Gardens by the Bay is a great place to come and get some photos of some of Singapore’s iconic landmarks. And when it gets too hot, the two conservatories are welcome places to duck into to cool down. Ideally, I’d say to come early in the morning before it gets too hot for the best photo opportunities.

One of the walks that can be done is to take an easy ten minute stroll out to the Marina Barrage. I came here early one morning to see if I could get some good shots of the Singapore skyline. There is some construction going on nearby and it’s hard to block out the crane if you want a picture of Marina Bay Sands. But there’s a nice view of the Flyer.

Walking back to the Gardens from the Barrage, there’s a path that goes down by the “lake” on the left after the Satay by the Bay eating stalls. This is Kingfisher Island, where there are sculptures of birds (yes, the kingfisher) and is also a nice aquatic habitat.

Once back at the main section of the Gardens, I think the best part to walk, however, is past the Supertrees Grove and down to the left where you can cut through the Colonial Garden and into a path alongside the water. This takes you by the Dragonfly Island – where there are large steel sculptures of dragonflies.

Walking further along the path past the dragonfly sculptures takes you underneath the overhead bridge that links the Gardens to the Bayfront MRT station and Marina Bay Sands. You’ll get a nice view of the Flyer as well in the distance.

Further up is another good place for a photo of more of the Supertrees with one of the glass domed conservatories.

By now I was drenched in sweat. The path leads back to the area known as The Canopy where the booths to buy tickets for the Flower Dome and/or the Cloud Forest are. There’s also a gift shop and a small cafe. Since I needed to cool down, I opted to buy a ticket for the Cloud Forest.

Just to note, the nice thing about this area by the Dragonfly Lake is that it’s easily accessible from the Bayfront MRT or Marina Bay Sands. So if you’re coming from that direction, it’s easy to get to this path from either The Canopy or the Colonial Garden.

Before going into the Cloud Forest, I went around the side to take some photos of the exterior of the domes.

One of the reasons I like the Cloud Forest over the Flower Dome is that the waterfall feature and periodic misting makes this a more unusual conservatory. It also features tropical rainforest vegetation which I think is more mysterious. I also think it’s the cooler of the two domes – great on a particularly hot day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you can, I recommend coming around the time that they do a misting. This takes place once every two hours starting at 10am. This provides a sense of that tropical rainforest mistiness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in, I spent around almost three hours at Gardens by the Bay on this walk and photo taking spree – finishing up just in time for lunch. I think if you’re not taking photos, the time spent should be much shorter. So there  is time to visit the Flower Dome or to do the Supertrees Skyway walk.

For photography, I think it’s best to come in the morning as the lighting in the afternoon is not as ideal for photos of Marina Bay Sands as the sun sets behind it. You may lose some detail in photos as a result.

For more information on Gardens by the Bay, visit their website: http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/home.html