Singapore Zoo and River Safari – check out why you must go there!

Singapore is home to one of the best zoos in the world. Encouraged by the reviews of family and friends and (indeed, especially) by the fact that you can see pandas there, we decided to devote at least one day in Singapore to the Zoo and River Safari. How was it? Is there anything we regret?

And we immediately point out that this is not a place just for children. If we came to Singapore on our own, we would definitely come here too. Although you have to reckon with a few inconveniences…. ;-)

To begin with, there are some important points that you can read about in our post:

Before visiting the Singapore Zoo and/or River Safari, consider which parks you want to see. You can buy combined tickets online to both destinations, which is cheaper online. So it is worth buying them in advance.
Both parks are far from the center of Singapore, and it can take up to an hour to travel to them. It is worth taking this into account when planning, especially, for example, if you only have one day between flights.
It is advisable to be there first thing in the morning, then there is the least crowd :)
If you’re traveling with a baby, be sure to bring a bathing suit or diaper for the water!
This is the place where you will spend one whole day! Not 2-3 hours. All day long!

Table of contents

But let’s start with the basics…

Why are we talking about separate places, namely Singapore Zoo and River Safari Singapore? That’s because they are two separate, contiguous sites within the Singapore Wildlife Reserves. They also include Jurong Bird Park and Night Safari (night tour), but we didn’t participate in that, so we don’t comment :)

The parks do not compete with each other, they do not offer the same thing, and they fill each other. You could say that the Singapore Zoo is a typical zoo, but the word typical doesn’t fit here at all. It is a unique zoo. This is not the kind of place we know from other zoos – there are no visible fences, no bars that make the animals have a confined space and are squeezed together. Of course, they are in confinement, but their place is as close to natural as possible.

River Safari, on the other hand, is a journey along a “river,” or perhaps better written along the rivers of the world, along with their natural inhabitants. Surprisingly, it is here and not at the Singapore Zoo that you can see giant pandas.

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Ticket prices

Tickets to both venues can be purchased separately. Importantly, you can enter them several times during the day, which means, for example, you can first enter the Zoo, then go to the Safari River, and at the end of the day return to the Zoo again. However, it is important that you ask for a stamp at the exit that will allow you to enter again.

The first inconvenience is ticket prices – at the zoo an adult pays S$35 (Singapore dollars) and a child S$23.

River Safari is a bit cheaper: an adult pays S$32 and a child S$21. Fortunately, children under the age of 3 enter for free.

You can buy a combination ticket to both attractions for S$58 and S$38, respectively. That is, at the current exchange rate for about 155 zlotys and 100 zlotys.

We bought tickets online thanks to which we saved a few dollars. With middlemen, however, you have to be careful, not all of them have honest intentions. We bought the tickets overnight, as we watched the weather forecast until the last minute and hoped for as little rain as possible.

Directions and opening hours

And here is the second inconvenience (but the last one!) – Singapore Wildlife Reserves are located relatively far from the center. Being in Singapore for a few days, you may feel like everything is at your fingertips, or more accurately, at most two subway lines away. Unfortunately, you won’t get to the Singapore Zoo by subway. You can take the subway and then change to a bus or even take a bus with transfers, but such fun takes a minimum of one hour.

We, however, became comfortable and called on Uber. The road took us about 20 minutes, and in the process we had the opportunity to learn many interesting facts about Singapore.

We were already at the site around 9 o’clock and to our surprise River Safari was still closed! You’d probably be less surprised if you checked the opening hours beforehand. We simply assumed that such places, it is from the very morning that they are open and besieged, and there are long queues to enter. There were no queues.

In the information we learned that the River Safari opens at 10:00 am, and the Zoo at 8:30 am. So without wasting any time, we started at the zoo, then moved on to the River Safari, and then returned to the zoo some more. It may seem strange to you, but we recommend you to enter the River Safari just after opening – there are fewer people then, even empty, because, however, most people take their first steps to the zoo…. We, meanwhile, were able to walk the marked path in peace. Of course, our pace was not one of the fastest, so about halfway there, it started to get more crowded.

River Safari Singapore

So first up flies River Safari. To be honest, by design, it was a bigger attraction for us, because this is where you can admire two giant pandas. But one step at a time, there will still be time for pandas…. ;)

After entering, head to the right after the gates. This is important! We went the wrong way at first, because we didn’t notice any arrows with the direction of the tour. The entire River Safari area is located on a bay, on both banks of which interesting attractions await.

Once you follow the correct path then you are in for a journey through the world’s greatest rivers and their inhabitants. And so you can learn about such rivers as the Mississippi, Congo, Nile, Ganges, Mary, Mekong and Yangtze. Among the specimens here you can see a variety of fish, amphibians, reptiles, but also mammals that live around these rivers. It is not only a journey into nature, but also into the culture and religion of each region.

Walking further, we come to a panda forest. We enter a large pavilion where we can see red pandas and giant pandas. There are two giant pandas (Kai Kai and Jia Jia) and they spend their time quietly munching bamboo in separate enclosures. Surprisingly, the enclosures are not at all as large as in the Beijing Zoo. Here, however, it is sort of calmer, cleaner, greener. Pandas, of course, like all pandas in the world, are owned by China, and are on loan in Singapore for as long as 10 years.

It took us a while to explain to Olive that she doesn’t have to just look at the pictures and descriptions, because there’s a real panda sitting down there – after that there was no end to the joy! :)

The panda forest is not just two enclosures, it is a place where we can learn a lot about pandas, see what they eat, how they mature. At the end, of course, awaits a store where you can stock up on all things pandas, and even farther away a restaurant where Pandowelove reaches its apogee ;) We’ll eat dishes shaped like pandas, sitting on panda chairs, surrounded by photos of pandas. It was the perfect place for a break, although the food itself did not knock us out. On top of that, there was an air-conditioning malfunction, so welcome in Singapore!

We spent a lot of time here, Olive ran from the photo to every single figurine and panda mascot…. until now we wonder how we managed to go any further at all.

The rest of the route involves crossing a bridge to the other side of the bay, where the attractions for the elderly begin. You can take a boat ride, but the bigger attraction is a boat cruise – Amazon River Quest (extra charge: adult – S$5, child – S$3). It is an upscale cruise, among animals such as capybaras, tapirs, monkeys, anteaters, flamingos and jaguar. Of course, leaving the boat during the cruise is not allowed.

Unfortunately, there are height restrictions here, so small children, under 1.06 centimeters, are not allowed on the boats. Because of which we also did not sail.

Already walking towards the exit, it’s worth taking a look at the Squirrel Monkey Forest – an enclosed, fenced-off area where you can walk among these little monkeys, which are scientifically called squirrel saimiri, perhaps (we’re not experts in this area, but we also found the term “corpse heads”). One must, of course, be careful and not touch or tease wild animals.

Last but not least, there are still water attractions – huge pools and smaller lakes where you can see large manatees, otters, eels and many other specimens. Manatees swim in what is known as a “manatee”. Amazon Flooded Forest – an Amazon-like reservoir.

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And this is where our River Safari journey ended. We were already heavily tired, richer in knowledge and interesting memories, and yet there was more to come!

Singapore Zoo

We saw the zoo a bit in installments – a piece first thing in the morning and the rest after the River Safari tour. However, one should bear in mind that it is a large area and there is a lot of walking. For the lazy, tired and those with mobility problems, there are “wild” vehicles that drive between stops throughout the zoo (extra charge).

What’s the best way to start a zoo tour? If you are interested in special shows or feeding times for the animals then it is a good idea to plan your visit taking into account the hours of these attractions. We let most of it go, because we knew that with Olivia we would not be able to plan where we would be, at what time :)

We decided to simply walk around the entire garden – we looked at both the big animals (hippos, white tiger, lions, giraffes) and the smaller ones, but we were probably most interested in how this zoo is built and arranged. In fact, the enclosures are made without bars, without special fences, sometimes you can even feel like you are at arm’s length from the animals. Some can even run and jump in the trees among the visitors! Don’t be surprised if suddenly, above you, an orangutan walks on a special footbridge!

Of course, the more dangerous ones are properly protected, but still – you don’t have to look through the glass and even small children can see the animals, because the barriers are either lower, with clearances, or there are benches on which you can sit and quietly admire the animals. What’s more, there’s also none of that typical putting children up on railings, sticking their hands through holes or banging on windows to get the animals’ attention. Respect for animals prevails here.

The place can even be called more of a park. Everywhere is green, peaceful and clean (although the latter is not hard to find throughout Singapore). It is a walk among greenery, and you may see animals in places. There is no inserted cage next to the cage and nesting animals inside. The animals have a lot of space, but they also have shelter. You can see that the enclosures are clean and the animals are well cared for. Seriously. And yes, we realize that this is not the natural environment for most of them.

The garden places considerable emphasis on education, especially for the youngest – various installations, games and activities are prepared to teach about the world and nature around us. Children can explore, discover and learn a lot about the animals found here. Then again, so do the adults!

One of the places that impressed us the most was where the animal was missing! This is about a polar bear enclosure named Inuka – he was born at the Singapore Zoo, the only polar bear to be born in a tropical climate ^[source]. He died a few days before our departure to Singapore. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding his life, with many organizations accusing the zoo of failing to adapt the enclosure to natural conditions (let’s not kid ourselves, any natural conditions are hard to come by in a zoo, much less an Arctic one). Unfortunately, deteriorating health led to the decision to put the teddy bear to sleep on 25.04.2018. It should be mentioned, however, that Inuka has lived more than 27 years, 10 years more than the average of polar bears living in the wild.

It is now a bear memorial, and visitors can write a few words on a prepared plaque and cards.

The zoo has restaurants (including fast food), picnic areas and playgrounds.

With children, we especially recommend going to Rainforest Kidzworld, which has a great water playground for the little ones. That’s why it’s always a good idea to have swim diapers or a bathing suit with you in Singapore – we’ve encountered similar ones many times in other places in Singapore. Fun ahead, everyone leaves wet, chilled and happy :)

So what do we regret?

We regret one thing: we wish we had spent more time here! Being on the zoo grounds, we were already a bit tired and did not have the strength to see everything and actively participate in everything. The hot weather is also not conducive to spending all day outside, and we increasingly sought out an air-conditioned restaurant or cafe to relax.

We would love to return for another day. Or two. With the older Olive :) Although even less than two years old had a lot of fun and play here.

Read more about Singapore and what to see in our post Singapore – TOP 9 places you must see!

We also recommend you our gallery of all photos from the Singapore Zoo:

Zobacz galerię wszystkich zdjęć z ZOO w Singapurze >>>

>> We also recommend our post about
Orientarium Zoo Lodz
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