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Experience

Gardens by the Bay

Steel trees planted the whole way up with ferns and orchids, a walkway strung between two of them, a cooled cloud forest with a waterfall inside it, and a light show on the grass after dark.

At a glanceOn land
How longHalf a dayHalf a day, or an evening for the lights
How hardLightFlat walking, a lift, and a high walkway if you want it
SeasonYear-roundThe domes are cooled and the grove is open air

Singapore reclaimed the land, planted a park on it, and then stood a grove of artificial trees in the middle of the park because the real ones would take a century. The supertrees are steel frames wrapped in living plants, ferns, orchids and bromeliads climbing the whole way up, with canopies that collect rain and take the sun. They are unapologetically artificial and they work completely.

By day you walk under them in the ordinary way, and the impressive thing is how much of the structure is actually alive. There is a walkway strung between two of the tallest, high enough that the bay, the domes and the whole skyline of Marina Bay come into one view, and low enough that you can still see what is growing on the trunk beside you.

The Cloud Forest is the one people talk about afterwards. You go through a door into cold, wet air and there is a waterfall coming down a mountain of planted rock several storeys high, indoors, with mist blowing off it across the walkway. You take a lift to the top and come down slowly through the cloud. The Flower Dome next to it is a drier, gentler room, and it changes with the season.

Then it gets dark and the grove does its other job. The trees light in sequence to music, the whole crowd lies down on the grass to watch it, and for a quarter of an hour a very orderly city stops being orderly. Everyone in Singapore knows about this, which is the argument for arriving early enough to get a patch of lawn.

Walk on afterwards. The bay front, Marina Bay after dark and dinner at a hawker table are all within the same evening.

Good to know

  • Evenings are busier and better. Aim to be on the lawn before the first show rather than during it.
  • The Cloud Forest is genuinely cold. Take a layer, especially for children and anyone who feels it.
  • Show times and dome hours change. We confirm what is running on your dates.
  • Water and a hat for the outdoor gardens. Equatorial sun does not feel strong until it has been.
  • Rain arrives fast and leaves fast. The domes are the obvious place to be while it does.
  • Ticket combinations are sold several ways and change. We book them with your itinerary rather than leaving it to the gate.

Conservatory and skyway opening hours, show times, ticket combinations and which parts of the gardens are ticketed rather than open to walk through are set by the gardens and change. We confirm what applies to your dates in writing before you pay anything.

They are not trees and everybody knows it, and after ten minutes underneath them nobody cares.

Where to do it

Where we arrange gardens by the bay

Start from the destination, and we will build the days around this.

Or browse every itinerary andthe rest of the experiences.

Questions we are actually asked

Do we need tickets?
For the conservatories and the high walkway, yes, and they are sold in combinations that change. The outdoor gardens and the grove itself are a public park. We book the paid parts with your itinerary and confirm what is included in writing.
Day or evening?
Evening, if you only do it once. The supertrees are structures in daylight and something else entirely when they light and the music starts, and the skyline across the water is lit by then too. Do the domes in the late afternoon and stay on for the show.
Which conservatory?
The Cloud Forest, if it is one. You walk into a cold, wet room with a waterfall coming down several storeys of planted rock, and work your way back down through the mist on a spiral walkway. The Flower Dome is calmer, drier and changes its planting through the year.
Is it manageable with a pushchair or limited mobility?
The gardens are flat, paved and lift-served, and both domes have step-free routes through them. The high walkway between the supertrees is the one part that is not for everybody. Tell us and we shape the visit round it.

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