Coast-To-Coast Trail: Detailed Hiking Guide From Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park to Botanic Gardens

The third installment of the 36-km Coast-to-Coast trail in Singapore brings us from Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park (CP5) to Botanic Gardens (CP4 Adams Road). The entire C2C trail runs from the west of Singapore to north of the country and instead of braving the trail in a single day, we broke up the C2C trail into five 2-3 hour sections:

1. CP10 Rower’s Bay Park to CP7 Sengkang Floating Wetland
2. CP7 Sengkang Floating Wetland to CP5 Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park
3. CP5 Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park to CP4 Adam Road
4. CP4 Adam Road to CP1 Jurong Lake Gardens
5. CP9 Coney Island to CP7 Sengkang Floating Wetland (Guide coming soon)

The trail between Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park and Botanic Gardens is largely unsheltered so remember to apply sunblock, wear a cap, and stock up on water before you set off.

Detailed directions between Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park and Botanic Gardens

Starting from Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, walk along Marymount Road towards MacRitchie Reservoir. The official C2C trail will instruct you to walk around the perimeter of the reservoir but we think it’s better to cut through the reservoir for better scenery and shelter. After you exit from the reservoir, walk along Lornie Road > Kheam Hock Road > Adam Road to reach Botanic Gardens.

How to get to Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park

The park is between Bishan and Ang Mo Kio stations and these buses – 50, 53, 55, 58, 71, and 262 – will get you to the park from Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange or Bishan MRT Station. Alternatively, you can choose to start from Ang Mo Kio station where you can walk along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 and turn left into Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 down to Marymount Road. Or you could just skip Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park and start at Marymount station instead; the station is along Marymount Road.

Once Bright Hill station is in operation, it will also be one of the nearest MRT stations to the park.

The park itself is beautiful (and underrated imo) and worth some time to explore. My favorite areas will be the willow trees around the man-made lake, the pristine creek near Eunoia JC, and the bridges that extend towards the HDB flats.

Walking along Marymount Road

Look out for Marymount Community Centre to make sure you’re walking in the right direction. This is a straight road where you will pass by a lot of housing estates. If the heat gets too unbearable, you can weave across the void decks and shelters to get away from the sun. Keep to the right side of the roads at this point.

It will be about 1.8KM from the park to your next marker – Bishan Fire Station and should take you slightly less than 30 minutes at a leisurely pace.

Turning in to MacRitchie Reservoir

Just a short distance past Bishan Fire Station, you will spot a tunnel to your right. On the map, this would be somewhere around St. Theresa’s Home.

After crossing the tunnel, you will reach the entrance of the MacRitchie Reservoir.

MacRitchie Reservoir

Instead of walking along the roads as suggested in the official C2C trail, we decided to cut across the MacRitchie area.

The easiest way would be to keep to the left side of the waters and walk towards the zig-zag bridge before exiting to Lornie Road. This will take you about 15 to 20 minutes (1+km). If you like, you could also spend more time exploring the reservoir by doing one of trails that weave into the forested areas.

Walking along Lornie Road

This is one of the more boring parts of the trail. It’s a newly built park connector that doesn’t quite have much greenery so the entire stretch is pretty exposed. And there’re just rows of older houses opposite. From the map, it seems like it’s possible to take Lornie Trail within the reservoir too but I’m not too sure if you can exit to the park connector from the end of the trail. Will find a chance to test this out.

This stretch is about 1.6km, 20-25 minutes at a leisurely pace.

Adam Road & Lornie Highway intersection

At this point, you will meet the intersection of Lornie Road, Adam Road, and Lornie Highway. Turn left into Lornie Highway and take the overhead bridge to get to Kheam Hock Road. It might seem confusing here but the signs on the roads are sufficient and clear so just follow them religiously.

As you get onto Kheam Hock Road, you will pass by an old Chinese cemetery before emerging out to a private housing estate.

The signs get slightly confusing here because we passed by Kheam Hock Park but later saw another sign telling us that we were reaching. Decided to ignore that.

Getting to Botanic Gardens

According to the actual trail, we were to turn right upon reaching Kheam Hock Park then turn left again onto Adam Road. But somehow we got a bit lost and decided to just whip out our Google maps instead. Looking at the map, cutting through the private estates would get us to Botanic Gardens too and that’s what we did. It took us about 15 mins (1km) along University Road to emerge on Dunearn Road, which is on the opposite side of Botanic Gardens. You could also take Jln Bahasa or Kheam Hock Road so if you find yourselves on those, just keep walking along the road until you hit Dunearn.

Botanic Gardens

Finally at our destination after crossing the road – Botanic Gardens! Inscribed in 2015 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 82-hectare garden is one of the first tropical gardens in the world and offers beautiful, verdant landscapes. Definitely worth taking some time to walk around the gardens if you haven’t!

Botanic Gardens is also very accessible, with a dedicated train station right next to it.

What’s next?

If you decide to stop here, you can have your meal within the gardens which has a couple of restaurants, or at Cluny Court, a small shopping mall near the gardens. There are several cafes and restaurants in Cluny Court, including SPRMRKT and Relish. I like to pick up a loaf or two from Simply Bread which sells house-made sourdough bread and other bakes.

If you fancy this too short a trail, you can continue on to the next stop – Bukit Batok Nature Park.

If you prefer trails with lots of nature or more things to look at, check out Marang Trail which brings you through Mt Faber and Southern Ridges, or the scenic hike around the Marina Bay area.