Sydney Harbour
Summary
Sydney’s Harbour is blessed with stunning natural beauty that helps make it one of the most iconic city settings in the world and simply a must-visit for most people’s trip to Australia
5 high level tips:
- Focus on the Harbourside area – a controversial point, but I’d say the waterfront attractions of Sydney far exceed the experiences to be found in the rest of the city. So, focus on the Harbourside area with its world-class attractions of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and beautiful gardens
- Walk the whole way from from Darling Harbour to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair – whilst it looks a long way on the map, this is only 7km / 4.5miles, is very flat and will take you less than 2 hours whilst giving time to stop for photos etc. It takes in Darling Harbour, The Rocks area, a walk under the Harbour Bridge, The Opera House, the Royal Botanical Garden and shows you a variety of views across the Harbour from central city to a feeling of almost entirely left it
- Views from the water and Taronga Zoo – regular ferries leave from one side of the harbour to the other and are a great and simple way to get those water views, but also consider the 12 minute ferry trip to Taronga Zoo which gives you that boat trip, plus amazing views from the other side and a zoo that has a superb record for animal welfare
- The Beaches – one of the highlights of Sydney as a whole is its beaches. Bondi is the obvious one – it is stunning and has the wonderful Bondi to Coogee Clifftop Walk, but can get very busy and touristy. Instead, consider the 20min ferry from Circular Quay (right in the middle of the Harbourside area) to Manly, for Sydney’s best beaches and less touristy
- Sydney vs Melbourne – if it’s a first visit to Australia, it’s hard to see anyone choosing Melbourne over Sydney simply because of the Sydney Harbourside wow factor, but you’ll find many agreeing that Melbourne is actually a more pleasant city to spend time in with its street cafe culture, buzzing sports events and generally more chilled out vibe. If on a super short time frame and want to check out both, I’d suggest 1 day in Sydney focused on the Harbourside area, and 2 days to absorb Melbourne more (and see here for tips on a trip to Melbourne – A couple of days in Melbourne)
highlights
#1 Walking the whole way from from Darling Harbour to Mrs Macquarie's Chair. Seeing Darling Harbour, The Rocks area, a walk under the Harbour Bridge, The Opera House and the Royal Botanical Gardens
#2 The world-famous Sydney Opera House
#3 Walking under and around the enormous Sydney Harbour Bridge
#4 The beautiful beaches. Bondi is the famous one, but Manly is far less crowded
#5 Taking the short ferry from central Sydney waterfront to Taronga Zoo and its glorious views with the animals
#6 The Royal Botanical Gardens at the end of the harbour walk that make you feel pleasantly detached from the city
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Beautiful Coastlines
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone