Gardens by the Bay tickets: what you pay for, and what is free

Gardens by the Bay covers 105 hectares across three waterfront gardens, and the part everyone photographs — Bay South, with the Supertrees and the two domes — is 54 hectares of it. Almost all of that is free. The paid attractions occupy a small footprint and a large share of the confusion.

What you pay for, and what you do not

Free, no ticket, no booking: the outdoor gardens from 5am to 2am, Supertree Grove, the Heritage Gardens, the Dragonfly and Kingfisher Lakes, the Colonial and Malay Gardens, the whole waterfront promenade, and Garden Rhapsody twice nightly.

Ticketed: Flower Dome, Cloud Forest, Floral Fantasy, the Supertree Observatory and the OCBC Skyway.

That division matters because a visitor who arrives at 6pm, walks the grove, watches the 7.45pm show and leaves has seen the thing Gardens by the Bay is famous for and paid nothing.

Inside the two domes

Flower Dome is the largest glass greenhouse in the world, held at a cool, dry Mediterranean climate. Nine gardens sit under one roof — Californian, Australian, South African, South American, a Mediterranean olive grove, a baobab-anchored succulent garden. The central Flower Field changes display several times a year, and that display is the reason locals return.

Cloud Forest is the one people remember. You enter at the base of a 35-metre indoor waterfall, take a lift to the top, and walk back down through a series of suspended walkways wrapped around a planted mountain. The Cloud Walk and Treetop Walk sway slightly, which is intentional and mildly alarming. The temperature sits around 23°C at 80% humidity — a genuine relief in the afternoon.

Both domes host installed exhibitions that rotate. Check what is on before you buy if a particular exhibition is your reason for going, because the ticket is the same price whether the headline show is running or not.

The Supertrees

Eighteen Supertrees stand across Bay South; twelve of them form the Grove. They rise up to 50 metres — about a sixteen-storey building — and function as vertical gardens carrying 162,900 plants of more than 200 species. Seven of them harvest solar energy, and several handle rainwater collection and conservatory venting.

Two paid ways up exist. The OCBC Skyway is a 128-metre walkway suspended between two Supertrees, 22 metres above ground: S$14 for a non-resident adult. The Supertree Observatory takes you to the top of the tallest tree, 50 metres up, with a bar: also S$14. Both are short experiences. Neither is essential; both are pleasant at dusk and pointless at noon.

Timing is everything

Arrive at 5pm. This single decision does more for a Gardens visit than any ticket choice. You get the conservatories during their quietest stretch, the outdoor gardens in falling light, sunset over Marina Bay, and Garden Rhapsody at 7.45pm — without walking anywhere twice.

The quietest hours in the domes are 9am to 10.30am and after 7pm. Tour groups arrive from about 10.30am and the middle of the day is consistently the worst.

For Garden Rhapsody, the 8.45pm showing draws a visibly smaller crowd than the 7.45pm one. Arrive ten minutes early and lie down on the lawn rather than standing at the rail — the show is directly overhead and the rail positions are the worst seats in the house.

For photographs, the Supertrees against a blue-hour sky is the shot, and blue hour in Singapore is short: roughly 7.10pm to 7.35pm year-round, because the equator gives you no long golden evenings. Be in position by 7pm. The Dragonfly Bridge gives you the Supertrees with Marina Bay Sands behind them; the Bayfront underpass exit gives you the domes.

The insider entry

Everyone arrives from Bayfront MRT Exit B and funnels over the Dragonfly Bridge into the same corner of the park. Two better approaches exist.

From Marina Bay Sands, walk through the basement of The Shoppes and take the underground link — it comes out closer to the conservatories than the MRT exit does, and it is air-conditioned the whole way.

From Gardens by the Bay MRT (TE22) on the Thomson-East Coast Line, you arrive at the far end of Bay South. It is a longer walk, but you enter through the quiet gardens and reach the Supertree Grove from the opposite side to the crowd — useful in the twenty minutes before Garden Rhapsody, when the bridge side is solid with people.

How to save

Check the resident rate. Singapore citizens and PR holders pay S$34 for the conservatories against S$46, S$29 for seniors and S$26 for children. Bring your NRIC. This is not bookable through resellers — buy at the counter.

Do not buy the Skyway and the Observatory. They are near-identical propositions at the same price. Pick one.

Skip the paid attractions entirely if your visit is an evening one. The grove, the promenade and the show are free and are, for many visitors, the whole memory of the place.

Combine with Marina Bay Sands rather than with a second garden. The SkyPark deck and the Gardens are a ten-minute walk apart and give genuinely different views of the same bay. Two conservatories and a second botanical garden in one day is more greenhouse than anyone needs.

How to get there

Bayfront MRT (CE1 on the Circle Line, DT16 on the Downtown Line), Exit B. Follow the signs through the underground link and over the Dragonfly Bridge — about eight minutes on foot from the platform.

Gardens by the Bay MRT (TE22) on the Thomson-East Coast Line puts you at the eastern end of Bay South, about twelve minutes' walk from the conservatories through the gardens.

On foot from Marina Bay Sands it is roughly ten minutes through The Shoppes and the underground link. From the Singapore Flyer, about twenty minutes along the waterfront promenade.

What is nearby

Marina Bay Sands and its SkyPark deck are the obvious pairing — the same bay from 200 metres up. The ArtScience Museum sits at the water's edge between the two. The Singapore Flyer is a twenty-minute waterfront walk north. Marina Barrage, further east and free, has the best kite-flying lawn in the city and a rooftop that most visitors never find.