Gardens by the Bay and the SkyPark in One Day: The Order Matters

These two are so close that the question is never whether to combine them. It is which one you are standing on when the light goes.

They are separated by a road and a bridge. Gardens by the Bay publishes an overhead link from Marina Bay Sands – the Garden Bay Bridge – open 8 am to 11 pm, and an underground linkway from Bayfront MRT station, exit B, which serves both. Walking between them is a few minutes, not a journey.

So the day is not limited by distance. It is limited by four published times that were never designed to fit together.

The four times that decide everything

• Sunset: between about 6:50 pm and 7:25 pm, every month of the year. Singapore sits roughly one degree north of the equator, so this barely moves.
• Cloud Forest last admission: 8 pm. Half an hour earlier than the other paid parts of the Gardens, which take their last admission at 8:30 pm.
• Garden Rhapsody at the Supertrees: 7:45 pm and 8:45 pm, nightly, free to stand under.
• Spectra, the water and light show, at ground level on the Event Plaza at the foot of the hotel: 8 pm and 9 pm nightly, with a third at 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Look at those four and the conflict is obvious. The best hour on the SkyPark is the hour either side of sunset. So is the first Garden Rhapsody. And the Cloud Forest shuts its door at 8 pm, in the middle of both.

The two orders, and what each one costs you

Gardens first, then up. Do the conservatories in the afternoon heat – they are air-conditioned, which is the whole point of being indoors at 2 pm in Singapore – then take an evening SkyPark Observation Deck slot and watch Garden Rhapsody from above at 8:45 pm.

What you lose: the show seen from 56 floors up is a pattern of light, not a performance. The speakers are on the ground.

Up first, then down into the Gardens. Take a SkyPark slot that starts before sunset, come down, cross the bridge, stand in the grove for the 8:45 pm Garden Rhapsody.

What you lose: the Cloud Forest, unless you were through its door before 8 pm. In practice that means doing the conservatories earlier in the day anyway – which is the first order with extra walking.

Our recommendation: conservatories in the afternoon, SkyPark for the sunset slot, and come down for the second Garden Rhapsody. It is the version where nothing has to be rushed, and the only thing you give up is the 7:45 pm show.

What you actually see from each, and why they are not duplicates

The SkyPark deck ticket – from €23.89, 4.5 stars, 7,937 reviews, the most-reviewed offer in our whole Singapore inventory – puts you on the 56th floor looking down. The Supertrees, from there, are objects in a plan. The Strait beyond is full of anchored ships. It is a view about distance.

The Supertree Observatory and OCBC Skyway put you 22 metres up, in among the trees, looking at Marina Bay Sands. The operator describes the tallest Supertree as about the height of a 16-storey building. It is a view about being inside the thing.

They are not competing. They are each other’s subject. Whichever you do second, you will spend part of it looking at where you were standing before.

And one that is not a substitute for either: the postcard photograph of three towers with a boat across the top is a picture of Marina Bay Sands. You cannot take it from the roof of Marina Bay Sands. Our comparison of Singapore’s viewpoints covers where that shot is actually taken from.

Money: what the combination really costs

There is no single ticket for both. They are separate operators.

Counting at the published non-resident gate rates, the two Gardens conservatories are SGD 46 for an adult, and the Supertree Observatory or the OCBC Skyway are SGD 14 each. Add a SkyPark ticket and a family of four is well into three figures for one afternoon and evening.

There is a packaged version – a Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay SkyPark trip with two-way transfer, four hours, from €85.32. Be honest about what that rating means, though: 3.6 stars from three reviews is not a verdict, it is three opinions. The transfer is what you are paying the premium for, and these two places are the two in Singapore that need a transfer least – Bayfront station serves both, and the bridge between them takes minutes.

If a car matters to you – heat, small children, mobility – that is a real reason. If it does not, the transfer is buying you nothing here.

When to split them over two days instead

• You are travelling with small children. The suggested durations alone – about an hour in each conservatory – plus a timed SkyPark slot plus waiting for a show at 8:45 pm is a very long day. See Gardens by the Bay with children.
• The sky is grey. The SkyPark is a view, and there is no refund for cloud. The conservatories are indoors and unaffected. On a bad-weather day, do the Gardens and keep the SkyPark for a clear evening.
• You want the Gardens properly. If the plants are the reason you came, an hour each is a schedule, not a visit. Gardens by the Bay for plant lovers makes the case for giving them a morning.
• One of the paid attractions is closed. Each of the Gardens’ paid parts shuts one day a month for maintenance, on its own schedule. Check your date.

A workable timetable

The bridge closes at 11 pm, which is later than any of this.

Practical points

• Book the SkyPark slot ahead. Entry is sold in timed slots and the evening ones go first. Which half of the day to pick is its own question – see SkyPark in daylight or after dark.
• Assume one entry per ticket on both sides. We found no operator statement confirming same-day re-entry to either.
• The SkyPark deck is outdoors. Rain and wind reach you; the conservatories do not have that problem.
• Everything above comes from the operators’ published pages on the date at the top. Confirm times and prices for your own date rather than trusting an article, including this one.

Which parts of the Gardens are worth paying for at all is covered in Gardens by the Bay: which ticket do you need. The rest of the evening – the shows, the cruises, the night bus – is in Singapore after dark. Tickets for both sites sit on our Singapore attractions page.