During my reconnoitre of Marina Bay, I hit up the Flowers, Lights, Food and Views that bombard the tourist. There is plenty I missed in the 24 hours I spent in the area though and my number one bit of advice to travellers? Allow for a lot more time to explore and get an early start. Also make full use of the cool time in the domes when it gets too hot.
Flowers and Domes
Gardens by the bay is home to the world’s largest green house and so much more. I would recommend the bundle package that allows you to enter every attraction and unlimited shuttle rides. Compared to Universal Studios the attractions are highly affordable.
Cloud Forest
It was a cool reprieve in the Cloud Forest dome. You start of down the bottom and make your way slowly up the waterfall and as you do so you get to experience the different levels of a rainforest. It’s incredibly well curated and full of original artworks to discover as well. My favourite plants are the carnivorous section.
Flower Dome
I’d booked a very fancy dinner so the flower dome didn’t get the attention it deserved and I think it would be better to explore during the daytime. So here is some more pics and allow for more then an hour to explore.
Floral Fantasy
Please don’t confuse Floral Fantasy with the flower dome (like I did). Floral Fantasy is a bit of a walk (or shuttle ride) from the other domes and a completely different attraction despite the similar name to Flower Dome. With Floral Fantasy we had a to book a time as they limit the number of visitors going through at once. This makes it a quiet and relaxed experience that I would describe as a (excuse my language) florist’s orgasm. It’s whimsical, colourful and unique.
There is also a tiny little 4D cinema to enjoy. It’s essentially an expensive advert for what you can do in the park and not essential viewing if you were tight on time, but cute.
Lights & Luxury
Book a room facing the the city, to get a birds eye view of Spectra, the nightly light show. you won’t have any sound but you also avoid all the crowds. Marina Bay Sands is the most expensive hotel I’ve ever stayed at and definitely not a regular thing. For one night I got to experience luxury.
Food & Drink
There is plenty of amazing food and drink options in Marina Bay. I looooooved the Dumpling place at the far end. But if you are willing to catch an uber, its a short hop to the Long Bar, which is an essential bit of Singapore history. Personally I think the Singapore Sling, it’s signature cocktail is a bit overrated though. For my money and the best cocktails, go hit Atlas, the most impressive gin bar I’ve ever imagined. But what hurt my wallet the most, was the Tea cafe. Earl grey ice-cream was life-changing 🤤
Views
When you book a room, you get free access to the infinity pool and the tower views which is really what you are paying for when you book a room. Otherwise you pay $23 to use the elevator and viewing deck. And why would you want to pay that when you can get the same views in a dressing gown and slippers! Actually they don’t let you on the viewing deck in your hotel slippers and will send you back down to your room to change shoes.
Geocache
Snuck in a sneaky geocache just before heading out. There aren’t many geocaches in Singapore, but Marina Bay is where you’ll find the biggest cluster. This is where we waved goodbye to the koala collected in Noble Falls. Good luck lil’ fella!
What else
So during the reconnoitre of Marina Bay I missed out on the ArtScience museum, the Super Trees and a whole bunch of statues. If I had my time again I would allow for 2 extra days to wander around and explore the gardens. One hour for each dome was just not enough and I felt super rushed to see everything. It was a shame that I was flying out the next day otherwise the bundle tickets don’t have to be used on the same day as purchase.