We’ve all heard about the atas Mandai Rainforest Resort by now, but if you’re looking for a less pricey, slightly more rugged experience staying overnight at Mandai Wildlife Reserve, then Colugo Camp is the perfect alternative for you.
This campsite stay is your rare chance to camp overnight near the zoo, and comes with a jam-packed itinerary including visits to Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, and River Wonders. Here’s everything that went down during our 2D1N stay.
Colugo Camp is located at Mandai Wildlife East. If you’re planning to take public transport, we suggest hopping on the Mandai Khatib Shuttle from Khatib MRT. Each trip costs $2.50, with buses arriving at 15-minute intervals.
Colugo Camp has 3 packages for different group sizes: $550/night for 2 campers, $700/night for 3 campers, and $800/night for 4. Meals, zoo passes, and guided tours are all-inclusive across all packages.
You’ll be able to check into Colugo Camp at 3pm, and check out at 11am the next day. If you’re planning to explore the zoo past 11am on day 2, we suggest opting for an early check-out before leaving the campgrounds in the morning. Don’t worry about having to drag your luggage around – you’re free to leave your bags at the reception till the afternoon.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of each day’s itinerary, here’s a rough overview of what to expect at the campsite.
In case you were wondering, there are a total of 20 tents at Colugo Camp, all boasting gorgeous views of the reservoir.
Each 4m x 4m tent can fit up to 4 pax, and comes with a queen-sized bed, bunk bed, sofa, mini dresser, portable aircon, and 2 animal plushies to take home.
They’ve all got small patios attached, which are perfect for catching sunrise and sunset views.
Don’t worry about security either; campers are provided with a padlock to close up tents whenever they’re not in use.
The dining hall at Colugo Camp.
As far as campsite amenities, there’s a dining hall, where guests will take their dinner and breakfast, as well as a shared toilet with shower facilities.
You’re probably most curious about the cleanliness of the toilets here, and what toiletries are provided. We’ll cut to the chase – towels, shower gel, conditioning shampoo, and a hairdryer will be available on-site, but you’ll have to pack things like facial wash and a toothbrush.
In terms of cleanliness, we found the toilets clean and new, with enough shower stalls to ensure we didn’t have to wait in line to take our baths.
While individual toiletries aren’t given for conservation purposes, each stall had pumps for shampoo and shower gel, plus a small ledge to place your own toiletries.
Now, onto another pressing detail – the location of these toilets. This is especially important, considering you might have to pay them a visit in the middle of the night.
Thankfully, they’re located right next to the reception area, right in the middle of the campsite. As a rough gauge, that’s about a maximum 2-minute walk from whichever tent you’re situated in, though depending on where you’re placed, you might have to climb a short flight of stairs to get to them.
As mentioned, aside from the basic shower gel and shampoo that’s provided, you’ll have to pack any additional toiletries you’ll need.
Other things to add to your packing list include a fresh set of clothes for day 2, pyjamas for nighttime wear, and slippers to wear to the toilet. As you’ll be out and about in 3 different parks, do bring along a small bag to carry around, with essentials like insect repellent, sunscreen, and a cap for sun protection. In case of rain, don’t forget to bring an umbrella and poncho along as well.
While your day at Colugo Camp only begins at 3pm after check-in, trust us – you’re gonna be pretty tired by the end of the night. We decided to follow the campsite itinerary with the rest of the campsite guests, but if you’d like to opt out, be sure to inform the staff beforehand.
Day 1’s itinerary is jam-packed; beginning with a trip to Singapore Zoo, then dinner, a visit to the Night Safari, and finally, concluding with a yummy supper.
We recommend arriving at the campsite on time at 3pm, as you’ll be asked to gather at around 3.45pm to head down to the zoo. Thus, after sipping on our welcome drinks – a refreshing lime juice – we quickly dumped our stuff in our tent, locked up, and headed off to join the rest of the campers.
Campsite staff walked us to Singapore Zoo, and left us to explore it free-and-easy. You’ll get to manage your own time here, but keep in mind that dinner starts at 6.30pm, and you’ll have to gather to go to the Night Safari by 7.45pm.
If you haven’t been to the zoo in ages like us, you’ll probably want to set aside more time to explore it, even if that means scarfing down dinner a little faster later.
We spent about 2.5 hours here in total, and some of our favourite attractions included Wild Africa, where we spotted lions, zebras, and giraffes; Orangutan Island, the world’s first free-roaming orangutan exhibit; and KidzWorld, which had adorable pups and rabbits you could get up close and personal with.
Are these Ah Meng’s descendants?
We hadn’t managed to explore the entirety of the zoo, but decided to head back at around 6.30pm to catch the sunset from our tent.
The view from our patio!
Image credit: Aditi Kashyap
We then made our way to our dinner buffet at the dining hall, which included a satisfying spread of food like seafood fried rice, grilled chicken teriyaki, sweet and sour fish, vegetarian impossible meatballs, and mee goreng.
We particularly enjoyed the mee goreng and fish, and returned for seconds to fuel up for the long night ahead. If you have time for dessert, there are also sweet treats like mini cream puffs and fruit platters to end off your meal on a sweet note.
After stuffing our faces with multiple servings of our dinner, we gathered with our fellow campers to adjourn to Night Safari.
Creatures of the Night Show.
Image adapted from: Mandai Wildlife Reserve
At Night Safari, we had the option of exploring the park free-and-easy, or following along on a group tour specially for campsite guests. We picked the latter, and kicked off our visit with back-to-back showcases of the zoo’s famous fire performance, and its popular Creatures of the Night Show.
As part of the Colugo Camp tour group, you’ll even enjoy a view from the reserved seats at the front 2 rows, right in the middle of the amphitheatre.
Image adapted from: Mandai Wildlife Reserve
The rest of our tour was conducted via a relaxing tram ride through the park, where our tour guide showed us everything from flamingos to deer and white tigers. We even spotted Chawang, Night Safari’s most famous bull elephant and poster boy.
Back to the dining hall for supper!
After the guided portion of our tour, we were given the option to either venture out to the walking trails on our own, or return to Colugo Camp for supper. Exhausted from a day’s worth of exploration, we decided to head back for our late-night snack, which consisted of our choice of either a chicken ham or egg sandwich, and a can of Milo.
Day 2 began bright and early – all 4 of us got up at 7am to settle any last minute packing and prepare for breakfast at 8am.
Like dinner, breakfast was quite a hearty spread, with both Western and Asian offerings like scrambled eggs and bacon, as well as nasi lemak and fried bee hoon. We paired ours with a refreshing cup of apple juice, but if you’re a coffee drinker, we suggest trying their specialty wildlife-friendly Owa Coffee.
After brekkie, we gathered at 9.10am for our final activity: a visit to River Wonders. While this guided tour would end in time for us to check-out at 11am, we suggest opting for an early check-out if you’re keen on catching the Once Upon A River show at 11.30am.
During our River Wonders tour, we got to see all sorts of land and sea animals from the world’s most iconic rivers, including the Mississippi, Nile, Amazon, and Mekong River.
Jia Jia enjoying her morning breakfast.
Then, towards the end, we visited the Pavilion Capital Giant Panda Forest, where our beloved pandas, Jia Jia and Kai Kai, reside. We caught them just in time for their breakfast, so the duo were busy ripping their bamboo shoots to shreds.
Image credit: Gwyn Lim
As mentioned, we later stayed on for the Once Upon A River show, which we highly recommend catching before you head home. During this show, we saw everything from parrots, to pelicans, snakes, otters, and even a capybara.
The showcase ended at around noontime, just in time for us to make our way back to camp, collect our bags, and head home.
As someone who admittedly isn’t the biggest fan of camping in the great outdoors, Colugo Camp gets my stamp of approval for being equal parts comfy, clean, and green. It’s also educational and kid-friendly – trust us, the majority of our fellow campers came with their little ones – and with enough activities to justify its price tag.
TLDR; we’d definitely recommend this glamping experience for outdoorsy campers who want to explore the Mandai zoos. If you’re looking for a super chill, R&R type of camping experience, however, we’d suggest opting out of the guided tour and exploring the parks free-and-easy instead.
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Photography by Charlene Lee.
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