Singapore in April: Afternoon Storms, the Easter Long Weekend, Tulips at the Flower Dome and What to Pack

1. Is April a good time to visit Singapore?

April is a good time to visit if you plan your days around the heat and the afternoon storms. The afternoons are some of the hottest of the year and thundery showers roll in on most days. The mornings, though, are usually bright, and the evenings are pleasant for walking and eating outside.

The month also has a few things you won’t find at other times. The Flower Dome📍Map at Gardens by the Bay📍Map moves from its cherry blossom display to its tulip show. Easter usually brings a long weekend. In mid April, Singapore’s Tamil, Sikh and Malayali communities celebrate their New Year with open houses and free temple meals that visitors can join.

Crowds and room prices sit around the middle of the year. April is quieter and cheaper than December or the Chinese New Year period, and a little dearer than May and June. Inside the month, the Easter long weekend is the stretch that fills up first.

What to expect in April

The rest of this guide goes through each of these in turn: how the weather feels, how to shape your day, what is on, where to eat and what to pack. If you are still choosing between months, our month-by-month guide to the best time to visit Singapore puts April alongside the rest of the year.

2. What the weather feels like in April

April feels hot and sticky, with sunny mornings and thunder later in the day. The sun is strong from mid-morning, and the air barely moves. Singapore’s weather service calls this stretch the inter-monsoon period, when the winds are light and storms build up over the island in the afternoon.

April and May are the two hottest months of the year, and April has the hottest afternoons. With so little breeze, it feels warmer than the thermometer suggests. Humidity stays high day and night, so you notice it as soon as you step out of an air-conditioned building.

Temperatures and rain from March to May

How a typical April day unfolds

Most mornings start clear. Clouds pile up through the late morning and early afternoon, and you will often hear thunder before any rain arrives. The showers usually come in the afternoon or early evening.

When the rain comes, it tends to be short and heavy, then it clears. You can often sit it out over a coffee or a bowl of noodles. A whole day of steady rain is unusual in April.

The sun rises around 7am and sets a little after 7pm. That gives you long evenings, and once the showers have passed they are the most comfortable part of the day to be outside.

On very still days a light haze can hang over the city. The regional smoke haze you may have read about belongs to a different part of the year and is not an April problem. For the weather service’s own explanation of the seasons, see the Meteorological Service Singapore climate page.

3. How April compares with March and May

April has more afternoon storms than March, and its weather is almost the same as May’s. The differences that matter to travellers come from holidays, flower shows and room prices more than from the sky. Here is what changes on either side of April.

April compared with March

March starts drier, and the afternoon showers pick up towards the end of the month. By April they come on most days. March also has a week of local school holidays in the middle of the month, while April has none, so family attractions are calmer on April weekdays.

• More afternoon thunderstorms in April.
• No local school-holiday week in April.
• Many hawker centres close for cleaning in March; only a handful do in April.
• The Flower Dome’s cherry blossom display, which opens in March, finishes in early to mid April.

If March fits your dates better, our guide to Singapore in March covers that month in the same detail.

April compared with May

The weather in April and May is hard to tell apart: hot, still and humid, with afternoon showers. May nights stay a touch warmer. The bigger difference is cost. May is one of the cheapest months of the year for hotel rooms, so April is usually a little dearer.

April also draws more visitors than May. If you would like the same weather with fewer people and lower prices, early May is worth a look. The tulip display in the Flower Dome carries on into May, so you won’t miss it by going a little later.

4. Crowds and hotel prices in April

April is a middle-of-the-year month for both crowds and room prices. The peak months are July and August, December, and February when Chinese New Year usually falls. The cheapest rooms tend to be in May and June. April sits between the two, which many hotels and guides call shoulder season.

That means you can usually find a room without booking months ahead, and the big sights feel busy without being packed. A few dates inside the month do fill up faster, and it helps to know which ones before you book.

Dates in April that get busier

• The Good Friday and Easter long weekend. Locals travel, and visitors arrive from nearby countries. Flights, hotels and Sentosa📍Map all get busier.
• Early April. China’s Qingming holiday and Taiwan’s spring holiday bring more visitors from both places.
• Mid April. Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and other neighbouring countries have their New Year holidays around this time, and more visitors come from the region.
• Australian school holidays. Autumn school holidays in states such as New South Wales fall in April, so more Australian families are in town.

Where you are travelling from

For Australians, April is one of the busier months to fly to Singapore, because the school break and Easter often line up. Booking flights early pays off here. From the UK, the Easter school break runs from late March into early April, which puts British families in Singapore at the start of the month.

From the rest of Europe and from North America, April is calmer than March. March is the busier month for European visitors, so April can feel a little more relaxed at hotels and the main sights.

Getting a fair price

Compare room prices by date, especially if your trip overlaps the Easter long weekend. Moving your stay by a few days either side of the holiday often makes a noticeable difference. In April heat you will spend a lot of time going in and out of air-conditioning, so a hotel close to an MRT station saves you long walks in the sun. Our guide to where to stay in Singapore compares the main areas.

5. How to plan an April day in Singapore

Do your walking in the morning, go indoors for the afternoon, and head back out after dark. This simple rhythm matches the way April weather behaves. It keeps you out of the midday sun and puts you under a roof when the storms usually arrive.

Morning, 7am to 11am: walk while it’s cooler

The morning is the coolest and driest part of an April day. Use it for anything that involves walking outside. The Singapore Botanic Gardens📍Map, the shophouse lanes of Chinatown, Kampong Gelam and Little India, and the walk around Marina Bay are all best done now.

Start with a hawker breakfast: kaya toast with soft-boiled eggs and a strong local coffee, or a bowl of rice porridge. Our guide to early mornings in Singapore lists what opens first and where to go.

Midday to late afternoon, 12pm to 5pm: head indoors

These are the hottest hours, and they are also when the thunderstorms usually hit. Plan indoor sights for this window. The Flower Dome and Cloud Forest📍Map at Gardens by the Bay are air-conditioned glass conservatories, which makes them ideal. Museums, big malls, the aquarium and Jewel at Changi Airport📍Map work well too.

If you are going to the National Gallery, note that some of its galleries are closed for works, so check what is open before you plan your afternoon around it. For more ideas, see our guide to rainy days in Singapore.

Evening, after 6pm: back outside

By early evening the showers are usually over and it’s a little cooler. Watch the Garden Rhapsody light show at the Supertrees, see the free light-and-water show on the Marina Bay waterfront, stroll along the river, or visit the Night Safari📍Map. A hawker dinner in the open air rounds off the day.

Sentosa and theme park days

On outdoor days, front-load the morning. At Universal Studios Singapore, head for the outdoor rides as soon as the park opens, then spend the afternoon on indoor rides, shows and meals. Outdoor rides may pause during lightning, so doing them early saves you from waiting around later.

6. The Flower Dome in April: cherry blossoms, changeover and tulips

Depending on your dates, you will see cherry blossoms, a changeover week or tulips in the Flower Dome. The Flower Dome is the air-conditioned glass conservatory at Gardens by the Bay, and it changes its main floral display every few weeks. April is the month when one of its biggest shows ends and another begins.

Cherry blossoms in early to mid April

The Sakura display opens in early or mid March and finishes in early to mid April. The end date moves from year to year, and in some recent editions it closed in early April. Each edition takes its theme from a Japanese prefecture, with cherry trees set among scenery and decorations from that region.

If seeing the blossoms matters to you, aim for the first days of April and check the closing date before you book.

The changeover week

After the blossoms come down, there is usually about a week of changeover. The dome stays open and the permanent gardens are still there to see, but there is no headline display. It is still a cool, pleasant place to spend an hour, just with less to photograph.

Tulipmania from mid-to-late April

Tulipmania opens in mid-to-late April and runs to mid May. It has been running every year for more than a decade. Each edition is themed on a country and prepared with that country’s embassy. Recent themes include Türkiye and the Netherlands, which brought windmills, Delftware and a Van Gogh painting recreated in flowers.

Tips for visiting

There is no separate ticket for the displays. Your Flower Dome admission covers whichever one is on, and the dome opens from 9am to 9pm. Since it is fully indoors and air-conditioned, it is one of the best places to be during the afternoon storm window. Confirm the exact dates on the Gardens by the Bay events calendar once you know when you are travelling.

7. Good Friday and Easter in Singapore

Good Friday is a public holiday in Singapore, and Easter Sunday is not. Good Friday falls in April in most years and in March in others. In a year when it falls in March, April has no Singapore public holiday at all, so check the calendar for your year.

The Ministry of Manpower publishes the dates on its public holidays page. Look up Good Friday there before you fix your travel dates.

What is open over Easter

Most things a visitor needs stay open. Malls, hawker centres, restaurants and attractions mostly run as normal, and many are busier than usual. Banks and government offices close on Good Friday.

Because it is a long weekend, locals head away and visitors arrive from nearby countries, especially Australia. Expect fuller hotels, busier flights and more people at Sentosa over the holiday. Compare room prices by date if your stay overlaps it.

Easter services visitors can attend

St Andrew’s Cathedral📍Map, the white Anglican cathedral near City Hall MRT, holds a Good Friday service around midday and services at dawn on Easter Sunday. Visitors are welcome to sit quietly at the back. St Joseph’s Church is known for its Good Friday candlelight procession.

Dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered, and keep your phone on silent. Ask before taking photographs during a service.

Easter events for families

Some attractions and malls run egg hunts or family activities around Easter. What is on changes every year, so check the websites of the places you plan to visit closer to the date.

8. Tamil New Year, Vaisakhi and Vishu in mid April

Around 13 and 14 April, Singapore’s Tamil, Sikh and Malayali communities celebrate their New Year. Tamil New Year is called Puthandu, the Sikh festival is Vaisakhi, and Kerala’s New Year is Vishu. None of them is a Singapore public holiday, so shops and offices keep normal hours.

The celebrations happen mostly in temples, gurdwaras and community spaces. Visitors are welcome at several of them, and a couple are free and easy to join.

The Indian Heritage Centre open house

The Indian Heritage Centre📍Map in Little India, run by the National Heritage Board, holds a free open house on the weekend after New Year. Entry to the galleries is free that weekend, and there are dance performances, craft activities, a small market and guided gallery tours. Some of the workshops charge a fee, so check before you sign up.

It makes a good start to an afternoon in the neighbourhood. Our Little India guide covers the temples, shops and food nearby.

Vaisakhi at the gurdwaras

Several Sikh temples, known as gurdwaras, hold programmes over about three days for Vaisakhi. They serve langar, a free communal meal open to everyone, whatever their faith. You sit with others and eat simple vegetarian food.

• Cover your head; a light scarf or bandana works.
• Take off your shoes before going in.
• Wear clothes that cover your shoulders and knees.
• Take only as much food as you will eat.

Qingming in early April

Qingming falls on 4 or 5 April. Chinese families visit columbaria and cemeteries to honour their ancestors. It is not a public holiday in Singapore and does not affect sightseeing.

9. Hawker centres in April

April is an easy month for hawker centres, because very few close for cleaning. Government-run hawker centres shut for one to four days every quarter for a deep clean. Most of those closures bunch up in March, and only a handful happen in April.

Cleaning closures in April

In the latest schedule, every April cleaning closure started on a Monday and none fell on an April weekend. Maxwell, Newton, Chinatown Complex📍Map, Tiong Bahru Market📍Map and Lau Pa Sat📍Map were not among them. The schedule changes every year, though.

If you are set on one particular centre on a Monday, check the NEA hawker centre closure table before you go. Individual stalls also take their own rest days, which have nothing to do with the month, so a favourite stall may be shut even when the centre is open.

Eat in the evening

In April heat, the evening is the most comfortable time to eat at a hawker centre. Many are open-sided and rely on fans, which is hard going at 2pm and pleasant after dark. Satay by the Bay📍Map, near Gardens by the Bay, and the satay street beside Lau Pa Sat, which opens to diners after dark, are two favourites.

Good dishes to look for at dinner:

• Satay, grilled over charcoal and served with peanut sauce
• Hainanese chicken rice
• Char kway teow, fried flat noodles
• Barbecued stingray with sambal
• Sugarcane juice or lime juice to cool down

For a longer list of centres and what to order, see our hawker centre guide.

10. What to do when the thunder starts

When you hear thunder, move indoors or under cover and wait for the storm to pass. April storms tend to be short, so the wait is usually not long. Knowing what pauses and how to get around makes the difference between a lost afternoon and a short coffee break.

What pauses during lightning

Singapore takes lightning seriously. When a lightning alert is on, outdoor swimming pools close, beaches are cleared, and outdoor rides and some open-air decks stop for a while. They usually reopen once the storm has moved on.

If you are at a hotel pool or on the beaches of Sentosa in the afternoon, expect to be called out of the water at some point. Keep a book or plan a meal for the break.

Getting around in a downpour

Singapore is well set up for rain. Many malls connect to MRT stations, and there are underground links and covered walkways around the city centre and Marina Bay, so you can often move between buildings without going outside.

Taxis and Grab rides are hard to get once a downpour starts, especially during the evening rush hour. The MRT keeps running and is the easier choice. Our guide to getting around Singapore explains the MRT, buses and fares.

Where to wait it out

• A mall food court or a kopitiam, with a cold drink
• A covered hawker centre
• A museum or a gallery
• The Flower Dome or Cloud Forest

Most of these are a short walk from an MRT station, so you can pick up your plans again as soon as the rain stops.

11. Visiting Singapore in April with children

April is a good month for families, because Singapore schools are in term all month. There is no local school-holiday week like the one in mid March. Weekday visits to Sentosa, the zoo and Gardens by the Bay are easier than in the weeks when local families are off school.

Weekends and the Easter long weekend are still busy, and visiting Australian families add to the crowds when their school holidays fall in April. If you have a choice, keep the big attractions for weekdays.

Keeping children comfortable in the heat

Children feel the heat faster than adults. Plan the zoo, the parks and anything outdoors for the morning, when it is coolest. Bring a refillable water bottle for each child and top up often; drink stalls are easy to find.

Use the afternoon for air-conditioned places, a nap at the hotel or the hotel pool, keeping in mind that the pool may close for a while if lightning is near. Evening activities such as the Night Safari or the light shows at Marina Bay work well once it has cooled down.

• Hats and sunscreen for everyone
• A spare set of clothes in case of a sudden shower
• A light top for air-conditioned malls and museums
• Snacks for the wait if rides pause

Our guide to Singapore with kids has more ideas by age.

Events around Marina Bay and Sentosa

A yachting festival at Sentosa Cove and a T100 triathlon around Marina Bay take place in April, with dates that change every year. On race weekend, parts of the bayfront promenade close, so check before planning a walk there.

12. What to pack for Singapore in April

Pack light summer clothes, a small folding umbrella and one thin layer for the air-conditioning. You will be dealing with strong sun, sudden showers and cold indoor air, often in the same afternoon. A few simple items cover all three.

Clothes and shoes

Choose light, loose clothes that dry quickly. Cotton and linen are comfortable, and quick-dry fabrics are handy when a shower catches you. Bring sandals or shoes that dry fast, since pavements get wet quickly in a downpour.

Malls, cinemas, MRT trains and museums are air-conditioned to a chill. A thin cardigan, shirt or scarf makes long indoor afternoons more comfortable.

For the sun and rain

A small folding umbrella is more useful than a raincoat. It doubles as a sunshade, and a raincoat is too hot to wear in April. Add a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen, and reapply sunscreen after a swim or a sweaty walk.

For temples, churches and gurdwaras

If you plan to visit places of worship, especially over Easter or the mid-April New Year, bring something that covers your shoulders and knees. For gurdwaras you also need a head covering; a light scarf works.

13. Who April suits, and when another month works better

April suits travellers who can handle the heat and are happy to spend afternoons indoors. If that sounds like you, the month offers flower shows, cultural festivals and moderate crowds. If rain or heat is your main worry, another month may be a better fit.

April is a good choice if you

• Don’t mind heat and are happy to switch to indoor plans in the afternoon
• Want to see the cherry blossoms or the tulips in the Flower Dome
• Are travelling with children and want to avoid local school-holiday crowds
• Are coming from Europe or North America and would like a calmer month than March
• Would like to join the Easter services or the mid-April New Year celebrations

For these travellers, April works well. The morning, indoor afternoon and evening rhythm is easy to get used to, and the storms rarely spoil a whole day.

Another month may suit you better if you

If you want the least rain, go between February and early March. Our guide to Singapore in February explains that stretch, including how Chinese New Year affects prices. If you’d like a little less heat, December and January are the months to look at, and our guide to Singapore in January covers them.

If the lowest room prices matter most, May and June are the cheapest months for hotels. The weather in May is almost the same as April’s, and the tulips are still on in the first half of the month.

Singapore in April: frequently asked questions

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