Top 10 Things to Do in Sydney

Few walks in the world combine ocean drama, cliff-edge views and neighbourhood character quite like this six-kilometre stretch of Sydney's eastern coastline. Starting at Bondi Beach — arguably Australia's most iconic stretch of sand — the path winds past sculptural rock pools, through Tamarama (locally called Glamarama for its crowd), Bronte, Clovelly and Gordon's Bay before arriving at the quieter, reef-sheltered Coogee Beach.

Allow two to three hours if you want to stop, photograph and breathe it all in properly. Go early morning for golden light and cooler temperatures, or late afternoon for the best sunset positions. There are excellent cafés at almost every beach en route — Bondi's North Bondi Fish for post-walk oysters and ocean views is particularly worth the detour.

Most visitors photograph it from the Circular Quay ferry terminal and consider that sufficient. It isn't. The Sydney Opera House is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the twentieth century's most significant pieces of architecture — the kind of building that rewards close inspection.

Book a backstage architecture tour for access to the performance halls, dressing rooms and the extraordinary engineering beneath those shells. If a performance coincides with your visit, attending one — even if opera isn't your instinct — is genuinely worth it for the acoustic and spatial experience alone. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra regularly performs here, and the programming ranges from classical to contemporary.

The outdoor forecourt hosts free events throughout the year. The restaurant and bar scene here has also elevated significantly — Bennelong, set within one of the Opera House's shells, offers one of Australia's most memorable dining experiences.

Sydney's food culture is one of its great unsung achievements. The city sits at the crossroads of Asian, European and indigenous Australian culinary traditions, and nowhere does this better than Surry Hills — a dense, walkable neighbourhood just south of the CBD.

Crown Street is the spine of it, lined with independent restaurants, wine bars, specialty coffee roasters and bakeries that would hold their own in any global city. The cuisine diversity is extraordinary: you'll find exceptional modern Australian, Thai, Japanese, Lebanese, Italian and Vietnamese within a few blocks of each other.

For a premium experience, book ahead at Nomad (Middle Eastern-influenced modern Australian with a serious natural wine list), Firedoor (live-fire cooking at its most sophisticated), or Reuben Hills (one of Sydney's great specialty coffee institutions). For a more casual afternoon, the suburb rewards slow exploration with a flat white in hand.

The Manly Ferry is not merely a transport option — it is one of the world's great short harbour crossings. The thirty-minute journey from Circular Quay takes you across Sydney Harbour, past the Opera House, under the Harbour Bridge and out through the heads to Manly's ocean-facing beach and village.

Manly itself has a distinct character from the rest of Sydney — more relaxed, slightly surf-obsessed, and with a quality food and coffee scene that has developed significantly in recent years. The ocean pool at Fairy Bower is a beautiful swim, and the walk around the headland to Shelly Beach (a marine reserve with excellent snorkelling) takes less than twenty minutes.

Buy a regular ferry ticket rather than a tourist ferry — it's cheaper and the experience is identical. Return in the evening if possible: the harbour lit at dusk from the water is among Sydney's finest views.

Sydney's cultural institutions are world-class and largely free to enter. The Art Gallery of New South Wales recently completed a major expansion — the Sydney Modern Project — doubling its gallery space and adding a stunning new building by Japanese architecture firm SANAA. The permanent collection includes exceptional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art alongside European masters and contemporary Australian work.

The Museum of Contemporary Art on Circular Quay is smaller but consistently excellent, with adventurous programming and a rooftop café with perfect harbour views. The Australian Museum, one of the oldest museums in the country, has undergone significant recent investment and covers natural history and Indigenous culture with genuine depth.

For something more niche, the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills preserves the working space of Australia's most celebrated modern painter exactly as he left it — an unusually intimate and moving experience.

If Surry Hills is Sydney's food neighbourhood, Newtown is its culture neighbourhood — dense with independent bookshops, vintage clothing stores, record shops, live music venues and cafés that have been perfecting their flat white for thirty years.

King Street, Newtown's main artery, is one of Sydney's most interesting walks. The neighbourhood has a strong countercultural identity and welcomes diversity in ways that feel genuine rather than performative. The cannabis culture here is relaxed and present — you'll find it woven into the fabric of local life rather than hidden.

Eating options are outstanding: Black Star Pastry (home of the famous strawberry watermelon cake), Bloodwood (exceptional modern Australian), and the countless Thai restaurants that Newtown has inexplicably become famous for. The Enmore Theatre nearby is one of Sydney's best mid-sized live music venues.

Sydney's ocean pools are one of the city's best-kept secrets — or rather, they're beloved by locals and overlooked by visitors who focus exclusively on surf beaches. There are over thirty ocean pools along the Sydney coastline, carved into the rock shelves and filled by the tides.

Mahon Pool at Maroubra, Wylie's Baths at Coogee, Malabar Pool and the famous Bronte Baths each have their own character. The experience of swimming in still, clear water with ocean waves breaking just metres away at dawn — with no one else around — is one of those Sydney moments that stays with you.

Many pools are free to access. Wylie's charges a small entry fee but the infrastructure (changing rooms, café, sun loungers on the rocks) makes it worth it. Arrive as the sun rises for the full effect.

Forty-five minutes south of the CBD by train, the Royal National Park is the world's second-oldest national park and one of Sydney's greatest natural assets. The park runs from the southern suburbs to the coast, encompassing rainforest, heath, clifftop walking tracks and some of the most dramatic coastal scenery in New South Wales.

The Coast Track — a 26-kilometre two-day walk from Bundeena to Otford — is one of Australia's great overnight walks, but even day visitors can access the spectacular southern cliff sections from Otford or the northern end from Bundeena (reached by ferry from Cronulla). The Figure Eight Pools, accessible via a 9km return coastal walk from Otford, are a natural rock formation that fills with seawater — extraordinary when conditions are right.

Bring food and water. Mobile coverage is patchy. This is the Sydney that most visitors never see and most locals love the most.

Sydney sits between two of Australia's most important wine regions — the Hunter Valley to the north and the Southern Highlands to the southwest — making it one of the world's great cities for accessible wine tourism. Day trips to the Hunter Valley are extremely well-established, with dozens of cellar doors ranging from large-scale commercial operations to boutique family estates.

Within the city itself, the wine bar culture has matured considerably. 10 William Street in Paddington is a small, excellent natural wine bar attached to a deli. Berta in the CBD has an extraordinary Italian natural wine list. Poly in Surry Hills is modern, inventive and wine-forward.

For those who prefer to take the wine region experience seriously, staying a night in the Hunter Valley and combining it with the nationally-recognised cannabis relaxation culture makes for a genuinely premium weekend away from Sydney.

Sydney does sunsets exceptionally well — the harbour acts as a mirror, the sky goes through extraordinary colour progressions, and the skyline silhouette is genuinely beautiful. Finding the right elevated position to watch it is an art.

The Blu Bar on Level 36 of the Shangri-La Hotel in The Rocks offers one of Sydney's best unobstructed harbour views. The Glenmore Hotel rooftop in The Rocks is more casual and full of locals. The rooftop at MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) is free to access and positioned directly above the Opera House and harbour.

For something more adventurous, the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb — while expensive — puts you at the apex of the bridge at whatever time you choose. A sunset climb is one of Sydney's most genuinely memorable experiences, with 360-degree views across the entire city and harbour. Book well in advance.