Unlike S.E.A. Aquarium I would highly recommend you buy your tickets online for Gardens by the Bay, print them out, and get them stamped at the turnstiles in to the two conservatories. Because they are actual tickets! Yes! The queues for tickets were horrendous when we went (Good Friday) so online tickets are a good thing.
It’s free to wander around the Gardens by the Bay park but it’s $20 for local residents to see two conservatories and $28 for horrible, yucky, non local tourists. That’s $8 extra for cleaning costs after you touch everything with your filthy hands. You can visit one conservatory at $12 if you’re a local and I haven’t a clue what it is if you’re a tourist. Probably $50. We went to see two.
First up was the Cloud Forest conservatory which is pretty impressive. It’s also pretty cold in there if you don’t like that sort of thing. You see, it’s replicating the climate of high altitude flora. Science. You take an elevator from the ground floor to the top and then work your way down. It’s pretty neat and has some walkways creeping out over the dome so if you’re afeared of heights you can skip that. Yeah, so that’s that one. Some nice things to see on the way down.
Next one is the Flower Dome conservatory. This was hell. There was too many people and the flowers were just not that interesting if you are being pushed and prodded from all angles. The Cherry Blossoms were in bloom but the walk through them was like wading through a tube of congealed human matter. Wasn’t fun. The blossoms weren’t even in the anticipated Japanese-esque vibrancy. Didn’t stop people stopping and taking selfies every ten seconds though. GET THE HELL OUTTA MY WAYYY!! *SOB*…
We got out of there. It’s about 15/20 minute walk to Bayfront MRT (depending on how much energy and soul was sapped from you) to escape the madness.
So if you like flowers and stuff it’s a must see. If you want to just see an interesting attraction just pay to visit the Cloud Forest conservatory and take a wander around the park. And don’t visit on public holidays.
