Gardens by the Bay

Gardens by the Bay is TripAdvisor's number one attraction in Singapore — a 101-hectare park of Supertrees, cloud forests, and flower domes that transformed reclaimed land behind Marina Bay Sands into a botanical spectacle that draws over 15 million visitors a year. The park is the centrepiece of Singapore's 'City in a Garden' vision, and it delivers on that ambition with the kind of precision that Singapore applies to everything.

The Supertree Grove is the park's most recognisable feature — 18 steel-and-concrete structures between 25 and 50 metres tall, covered in living vertical gardens of orchids, ferns, and bromeliads. At night, the Garden Rhapsody light-and-sound show transforms the Supertrees into a neon forest of colour and music, and the show is free, which in Singapore is notable. The OCBC Skyway, a 128-metre walkway connecting two of the tallest Supertrees at 22 metres above the ground, gives you a walking-height view of the grove and the city skyline beyond.

The two conservatories — the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest — are the world's largest column-free glasshouses. The Flower Dome recreates Mediterranean and semi-arid climates with a rotating display of flowers that changes seasonally. The Cloud Forest houses a 35-metre indoor waterfall and recreates the cool, misty conditions of tropical highland forests at altitudes of 1,000 to 3,000 metres — a surreal experience in a city that sits virtually on the equator. The outdoor gardens are free; the conservatories require tickets but are worth every dollar.