Woodlands, Yishun & Sembawang

The park is 1.1 hectares, free and open 7am to 7pm. Its four-tier cascading pool closes for cleaning from 11am to 2pm on Mondays and Thursdays, and it's crowded from 4pm to 7pm on weekdays and all weekend. The tap water comes out at around 70°C, so bring a pail, and eggs for the egg station. The nearest parking is 450 metres away at 114 Yishun Ring Road, about eight minutes' walk. Groups over 20 need a permit.

The hot spring if you want to warm your feet, Sembawang Park if you'd rather sit by the sea. The park is 15 hectares of north-coast beach, open 24 hours, with a 30-metre jetty the British started in the 1940s. Take bus 882 from Sembawang MRT to the last stop, and use Canberra MRT for the spring. For a longer walk over the water, Woodlands Waterfront has a 400-metre jetty.

Take Exit 2 at Woodlands North MRT and walk about 12 minutes downhill, or ride bus 856 one stop towards Woodlands Interchange. Exit 1 comes out at Republic Polytechnic. The park is wheelchair accessible and on the Northern Explorer Loop, and its carpark is free from 6.30am to 8.30am. Woodlands Checkpoint, the immigration crossing, is a separate place, and the Shuttle Tebrau train to Johor leaves from Woodlands Train Checkpoint.

Admiralty Park, at 31 Riverside Road, is bus 169 or 903 from Woodlands or Woodlands North MRT. It's open 24 hours, with the nature area open 7am to 7pm, and its unpaved path isn't wheelchair-friendly. Fishing isn't allowed. The north-entrance carpark has closed for good; use the West carpark on Riverside Road or the waterfront lots. Marsiling Park is 12.8 hectares along Woodlands Centre Road, open 24 hours, near Marsiling MRT. Its staircase and Ribbon Playscape are closed until early 2029 for Woodlands Checkpoint works, and parking is limited.

Woodlands Regional Library, at 900 South Woodlands Drive #01-03 in Woodlands Civic Centre, is free and open daily from 10am to 9pm. It closes on public holidays, and at 5pm on the eves of Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year. From Woodlands MRT, take Exit 2 towards Causeway Point and the Civic Centre. Exit 1 brings you up by the temples on Woodlands Avenue 3, the wrong side for the library. Causeway Point, the mall next door, has food.

The hospital, at 90 Yishun Central, doesn't publish visitor hours for its rooftop farm, so go to Yishun Pond Park beside it. The park is 2.3 hectares along Yishun Central, open 24 hours and wheelchair accessible, and its 1,900-square-metre therapeutic garden was built by NParks with the hospital for outpatients and anyone else. Climb the 14.5-metre Spiral Tower, then cross its bridge into Yishun Park, Singapore's first arboretum, with more than 70 dipterocarp species. Exit E at Yishun MRT is the underpass towards Northpoint and the pond.

It left ORTO for 11 Chencharu Close in Yishun. From Khatib MRT, take Exit B and walk about 10 minutes past HomeTeamNS along Yishun Walk; Exit A is the M2 bus pick-up for Mandai. Access from Sembawang Road is closed for construction. It opens 10am to 6pm, and news reports list it closed on Tuesdays, so we'd go another day. You can buy tickets at the counter or online, and the price depends on age and residency.

NEA's list includes six markets and hawker centres in Woodlands, Yishun and Sembawang. Woodlands has the market at Blks 20 and 21 Marsiling Lane, Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre and Kampung Admiralty Hawker Centre. Yishun has Chong Pang and Yishun Park Hawker Centre, and Sembawang has Bukit Canberra Hawker Centre. We'd go to Chong Pang for breakfast.