Changi

Changi is an airport that swallowed a waterfall. Jewel, at 78 Airport Boulevard, is landside, so you can walk in without a boarding pass. In Forest Valley at its centre, the Rain Vortex falls 40 metres indoors from 10am to 10pm, and watching it costs nothing. Up on Level 5, Canopy Park is the ticketed part: 14,000 square metres of gardens and slides on the basic ticket, while the mazes, nets and glass-bottomed Mastercard Canopy Bridge cost extra. Changi Experience Studio is a separate indoor attraction, open 11am to 8pm with last admission at 7pm. With a free day in town, we'd pick Gardens by the Bay; Jewel wins when you're near the airport or have children who need to bounce.

Changi Point feels like a small seaside town. Kelongs (fishing platforms on stilts) sit out on the water, and bumboats, the small motorboats that cross to Pulau Ubin, leave from the ferry terminal. Have breakfast first at Changi Village Hawker Centre, 2 Changi Village Road. At a hawker centre you order and pay at each stall's own counter, then carry your food to wherever there's room, and the breakfast here before the boat is nasi lemak, coconut-scented rice served with chilli sambal. From there, Changi Beach Park stretches along Nicoll Drive. It covers 28 hectares and stays open 24 hours, and it's one of the oldest coastal parks on the island, with barbecue pits you book on the NParks portal and planes passing low on their way in to land.

Changi Boardwalk runs 2.2km in six named sections and is open 24 hours, starting with the 280m Creek Walk by the ferry terminal. Parts of it are closed for repairs, including the stretch between Cliff Walk and Creek Walk, which is expected to reopen on 31 December, so check NParks' notices before you set out. Estuarine crocodiles live in the Straits of Johor, so don't go into the water off the boardwalk. Inland, Changi Chapel and Museum at 1000 Upper Changi Road North tells the story of the prisoners of war held at Changi in the Second World War. It's closed on Mondays except public holidays, and it deserves a quiet morning of its own.

On a long layover, see Jewel, then take a taxi to the village for a hawker meal; it beats sitting in a lounge. Swee Choon Tim Sum in the Terminal 2 Arrival Hall is landside and open 24 hours, which puts dim sum at 4am within reach. Save Ubin for a layover with hours to spare. Bintan ferries leave from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, a separate trip from both the airport and the village. They sail at set times, so book the outbound and return together, and keep the chapel and the boardwalk for a day without a ferry in it. Changi is where your trip starts and ends, and it's worth a morning in the middle too.

Where to eat

• International Muslim Food Stall Nasi Lemak, #01-03 Changi Village Hawker Centre, 2 Changi Village Road: the plate to eat before the Ubin boat
• Mizzy Corner, Changi Village Hawker Centre: a second nasi lemak queue on the same floor, handy when the first one is long
• Weng Kee Ipoh Hor Fun, Changi Village Hawker Centre: flat rice noodles instead of coconut rice. Each stall sets its own hours, so check before you go
• Swee Choon Tim Sum, #01-07 Terminal 2 Arrival Hall, 60 Airport Boulevard: dim sum 24 hours a day, landside, with no boarding pass needed