New South Wales

Sydney – is Australia’s gateway city and the capital of New South Wales is built around one of the most beautiful harbours in the world, and along kilometres of golden beaches stretching north and south of the city on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Sydney is a friendly city offering visitors a variety of attractions and activities. The beaches and harbour play a major role in the lives of Sydney-siders with yachting, surfing, sailboarding, swimming and water-skiing available. Many national parks and protected areas of natural bushland surround the city, and the picturesque Blue Mountains are a 90 minute journey from the city, offering walking, camping and picnicking as popular pastimes for visitors and residents alike.

Perhaps Sydney’s most famous landmark is the spectacular Opera House with its graceful ‘sails’.

The harbour foreshore is home to the historic Rocks area, the site of Australia’s first European settlement in 1788, and now home to a variety of galleries, museums, restaurants and shops. Also overlooking the harbour are the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney Aquarium and Taronga Zoo.

Unless visitors to Sydney are specifically seeking out friends in outlying areas, most will have no real need to travel too far away from the central city area and the harbour. Most Sydney tourist attractions are either within the central business district, close to the CBD, or at points around the harbour. The exceptions are Bondi and Manly – surf beach suburbs situated south and north of Sydney Heads.

If you’ve only got a week or a few days in Sydney, your time would be best spent by taking a walk around the wider CBD area, visiting The Rocks or spending time on the harbour. The harbour is Sydney and on a warm day, with a clear blue sky, there is no better place on earth.