What are the best day trips from Singapore?

Bintan is the best couples day trip from Singapore, full stop. The ferry from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal takes about 50 minutes — Bintan Resort Ferries runs four to six sailings daily, SGD 50–70 round trip depending on the day. Book the 8:10am departure and the 5:30pm return so you're not rushing. The Lagoi Bay area on Bintan's north coast has the clearest water within ferry range of Singapore, and the sand is coarser and more golden than anything on Sentosa. You'll smell salt air and frangipani the moment you step off the pier. That said, the resort strip can feel manufactured — the beaches are maintained by the resorts and the best ones charge a day-use fee of around SGD 30–50. For lunch, the open-air seafood warung near the ferry area serve grilled squid and sambal stingray for about SGD 10 a plate — thick sweet chilli smoke drifting across plastic tables while the water laps at the dock pylons. If one of you wants the beach and the other wants a spa treatment at a fraction of Orchard Road prices, Bintan solves that argument before it starts.

Pulau Ubin is the opposite play — 15 minutes by bumboat from Changi Point Ferry Terminal, SGD 4 per person each way, and the boat doesn't leave until it has 12 passengers so you might wait 20 minutes on a quiet Tuesday. The island is what Singapore looked like in the 1960s: gravel paths, rusting zinc roofs, fruit bats hanging in the rain trees. Rent bikes at the jetty for SGD 8–15 and ride the 10 km loop to Chek Jawa, a coastal wetland where you can walk the boardwalk above mangrove roots while mud crabs scuttle below. It's flat, shaded, and cooler under the canopy than you'd expect even when the mainland sits at 32 degrees. The trade-off: there's one food stall cluster at the jetty, the noodles are fine but nothing special, and the toilets beyond the visitor centre are an adventure in themselves. Bring water, bring insect repellent, and go on a weekday — weekends draw cycling groups that turn the narrow paths into a time trial.

The Southern Islands — Kusu and St. John's, specifically — are the day trip nobody takes, which is why they work for two people who want quiet. The ferry leaves Marina South Pier at 10am and loops both islands; SGD 18 round trip. Kusu is tiny. Twenty minutes to walk the whole thing, with a Tua Pek Kong temple on one end and a Malay keramat shrine at the hilltop. St. John's has actual grass, shade trees, a lagoon you can wade in, and almost nobody there midweek. Bring your own food — there's nothing to buy. Mind you, the last ferry back leaves at 3:15pm on weekdays, 5:15pm weekends, so you're on island time whether you planned for it or not. Johor Bahru across the Causeway is the other obvious option — 25 km north, cheapest by Grab to Woodlands Checkpoint then walking through immigration — but the queue can eat 45 minutes to two hours on weekends, and the real payoff for couples is a seafood dinner on Jalan Wong Ah Fook where pepper crab runs about RM 60 for two.

Batam is Bintan's louder, cheaper sibling — 45 minutes by ferry from HarbourFront Terminal, SGD 25–40 round trip on Majestic Fast Ferry or Batam Fast. Nongsa Point on the northeast coast has a few resort pools open for day use, and the seafood restaurants in Nagoya Hill serve pepper crab at roughly a third of East Coast prices — expect about SGD 15 for a dish that would cost SGD 45 in Singapore. The catch: Batam outside the resort pockets feels more like an industrial port than a retreat, and the taxi negotiation at the ferry terminal is tiring if neither of you is in the mood for it. Worth noting for June — this is still the dry season for the Riau Islands, but afternoon squalls roll through most days around 2pm. They pass in 30 minutes and the air afterwards smells of wet concrete and plumeria. Pack a light rain layer and don't cancel plans over a dark sky at noon. Between the two Indonesian islands: Bintan for the beach, Batam for the food and the couples spa deals.