Singapore Garden Fesitval

Meet your Ross Tour leader at Sydney International Airport for your Singapore Airlines flight, or meet in Singapore. Check into the Parkroyal on Pickering with its worldclass skygardens, our luxurious home for
the next five nights. Celebrate our arrival in the tropics with a Welcome Dinner at the hotel.

After taking our time with the famous multicultural Parkroyal on Pickering smorgasbord of breakfasts, our tour begins in the recently UNESCO listed Singapore Botanic Gardens. The tropical rainforest here is one of the few pockets of original jungle left on the island. Singapore is famous for orchids that have been a part of the Gardens collection since its beginnings in 1859. Early directors commissioned extensive orchid collecting expeditions and since 1995 the collection has its own beautifully landscaped home – the National Orchid Garden. We’ll have lunch in a restaurant
surrounded by the orchid and heliconia gardens. Afternoon at leisure until it cools a little, when we’ll jump onto a bumboat for a cruise along the Singapore River. These hardy vessels were once
used to shuttle cargo in one of the East’s busiest trade centres. We’ll be delivered into the middle of the vibrant modern skyline of Singapore. You’ll discover the restaurant strip to sample Singapore’s famous cuisine.

Today’s highlight is the stunning Gardens by the Bay. You’ll be amazed by this visionary 250 acre, $1B project. It brings to life the government’s ambition to make Singapore a ‘City in a Garden’. Housed within the garden are cooled conservatories, individual themed gardens, lakes, bridges and the showpiece Supertrees, plant-covered structures up to 50m in height. And finally a buggy ride around the entire site to understand its complexity and design. Explore vast horticultural worlds growing in gigantic biomes, engineering feats themselves, being the biggest columnless glasshouses in the world. It’s eternally spring, in the Flower Dome, with plant displays from dry climates found in South Africa, California, southern Spain, Italy, and south-western Australia. We will enjoy the cool rush of a waterfall within the Cloud Forest and discover plumes of tropical flowers such as vireya, begonia and medinilla spilling out of the verdant mountain crevices.

A day to explore world class tropical garden design and floral arrangements at the Singapore Garden Festival. It’s like a tropical Chelsea! Afternoon visit to the world famous Rafflles Hotel for afternoon tea. Enjoy the iconic architecture; a stunningly restored piece of Singapore’s history. Return to Gardens by the Bay for an illuminated birds-eye view from the OCBC Skyway, an elevated walkway that connects two 50m tall Supertrees. The Garden Rhapsody light and sound show whirling around us will make this a night to remember.

Explore Singapore’s past, present and future today. Walk into Singapore’s past in the Spice Garden, once the site of Singapore’s first Botanical and Experimental Garden set up by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1822. Across the road the National Museum of Singapore is next, a showcase of Singapore’s history, culture and geography. The grand neoclassic 19th-century building was once Raffles’ museum and library. After our Farewell Lunch, we’re off to a futuristic forest surrounded by towering highrise located on a 360-hectare expanse of reclaimed land in the financial district. Head back to our hotel to relax poolside.

A late checkout has been included today for our late afternoon transfer to the airport. Morning visit to Hort Park with its series of educational gardens; Butterfly Garden, Edible Gardens and Therapeutic Gardens. Afternoon at leisure before our departure to Changi Airport.