Photo: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Nature · Singapore
Gardens by the Bay, from late afternoon into the night
Two cool glass conservatories, then Supertrees lit to music. We time the visit so you see the gardens in daylight and again in their evening show.
Marina Bay · Singapore
The experience
Gardens by the Bay opened in June 2012 on more than 100 hectares beside Marina Bay Sands, and within a few years became Singapore's best-known garden. The best way to see it is to arrive two or three hours before sunset, when the two glass conservatories are a cool refuge from the heat of the day.
The Flower Dome holds the Guinness World Record for the largest glass greenhouse, with gardens from the Mediterranean, Australia, South Africa and the Americas, and an olive tree about a thousand years old. The Cloud Forest is a planted mountain with a 35-metre waterfall, kept between 23 and 25 °C, with aerial walkways climbing to its summit.
As darkness falls you move to the Supertree Grove: twelve of the gardens' eighteen Supertrees, from 25 to 50 metres tall; together the Supertrees carry more than 162,900 plants. The OCBC Skyway runs between them 22 metres up, and at 7.45 pm and 8.45 pm the free Garden Rhapsody show begins, light and music through the trees, watched from the lawn or from the Skyway.
We book your tickets ahead, arrange a private guide if you wish, suggest a dinner nearby after the show, and build prayer times into the plan. The evening suits families and couples alike.
Where to stay
Stays close by
City
Marina Bay
The Fullerton Hotel Singapore
Once the General Post Office, the stock exchange and the Singapore Club, it is now a 400-room heritage hotel facing the river and Marina Bay. Suites behind 20-foot Doric columns, Chinese cooking at Jade and an ESPA spa.
Price on requestExplore
City
Marina Bay
Pan Pacific Singapore
A five-star hotel by Marina Bay with the city's landmarks within walking distance, and rooms and suites facing the city, the bay or the South China Sea. Cantonese at Hai Tien Lo, Japanese at Keyaki and St. Gregory spa, all under one roof.
Price on requestExplore
Singapore
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The Night Safari
The world's first nocturnal wildlife park, opened in 1994 in the Mandai forest. See it from the tram and on foot, or on a private guided tour.
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Culture and heritage
Kampong Glam: the quarter and its table
A guided walk through the old Malay-Muslim quarter: the Sultan Mosque, Arab Street and Haji Lane, then a halal table from the neighbourhood's kitchens.
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