After a big day of shopping Downtown at Marina Bay Sands and Marina Square, we made our last stop for the day at Gardens by the Bay. This is nature park is adjacent to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (boat building) and is convenient attraction to see when  your in the area. We were recommended to visit the Gardens after 3pm, so that we could take our time enjoying the variety of gardens and the Domes and be finished in time to see the evening show, Garden Rhapsody.  Due to bad weather we didn’t get to see everything the Gardens of the Bay had to offer, but enough that I have to cover this attraction over a few posts.

Gardens by the Bay is a  multi-award winning horticultural park, which covers 101 hectares. The park is divided into two areas, the Bay East Garden, along the waterfront promenade and Bay South Garden, which is the bulk of the garden and is shaped like a orchid. This part includes a Heritage Gardens, Supertree Grove, the Flower Dome, the Cloud Forest, the Canyon, World of Plants, Sun Pavilion and Children’s Garden. Gardens by the Bay is free to visit and the majority of the gardens are open from 5am until 2am. The Domes and the OCBC Skyway, are the major attraction, which operate 9am-9pm and do cost a fee.

 

Since it was raining quite heavy, we had to wait until it cleared a little and then walked along the Dragonfly bridge and straight to the large domes. It was the only day we left home without our umbrellas. We had plans to visit both the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, which can be visited when its raining luckily. Along our way the path took us through a few of the Heritage Gardens (Malay, Chinese and Indian Gardens).

 

The Flower Dome is the largest glass greenhouse in the world. It is actually spans 1.2 hectares and is completely air conditioned. Just make sure you bring a cardigan because its extremely cool in there. The greenhouse is divided into different levels and themed areas, which are easy to navigate. Since you need to do quite a bit of walking you can hire a pram for little ones (at customer service), as long as they are under 15kg. And yes they will weight your child just to be sure. Octavia was 14.9kg, so we were able to take a break from carrying her and just enjoy ourselves. As for the admission, we bought our tickets on the Klook app. For both the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest it cost S$23 per adults and under 3 years is free. This was quite a saving, as paying at the ticket box will cost S$28.

At the entrance of the Flower Dome the there were a some bright coloured Chinese Dragons, that everyone wanted to get a photo in front of. They were probably on display for Chinese New Year.

You can still get quite a nice view from the Entrance of the entire dome, but you can take better photos from the edges of the gardens themselves.

 

We first visited the highest level, which housed the Succulents Garden along the outer side and the The Baobabs Garden within. My favourite feature was the Alice and Wonderland characters among the succulents and amazing animal sculptures.

 

To see the other gardens we had to make our way back across the entrance. The first stop was the Australian Garden. There were so many beautiful varieties of flowers that I have never seen back at home.

 

Next found the South African Garden, which also featured many beautiful flowers and sculptures.

 

The South American Garden was adjacent had beautiful large trees and more animal sculptures.

 

The Mediterranean Garden was the next garden, which features the most beautiful large flowers and more tall trees.

 

The Olive Grove didn’t feature many flowers but the wide bearing olive trees made this area very romantic. Adjacent to this garden is the restaurant Pollen, which serves French-Mediterranean cuisine.

 

The Californian Garden was the last garden to visit before heading down to the Flower Field. Before going  up the stairs we came across the sculpture La famille de voyageurs, which represents a travelling family leaving Singapore and taking with them beautiful memories and leaving a little part of themselves behind. The California garden features many bright colourful flowers, as well as sculptures of the Winnie the Pooh characters.

 

The Flower Field is accessible on the bottom level. As you walk down to it you walk along the wall, which gives great views of the Marina Bay and many colorful flowers to keep your camera occupied. The heart of the Flower Field is really a feast for the eyes and it was definitely my favorite garden in the Dome. Because it was during the Chinese New Year, we were treated with display of dahlias, camellias and bromeliadts, as well as Chinese themed installations and animal sculptures. This garden display does change theme regularly, so you can be sure to see something new if you visit again.

 

I hope you enjoyed my tour of the Gardens by the Bay Flower Dome. If you visiting Singapore this is definitely not an attraction you should miss. In my next post I will take you through the Cloud Forest to show you another amazing feat of horticulture.