I have lived in some wonderful cities with great harbors…New York, San Francisco, and Boston…but after visiting Sydney, I must admit that those harbor-based cities don’t compare to Sydney! The Sydney harbor is massive with seemingly countless bays, inlets, and coves surrounded by beautiful towns and villages and beaches, too! The Sydney Harbour Ferry system is the lifeblood of the entire community and a fantastic means of getting around! I guess you could say that I’ve been somewhat “taken” with Sydney…
Our hotel was right downtown, just across the street from the classic Town Hall and the beautiful Queen Victoria Building, which is a huge Victorian-inspired very high-end shopping experience with incredible holiday decorations and everyday wrought-iron balconies, stained glass and mosaic floors…I appreciated the architecture and beautiful storefronts but didn’t buy anything there!
We loved the little outdoor balcony we had in our inner city hotel room…Sydney is hopping 24 hours a day!!
We oriented ourselves to Sydney by going on a couple of walking tours, which led us to a restaurant in a historic building in The Rocks neighborhood, The Glenmore, with rooftop dining and an awesome view of the Opera house. It was really exciting to get our first view of this iconic building!
We bought Sydney transportation passes that allowed unlimited use of buses, trains and ferries which was great because taking ferries around Sydney is just the best way to experience the city! We took ferries all the time…when we had a spare couple of hours, we just jumped on a ferry and didn’t care where it went! You always get great views of the city, particularly the Sydney Bridge and Opera House.
We had glorious weather almost the entire time we were in Sydney, and on our first full day we took advantage of the warm, sunny day by taking a ferry to the town of Manly. It was a great ferry ride past the Sydney Headlands which is an opening from the harbor to the Tasman Sea. Once we docked it was just a short walk to Manly Beach which is a large beautiful beach and very popular with surfers.
Those waves were too much for me, so we took a lovely shoreline stroll past natural pools, gardens with large lizards, and stone artwork, and it brought us to the much more protected Shelly Beach.
Our return ferry ride back to the city gave us sparkling views of the Bridge and Opera House at sunset! Gorgeous!
Another warm and beautiful day forced us to venture to the world-famous Bondi Beach which is really huge and full of surfers! It was really fun to watch groups of little kids getting surfing lessons…it’s just part of growing up Aussie!
We then embarked on an incredibly beautiful 5.5 km (3.3 mile) hike called the “Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk”…it’s a walk along cliff tops past 4 other very popular beaches, interweaving panoramic views, sea bath pools, tide pools, incredible rock formations and little beachside towns! And all along the way we watched surfers and swimmers in really beautiful shades of blue and green-colored waters. It was a fabulous walk, but we were ready to swim by the time we reached to Coogee Beach!!
Another way we oriented ourselves to Sydney was to go their 360 Bar with a revolving floor and amazing views of the city from 47 stories up…another cool vantage point for a beautiful Sydney sunset!!
The next day we walked through Hyde Park on the way to the Art Gallery of New South Wales to investigate their exhibit of Aboriginal Art…I loved some of the graphic designs as well as the wood sculptures…some of the drawings were really primitive looking and very child-like.
Mrs. Macquarie’s Point (just beyond the gorgeous Royal Botanic Gardens) provided a excellent view of both the Sydney Opera House and Bridge…
Our tour of the Sydney Opera House was fabulous! The inside is just as exquisite as the unique iconic architecture, and the stories about the commissioning of the design and challenges of its construction were really interesting! Loved watching male ballet dancers practicing in the smaller hall of the Opera House!
Later that same day (after jumping on a ferry for a few hours to anywhere…just for fun!) we headed for the Sydney Bridge for our “Bridge Climb” experience!!! Truly it was a blast! Not at all scary though, because although you are very, very high up, you are so strapped in that you couldn’t fall or jump if you wanted to…and the views are amazing! Loved our jumpsuits!!
The rest of our time in Sydney was spent exploring various Sydney neighborhoods, including Chinatown, a bit of shopping at local markets, going to more beautiful beaches, and even more ferry rides to lovely harbors. Just love those ferries!!
Sydney is really an incredibly beautiful, cosmopolitan city with an unbelievable wealth of natural beauty! Just be prepared…whenever you say “thank you” to an Aussie, they will undoubtably reply with “no worries”…it really reflects the Aussie attitude and culture!!!