An Evening at the Night Safari, Singapore

Did you know the last Tiger in Singapore was shot in 1930?

Our first day we arrived, we slept that afternoon after being in airports and planes all day (2 hour flight is exhausting!) and then caught the monorail to Vivo City – a large shopping centre. From there we got a train to Swiss Merchant hotel in the city and awaited the Safari bus to take us to the Night Safari. While the monorail is free if you stay in the resorts on Sentosa, the train and bus, etc. cost us nearly the same amount as taking a taxi home. As you can imagine 10pm at night we decided to skip the bus, train, monorail antics and grabbed a taxi straight to the hotel. It cost just under $20, I think the train, etc. was $15.

We had the pleasure of meeting the Flashpacker Family at the Night Safari. Bethaney, Lee and little Reuben were friendly New Zealander’s who have travelled extensively. Reuben was full of beans and loved to shout right after the Safari Guide told everyone to be as quiet as possible haha. His favourite part of the night had to be the fire show, however. He didn’t move or speak once. You can check out their blog here.

Anyway once we meet the Flashpackers at the gate we got our entry tickets $30 including safari bus one-way or $32 (plus bus) at the door. Kids under 4 are free, bonus!

We headed straight to the tram, waited in line for some time and then finally jumped on. We had arrived at the opening time 7:30pm and do not recommend you do this. In fact I would have to say I do not recommend this activity for toddlers full stop. As you can see 7:30pm is opening, most shows at 7:30pm and 8:30pm were full so we had to wait to see a 9:30pm show and well, older kids can do that, but toddlers… we have a problem!

Anyway once on the tram things settled down, everyone had a drink, some snacks and the tour of the park began. For the most the park is very dark and slightly terrifying for my sensitive 3 year old, but the moments you do see the animals she absolutely loved.

We opted not to get off at any stop and walk around, considering the toddlers were so sleepy. So we did one lap of the tram and by the time we got back it was 8:30pm. We made our way to a restaurant beside the stage and grabbed some fish and chips ready for the fire show.

I remember last time we were here the fire show was a favourite of ours. And it was again this time. Fire swallowers, spitters, breathers, whatever you want to call them they did not disappoint and neither did there oiled up rock hard abs.

At the end of the show Flashpacker needed to get little Reuben home and so we parted ways, glad to have spent an evening with them.

We decided to make the most of our ticket and crossed over to the Creatures of the Night show starting at 9:30pm. By this time we had one very cranky 2 year old who was only quiet with an iPhone and one tired 3 year old, who was being very brave and well behaved.

The show is one of the highlights of the Night Safari with creatures coming out of everywhere: otters putting trash away, wolves howling, some sloth type creature crawling above your head and some audience member sitting on a great big python.

Finally it was time to head home and the kids were both asleep the moment we sat in the taxi.

The first time I did the night safari was without children and I would highly recommend it, walking around, checking out nocturnal animals is awesome. But with toddlers, I would have to say give this one a miss and head next door in the daytime to the zoo.