Night Safari

One of the famous spots on the Singapore tourist trail is the Night Safari. B and I made it out there while he was here and I was very impressed!

I must confess I really like zoos, but living in a city with a great zoo, I expect a lot. Night safari didn't disappoint and I reccomend it to any Singapore visitor.

The best parts were having a good chat to the otters and the overall open setup of the zoo. There are times when you are right up close to some of the more harmless animals, and only very rarely are you looking at anything through glass.

The not so great parts are the other people visitng the zoo because they can be very noisy and how hard the zoo is to get to, relative to other parts of Singapore.

Here are my tips for a successful Night Safari visit:

• Get in early. We ran out of time. I would have liked to stay a little longer. The zoo opens at 7:30pm and if you're not paying for the taxi into the city, I'd recommend leaving by 10:45pm to get reasonable public transport.


• Walk. Not everything is visible from the train ride and I had the most fun stopping for a while at my favourite animals. But try to escape the crowds by taking the least popular paths or lagging behind the crowd. I think you'll see more.


• Sit up front in the train. The zoo workers don't like you to, but anywhere else on train exposes you to noisy children. Up the back is a risk because you don't see what the commentator is talking about until much later.


• Research the transport options. The zoo and night safari are in the north of Singapore. I was rushing to escape work so we caught a taxi from the financial district via Orchard. This cost SGD$23 (includes booking fee). We caught a shuttle bus back to Orchard Rd, which stops at various hotels for SGD$4 per person. The bus/bus and bus/mrt combinations are cheaper but more difficult and longer - I think you need about 45 minutes travel time.
  
• Skip the show. I thought it was silly.

I bought the combined zoo + night safari ticket, so I hope to update you within a month with my review of the Singapore zoo.