restaurants and hotels. It costs nothing to walk, and a table is worth booking if you want to eat.

Up to the skybridge

Duxton Plain Park follows an old railway trace and has entrances on New Bridge Road, Neil Road, Kreta Ayer Road and Yan Kit Road. It is open 24 hours and has two heritage trees: a Bodhi on Neil Road and an Indian rubber tree near Yan Kit Road. It is made for strolling between the bars rather than for a picnic.

Beside the park is Pinnacle@Duxton, Singapore's first 50-storey public housing project. The public skybridge costs S$6, and you register and pay at the kiosk in Block 1G on Cantonment Road before the lift. Only 150 visitors a day are allowed, 50 at a time, so we'd go on a weekday morning. It is a residential estate, so keep your voice down.

Everton Road and a museum

For Everton Road, the easy way in is Cantonment MRT (CC31) on the Circle Line, which LTA says has an entrance on the road. LTA suggests walking up Everton Road to Neil Road for cafes. Everton Park is an HDB estate where people live, so treat it as a street to walk through rather than somewhere to wander the blocks.

If the day still has room, the SGH Museum on the Singapore General Hospital campus, with Outram Park MRT the nearest station, is free and open Monday to Friday from 8am to 7pm, and Saturday until 1pm. It covers two centuries of medicine in a 1926 national monument, with surgical instruments and a recreated medical college facade. Finish with a drink at The Elephant Room on Tanjong Pagar Road, which opens at 6pm and is closed on Mondays.