I love going to botanical gardens – I must admit, I don’t know much about flowers or wouldn’t have a clue on how to identify even the most usual suspects, but there is something so pretty, colourful and relaxing seeing them. When I started researching the top things to do in Singapore, visiting Gardens by the Bay came up as one of the most iconic symbols of the city and most popular attraction in all of Singapore. It is a breathtakingly beautiful, well-planned and excellently designed garden complex located in the heart of Singapore. The project to create Gardens by the Bay was first announced by the Singaporean government in 2005 as part of a larger plan to transform Singapore into a ‘City in a Garden”. The unique garden complex that is envisioned by its creators to capture the essence of Singapore as the premier tropical garden city and showcase their commitment to sustainability and green living. The design included a number of innovative features, including two massive conservatories, the Supertrees, and a variety of themed gardens.

We only had a few hours to spend here so we bought the combined ticket to view the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest – the ticket was 38 SDG and the OCBC Skywalk was 10 SDG, which is reasonable. We booked the tickets on our phones when we were there as the queue to purchase tickets was super long. While you need to pay to enter these exhibits, the gardens by the bay itself is completely free and open until 2am.

Cloud Forest

The Cloud Forest was incredible and truly blew me away. The entire surface of the mountain was covered in a mixture of fascinating orchards, bromeliads, ferns etc. There is also the super impressive waterfall.

As soon as you walk in, you immediately feel the AC of the greenhouse cooling you down after walking through the humid and unforgiving Singaporean heat.  After taking pictures of the 35m high manmade waterfall, we took a lift to the highest point of the mountain, also known as Lost World where we were greeted with a misty lake and a garden full of unique plant life that thrive above 2000 metres above sea level in tropical highlands. It was pretty cool. We then slowly made our way down via a spiral walkway to enjoy the views.

Flower Dome

The flower dome is a beautiful glass house that spans a luscious 1.2 hectares and stands at 38 metres.  The dome houses a wonderful collection of desert plans from all over the world, showcasing the special adaptations of plants to dry and harsh environments, such as the blooming cactus flowers.  It is organised by region, so one region will be all tress/plants from Africa, another will be the Mediterranean, south America etc.

Personally, I felt that it was less impressive that the cloud forest but still worth visiting.

Supertree Grove

The Supertree Forest is a stunning display of futuristic tree-like structures that stand tall amidst a garden landscape. There are 18 in total ranging from 25 to 50 meters and are all covered in tropical ferns, vines and flowering climbers. The trees are illuminated at night by a network of photovoltaic cells which harness solar energy during the day and turns into a mesmerising light show at night. The light-show which is synced to dramatic music definitely wowed us – there is one at 7.45pm and another at 8.45pm. Make sure to get there 20 minutes before the start of the show as it tends to get very crowded in the open square of the Supertree forest.

The walkway leads to the OCBC Skywalk which we quickly had to rush to catch the last opening of it. This is an iconic and futuristic walkway 40 meters above the grounds and connects the trees together. two Supertrees and offers an even more spectacular view of the surrounding landscape. There isn’t much to see exactly on this walkway but makes for some fantastic photos among the trees, especially with the Marian Bay Sands backdrop!