Sydney: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Sydney began at one small cove, and everything on this walk is within a few hundred metres of it. The Gadigal people lived on this harbour for tens of thousands of years; the eleven ships of the First Fleet arrived in January 1788 carrying around seven hundred and fifty convicts, and within a year a smallpox epidemic had killed a large part of the Aboriginal population around the harbour. Two and a half hours, flat, and start early because the quay fills.

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A short history of Sydney

The Eora people lived on the shores of this harbour for at least tens of thousands of years. In 1770 James Cook landed at nearby Botany Bay, and on 26 January 1788 the "First Fleet" arrived: 11 ships under the command of Arthur Phillip, carrying hundreds of convicts sent from Britain. Modern Australia grew out of this penal colony, and that day is its national day. The Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932, and in 1973 Jørn Utzon's Opera House was opened, after 14 years of design and construction. In 2000 the city hosted the Olympic Games.

The ten best sights in Sydney

1
Sydney Opera House
Jorn Utzon won the competition in 1957 with a sketch, resigned in 1966 after a change of government and never saw it finished. It opened in 1973, ten years late and fourteen times over budget.
2
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Opened in 1932 and still repainted continuously — the job never finishes, which is where the local expression comes from. Walking across the eastern footpath is free.
3
Circular Quay
The point where the First Fleet landed in 1788 and where the Gadigal people had lived for thousands of years before. Everything in Sydney is measured from here.
4
The Rocks
The first European settlement in Australia, and a slum for most of its history. It was condemned and half demolished after a plague outbreak in 1900 and saved from total demolition by a builders' strike in 1973.
5
Cadmans Cottage
From 1816 and the oldest house standing in Sydney. When it was built the water came to its front door; the shoreline is now a hundred metres away.
6
Museum of Contemporary Art
Free, in the old Maritime Services Board building on the quay, with a rooftop cafe that looks straight at the Opera House.
7
Customs House
A public library in the old customs building, with a scale model of the whole city under a glass floor you walk on.
8
Observatory Hill
The highest point in the old town, with the 1858 observatory on it. A ball on its mast still drops at exactly one o'clock, as it did for ships setting their chronometers.
9
Barangaroo Reserve
A container terminal turned headland, opened in 2015 and rebuilt with ten thousand sandstone blocks cut on site to the shape the shoreline had in 1836.
10
Royal Botanic Garden
Founded in 1816 on the site of the colony's first farm, which failed. Free, open every day, and the path along the water is the best walk in the city.

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What is an audio walk?

Tours in Sydney →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Sydney:

Free walking tours in Sydney

The Quay

Circular Quay · This is Warrane, and the First Fleet anchored here on the twenty-sixth of January 1788 after finding Botany Bay unusable. The date is Australia Day and is also marked by many Aboriginal Australians as Invasion Day, and both names are used officially in different places.
Sydney Opera House · Jorn Utzon's design was pulled out of the rejected pile by one judge, Eero Saarinen, who arrived late to the 1957 competition. Utzon resigned in 1966 after a new government cut his fees and never returned to Australia; he never saw the finished building.
Sydney Harbour Bridge · Opened in 1932, in the Depression, and sixteen men died building it. At the opening a man on horseback galloped out and slashed the ribbon with a sword before the premier could cut it, in protest at the government; the ribbon was tied again and cut properly.
The Rocks · The first European settlement and a slum for a century. After bubonic plague broke out in 1900 the government resumed the whole quarter and demolished much of it; the rest was due to come down for a freeway in 1973 and was saved when the builders' union refused to do the work.
Cadmans Cottage · Built in 1816 for the government coxswain and the oldest house standing in Sydney. The water used to reach its door; the land in front of it is all reclaimed.
Mrs Macquarie's Chair · Convicts cut this bench out of the sandstone in 1810 for the governor's wife, who liked to watch for ships from here. It is also the only point from which the bridge and the Opera House stand in the same frame.

Convicts, Parks and the City They Built

Between 1788 and 1868 Britain transported about one hundred and sixty-two thousand convicts to Australia, and the public buildings of this walk were built by them — the barracks, the hospital that became parliament, the park that was a racecourse. The hospital itself was paid for by giving three merchants a monopoly on importing rum, which is how it got its name. Two hours, mostly in shade.

Hyde Park · Declared common ground in 1810 and the oldest public park in Australia. It was the colony's racecourse and cricket pitch first, and the fig avenue down the middle was planted in the 1920s.
Hyde Park Barracks · Designed by Francis Greenway, a convicted forger transported for life who became the colony's architect. Rats dragged scraps under the floorboards for a century, and the museum's whole collection of convict objects came out of those nests.
Parliament House · The oldest parliament building in Australia, and it is a wing of the old Rum Hospital — built in 1816 by three merchants in exchange for a monopoly on importing spirits, because the governor had no money.
State Library of NSW · It holds the First Fleet journals and Cook's own Endeavour journal. The marble floor of the Mitchell wing is a map of Abel Tasman's voyages, laid in the 1940s.
Art Gallery of NSW · Free. The Yiribana Gallery inside it was the first permanent space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in any Australian state gallery, opened in 1994 — which says something about how long that took.
Queen Victoria Building · Built in 1898 as a market hall during a depression, specifically to give work to out-of-work tradesmen. In the 1950s the council planned to demolish it for a car park and it was saved by public campaign.

The Coast

Sydney is a harbour city that turns its back on the harbour for the ocean. This route is the eastern beaches and the walk between them — six kilometres of cliff path from Bondi to Coogee, past three ocean pools cut into the rock. The ocean pools are the local invention worth knowing: they are cut into the rock platform so that waves wash through them, and there are more than a hundred along this coast. Three hours walking.

Bondi Beach · The first surf lifesaving club in the world was founded here in 1906. On the sixth of February 1938, now called Black Sunday, a set of three freak waves dragged about two hundred people out; lifesavers brought them all back and five died.
Bondi Icebergs · The club was founded in 1929 by winter swimmers who needed a rule to keep each other at it: to stay a member you had to swim three Sundays out of four for five years.
Tamarama · A small cove with the strongest rip on this coast, which is why the surf club here was one of the first. Until 1911 it held an amusement park with a roller coaster running out over the water.
Bronte Beach · The Bronte Baths were cut into the rock in 1887, and the natural rock pool beside them — the Bogey Hole — is older and was used long before that.
Coogee Beach · The end of the walk. McIver's Baths here have been women-and-children only since 1886 and are the last remaining women's seawater pool in Australia.
Watsons Bay and The Gap · Cliffs eighty metres high at the harbour mouth. The clipper Dunbar struck them in a storm in August 1857 with the loss of one hundred and twenty-one people and one survivor, who clung to a ledge for thirty-six hours before anyone saw him.

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Getting to Sydney and getting around

Kingsford Smith Airport · Eight kilometres from the centre and connected by train in thirteen minutes, but the airport stations charge a gate fee on top of the fare that is almost as much as the ticket.
Central Station · The largest station in Australia, opened in 1906 on the site of the old Devonshire Street cemetery; about thirty thousand graves were moved to build it.
Town Hall Station · The interchange under the city, and the stop for the Queen Victoria Building and the shopping streets.
Circular Quay wharves · Six wharves and the ferries that are ordinary public transport here. The Manly ferry costs the same as a bus and crosses open water.
Manly Wharf · The ferry wharf, thirty minutes from Circular Quay across open water, and one of the great public transport rides anywhere.

Cheap eats in Sydney

Eight counters where Sydney eats standing. Two things to know: the flat white was invented in Australia or New Zealand depending on who is telling it, and both countries claim it; and the meat pie with tomato sauce is the national counter food. Nothing here is cheap — a coffee is about five dollars and a pie about seven — because wages are high and tipping is not expected.

Sydney Fish Market · Open 7 to 4 every day
Paddy's Markets · Wednesday to Sunday
Spice Alley · Open from noon · cash only
Chinatown · Friday night market · yum cha at weekends
Cabramatta · Trains from Central · busiest Saturday
Marrickville · Mornings · cash helps
Carriageworks market · Saturday 8 to 1
Surry Hills · From 7am · closed by four

Museums in Sydney

Art Gallery of NSW · Free · open every day
Australian Museum · Free entry to the permanent halls
Hyde Park Barracks · Ticketed · allow ninety minutes
Museum of Contemporary Art · Free · open every day
Maritime Museum · Ticketed for the vessels
Cockatoo Island · Ferry from Circular Quay
White Bay Power Station · Open only for programmed events

Parks and gardens in Sydney

Royal Botanic Garden · Free · open from sunrise
Centennial Park · Free · horses still ride here
Barangaroo Reserve · Free · open always
Observatory Hill · Free · the ball drops at 1pm
Moore Park · Free · busy on match days
North Head · Ferry to Manly then a bus
Royal National Park · Train to Cronulla then a ferry

Things to do in Sydney with kids

Taronga Zoo · Ferry from Circular Quay
Luna Park · Free entry · pay per ride
Sea Life Aquarium · Book online · cheaper in advance
Wild Life Sydney Zoo · Combined ticket with the aquarium
Australian Museum · Free · open every day
Manly ferry · Every twenty minutes
Shelly Beach · Free · snorkels hire at Manly

Nature and day trips near Sydney

Blue Mountains · Two hours by train from Central
Three Sisters · The lookout is free
Katoomba · Trains every hour · take a jacket
Royal National Park · Whales from May to November
Hawkesbury River · Weekdays · book ahead
Cockatoo Island · Ferries all day · book the camping
South Head · Ferry to Watsons Bay

Live music in Sydney

Sydney Opera House · Cheap tickets an hour before
Newtown · Thursday to Saturday
Carriageworks · Check the season
Oxford Street · Parade in early March
Surry Hills · Most nights · no cover
Luna Park big top · Check what is on
Sydney Cricket Ground · Tickets go months ahead

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Frequently asked questions about Sydney

What is there to see in Sydney?

The top sights in Sydney are Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Sydney?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Sydney without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Sydney?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Sydney, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Quay.

How do you get to Sydney and get around?

The main ways are Kingsford Smith Airport, Central Station and Town Hall Station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Sydney, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Sydney that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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