The afternoon of our guided tour with Singapore tourism saw us arrive at Gardens by the Bay a huge garden complex which opened in 2011. It’s a tribute to Singapore being a true garden city – they like to know it as a city in a garden rather than the other way around.
The gardens (including the children’s garden) are free to the public to walk around and use – there is also a light show of the iconic super trees 2 times a night at 7.45 and 8.45pm. There is a cost for entry to the 2 domes: the Flower dome and Cloud Forest which is where we headed first.
The flower dome is an amazing sight to see for a garden lover like me. Cool inside it was filled with a HUGE collection of cactus and succulents from all around the world as well a 1000 year old olive trees and Mediterranean displays and a changing floral display in the centre. The dome itself is stunning – walkways take you around the gardens with views out to the city to die for.
From there we headed next door to the Cloud Forest dome which was like walking amongst a tropical mountain, rainforest with a HUGE waterfall reaching 35 metres up. This was my favourite (any surprises when I am near a mountain man made or otherwise) the orchids and tropical plant displays that ran vertically were absolutely stunning. You could walk ion and out and around the mountain taking in the beauty inside and out with those same views across to the city skyline.
After much patience from the kids as I took approximately 34 thousand photographs we went down to the free Children’s Garden where there was a huge water play area which was perfect for a hot Sunday afternoon. Similar to the park we saw in London – this place was geared purely for children – the park areas and garden – just gorgeous!
A little further down the way was Satay by the Bay which was like a open market/food court set up filled with locals enjoying the tasty and affordable food on offer. We had an amazing simple selection of greens, some sting ray (!) and some delicious little satays cooked over the coals washed down by a cold beer and a coconut….a real highlight.
We then hightailed it up to the Super tree grove to see the light display show. Sitting down soaking up the beautiful vista all around with the girls was the perfect end to our holiday.
You can find out more about Gardens by the Bay here.
We were there as guests of Singapore Tourism.
Have you been to these amazing gardens?
Seen the light show?
Thank you so much for this great post. We will be visiting in October and this is on our list of things to do. We will need to hire a wheelchair for my daughter. Did you happen to see people using a wheelchair?
I did in fact! Plenty of disabled access everywhere too – can’t imagine you’d have a problem. Enjoy!
Fabulous! It was on my list to get to last time I was in Singas, but didn’t make it. We ended up at the lovely Botanic Gardens instead. Now, the stingray, what was it like??
Really good! But covered in samba and given I’d had no spice for 5 weeks anything would have tasted good!
No mention of the skywalk? Probably wise with kids.
I visited the Gardens and skywalk with a couple of colleagues. I always thought I was scared of heights but these men made me look like some kind of height guru, as they begged me to move away from the edge and clutched the sides of the walkway. The issues were that it was see through and the wind made the walkway move a bit.
Be warned if this is your phobia.
Good advice! I think it was on the plan but the girls were fading so we pulled the pin. Much is the case with travelling with kids. I would have loved to have gone up though!
Wow! Absolutely beautiful, thank you for sharing your journey. I enjoyed your posts SO MUCH! Happy trails home xo
Thanks Krista 🙂
Hubby and I spent 5 days in Singapore in May. Just the 2 of us, first time in 20 years! The Gardens are fabulous. There was a tulip/Dutch display when we were there, so spectacular. And, what about the waterfall? A great place to wander and get some relief from the heat.
I heard about the tulips in the spring – how gorgeous! I just loved that place!