Treetop Walk at MacRitchie

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

HSBC Treetop Walk is a free-standing suspension bridge, which provices a bird eyes' view of the forest located at MacRitchie, which is part of Singapore's Central Catchment Nature Reserve. To reach the bridge, we can follow the MacRitchie walking trails from MacRitchie reservoir or from a carpark along Venus Drive, off Upper Thomson Road. Walking distance from Venus Drive carpark is notably shorter compared to the walking distance from MacRitchie reservoir to the Treetop Walk.

Nevertheless, we still have to be prepared for a long walk. From Venus Drive carpark to the entrance of the Treetop Walk is a good 2.5 km walk along the Treetop trail, passes by the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) and Terentang trail, before reaching the Ranger Station, which is equipped with toilets and drinking water dispenser for us to "recharge". From there, we still need to climb the Bukit Peirce hill, where the entrance to the suspension bridge is located.

HSBC Treetop Walk is opened between 9am and 5pm on Tuesday to Friday, and between 8:30am and 5pm on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. It is closed on Mondays (except public holiday) for maintenance and research. Since it's closed by 5pm, it's advisable to reach the Ranger Station by 4pm.

The view from the suspension bridge is spectacular. Unfortunately, the bridge is quite narrow and it's a one-way traffic flow so we can't spend much time on the bridge, otherwise we will block people behind. And since it's a one-way traffic, we have to move on and follow the Petaling trail to go back to the Ranger Station and further back to the carpark. This is quite a long detour via Petaling Hut and then follow Sime track eastward back to the Ranger Station, adding around 30-45 minutes of journey time.

The total length of the journey from Venus Drive carpark to Treetop Walk and then back to carpark via Petaling hut is more than 7km, which is quite a long walk (about 3 hours walk in total, depends on our walking pace). With some quite difficult terrains found along some of the trails, the walk might not be suitable for very young kids and the elderly.

Note: More pictures can be found here.