Coney Island Hike

By Tom · Published Nov. 1st, 2021 · Updated Nov. 28th, 2022

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Explore the coastal forest of Coney Island with pine-like Casuarina trees, sandy beaches and wild boar. This Coney Island hike takes you via the waterways and promenades of Punggol to Coney Island and finishes with a stroll through Punggol Park.

Location

The hike starts just outside Waterway Point Shopping Mall at the Punggol Waterway. You can take the purple MRT line here to Punggol. This is a one-way hike and on the way back you can take the purple MRT line from Hougang back home.

Coney Island Trail Map

Get the route by downloading the .gpx or .kml file below. For navigation with Maps.me on your mobile phone, simply download the .kml file and open to add it to the Maps.me bookmarks.

Punggol Waterway Park

Try and get to Punggol early, as Punggol Waterway Park gets busier during the day. In the morning, as the sun just starts to rise, it creates a beautiful atmosphere along the waterway. You can often see monitor lizards here, and if you’re lucky you can see the otters.

After about two kilometres of walking, cross over Punggol Waterway and head in the direction of Coney Island. After walking along a grassy field for a while, you end up on the Punggol Promenade Nature Walk. Turn left here towards the Serangoon West Dam. This is probably the busiest section, where people line up to take photos with the Coney Island gate and sign. It is not the nicest sign and you can find nicer signs on the island so I’m not sure why.

Coney Island

The west side of Coney Island has a promenade along the coast with big steps leading to the water. There are often quite a few people here enjoying the view and shade, although the view here is of the Johor Pasir harbour in Malaysia and the sea wasn’t particularly clean, with floating rubbish.

This is actually the only busy section on the island, the rest is rather peaceful. Make your way over to Beach Area A through the beautiful coastal forest. The early morning light shines through the pine-like Casuarina trees, making it rather beautiful. Beach A and the subsequent beaches are small but have the vibe of a tropical island far away from civilisation. Across the water, you can see Pulau Ubin.

Further along, walk on a boardwalk towards Beach Area C, where they are trying to recreate a mangrove forest. An estuary diverts some water from the sea into the forest to get the right salt levels for these mangrove plants to prosper. The plants are still a bit small but will surely grow bigger in the coming years.

Watch out for the wild boar! While walking near Beach Area D, a wild boar startled us. It came running out of the bushes, sort of towards us. They are rather fast animals and we had to hide behind a Coney Island sign to avoid the wild boar.

Unfortunately, there are building works on the eastern side of the island, so you have to walk over to the mainland side of the island and go via the Coney Island Park Connector to the Serangoon East Dam. This is currently the only way to get to the dam.

Lorong Halus and Punggol Promenade

Cross over the rather large Serangoon East Dam and follow the Lorong Halus Park Connector along the Sungei Serangoon River. Here you can detour to the Lorong Halus Wetland. While this was a landfill at some point in time, now it is a water bio-treatment system that incorporates plants into the treatment process.

Crossing the Halus Bridge brings you to the Punggol Promenade Riverside Walk, and it’s often busier here than on the other side of the river. This shady promenade is a popular bicycling route and connects to the Sungei Serangoon Park Connector. It is quite pleasant to walk here along the river, except for the view of all the new flats that are being built here, a concrete jungle.

Punggol Park

A right turn onto the Serangoon Park Connector gets you to Punggol Park. This park connector is along a not so nice looking waterway, basically a straight concrete basin and much less nice than the Punggol Waterway at the start of the hike.

There is a pretty lake in the middle of Punggol Park. It is a very popular spot to do your Sunday morning exercises. We made our way across the lake and headed to our final destination: Yi Jia Bakery & Café* for a well-deserved coffee/tea and a pastry.

This bakery is on the bottom floor of an HDB complex alongside some hawker stalls and small shops. Some locals were airing their birds, which were all chirping away, quite an interesting sight. After the break, you can head to the Hougang MRT station and make your way back home.

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Want to hike on another island? Check out the hike on Sentosa. Looking for something with more hills in the jungle? Then the hike at MacRitchie Reservoir may suit you.