Gardens by the Bay is Singapore’s defining 21st-century project — 101 hectares of reclaimed land on the Marina Bay waterfront transformed into a futuristic horticultural garden that has become the most-visited attraction in the country. When it opened in 2012, the Supertrees — 16 to 50-metre tall vertical gardens supporting over 162,000 plants — were unlike anything constructed before. Today they are as synonymous with Singapore as the Marina Bay Sands ship itself.
The OCBC Skyway is a 22-metre elevated walkway that stretches between two of the tallest Supertrees, offering aerial views across the gardens and Marina Bay at sunset. Entrance to the Skyway costs SGD 14 per adult. Far better is the free ground-level experience: standing beneath the Supertrees as the OCBC Garden Rhapsody light and music show illuminates the grove at 7:45pm and 8:45pm nightly. The trees pulse and glow in synchrony to an orchestral soundtrack, and the crowd gathered below invariably falls silent.
Cloud Forest is the more theatrical of the two indoor conservatories. Upon entering the cooled glass dome, visitors are confronted by a 35-metre artificial mountain covered entirely in living plants — tropical cloud forest species that normally grow at altitudes between 1,000 and 3,500 metres above sea level. A waterfall cascades down the mountain face. Elevated walkways spiral around the exterior, passing exhibition panels on climate change and global biodiversity. The controlled temperature (about 23-25°C) makes this one of Singapore’s most pleasant places on a hot afternoon.
Flower Dome is the quieter and more elegant conservatory — a vast Mediterranean-climate greenhouse containing plants from the Mediterranean Basin, South Africa, California, South America, and Australia. The seasonal floral display changes throughout the year: tulips in February, sunflowers in March, orchids for the National Orchid Show in August. The 2,000-year-old olive trees transplanted from Europe are remarkable specimens. The conservatory also hosts the Pollen restaurant, which offers weekend brunches and dinners inside the greenhouse — an unusually memorable setting.
The outdoor gardens beyond the conservatories are often underexplored. The Dragonfly Lake attracts over 80 species of dragonfly and damselfly. The Heritage Gardens (Indian, Chinese, Malay, and Colonial) trace Singapore’s multicultural horticultural history. Satay by the Bay hawker centre on the eastern waterfront serves some of Singapore’s best char-grilled satay with peanut sauce in an outdoor setting with views back toward the glittering city skyline.