St Johns Island

First, here’s how you get here: tickets from the Marina South Pier; They depart 2-​hourly, with the first one leaving the pier at 9am on weekends. The $ 18 Singapore Island hopper ferry ticket gives you a one way ride (Marina South Pier — St John’s Island — Kusu Island — Marina South Pier). Additional schedules are available at the piers at each island. The ferries are incredibly punctual! (Ie. Made the mistake of being ALMOST a minute late and had to run, waving like a mad person just to catch the next ferry when I was at St John’s or risk waiting for another 2 hours there) It takes approximately 30 – 45 mins to get here from Marina South, and the whole route takes about 1.5−2 hours. I would suggest scheduling about half a days’ worth of time for the islands.
It’s a nice break from the city, midway between Singapore and Pulau Ubin in terms of development. (If you take Ubin as 1960s’ Singapore, this is possibly similar to Singapore in the 1980s?) The view is awesome, and with the sound of waves gently lapping against the seashore and NO SOUNDS OF TRAFFIC, you feel like you’re far away from Singapore… till you look across the Strait of Singapore and see the faint Marina Bay skyline. Park benches are aplenty for a quick picnic, but beware of mosquitoes!
Most people just stay on St John’s island, but I’d suggest turning left when you reach and heading across the bridge to Lazarus Island! (Warning signs are aplenty, which you should ignore). Stroll determinedly past the groups of people fishing and step bravely through the unmarked (but well-​trodden) path that you will see on your right (about 10 minutes after crossing the bridge)… and you’ll arrive at THE BEST BEACH IN SINGAPORE! Okay, best is relative– the place has zero amenities but you do get fine, clean sand, a practically-​pristine beach and clear waters. Like, step-​in-​and-​see-​your-​toes and see-​the-​fish-​swimming-​around-​your-​toes kind-​of clear. A great place to have a swim and picnic (but please don’t leave any trash behind!).
And when you’re done with all that, hop on the ferry to Kusu island! (which is way smaller in comparison)

Don’t nail me down on this: there are so many islands near Singapore and this map seems to have so few! Anyway, St. John’s (I forgot the much nicer Malay name) is the island you first get to when you take the ferry to Kusu island. I suggest to do what I didn’t: get off here, take a stroll — it’s again not a giant island but at least somewhat bigger than Kusu.
Somehow it reminded me of some islands — exotic looking like this one — but from afar off the Staten Island coast: Humboldt and what was the name again of the other?
They had the same function: islands for the sick. Here, on St. Johns, the pilgrims back from Mecca and feared to be suffering from feared scourges like cholera and the like were put into quarantaine.
At some point, its function changed to become an island for political prisoners — not sure if there were no more pilgrims or what?
Now it is a holiday resort (not sur if you can stay here — it would be nice if you could)