Walk the Singapore Botanic Gardens from end to end

What the experience is

The Singapore Botanic Gardens cover 82 hectares on the edge of the Orchard Road district. They were founded in 1859, laid out in the English landscape style, and became the place where rubber cultivation in Malaya began. UNESCO listed them in 2015, the only tropical botanic garden on the World Heritage List. About four and a half million visits are made each year, most of them by residents. The experience is a walk through the length of the gardens, from the old southern end to the newer northern one.

A route

Enter at the Tanglin Gate, at the southern end, where the nineteenth-century landscape is best preserved. Pass Swan Lake, dug in 1866, and climb to the Bandstand on its small hill. Continue to the National Orchid Garden, on the highest ground, which shows more than a thousand species and two thousand hybrids, including those named after visiting heads of state. Burkill Hall, a plantation-style house of 1868, stands inside it.

North of the orchid garden, a boardwalk crosses six hectares of original rainforest, older than the gardens themselves, with more than 300 species of plants. Beyond it are Symphony Lake, where concerts are given on a stage over the water, and at the far end the Eco-Lake and the Bukit Timah Gate.

When to go

Early. At seven in the morning the air is cool, the light is low and the paths belong to walkers and people practising tai chi. Rain is likely on any afternoon of the year, and the months from November to January are the wettest.

Good to know

Entry to the gardens is free, and only the National Orchid Garden charges admission. The walk takes two to three hours with the orchid garden. Napier MRT station is at the Tanglin Gate and Botanic Gardens station at the Bukit Timah Gate, so the route can start at one and end at the other. There are cafés and restaurants inside the grounds.

Why OKYTO recommends it

It is the most pleasant two hours in Singapore, and it explains the city’s idea of itself as a garden. The history is real: the trees that created the rubber economy of Southeast Asia were raised here.