Singapore Gardens By The Bay Travel Guide: What You Need To Know (2023 Update)

I loved visiting Gardens by the Bay and I'm going to answer the top seven questions that people have about visiting Gardens by the Bay. Number one, what is the difference between Flower Dome and Cloud Forest? So the Cloud Forest, this is the one where you see the actual indoor waterfall with the walkways. The Flower Dome is basically a huge collections of flowers from around the world. They are immaculately displayed and curated. It is gorgeous in there, you guys, and you're going to be able to get a lot of awesome shots, especially if you want to do like a photo shoot or portraits, for example. If you absolutely love plants and flowers, you would totally enjoy the Flower Dome. If you're not really big on plants, maybe you can just skip this one because it's literally just plants. And honestly, you can see a lot of these plants as you actually travel around the world. So the Flower Dome is if you really, really love flowers and plants. Otherwise, I think you could skip this one. If I could only choose one, I would go for the Cloud Forest because of the very unique indoor waterfall. Because for me, when choosing whether or not I want to, you know, spend money for an experience, I always ask myself, is this architecture or experience really unique? And in this case, yeah, the indoor waterfall really is really unique. And the fact that you can see Marina Bay Sands from parts of the Cloud Forest, it really adds to the uniqueness of this biodome. And yeah, the structure is really cool. There was a thunderstorm while we were visiting the Cloud Forest, and I just loved it because it felt really special with the lightning hitting the sky. And I mean, I was mesmerized by this awesome structure surrounded by plants anyways, but we also caught a little bit of the Avatar experience. This whole experience inside the Cloud Forest was really amazing and unique to me, and you guys should check it out. Second question, when is the best time to visit Gardens by the Bay? I would say about two hours before sunset, and this is why. So before you get here, do a quick Google search of, you know, what time the sun is going to set that day that you plan on visiting. I say that because the plants would be a lot better in daytime, especially in the Flower Dome. I also loved the lighting at night for the Cloud Forest. And of course, the Super Tree Grove is a lot prettier at night. In the daytime, it doesn't do that much for me, honestly. And it's just really hot out here, and you might be just miserable walking around, you know, through a bunch of plants. But if you come at night, you'll be able to catch the free light show at the Super Tree Grove, which I think is kind of an essential part of visiting Singapore. So to me, the sweet spot is to start about two hours before sunset. Start with Flower Dome so you can get some really nice daylight shots instead of what I got, which is a bunch of flash photography. And then from the Flower Dome, move on to the Cloud Forest, and you know, you can get some really cool shots with some daylight, and then you can also get some really cool shots with the lighting at night. And especially, once again, being able to see Marina Bay Sands in the distance, it looks a lot prettier with the nightscape, in my opinion. Alright, the next question is, what parts of the Gardens by the Bay is free? So it's totally free to wander around Gardens by the Bay. The only thing you have to pay for is if you want to go inside the two conservatories or biodomes. So if you want to go inside the Cloud Forest, you got to pay for that. If you want to go inside the Flower Dome, you got to pay for that. And you've probably seen pictures of these all over the internet, so these are the things that you have to buy tickets for. If you want to walk on the small bridge in the Supertree Grove, you have to pay for that too, but that is the cheapest option out of the three paid options, and I would recommend doing that at night because I think it's a lot prettier at night. They constantly have limited time special events here, so you can check the events out before you plan your trip and see if you want to pay to see any of these exhibits. For example, right now, they are running the Avatar exhibit until March 2023, and that was a really cool thing. We saw parts of the Avatar experience when we were there, so that was really neat. And you've probably seen the light shows in the Supertrees light up at night, right? If you want to see this, you can totally do it for free. There are two light shows each night, one at 7.45pm and one at 8.45pm. Each of these shows last about 15 minutes, so I would get there a little bit earlier before it starts so you can get a really good spot to watch it. And you guys, this was one of my favorite memories in Singapore. I highly recommend it. Just a side note, it's perfect for a date night for couples. We really loved it there. Alright, next question! How long do you need? When we were there, they gave us time limits of about 45 minutes in each conservatory, and we didn't stay long enough to see if it would actually be enforced, but one thing to know for the Cloud Forest is we thought we could wander back and forth more freely, but it was more of a guided path, and it's a little tricky to backtrack as you move along this walkway. So for example, I thought we could come back to get a shot with this after we walked up to the top, but how the paths are structured, it actually dumps you out into the gift shop at the end. So depending on how busy it is when you guys are here, and also how much time you have, I would just take a picture with this or anything else along the way instead of thinking you can backtrack because it's kind of tricky. Alright, next question! Is there food inside for sale? So there are restaurants inside Gardens by the Bay, but they didn't look too enticing to me honestly. So what I would actually suggest is to have a big lunch or early dinner since you're hopefully coming here about two hours before sunset. So just eat before you come here and then you'd be able to walk off all that food as you wander through Gardens by the Bay. And another budget-friendly option is you can actually picnic in the gardens. So you can bring your own food and drink and eat in the garden itself. It just might be really hot. Alright, so this is a really good question. Is this worth visiting? I was actually talking to a local Singaporean about visiting Gardens by the Bay, and he told me with a smile, it's nice, but it's just flowers. So what I took from that is, you know, keep my expectations in check. And maybe the internet might ramp up more hype than what it actually is. For me personally, I love flowers, I love plants. It's absolutely worth visiting for me, especially the Cloud Forest. And yeah, even the flower dome was really cool. And Singapore is super duper hot and humid as you probably know. In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to spend a hot afternoon in Singapore. It is really nice and cool inside the conservatories. And once again, the Cloud Forest offers a really unique structure. And they're very intentional about, you know, curating their plants and flowers in here. It's a really enjoyable experience. And here's a last bonus question. Would I go back to Gardens by the Bay? Yeah, I would go back. I would go back to the Cloud Forest if they had a special exhibit that I was interested in. And next time I go, I'm going to actually try out the OCBC walkway at night. That's something we didn't do, but I'd try that out next time. So I hope you enjoyed my travel tips for Gardens by the Bay. If you want to see more travel tips for Singapore, please check out my playlist here. And I will see you in the next video.