Gardens by the Bay opened in 2012 on 101 hectares of reclaimed land beside Marina Bay, and its 18 steel Supertrees — vertical gardens between 25 and 50 meters tall, planted with over 160,000 orchids, ferns and bromeliads — became Singapore's new postcard almost overnight. The outdoor gardens cost nothing and stay open from 5am to 2am; the Garden Rhapsody light-and-sound show runs the Supertree Grove at 7:45pm and 8:45pm nightly, also free.
The two ticketed conservatories are the reason to pay. The Flower Dome held the Guinness record as the world's largest glass greenhouse when it opened, running a cool-dry Mediterranean climate with thousand-year-old olive trees and a changing floral display field. The Cloud Forest next door is the more theatrical of the pair: a 35-meter indoor waterfall pours off a planted mountain wrapped in walkways, with mist releases every two hours. A combined foreign-visitor ticket for both runs about S$53; the OCBC Skyway — a 128-meter aerial walkway between Supertrees — adds about S$14.
Timing matters more than most visitors expect. The conservatories are air-conditioned refuges for the midday heat, while the outdoor gardens work best from late afternoon into the evening shows. Bayfront MRT (Circle and Downtown lines, exit B) connects by underpass; allow three to four hours for the full circuit, or pair an evening visit with the Marina Bay Sands promenade next door.
