If you love the movie Crazy Rich Asians and are looking for something fun to do in Singapore, then visiting Gardens by the Bay needs to be at the top of your itinerary. Gardens by the Bay is one of Asia’s foremost garden destinations, featuring multiple different attractions in the same park. It houses two huge glass biomes (the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome) as well as outdoor observatories and new eco-friendly accommodation within the park.
The most recognizable portion of this park (at least for an American such as myself) is the Supertree Observatory, which is featured in Araminta and Colin’s wedding reception in Crazy Rich Asians. The “trees” found here are actually vertical gardens that house over 162,900 plants of over 200 different species, with several of them being designed to harvest solar energy. The observatory comes to life at night with spectacular light shows occurring at 7:45 and 8:45pm daily.
My favorite attraction at Gardens by the Bay was the Cloud Forest, which is home to one of the world’s largest indoor waterfalls. It features a lush mountain with several aerial walkways that let visitors admire exotic plants found around the world. You can ride an elevator to the mountain’s peak and then use the walkways to make your way back down to the base of the mountain while enjoying over 135 different species of flora. The biome uses thermal stratification to help maintain the cool and humid air needed for the plants housed here. As of June 2023, there is an additional immersive exhibit found within the Cloud Forest titled Avatar: The Experience that replicates the world of Pandora and its bioluminescent environments and unique flora.
While the Cloud Forest features mountainous plants, the Flower Dome has flora from the Mediterranean and arid South American and African regions. It holds the Guinness world record as the largest glass greenhouse and its volume is equivalent to 75 olympic-sized swimming pools- needless to say, it holds a lot of flowers. You can explore the garden on your own or with a free guided tour.
The new Garden Pod immersive accommodation in the heart of the park is an eco-friendly concept designed for guests who would like to participate in an overnight stay in the tranquil gardens found at the park. I did not visit this so I cannot speak on it personally, but if you are up for spending more money on accommodation and want to stay somewhere unique then this may be just the place for you.
Gardens by the Bay was one of the most enjoyable tourist attractions in Singapore for me. You can easily spend several hours exploring it and it is located at Marina Bay, making it close to many other attractions and just next to the downtown area.
