From the moment you arrive in Singapore Sentosa with kids, to the moment they turn 21, they will ask you “can we come back here again?”.
Sentosa is the fun centre of Singapore, home to Universal Studios, Adventure Cove waterpark, the SEA Aquarium, Virtual Reality Experiences, Treetops adventures, beach bars and SO MUCH MORE.
If you are coming to Singapore with kids for the first time, you should stay on Sentosa Island. The island entry fee is included in the price of your hotel stay and it just makes life so much easier. Trust us, you will spend a lot of your time in Singapore here.
We stayed at the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa. This beachfront hotel has everything families could ever want or need. It even has a baby breakfast bar with baby food and bottle sterilisers. Inside the rooms, you will find potties, kids non-slip bath mats, colouring pencils and paper.
Our room opened up onto a patio near the pool. The moment we opened the sliding patio door, we met the locals – a gorgeous peacock and her three babies. The kids could not believe their eyes. “This place is paradise,” my daughter squealed.
The Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa pool is HUGE and has a water basketball hoop that tweens will love. Our daughter spent hours on the hotel waterslides and splash park and both kids loved the poolside night-time movies (so did we because it gave us a little break).
As good as the hotel is, you have to see the rest of Sentosa. The free Sentosa Shuttle bus loops past most of the Sentosa hotels connecting them with Universal Studios, the Sentosa cable car and the bus terminal. From the bus terminal, you can take a trolley car to the beach bars along the waterfront. Catch the cable car to the mainland if you want to go shopping at Vivo City or head to the incredible Singapore Zoo.
The best things to do in Singapore Sentosa With Kids
Universal Studios
Singapore’s Universal Studios theme park is a huge hit with my kids. To make the most of it, get there as soon as it opens at 10am. The Express Pass is worth the money. Don’t even debate it. Pay the extra. You can use it to skip the line once on every ride (with the exception of the Canopy Flier). In the humid Singapore heat with little kids, that is a huge bonus. Plus, they feel like VIPs and that’s super special. If you want to ride the Canopy Flier – head straight for it at 10am because the line will only get longer as the day progresses.
The rides:
We started our day with the easy Madagascar: A Crate Adventure ride. The four of us hopped into a floating boat and rode past animatronic versions Gloria, Melman, Alex and Marty towards the scary Mafusa. Both my kids jumped out at the end and said: “awesome, what’s next”.
Transformers the Ride: The ultimate 3D battle is a dark ride both my kids wanted to ride multiple times. We jumped into a Transformers Car, popped on our 3D glasses and sped off with Optimus Prime and the Autobots to battle against the Decepticons. The car falls from the top of a building and it feels like we’re falling with it. I look over at my daughter, expecting to see her scared, and she’s grinning from ear to ear, absolutely loving it.
The Accelerator is a bright-yellow sci-fi, high-speed version of a teacup ride. Both my tweens love it. It swirls around the track throwing you around. The kids both laughed like crazy as they waved to their dad who refused to come on.
Shrek 4D is housed inside Shrek’s castle. This 4D cinema experience starts in a dark room with some spooky guests. This can frighten really little ones, but once you make it to the actual cinema it’s totally fine.
If you have a really big thrill-seeker in your family, you will want to try the Battlestar Galactica Human Versus Cyclon ride. This duelling, intertwined, rollercoaster dominates Sci-fi City. As you enter, you must choose whether you want to be human or cyclon. Expect to twist, turn and drop as scream your way all the way to the end. Check out just how freaky this ride is below:
Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure is the ride to take if you’re feeling the heat. Pop your gear into one of the lockers outside. They only cost $2 and will save your valuables from getting soaked.
This ride lulls you into a false sense of security as the gates of Jurassic Park open and you can see lovely, plant-eating dinosaurs roaming the river bank. Then an alarm sounds and you head into the danger zone. Jurassic Park is a little scary at the end and comes with a huge drop in a dark tunnel. But my kids whooped with joy when they got off and they are still asking to ride it again.
Little kids will also find loads to love at Universal Studios with merry-go-rounds, character meet-and-greets and Seasame Street adventure rides. And no-one can resist a cookie from Cookie Monster. Nom Nom Nom.
Adventure Cove Waterpark
This is the best waterpark in Singapore hands down, shut the gate. Our top tip for a day at Adventure Cove is to book a cabana for $68. It means you have a nice shady spot to securely store all your gear and to take a break from the heat when you need it. To get to all the rides – you just walk over and hop into the lazy river. You can walk, but why would you?
At Rainbow Reef, you can pop on a snorkel and flippers and swim with tropical fish. Keep a lookout for the sunken treasure chest below.
Splashworks is a huge hit with tweens and teens. It’s like a ninja course on water and it starts with a big leap from a pilon into the pool. Once inside Splashworks, you can climb over rope bridges and attempt to walk the slackline and the balance beam over the water. The hardest challenge is the cargo net climb, if you can make it to the end, you get to ring a bell in celebration. None of us made it, but we had fun failing.
The Riptide Rocket was my kids’ favourite waterslide at Adventure cove. This two-person side is Southeast Asia’s first hydro magnetic coaster. Once you’re seated, with the largest person at the front, the waterslide pulls you to the top and launches you back down through loops, up sections and down sections. You will be surprised by how fast the up sections go.
We also loved the Duelling Racer which pits two sliders against each other in a timed race to the bottom.
The Pipeline Plunge and the Tidal Twister are the most popular sides. They twist and turn through tunnels at speed. But you need to be 122cm to ride, and they will check. Sadly, my vertically challenged daughter was 2cm too short and looked on in envy as I rode this one with my son.
Little ones will love Big Bucket Treehouse, a water play park with cargo nets, small slides, spray guns and tunnels. Blue Water Bay Wave Pool is fun but be warned – those waves are fierce. You’ll need to hold onto little ones.
According to my kids, Adventure Cove is an absolute must-do for anyone visiting Singapore Sentosa with kids.
S.E.A Aquarium Singapore
The Singapore Aquarium is massive. This is probably a half-day experience and a neat excursion for a hot day.
Inside you will find 100,000 marine animals from more than 1,000 species, across 50 different habitats. That’s a lot of fish and sea creatures. If you’re heading to Singapore Sentosa with kids – this is one place you need to see.
My favourite section was the jellyfish tanks. I sat mesmerised watching them float and bloat in the colour-changing aquarium lighting.
The kids loved the massive tank – and that’s a great place to bust out some snacks and rest their little legs.
One really cool thing to look into is the S.E.A Aquarium special experiences. You can sleepover in the aquarium, take a VIP Tour (great for kids who love facts), descend into the shark tank or learn to scuba dive.
Sentosa Mega Adventure Park
This is the place to burn off some serious energy.
The Singapore Sentosa Mega Adventure Park has zip lines, treetops ropes courses, mega-bounce trampolines and a parachute simulator called MegaJump.
The zip line here really is thrilling. It descends at speeds up to 60Kph, as fast as the average horizontal speed of an eagle. You’ll land on the beachfront at Sentosa. If you’re not brave enough to do it, it’s totally worth watching others try.
To ride the Mega-zip, kids must be at least 90cm accompanied by a responsible companion of at least 1.5m. To ride solo, you will need to be at least 1.2m tall and more than 30kg.
AJ Hacket Sentosa
Singapore’s only Bungy tower stands at nearly 50m high. AJ Hacket is for serious thrill-seekers. You can choose to leap, dive or scream your way over the edge. To do it, you must be at least 120cm tall and more than 40kg.
AJ Hacket also has a bungy swing which can take up to three people at once. Check out the AJ Hacket prices here.
Fort Siloso Skywalk
Like heights but don’t want to jump from them? Try a free walk across the Fort Siloso Skywalk instead of the bungy jump.
The Skywalk trail provides guests with a scenic treetop trek on the way to Fort Siloso. It is 11-stories high and spans 181 meters.
Siloso Beach
Singapore Sentosa’s Silosa Beach is dotted with great restaurants and beach bars. This is the place to chill and have dinner after a long day at the theme parks. Or, if you have time, you could spend a whole day here. Families can hire kayaks to paddle around the islands, try cycling, rollerblading or skimboarding.
Several of the beach bars have swimming pools or water splash pads so the kids will love their time here too.
Close to the Shangri-La Rasa, on Siloso Beach, you’ll find Nestopia – a huge kids’ playground with rope climbs, slides and tunnels.
Singapore Sentosa Island really is incredible fun for families. We have visited Singapore three times and we still haven’t managed to tick off all the family-friendly attractions this island has to offer. No wonder Singapore keeps telling people this city needs more than just a stopover.
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