In yet another testament to Singapore’s title as a tourist destination, Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay has been voted the eighth-best attraction in the world as part of TripAdvisor’s 2024 Travellers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best.
These awards are based on the quality and quantity of reviews and ratings collected over a year on travellers’ favourite destinations, hotels, restaurants, beaches, amusement parks and things to do around the world.
Gardens by The Bay has an average rating of 4.5 stars out of five, based on more than 60,000 reviews.
It lost to New York’s Empire State Building, Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House, Barcelona’s Basílica de la Sagrada Familia, Cayman Islands’ Cayman Crystal Caves, Rome’s Colosseum and Paris’ Louvre Museum.
Nevertheless, it surpassed Italy’s cathedral Duomo di Milano and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center in Abu Dhabi respectively.
The award winners represents fewer than 1 per cent of the eight million listings on TripAdvisor.
Traveller reviews called Gardens by The Bay “stunning” and “out of this world” and many praised the technology behind the garden, wide variety of plants and Cloud Forest’s impressive indoor waterfall.
While it seems like Gardens by the Bay has been in Singapore forever, it’s actually relatively new, compared to the other attractions in the list.
First opened to the public on 29 June 2012, the nature park spans 101 hectares (250 acres) of reclaimed land in Singapore’s Central Region, adjacent to the Marina Reservoir. It consists of three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden (the largest at 54 hectares), Bay East Garden, and Bay Central Garden.
The park’s most notable features include the Flower Dome, the largest glass greenhouse in the world, and the Cloud Forest, which houses a 35-metre indoor waterfall.
The Supertree Grove, with its towering vertical gardens reaching up to 50 metre tall, is another key attraction that is now associated with anything Singapore.
Visitors can enjoy a bird’s-eye view of the gardens from the 128-metre-long OCBC Skyway, a suspended walkway connecting two Supertrees.
Gardens by the Bay is open daily from 9 am to 9 pm, with the outdoor gardens accessible from 5 am to 2 am.
Admission charges apply for the conservatories and the OCBC Skyway, while the outdoor gardens are free to visit.