The best indoor activities for Singapore’s hazy season
The cinemas might be full of Resident Evil, but step outside, and it’s giving Silent Hill. NEA's forecasts this week have the 24-hour PSI swinging between moderate and unhealthy, with smoke from fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan drifting over on the easterly winds. Which means the beach day is off, the park run is off, and everyone in the group chat is asking the same question. So… what do we do now?
Plenty, it turns out. I've pulled together some indoor activities in Singapore that are good enough to keep you, your little ones, your boo, or your gang occupied till clearer days 🌞
Indoor activities in Singapore for families with kids
01. Singapore Oceanarium
If you haven't been since the days S.E.A. Aquarium, you're in for a surprise. The Singapore Oceanarium reopened in July 2025 at roughly three times its old size, and now consists of 22 zones spread across six themed areas, home to over 100,000 animals.
The jellyfish room is where my nephew planted himself for a solid 15 minutes. Thousands of sea jellies drift around one of the world's largest kreisel tanks, and the lighting makes the whole room feel like you’re right there with them. Ancient Waters, with its life-sized animatronic prehistoric sea creatures, is the other crowd-pleaser, and Pier Adventure gives climbing-mad kids a suspended net walkway to scramble across. Till 1 Nov 2026, there’s also Into the Glowcean, a Halloween event with glowing glass sea-life sculptures and a Skeleton Dive Feed.
📍 Address: Singapore Oceanarium, 24 Sentosa Gateway, Sentosa Island, Singapore 098137
⏰ Opening hours: 10am – 8pm daily, with early closures on selected dates
🌐 Website: singaporeoceanarium.com
02. Science Centre Singapore and KidsSTOP
Yes, it's still open. The Science Centre is moving to a new home at Jurong Lake District around the end of 2027, but the Jurong East site we all know and love is still running till then, so there's still time for one more visit to the site of countless school excursions.
If you’ve got kids aged 8 and under who’re just a little too precocious to learn about electrical conductivity just yet, you’ll be pleased to learn about the adjacent KidsSTOP. Over 20 exhibits await, including a 9m Big Dream Climber structure, a Dino Pit, and a pretend supermarket where toddlers can get very serious about grocery shopping. Older kids can head to ONE Ocean, an immersive ocean exhibition running until 3 Jan 2027, or catch a show at the Omni-Theatre dome.
📍 Address: Science Centre Singapore, 15 Science Centre Road, Singapore 609081
⏰ Opening hours: Tue to Sun, 10am – 5pm, last entry 4.15pm | Closed on Mondays, except PH and school holidays
📞 Contact: 6425 2500
🌐 Website: science.edu.sg
03. BOUNCE Singapore
Nine storeys up in Orchard Cineleisure, there's an entire floor of trampolines, and it's the quickest way I know to tire out a kid who's been cooped up all week. The same nephew from the Oceanarium spent most of our first hour on the Big Bag, climbing the platform and flinging himself into the giant airbag again and again until he could barely walk to the lift.
Free Jump Arena is the main wall-to-wall bouncing zone, and around it you'll find Slam Dunk basketball hoops, a Dodgeball court, and The Wall for climbing. Older kids and teens can tackle X-Park, a ninja-style course with a warped wall at the end. It's included in general admission, but you'll need to be at least 125cm tall and wearing laced sports shoes.
General admission for anyone over 110cm is $27.20 for the first hour and $22 for the second, and little ones aged four and under jump from 19.Gripsocksarecompulsory(3.20, and they're yours to keep), and everyone needs to sign the online waiver before you arrive. If your teens would rather go with their friends, the weekday Sundown Sessions from 6pm are $19.90 an hour.
📍 Address: Orchard Cineleisure, 8 Grange Road, #09-01, Singapore 239695
⏰ Opening hours: Mon to Thu, 10am – 8pm | Fri, 10am – 9pm | Sat and PH, 9am – 9pm | Sun, 9am – 8pm
📞 Contact: 6816 2879
🌐 Website: bounceinc.com.sg
04. Canopy Park at Jewel Changi Airport
On a hazy day, Jewel is the closest you'll get to a nature walk. It's a giant glass dome full of trees and waterfalls, and the only mist in there comes off the Rain Vortex.
No, that’s not the haze. That’s the mist coming off the Rain Vortex. Basic entry at Jewel’s Canopy Park gets you the Discovery Slides, the Foggy Bowls (shallow mist-filled bowls that kids run in and out of shrieking), the Petal Garden, and the Topiary Walk. The Hedge Maze, Mirror Maze, bouncing and walking nets, and the glass-floored Canopy Bridge cost extra, so be sure you know what bundle you’re getting before you get there!
📍 Address: Jewel Changi Airport, 78 Airport Boulevard, Singapore 819666
⏰ Opening hours (Canopy Park): Mon to Thu, 10am – 9pm | Fri to Sun, eve of PH and PH, 10am – 10pm
📞 Contact: 6956 9898
🌐 Website: jewelchangiairport.com
Indoor date ideas for couples
Dinner and a movie works fine, but a few hazy weekends in a row will have you wanting something with more to talk about afterwards.
05. Flower Dome and Cloud Forest at Gardens by the Bay
Turns out, there are still ways to get some fresh air at this time of year. You probably know about the Gardens by now, but now's a better time than ever to pay the domes a visit. The Cloud Forest stays at a cool 23 to 25°C and wraps a winding walkway around a 35m indoor waterfall. Time your visit for one of the misting sessions (every two hours from 10am to 8pm) and the whole mountain disappears into fog for a few minutes. It's properly romantic, even if half the room is filming it.
At the time of writing, the Cloud Forest is also hosting Jurassic World: The Experience, with life-sized animatronic dinosaurs lurking among the ferns. Next door, the Flower Dome is between floral displays right now. Sunflower Surprise opens on 9 Oct and runs to 9 Nov 2026, with over 5,000 sunflowers in a Portugal-themed setting complete with a lighthouse replica and hand-painted tiles.
📍 Address: Gardens by the Bay, 18 Marina Gardens Drive, Singapore 018953
⏰ Opening hours: 9am – 9pm daily, last admission 8.30pm (Flower Dome) and 8pm (Cloud Forest)
🌐 Website: gardensbythebay.com.sg
06. ArtScience Museum
Into the Ocean: Journey Beneath runs until 1 Nov 2026, and it takes you down through the ocean's layers, from sunlit shallows to the pitch-black depths nearly 11,000m down. It's built around rare submersible footage from OceanX, and there's a submersible-piloting game that got a little competitive between the two of us.
Then there's Future World, teamLab's permanent exhibition, which I've now been to four times without getting bored of it. Crystal Universe, with its thousands of hanging LED lights, is the room everyone wants a photo in. Go on a weekday afternoon and you might get a few quiet seconds in there to yourselves.
📍 Address: ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands, 6 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018974
⏰ Opening hours: 9am – 6pm daily, last entry 5pm
🌐 Website: marinabaysands.com/museum
07. ARUDIO Ceramic Studio
Nobody’s born good at pottery, but thankfully all you need to have fun with it are 2 hands.
ARUDIO has been running since 2014, and its Macpherson studio offers a $70 per person trial class of up to three hours. On the wheel-throwing trial, you each make two pieces, and the studio glazes and fires them for you to collect afterwards. My first bowl came out looking more like an ashtray, and I still use it every day for fruit. There's also a hand-building option if the wheel sounds intimidating, and a themed workshop where you can hand-paint your own kopi-style cup.
📍 Address: LTC Building C, 14 Arumugam Road, #08-07, Singapore 409959
⏰ Opening hours: By appointment
📞 Contact: 8838 9256
🌐 Website: arudioceramic.com
08. Filmhouse
Filmhouse moved into The Projector's old space at Golden Mile Tower in February 2026. A lot of the staff are still here from the old days too, so if you miss that place, this will feel familiar, right down to the underground charm.
If you really want to max out the romantic vibes, be sure to book a screening in the Redrum hall ahead of time so you can secure a beanbag seat. Just be sure to pick a film that won’t end your relationship prospects. Don’t find this out the hard way: Salo is NOT a first date film.
📍 Address: Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road, #05-00, Singapore 199589
⏰ Opening hours: Tue to Fri, 4pm – 8.30pm | Sat, Sun and PH, 1pm – 8.30pm | Closed on Mondays
🌐 Website: filmhouse.sg
Indoor activities for friends
09. boulder+ at Aperia Mall
Bouldering is like rock climbing, but without ropes, on short walls, and over thick mats, and it's some serious fun. You climb, you fall off, your friends shout advice they can't follow themselves, and then it's their turn.
The Aperia gym has big overhangs, slab walls, and one of the widest spreads of holds in Singapore, so there's something for first-timers and the friend who secretly trains twice a week.
Pro tip: Fill in the online waiver before you arrive so you're not doing it at the counter while everyone waits.
📍 Address: Aperia Mall, 12 Kallang Avenue, #03-17, Singapore 339511
⏰ Opening hours: Mon, 5pm – 10.30pm | Tue to Fri, 9am – 10.30pm | Sat, Sun and PH, 9am – 9pm
📞 Contact: 6282 7530
🌐 Website: boulderplusclimbing.com
10. Elixir Esports
If your idea of a LAN shop is a dim room with sticky keyboards and a perpetual cloud of cigarette smoke, Elixir will surprise you. This Holland Village esports cafe is
It's China's biggest internet café chain, with about 1,000 outlets worldwide, and the Singapore shops are bright, clean, and built for groups.
The Beauty World outlet is on the second floor of a shophouse along Cheong Chin Nam Road, a short walk from Beauty World MRT. Alongside the rows of gaming PCs, there are consoles, pool tables, and a darts corner, plus a counter doing handmade drinks and snacks, so the friend who doesn't game still has something to do. Rates start from around $2.70 an hour. Five of us went in "for an hour" at 10pm and walked out just after 2am. At least I finally hit diamond in Rivals 🙃
📍 Address: 17B Lorong Liput, Singapore 277747
⏰ Opening hours: 24 hours daily
🌐 Website: https://www.elixiresports.com/
11. INMERS Play
Remember playing the floor is lava on the sofa cushions as a kid? At INMERS, the floor is an actual LED grid that lights up under your feet, and it's a lot harder than the living room version.
For something bigger, INMERS also runs 5D escape rooms with live actors at its ORTO outlet on West Coast Highway (#02-10). The Break Through The Soil scenario in particular is a fully immersive, NPC-led experience that’s more akin to living out a full horror movie (plot twists and all) than a traditional escape room.
📍 Address: City Square Mall, 180 Kitchener Road, #05-04, Singapore 208539
⏰ Opening hours: 11am – 9pm daily
📞 Contact: 9132 8088
🌐 Website: inmersplay.com
12. AltitudeX Sentosa
Remember iFly Singapore? In late 2025, it got rebranded as AltitudeX, but it’s just as thrilling as ever. Every package includes your flight gear and a training briefing, and you'll spend about 90 minutes at the venue in total. The first few seconds of floating feel completely unnatural, and then suddenly you're grinning so hard your cheeks flap in the wind. First-timers can fly from age seven, so this doubles as a family option if your friends are too feeble-bellied for the skies.
📍 Address: AltitudeX, 43 Siloso Beach Walk, #01-01, Singapore 099010
⏰ Opening hours: Mon to Fri, 11am – 9pm | Sat, Sun and PH, 10am – 9pm
🌐 Website: altitudex.com/sg
Before you head out on a hazy day
When the PSI is up, a bit of planning keeps your time outdoors short.
- Check the latest readings on NEA's haze updates before you leave. The 1-hour PM2.5 reading is the one to watch for what's happening right now.
- At unhealthy PSI levels, NEA advises cutting back on prolonged or strenuous outdoor activity, so plan walks between venues around that.
- In the car, keep the windows up and switch the air-con to recirculation mode so you're not pulling haze in from outside.
- Park in basement or sheltered carparks where you can, to cut down the time spent outdoors.
Driving helps a lot here. Book a car near you, park right under the mall, and you can go from your doorstep to Canopy Park or the bowling lanes with barely a breath of outside air. If you're planning to hop between two or three of these in a day, a full-day booking makes it even easier.
Keep an eye on the readings, pick a spot from the list, and save the park run for a clearer weekend.
See you on the road, Amanda 💙
(Featured photo adapted from: INMERS Singapore, Science Centre Singapore, Elixir Esports, Arudio Ceramic)
