What to Do Near Tuas This Weekend (No, Really)

Ask most people what there is to do around Tuas on a Friday night, and you'll get a shrug. It's not exactly known as a destination — most of the west side's reputation is industrial, not scenic. But tucked into Raffles Marina, a short drive from Tuas and Jurong, there's a guided evening tour running most weekends — the Raffles Heritage Sunset Tour by Raffles Business Academy — that a surprising number of people who live ten minutes away don't even know exists. Worth noting: Raffles Marina is a private facility, so this isn't somewhere you'd stumble onto on your own — it's only accessible as part of the guided tour.

It starts small: a guided storytelling session over light refreshments on Sir Stamford Raffles and the early maritime history of the waters right off your own coastline — the kind of local history that's easy to live near your whole life without actually knowing.

Then comes the climb — up the marina's lighthouse, for a sunset view over the strait that most West-siders have genuinely never seen from this angle, despite living closest to it.

From there, the evening moves to Fu Ning, the world's largest traditional Chinese wooden sailing ship, docked right at the marina and only open to guests as part of the tour — worth the trip on its own, and not something you'd expect to find minutes from home.

It closes with dinner at the marina's waterfront bistro, an easy, unhurried way to end a Friday without fighting expressway traffic back into town for dinner reservations.

For anyone in Tuas, Jurong, or the wider west side tired of driving into the city center for a decent evening out, this might be the rare case where the best plan is the one closest to home.

Good to know: Every Friday–Saturday, 5:00–7:30pm, at Raffles Marina — easy to reach without the usual trip into town.

Turns out you didn't need to leave the west side after all. Book An Evening at the Lighthouse: Sunset, Dinner & Boat.