Upwall Climbing (Downtown East)

Upwall Climbing has no bouldering at all. Every route here goes to the top of a twelve-metre sport wall on a rope, along a bank of glass windows, so you climb in daylight rather than under strip lights. Fifteen lanes run on TruBlue auto belays, with ten set for top rope and eight for lead, across roughly 2,500 square feet.

Climbing alone works here because so much of that is auto belay — you can turn up without a partner and still get a full session in. Shoes and the rest of the gear rent at the counter. The teaching side is unusually broad for a floor this size, running SNCS certification courses, youth classes, and a climbing programme built for people with additional needs.

Children can start from three, and anyone twelve or under needs an adult with them, capped at three children to one adult — so four kids means two grown-ups, and an adult who is only supervising still buys a ticket. The floor is compact, so a late weekday morning gets you the quietest wall. Book it for a birthday and you get the wall, a party area of your own and a balloon drop to finish. The gym is on the ground floor of E!Hub at Downtown East, about eight minutes’ walk from Pasir Ris MRT.