Botanical tourism in Singapore
Photo: Velela, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
For many Singapore may bring to mind skyscrapers with financial corporation headquarters, high-tech industry and one of the largest harbours in the world. All this is true, but Singapore is no concrete jungle — on the contrary it was the vision of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, that it should not be so. The Government often refers to Singapore as a "garden city" and that is largely true; there are plants and trees everywhere, even in the CBD, and apart from the many great parks there are also a number of wild, green patches. One patch, the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve consists almost exclusively of primary rainforest, and is said to have more species living there than North America, and although that is debatable the biodiversity is indeed extremely high. Singapore has primary tropical rainforest within its city limits, and the Singapore Botanical Garden is one of only three botanical gardens to have UNESCO World heritage status (The other two being Kew Gardens in London and Padoa Botanical Garden in northern Italy). In Singapore you can board a train or bus and go directly to primary rainforest or mangrove swamp, and at the same time you don't really have to worry about horrid tropical diseases, poisonous snakes (which exist, but are quite rare) or giant spiders.
Singapore is part of the Indomalayan Realm, with South Asian wildlife.
PrepareSingapore is generally an extremely safe place to be and very easy to navigate, and you can buy almost anything after arriving.
Changi airportWhile not really a sight in itself, Changi airport is the point of entry for most visitors and deserves mention for the impressive greenery displays found everywhere in the airport - worth mentioning is a large stand of…
Central and North
The Southern RidgesThe Southern Ridges is a sequence of parks in the southern part of Singapore. The parks are connected by a system of paths known as the Southern Ridges Walk.
NurseriesSingapore has extremely strict rules on collecting live plants as most nature in Singapore is either a garden, park or nature reserve.
SleepSingapore is generally a hotel country, although hostels and B&Bs do exist too. But if you want to sleep in contact with nature the options are limited. The few available are listed below:
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Botanical tourism in Singapore" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Velela, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons