So the first question we should start with is visiting Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands worth it? It totally is. You can’t eat all day – you need to do some things in between, and walking around the Gardens by the Bay or Marina Bay Sands is one way to get some steps in – and natch, with the option of air conditioning in the paid admission areas. Because of how hot and humid Singapore is you should value where you know you can get some ac respite. Sure its touristy – but it’s also uniquely Singapore’s. Hopefully, this guide to visiting Gardens by the Bay will be helpful to you in making your plans with lots of practical information and tips on what to do here.
Gardens by the Bay – also known as #GBTB – is open early/late, from 5 AM – 2 AM for the outdoor gardens, check times individually for each garden attraction in a building. So its a great destination on your first day after you land. It does require some walking so doing it to stretch your legs after your long flight, and being out and busy to adjust to the time difference are other good pros of visiting early in your trip, before you are tired. GBTB and Marina Bay Sands are next to each other practically so might as well see both too and make it a full day! So do plan a visit to these iconic locations in Singapore.
It is easy to get there via the Bayfront MRT stop. Go one way to Marina Bay Sands, the other for GBTB. However, it is still a significant walk from the MRT stop to most of the gardens, especially the famous conservatories of Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. Our way around this is to first visit the Floral Fantasy attraction. This is a new exhibit that is on this side before crossing Dragonfly Lake. It has a ticket center just like the main entrance.
The key here is that you can buy a combined ticket that includes admission to Floral Fantasy, both Domes, and also the shuttle that will take you to the Domes so you don’t have that long trek, and the shuttle stop is right here! The line here is shorter then at other main ticketing gate. A monitor here displays all the ticketed times available for Floral Fantasy.
Buy the combined ticket as it is also a discount:
- Any of the outdoor gardens: Free
- Floral Fantasy Admission (timed hourly ticket): S$20
- Cloud Forest and Flower Dome: S$28
- Shuttle Ticket: S$3 for unlimited rides on that day. Runs at 10-minute intervals between Bayfront Plaza and the two main Domes.
- Combined ticket for Floral Fantasy, Cloud Forest and Flower Dome, and Shuttle as of June 2019: S$46
- OCBC Skyway tickets: S$8, can only be purchased by the Supertree Grove to go up to the Supertree walkway.
Another note! At the airport or at the hotel you may see various tourist maps. Many of these have an ad on them where if you buy admission and show the coupon, you get a “gift”. This gift is only available at the main ticketing by the Domes. I decided not to go to the other ticket area for the gift, which I was told is a souvenir map so I don’t know what it looks like.
When you leave Cloud Forest or Flower Dome, you can get your hand stamped for re-entry. So feel free to go out for food or whatever and be back later that day, or to compare how it looks in daylight versus evening.
Floral Fantasy at Gardens by the Bay
The Floral Fantasy garden exhibit is new to Gardens by the Bay, having just opened in April of 2019. The attraction has a timed entry ticket, with entrance open every hour. It is completely enclosed and climate controlled and is about 1500 square meters. The area includes four landscaped garden areas – each one is small, the size of a backyard. Then at the end, there is a VR ride (optional – you can choose to skip it ) that gives you an overview of Gardens by the Bay.
The entrance area is an extremely photogenic one with its canopy and wall of more then 15,000 flowers.
This area ends with some dancing floral balls of orchids and babys breath that twirl up and down above you. The next area blends flowers with waterscapes, including impressive orchid chandeliers, and gives you a little more breathing space then that initial entrance hall. 
Following this is an area of rainforest waterfalls, and then Poison Dart Frog Vivarium that includes brightly colored little poison dart frogs. This leads to the Cave of Mystery with orchids and finally the line for the VR Ride, Flight of the Dragonfly, and/or to the gift shop. Also out here is casual Cafe Aster if you want a hot or cold beverage or snack ranging from lasagna to hot dogs to waffles topped with ice cream. You order at screens or at the counter so it is fast casual.
You can complete a visit through Floral Fantasy in 30-60 minutes depending on how photo crazy you go.
The Flower Dome
The Flower Dome is one of the large cooled conservatories you see from afar as part of the bay skyline along with the Supertrees. In fact, the Flower Dome received the Guinness World Record 2015 for largest glass greenhouse in the world. Per its name this focuses more on flowers then the other conservatory, Cloud Forest.
You may choose to go to Cloud Forest first to get a dose of greenery and then your flowers after Floral Fantasy instead of flowers back to back. Or head here first because it’s a bit more walking and sometimes a little confusing where you are. We found Cloud Forest to be a lot more linear in path while Flower Dome you do lots of small circles within each of the gardens.
Here at the Flower Dome, you’ll be able to visit an ever-changing flower field display garden in the center – my visit was roses as part of a Rose Romance Garden Trail, with over 40 varieties of roses. In the past the fields have boasted tulips, dahlias, sunflowers, cherry blossoms and more as well as seasonal displays for different holidays. 
Meanwhile all around the flower display garden, you will find a thousand year old olive tree, Baobabs, a Succulent Garden, and more with 9 different gardens representing different continents of the world – Australia, America (by which they really mean California and then South America?), Africa, Asia, and Europe/Mediterranean.
The Succulent Garden was a surprise highlight – we enjoyed the Aloes in Wonderland theme.
There are other sculptures intermixed throughout the gardens within the Flower Dome as well for whimsical or artistic interest visually.
Overall they did an impressive and thorough and thoughtful job of curating and landscaping all the floral and fauna for visual appeal in colors and shapes. And although some flowers were familiar to me, there were new discoveries of color possibilities I had never seen before. 
You can dine within the Flower Dome at sit down restaurant Pollen, which serves French Mediterranean food. Or, visit for their fancy afternoon tea service. Just outside the door of Flower Dome, one level down from the entrance, find a fancy Chinese restaurant with bay views, and a quick serve drinks and ice cream stand.
We didn’t stop at Pollen, and our visit to Flower Dome was about an hour.
Cloud Forest
Cloud Forest is a cool-moist tropical biome featuring the greens of a jungles of Southeast Asia, Tropical America and Africa, punctuated by the colors of orchids (pretty much everywhere) and pitcher plants (found at the top level as plants and also Lego form!). You will also find a manmade mountain and waterfall to traverse from top to bottom via Cloud Walk and Treetop Walk. On even hours, Cloud Forest is “re-misted”.
The most obvious centerpiece of Cloud Forest is the man-made waterfall world’s second tallest waterfall at 150 meters/110 feet (recently beat by the new waterfall at Changi Airport). Along the pathway you’ll follow here you will walk around and up and behind these falls as an elevator takes you up and then escalators help you traverse the levels down.
Cloud Forest also has an bi-annual Orchids Display exhibit – during my visit it was Scentsational Orchids. Signs and orchids at face level encouraged visitors to breathe in their orchid scents. What a surprise to smell in some cases, vanilla, chocolate, citrus, coconut, cloves, or even a hint of spicy Tom Yum soup (this was the white and purple pansy looking ones, Miltoniopsis Playgirl ‘Cha-cha’)!
We completed our visit through Cloud Forest in an hour.
The Free Outdoor Treasures
Gardens by the Bay is 101 hectare (250 acres) garden which is a LOT of walking. Also, expect that Singapore is hot and humid all year long. So most visitors head to what is most popular in all the photos: Cloud Forest and Flower Dome (which require admission and are climate controlled so comfortable) and the outdoir famous treasure of the Supertree Grove (one of the free portions, and where the evening light show takes place).
The other probably famous free stop is The Planet, a sculpture that looks like a giant floating baby. You can find many more sculptures throughout the GBTB though I never did find a paper map during my visit of where all the locations are, though I did find one online.
However, there are other outdoor garden portions that are free as well – such as the Heritage Gardens. These gardens are actually a grouping of four gardens on the other side of Dragonfly Lake that include Indian, Chinese, Malay, and Colonial themed gardens. An area called World of Plants along a walkway on the other side of the Supertree Grove includes some topiary animals alongside a lot of education varying from helping to identify trees, how bugs and mushrooms help plants, and more.
On the other side of Cloud Forest Dome (opposite of Flower Dome), an area called The Canyon has you explore sculptural rock forms from China. Nearby, the Sun Pavilion lets you experience a desert landscape, while the Far East Organization Children’s Garden water play are for children 1-12 years old.
Garden Rhapsody at Supertree Grove
Seeing the Supertree Grove lit up with the colors and all sparkly was stunning in the evening. They change the color theme of the lighting at intervals. The best view of the Supertrees I think are from the distance or from right below them. I think they are most photogenic in the evening.
You have to admire the sheer creativity and ingenuity of disguising solar power generators, rainwater collectors, and air venting ducts into vertical gardens by day that people are willing to pay an extra fee to visit its walkway for a view of the garden. And then it turns into a show of lights and music at night. So smart.
The best view of the show is from the ground – we tried sitting up to watch, and then even lying down to watch the trees above us. Do be aware that the demand is high to walk on the OCBC Skyway in the evening, especially as the timing gets closer to the show when they offer time slots to manage capacity. So be prepared to queue and get your tickets earlier then for 5-8PM visits. You get about 15 minutes up there on a one way path for S$8.
Check the times for the free 10-15 minute light show at the Gardens by the Bay Supertree Grove during your visit. We came during June, and it happened to be during the June school holiday break of 2 weeks, and when Gardens by the Bay was holding a Children’s Festival.
For us, that meant that Gardens by the Bay had a special Toy Story 4 themed carnival for kids (mostly geared towards 10 years old and under) to celebrate the upcoming release of Toy Story 4. It also meant that for us per the festival, the special 10 minute light show music ar Supertree Grove were from Toy Story movie soundtracks. There were projections on hanging clouds within the Supertree Grove during the show too of the Toy Story characters running around.
Most importantly, besides the daily 7:45 and 8:45 PM free shows they had a third additional showing at 9:15 PM every night. Based on the number of people we saw leaving when we arrived for the later show, and then what it was like for us leaving, it seems the later show is less popular/crowded then the earlier one. I enjoyed the show with my eyes in the moment, but you can see a video of the show here.
There is usually a rush of people leaving immediately after the show – take your time to walk round instead of joining the crowds. Catch a shot of the Supertrees with the Marina Bay Sands. Wait for the change in color too to see which lighting you like best.
I think you can get a pretty nice shot of the Marina Bay Sands looking from Dragonfly Lake to the iconic building. During our stay there was lighting to represent the Singapore national flag on the building.
Marina Bay Sands
Marina Bay Sands is a hotel and casino – much like what you would expect to see in Las Vegas. It includes multiple restaurants (more then 20!), theaters with shows, and several bars and nightclubs. You can find these within the hotel itself and in the Shoppes, the connected mall area with many retail stores. There is even a boat ride inside of the mall area that reminded me of the Venetian hotel’s gondola ride. If you walk to the other end of the Shoppes, you can visit the ArtScience Museum which offers a lot of TeamLab digital art interactive exhibits. I did not visit because I had already seen a lot of the exhibits at a TeamLab popup previously. It is a great exhibit if you haven’t seen it.
This is not one of those hotels or malls that has a lot of seated areas in the middle for guests to rest – perhaps because they know how many people go through the area a day. The only exception is the Rasapura Masters food court in the basement floor, or if you sit facing the harbor outside. You may see an area that has lots of levels of steps facing an obelisk – this is where the free evening light and fountain show Spectra takes place twice a night daily at 8 and 9 PM (three times on Fridays and Saturdays with an additional 10 PM show). You don’t have to sit on the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes side to see the show – you can also watch from the other side of the bay to see the lights projected in the Marina Bay Sands and ArtScience Museum. It is also feasible timing wise to catch both Garden Rhapsody and Spectra light shows in the same evening, we did.
I recommend taking an extra 10 minutes to walk by the ArtScience Museum (very recognizable with its white lotus shape) to the Helix Bridge and walking along it for another great photo op of the Marina Bay Sands building. It’s also a nice shot in the day too. The Helix Bridge, as hinted by its name, is double helix structure pedestrian bridge inspired by DNA and built using 5x less steel than conventional designs.
If you want to come see the view from above at the boat like top of Marina Bay Sands, you will have the option of either visiting the Observation Deck wirh admission of S$23, or going to the bar Ce La Vi which requires a cover charge of S$22. But, the plus of Ce La Vi is you use that entrance fee as a credit towards a drink or food at the restaurant or bar or lounge with a view (and that credit will be spent quite quickly!).
As another bonus that makes it the better choice to visit and see views rather than the Observation Deck, you can also get a closer view of the famous rooftop infinity pool (pool access is for hotel guests only).
For Ce La Vi, if you come after 10 PM (after all the light shows are done basically), there is no admission charged anymore Sun-Tu and Thu, and Wed nights are Ladies Night so only men pay the cover. With the cloudy skies sunset didn’t pan out for us on my visit but we did get to see the cityscape lights begin to turn on as we went into dusk. 
I hope the information I shared about visiting these two iconic Singapore attractions all in one area is useful to planning your future visit!
Which of the attractions you can see are you interested in if you visited Singapore, or what were your thoughts on your visit here?
Singapore Travel Posts
- Dinner at the world’s only Michelin starred Peranakan restaurant
- Singapore Sights: Old Hill Street Police Station, Singapore Chili Crab in Clarke Quay
- Peranakan Style Buildings in Singapore
- Guide to visiting Hawker Centers in Singapore
- Is visiting Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands worth it? (this post)
- Other sights in Singapore: things to do in Singapore
- Things to see in Changi Airport
It is SO beautiful and stunning. It looks like an absolute wonderland!
So beautiful! I want to go to there!