Singapore Botanic Gardens

The Botanic Gardens are the older, calmer counterpart to the Supertrees: 160 years of landscaped rainforest, free to enter and open from before dawn. This is where the city actually goes, for tai chi at sunrise, swan-lake laps and the orchid collection that carries the UNESCO listing.

• The National Orchid Garden, a thousand species and the VIP hybrids, the one ticketed corner.
• The rainforest patch, six hectares of original jungle older than the city around it.
• Swan Lake and the bandstand, the postcard corners of the colonial-era layout.
• The ginger garden, waterfall included, beside the orchids.

Come before 9am for the light and the locals, and give the orchids the first slot; midday heat empties the lawns for a reason. Weekends bring picnics rather than crowds, and the space absorbs them.

Napier and Botanic Gardens stations open onto opposite ends, so ride to one and walk the long axis to the other. Orchard Road’s malls are ten minutes from the Tanglin gate when the humidity wins.