Gardens by the Bay costs nothing to walk into. The two glass domes at the middle of it cost $46. Singapore has eight gardens worth an afternoon, and knowing which gate is free is the whole trick.
Prices and opening times checked with the operatorLast checked 2 Aug 2026
What it costs
What "free" actually means
Eight places, and the exact gate where free stops
The useful question is never "is this garden free" but "where does the free part stop".
Gardens by the Bay is free to walk into, and the Cloud Forest inside it is not. The Singapore Botanic Gardens are free every day of the year, and the National Orchid Garden inside them has a ticket counter. Both of those are true at once, which is how people end up walking a long way to a gate that stops them.
The park is free; things built inside the park are sometimes not.
Once you see the pattern it holds everywhere. Eight places are worth the trip: six gardens in the ordinary sense, and two — Marina Barrage and East Coast Park — that are parks rather than gardens and earn their place anyway. For each one, where the free part ends, what the ticket costs, the hours, and the station you get off at.
Gardens by the Bay: free outside, ticketed inside the glass
Walking in costs nothing, and that includes far more than people expect. The paywall starts at the doors of the two cooled conservatories, at Floral Fantasy, and at the two aerial walkways.
- Free part
- Supertree Grove, Serene Garden, Sun Pavilion, Heritage Gardens, World of Plants, Dragonfly and Kingfisher Lakes, Kingfisher Wetlands, Active Garden, Bay East Garden
- Hours
- Outdoor gardens 5am–2am daily; Bay East Garden 24 hours
- Ticketed
- Flower Dome, Cloud Forest, Floral Fantasy, OCBC Skyway, Supertree Observatory
- Garden Rhapsody
- Free, nightly 7.45pm and 8.45pm at Supertree Grove
- Nearest MRT
- Bayfront (Downtown, Circle) exit B — 926 m, about 11 minutes
The catchA tourist cannot buy a single-conservatory ticket at any price and has to take the two-dome combination at $46. The Flower Dome on its own at $12 is a resident-only product, so if you see the Flower Dome advertised at $46, that is the combination price mislabelled.
Checked 2 Aug 2026
Gardens by the Bay runs two storefronts, one for visitors and one for Singapore residents, and the product lists are not the same.
Jurassic World: The Experience sits inside the Cloud Forest and is included on the two-dome ticket at no extra cost. Floral Fantasy, which is priced separately, is branded the Disney Garden of Wonder, with floral sets built around Disney and Pixar characters.
The Garden Rhapsody soundtrack rotates; through August 2026 it is Songs of Singapore, built around local artists for National Day. Admission to Supertree Grove can be charged during ticketed events such as Christmas Wonderland, so the free show is the normal state rather than a guarantee on every date.
From Bayfront the walk in runs over the Dragonfly Bridge. Gardens by the Bay station on the Thomson-East Coast Line is the better choice for the Marina Barrage side of the site.
Gardens by the Bay ticket prices, adult and child, non-peak
There is no single all-in Gardens ticket; each attraction is priced separately, with bundles discounted.
Singapore Botanic Gardens: free, except the orchids
One ticket counter on the whole site, and the sharpest resident discount in the country
Free entry for everyone, every day. Admission charges apply at one place on the whole site: the entrance to the National Orchid Garden.
- Free part
- Lawns, lakes, Rain Forest, Learning Forest, Healing Garden, Ginger Garden, Evolution Garden and every gallery on the site
- Hours
- 5am–midnight daily
- Orchid Garden
- $15 visitor adult · $5 resident adult · $3 senior 60+ and student, $1 as residents · under-12s free
- Orchid hours
- 8.30am–7pm, last ticket and last entry 6pm
- Nearest MRT
- Botanic Gardens (Circle, Downtown) at the Bukit Timah entrance; Napier (Thomson-East Coast) for Tanglin
- Parking
- Charged by the minute
The catchThe Jacob Ballas Children's Garden costs nothing but only admits children up to 14, every child must be with an adult, and it closes on Mondays unless the Monday is a public holiday.
Jacob Ballas runs 8am to 7pm, last entry 6.30pm. The Healing Garden closes every Tuesday. The Learning Forest is 7am to 7pm, with its raised sections shut 7pm to 7am.
Botanic Gardens station comes out at the Bukit Timah entrance, the shortest station-to-gate walk of the eight.
The Gardens are open 5am to midnight daily, a nineteen-hour day, which is why a sunrise walk here is one of the better free things in Singapore. And the National Orchid Garden's pricing is the sharpest resident discount in the country: a visitor adult pays $15, a resident adult pays $5.
Jurong Lake Gardens: free the whole way through
The one with no ticket counter anywhere inside it
Three linked gardens — Lakeside Garden, the Chinese Garden and the Japanese Garden — and NParks publishes no admission charge for any part of it, nor for the Bonsai Gallery, the Jurong Lake Gardens Gallery, the Breathing Gallery, Clusia Cove, the Butterfly Maze or the Forest Ramble nature playgarden.
- Free part
- All of it, every gallery and playgarden included
- Ticketed
- Nothing
- Hours
- Chinese and Japanese Gardens 5.30am–midnight daily; Lakeside Garden 24 hours
- Nearest MRT
- Lakeside (East-West) — 3 min to Lakeside Plaza, 12 min to the Entrance Pavilion; Chinese Garden — 5 min to the bridge, 8 min to Pagoda Plaza
The catchMonkey Play at the Forest Ramble is closed for maintenance until further notice.
Checked 2 Aug 2026
Lakeside Garden never closes.
Jurong East is 20 minutes away on foot and is not the station you want.
Fort Canning Park: free, historic, and central
Twenty-two hectares on a hill in the middle of town
The most convenient green space in Singapore for anyone staying in the city centre, and a park with content rather than just lawn.
- Free part
- All 22 hectares
- Hours
- 24 hours
- Ticketed
- Nothing published by NParks
- Nearest MRT
- Fort Canning, Clarke Quay or Dhoby Ghaut — three stations serve it
Nine historical gardens, the Spice Garden with over 180 varieties of herbs and spices, the last remnants of the colonial hilltop fort at the Fort Gate, a former Christian cemetery, the ASEAN Sculpture Garden, three outdoor murals by Eng Siak Loy, and the Fort Canning Heritage Gallery with artefacts dating back to the 1300s.
The Southern Ridges: Telok Blangah Hill Park and HortPark
Both free, and best treated as one walk rather than two destinations
You can walk from one to the other along the ridge, and most people should: the two parks are the two ends of the same route, and the walk between them is the reason to come.
Telok Blangah Hill Park
The Terrace Garden at the top is a series of semi-circular terraces with a view right around the island.
- Free part
- All 34 hectares, plus parking
- Hours
- 24 hours — but the Earth Trail has a hard no-entry cut-off after 7pm
- Ticketed
- Nothing
- Forest Walk
- 1.3 km elevated walkway at canopy level, plus the harder Earth Trail below it
- Henderson Waves
- 274 m long, the tallest pedestrian bridge in Singapore
- Accessibility
- None — no wheelchair access anywhere in this park
The catchA section of footpath below the Therapeutic Garden has been closed for slope works since 13 June 2025, with completion expected 31 March 2028.
Checked 2 Aug 2026
HortPark
The gardening end of the Southern Ridges, with themed display gardens.
- Free part
- All 10.7 hectares
- Hours
- 6am–11pm
- Ticketed
- Nothing
- Address
- 33 Hyderabad Road
- Visitor services
- 9am–12pm and 1pm–5pm weekdays · 8.30am–12.30pm weekends and public holidays
- Nearest MRT
- HarbourFront, Labrador Park, Commonwealth or Queenstown
The catchSections of the Forest Walk are unlit between 7pm and 7am while maintenance runs, with completion expected 30 September 2026. Walk it in daylight until then.
Checked 2 Aug 2026
Start at HarbourFront
The standard route begins here — it is also one of the stations NParks lists for HortPark.
Up through Mount Faber
The first of the substantial climbs.
Across Henderson Waves
The wave-form bridge on the way in, 274 m long.
Into Telok Blangah Hill Park
Detour up to the Terrace Garden for the island-wide view.
Along the Forest Walk to Alexandra Arch
Take the elevated walkway at canopy level, or the Earth Trail below it before 7pm.
Out at HortPark
Two hours of real walking with substantial climbs, and free the whole way.
Marina Barrage: free, and the best kite field in Singapore
A sloping lawn on a roof, open around the clock
The roof is a wide sloping lawn with a straight view across the water to the city skyline, and the steady wind over it makes it the place people in Singapore actually go to fly kites.
- Free part
- Public areas and the Green Roof, open 24 hours
- Ticketed
- Nothing published by PUB, including the Sustainable Singapore Gallery
- Gallery hours
- 9am–6pm, closed 12pm–1pm every day and all day on Tuesdays
- Guided tours
- Hourly except over that lunch hour, last at 5pm
- Nearest MRT
- Gardens by the Bay (Thomson-East Coast) exit 1 — 619 m, about 7 minutes
- Bus
- 400, 7am–11.30pm, every 15–20 minutes
The catchAs a Catchment Area Park under the Public Utilities regulations it allows no alcohol and no fireworks, and the whole site is smoke-free.
The 619 m walk is three times the straight-line distance because the path goes around the water rather than across it.
Bus 400 is boarded at International Plaza, stop 03223, from Tanjong Pagar, or Marina Bay Financial Centre, stop 03391.
East Coast Park: free, but a beach park rather than a garden
13 km of coast, free around the clock, and not a garden
180 hectares stretching over 13 km of coast, open 24 hours, free to enter. It is a beach, a cycling corridor, hawker centres and sports facilities.
- Free part
- All of it, 24 hours
- Ticketed
- Nothing — but parking is charged in most car parks
- Size
- 180 hectares over 13 km, Areas A to H
- Nearest MRT
- Bedok is NParks' answer; Marine Parade (Thomson-East Coast) is closer to the western sections
- Connectors
- On the Eastern Coastal Loop and the Round Island Route
The catchThere is no single nearest MRT, because NParks designates no primary entrance and the park runs 13 km end to end. Pick the area you want first, then the station for it.
What it is good for is a long flat ride or walk with the sea on one side, and food at the end of it. If you came looking for planting, go to Jurong Lake Gardens instead.
Best time of day, and how long each needs
Before 10.30am or after 4.30pm — the middle of the day is where garden visits go wrong
All eight are outdoors and unshaded in parts, and Singapore is one degree north of the equator. The window that works is before about 10.30am or after about 4.30pm. The middle of the day is when people cut a garden visit short and remember it as disappointing.
Late March to May and October to November bring afternoon and early-evening thunderstorms, at times severe. December to mid-January is the wettest stretch of the year. The Southwest Monsoon from June to September puts its rain in the early morning and clears, leaving usable afternoons. Late January to early March is windy and comparatively dry, and is the best window for walking any of these.
Gardens by the Bay
Garden Rhapsody at 7.45pm and 8.45pm, and the outdoor gardens stay open long after it.
Singapore Botanic Gardens
A nineteen-hour day, so a late walk works as well as a sunrise one.
Marina Barrage
The only one here that looks better after dark than before it.
How long to allow, and where the ticket starts
| Place | Nearest MRT | Free part | What is ticketed | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gardens by the Bay | Bayfront (DT16/CC34), 11 min walk | All outdoor gardens, 5am to 2am, plus Garden Rhapsody | Flower Dome, Cloud Forest, Floral Fantasy, OCBC Skyway, Supertree Observatory | Half to full day |
| Singapore Botanic Gardens | Botanic Gardens (CC19/DT9), at the gate | Everything, 5am to midnight, including Jacob Ballas and all galleries | National Orchid Garden only | Half day |
| Jurong Lake Gardens | Lakeside (EW26), 3 min walk | All of it, plus the weekday Garden Cruiser shuttle | Nothing | Half day |
| Fort Canning Park | Fort Canning (DT20), Clarke Quay, Dhoby Ghaut | All of it, 24 hours | Nothing published by NParks | 1 to 2 hours |
| Telok Blangah Hill Park | HarbourFront end of the Southern Ridges | All of it, 24 hours; Earth Trail no entry after 7pm | Nothing | 2 to 3 hours with the ridge walk |
| HortPark | Labrador Park (CC27) or HarbourFront | All of it, 6am to 11pm | Nothing | 1 to 2 hours |
| Marina Barrage | Gardens by the Bay (TE22), 7 min walk | Green roof and public areas, 24 hours; gallery 9am to 6pm | Nothing published by PUB | 1 to 2 hours |
| East Coast Park | Bedok (EW5/DT30) or Marine Parade (TE27), by area | All of it, 24 hours | Nothing; car parks are charged | Half day |
Everything here is a half day except Gardens by the Bay with both conservatories, which is a full afternoon on its own and becomes a full day if you add Marina Barrage next door.
If you only have time for one
Three answers, depending on what you came for
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Free with a single well-defined exception, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the station is at the gate, and the free part is large enough to fill a morning without spending anything. Buy the orchid ticket if orchids interest you and skip it without regret if they do not.
Gardens by the Bay
Arrive around 6.30pm, walk the free outdoor gardens as the light goes, and stay for Garden Rhapsody at 7.45pm. That is a complete evening for the price of the MRT ride.
Jurong Lake Gardens
For anyone who wants a garden with no asterisks at all. Nothing inside it has a price.
The park is free; things built inside the park are sometimes not.
What a local knows
The maintenance calendars are what actually spoil a garden day here, and they are not where visitors look. Gardens by the Bay shuts one ticketed attraction a month on a rotating date, so a Tuesday in August can mean no Skyway. At Jurong Lake Gardens six separate attractions close on Mondays, and when the Monday is a public holiday they close the Tuesday instead, which is exactly the day a tourist would choose. The Botanic Gardens galleries do something stranger: the Heritage Museum and the Forest Discovery Centre close every last Monday of the month, the Botanical Art Gallery every last Thursday, the CDL Green Gallery every last Tuesday and the Centre for Ethnobotany every last Wednesday. Nothing on any signboard warns you, and the parks themselves stay open, so you walk in, find four doors locked, and never find out why. Check the date, not just the day.
Questions people actually ask
Is Gardens by the Bay free?
The outdoor gardens are, and they are open 5am to 2am. Supertree Grove, the Heritage Gardens, World of Plants, Kingfisher Wetlands, Bay East Garden and the nightly Garden Rhapsody light show at 7.45pm and 8.45pm all cost nothing. The Flower Dome, Cloud Forest, Floral Fantasy, OCBC Skyway and Supertree Observatory are ticketed.
How much is the Cloud Forest?
A visitor cannot buy it on its own. Gardens by the Bay sells single-conservatory tickets to Singapore residents only, at $26.00 for a resident adult. Visitors have to take the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest combination at $46.00 for an adult and $32.00 for a child.
Are the Singapore Botanic Gardens free?
Yes, free entry for everyone every day, 5am to midnight. The only ticketed part is the National Orchid Garden: $15.00 for a visitor adult, $5.00 for a resident adult, $3.00 for seniors and students, and free for children under 12.
Which Singapore garden is completely free with nothing ticketed inside?
Jurong Lake Gardens. NParks publishes no admission charge for Lakeside Garden, the Chinese Garden, the Japanese Garden or any gallery or attraction inside them, and the weekday Garden Cruiser shuttle between the ends of the site is free too.
Is the Sustainable Singapore Gallery at Marina Barrage free?
PUB publishes no admission charge for it, or for anything else at Marina Barrage. It opens 9am to 6pm, closes 12pm to 1pm daily and all day on Tuesdays, and hourly guided tours run with the last at 5pm.
What is the best time of day to visit a garden in Singapore?
Before 10.30am or after 4.30pm. All eight are outdoors and much of them unshaded. Gardens by the Bay to 2am, the Botanic Gardens to midnight and Marina Barrage around the clock all make an evening visit practical.
Do I need a full day for any of these?
Only Gardens by the Bay, and only if you are going inside the conservatories. Everything else is a half day or less. Pairing Marina Barrage with Gardens by the Bay, seven minutes apart on foot, makes one full day.
Which gardens close on Mondays?
Several individual attractions rather than whole gardens. At Jurong Lake Gardens, Clusia Cove, the Forest Ramble, the SkatePark and three galleries close on Mondays. At the Botanic Gardens the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden closes on Mondays, and the Heritage Museum and Forest Discovery Centre close every last Monday of the month.
Read next
Where these prices and times come from
Every price, opening time and closure here comes from the operator's own website, not from a booking site. Follow any link to check it yourself.
- Gardens by the Bay, Opening Hours checked 2026-08-02
- Gardens by the Bay, attraction admission rates checked 2026-08-02
- Gardens by the Bay, Garden Rhapsody checked 2026-08-02
- Routed on the SLA pedestrian network via OneMap, held in SC360 official-sources.json record pub-marina-barrage checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Singapore Botanic Gardens visitor information checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Jurong Lake Gardens operating hours and services checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Jurong Lake Gardens getting here checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Jurong Lake Gardens checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Fort Canning Park checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, Telok Blangah Hill Park checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, HortPark checked 2026-08-02
- PUB, Marina Barrage visitor information checked 2026-08-02
- NParks, East Coast Park checked 2026-08-02
- Meteorological Service Singapore, Climate of Singapore checked 2026-08-02