Gardens by the Bay: Which Ticket Do You Actually Need?

Start with the fact that changes the whole question: you do not need a ticket to walk into Gardens by the Bay. The outdoor gardens – Supertree Grove included – are published by the operator as open daily from 5 am to 2 am, at no charge. So is Bay East Garden, which is listed as open around the clock.

What is sold is the enclosed parts. Five of them, priced separately, in almost every possible combination. That is why the ticketing looks confusing: it is not one attraction with one door.

What is free and what is not

Two things in that table catch people out. The first is Garden Rhapsody: the show at the Supertrees that appears in dozens of paid evening tours is free to stand under. The second is the Cloud Forest line – its last admission is half an hour earlier than everything else, which is exactly the sort of detail that ruins a plan built around one closing time.

Each of the paid attractions also closes once a month for maintenance, on its own schedule. That is published on the operator’s site and is worth a glance for your date.

The two listings that look like the same ticket

In our Singapore inventory, the two most-reviewed Gardens listings are the Gardens by the Bay entry ticket – from €6.83, 4.3 stars, 4,232 reviews – and the Gardens by the Bay admission e-ticket, from €16.38, 4.4 stars, 3,910 reviews.

Nearly identical names. Nearly identical ratings. Nearly identical review counts. A from-price that differs by almost ten euros.

The star ratings will not tell these two apart, and neither will the titles. The difference is which enclosures are included, and in which combination – and that is stated on each booking page, under the inclusions. Read that list before you pay. It is the single most useful thirty seconds in this whole process.

There is also a Flower Dome and Cloud Forest ticket sold as a pair, from €25.08, 4.4 stars from 50 reviews, which is the straightforward version of the most common choice.

What each paid part is, and how long it takes

Flower Dome. The operator holds a Guinness World Record for it as the largest glass greenhouse, and it is covered by 3,332 glass panels. Inside it is kept at 23 to 25 °C – cool and dry, which after an hour outdoors in Singapore is a large part of the appeal. It is laid out as a set of regional gardens: Mediterranean, Californian, South African, Australian, South American, an Olive Grove, a Succulent Garden, the Baobabs and a central Flower Field that is replanted for seasonal displays. Suggested visit: about an hour.

Cloud Forest. A single planted tower under glass with a 35 metre indoor waterfall down its face, walked from the top down on suspended walkways. Kept at 23 to 25 °C with humidity of 80 to 90 per cent – cool, but wet air, and the walkways are in mist. Suggested visit: about an hour. At the time of writing the operator is running Jurassic World: The Experience inside it, with animatronic dinosaurs, and its own notice warns of loud sound effects and flashing lights.

OCBC Skyway. A 128 metre walkway suspended 22 metres above the ground between two Supertrees. Suggested visit: 15 minutes. It is the cheapest paid thing here and the shortest. The operator states that admission may be suspended during bad weather.

Supertree Observatory. Inside the tallest Supertree, which the operator describes as about the height of a 16-storey building. Two levels: an open-air rooftop deck, and an air-conditioned observatory deck below it with climate exhibits.

Floral Fantasy. A small indoor display divided into four zones – Dance, Float, Waltz and Drift – with a poison dart frog vivarium in one of them. Suggested visit: about an hour. It is a separate ticket and separate building from everything above.

Prices at the gate, and why they are not what you see

Gardens by the Bay publishes two price columns: one for Singapore residents and one for everyone else. As a non-resident, the published rates include Flower Dome and Cloud Forest together at SGD 46 for an adult and SGD 32 for a child aged 3 to 12; OCBC Skyway at SGD 14 adult, SGD 10 child; and Supertree Observatory at SGD 14 adult, SGD 10 child. Residents pay considerably less on every line.

The euro prices in this article are starting prices in our inventory on the date at the top, for particular ticket variants. They move, and they are not directly comparable with the gate rate. Check both before deciding that booking ahead saves money – sometimes it does, sometimes it only saves queueing.

Which combination for which visitor

• Two hours and one visit. Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, nothing else. That is roughly the two suggested hours, both enclosures are indoors and cool, and they are next to each other.
• You came for the Supertrees. Buy nothing. Walk in, stand in the grove for Garden Rhapsody at 7:45 pm or 8:45 pm. If you want to be up among them rather than under them, add the OCBC Skyway – it is 15 minutes and the cheapest line on the list.
• You want height. The Supertree Observatory is not a substitute for the SkyPark across the road; it is much lower and much cheaper. Our comparison of Singapore’s viewpoints covers what the tall ones actually show you.
• Rain, or a hot afternoon. The two conservatories are the reason to be here at midday. The outdoor gardens are not.

When to buy less than you are offered

Skip the Cloud Forest if the queue is long and you have an hour. It is a one-way walk down through mist; it does not reward being rushed.

Skip Floral Fantasy if the rest of the day is already full. It is another hour and another building, and it is the part most people report as an add-on rather than a reason to come.

Skip the whole thing on your last afternoon before a night flight. The suggested durations add up to three or four hours before you have walked between anything.

Do not buy an evening slot for the Cloud Forest after 8 pm. You will not be let in. That is the one hard edge in the timetable.

Practical points

• Getting there: Bayfront MRT station, exit B, then the underground linkway. From Marina Bay Sands there is an overhead bridge, the Garden Bay Bridge, which the operator lists as open 8 am to 11 pm.
• The paid attractions each close one day a month for maintenance. Confirm your date on the operator’s site.
• Nothing here is a timed queue-free guarantee. Buying online buys the ticket, not the crowd level.
• Everything above is taken from the operator’s published pages on the date at the top of this article. Times and prices are theirs to change – check yours before you go.

Tickets for the Gardens and for the rest of the city’s paid sights sit together on our Singapore attractions page. If you are fitting this around the hotel across the road, see the Gardens and the SkyPark in one day; with children, see Gardens by the Bay with children.