Nowhere sums up Singapore’s idea of a city in a garden better than this 101-hectare park on reclaimed land at Marina Bay.
Most visitors stay in Bay South Garden, the largest of the three gardens, which opened in 2012 and holds the Supertrees and the glasshouses. The outdoor gardens and the Supertree Grove are free. The Heritage Gardens tell the island’s story through plants: an Indian Garden with the sacred banyan, a Chinese Garden of rocks, water and pines, a Malay Garden with a kampung house, and a Colonial Garden of nutmeg, cloves, rubber and coffee.
Two cooled conservatories charge admission. The Flower Dome, which Guinness World Records lists as the largest glass greenhouse, gathers plants from the world’s cool-dry regions, including a 1,000-year-old olive tree. Next door, the Cloud Forest recreates misty highland forest around a 35-metre indoor waterfall. At dusk the Supertrees, the tallest of them 50 metres high, light up to music in Garden Rhapsody, free to watch.
A good order for a full day: the Cloud Forest at 9 am, before the crowds and in time for the 10 am misting, then the Flower Dome. Sit out the midday heat indoors, explore the Heritage Gardens in the afternoon, climb to the OCBC Skyway or Supertree Observatory at sunset and stay for the 7.45 pm Garden Rhapsody.
