Punggol is no longer the ulu place that we grew up thinking it to be. Punggol is a relatively young town that has some natural advantages like a great waterfront area and a whole bunch of nature spots.

Additionally, residents have moved in en masse, and with that population boom comes lots of cool and quirky places to visit. Let’s take a look at how you can spend your weekend in Punggol!

1. Visit Coney Island Park

Rumour has it that this place was set aside for an eventual Coney Island-style theme park project that never happened. Regardless, there’s still a lot of fun to be had on our version of Coney Island. This park is an extension of the Punggol Waterway Park and Punggol Settlement area and has some great walking trails and bike trails.

It’s got a really nice coastal forest, and designated beach areas for you to chill out in. It’s beautiful during sunrise, so I recommend a short run from Punggol Settlement in the morning to get the most out of this place.

2. Splash around in a Water Playground

SAFRA’s Splash @ Kidz Amaze is crazy huge. How crazy huge? Well, it’s over 24,000 square feet of pure water playground for children to play in. As one of Singapore’s largest indoor playgrounds, the facility has tons of water spouts, slides, buckets and other playthings for children to play with. The place is safe for children, with a maximum of 30cm of water everywhere. Entrance fees start at $8, and each play session is 4 hours long!

3. Check out the Wetlands

The Lorong Halus Wetlands are pretty cool. This part of Singapore used to be a huge landfill, but the government decided to convert it into a nature reserve and park under the ABC waters program. Besides being a home to various flora and fauna, the wetlands actually collect and treat water passing through the former landfill. This ensures that the water never enters our reservoirs, keeping our drinking supply clean.

4. Late Night Prawning

Hai Bin Prawning in Punggol. Picture: iProperty

Prawning – it’s one of those favourite Singaporean past times that never die. The fun part of going as a group to Hai Bin Prawning isn’t really catching those prawns. It’s about hanging out with your friends as you occasionally wrestle with a prawn that ended up on your line.

When you’ve finally assembled a large pile of these little crustaceans, you can barbecue them over one of the many pits located nearby.

See more: More details on Punggol’s BTO in September 2019 launch

5. Eat on the Waterfront

There are 2 spots where you could visit for a good meal. The first is Punggol’s Container Park, which has a collection of food vendors selling a range of trendy food items. Food items run the gamut, from Korean chicken wings and fish & chips to beers and desserts. The other place to eat is at the Punggol Settlement. This place is a little more established and has plenty of sit down restaurants that you might recognise. The popular Sembawang White Beehoon restaurant has an outlet here, and there’s the ever-popular House of Seafood. Punggol’s waterfront has plenty of options for the hungry explorer, so take your time and enjoy the show.

It’s clear from this list that Punggol has plenty for everyone to see and do. I recommend starting at the parks bright and early, before moving on to other activities in the area. It’s definitely one of those places where you can spend the entire day or weekend in if you choose to do so, and you should definitely consider going down if you want your kids to have an enriching weekend.

See more: New HDB flats in Punggol will be “smarter”