SYDNEY · AUSTRALIA
A harbour, a coast, and a whole country out the back.
Harbour cruises past the Opera House, the climb over the Bridge, koalas at Taronga and whales off the heads. Then the Blue Mountains to the west and the Hunter Valley vines to the north.
Only here
Things you can only do in Sydney.
Every big city runs harbour cruises and bus tours. The walk to the top of the Bridge, the hour under the Opera House sails and a zoo with the skyline behind the koalas belong to this city alone.
On the arch
Climbing the Coathanger
Sydneysiders call the Harbour Bridge the Coathanger, and it is the one great steel arch in the world you are allowed to climb. Guides clip you to a line and walk you up the outer span to the summit, 134 metres over the water, with the Opera House laid out below. Dawn, midday, dusk or after dark, you get the whole city in one turn of the head.
- 1 BridgeClimb Sydney
- 2 Sydney: Sunrise Kayak, Opera House & Under Harbour Bridge
- 3 Sydney: Guided Daytime Summit Climb of Sydney Harbour Bridge
Under the sails
Inside the Opera House
From the water the sails are the most photographed roofline on earth. The hour inside takes you under them, into the concert halls and the foyers and the story of how Jorn Utzon’s impossible drawing actually got built. Come back after dark for a performance and you have stood where the city celebrates.
- 1 Sydney: Opera House Guided Tour with Entrance Ticket
- 2 Sydney Opera House Official Guided Walking Tour
- 3 Sydney: 1-Hour Opera House Tour with Meal and Drink
Australian wildlife
Koalas and the harbour zoo
You can meet a koala in plenty of places, but only Taronga sets them against the Opera House and the city skyline. A ferry from Circular Quay lands you at the gate, and the day-trip operators add the wildlife parks out west where the kangaroos come to you. Australian animals, with the best view in the country.
- 1 Blue Mountains Small-Group Tour from Sydney with Scenic World,Sydney Zoo & Ferry
- 2 Blue Mountains Adventure: Scenic World, Zoo & Koala Photo
- 3 Sydney: Taronga Zoo Tickets
Start with the standout
If you only do one thing in Sydney.
More visitors build a first day in Sydney around this one than anything else on the list.
The classics
Sydney's Most Popular Experiences
The Opera House, the Bridge, the harbour and the Blue Mountains. The days nearly every first-time visitor books.
Where to begin
The experiences a Sydney trip is built around.
The harbour, the Blue Mountains, the wildlife, the Hunter Valley vines, the walking tours and the whales. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
Out on the harbour
Three ways onto the harbour.
The harbour is the reason the city is here, so do more than look at it. Get out on it by cruise, down on it by kayak, or high above it on the arch of the Bridge.
Ninety minutes west
Where the suburbs stop and the cliffs begin.
An hour and a half out of the city the land falls away into a maze of eucalypt gorges, sandstone walls and waterfalls a kilometre deep. Katoomba looks straight out at the Three Sisters, and Scenic World drops you into the valley on the steepest passenger railway in the world. Most people do it in a day and wish they had stayed the night.
Read the guide: the best Blue Mountains day trips →Two hours north
Australia's oldest vines.
The Hunter has been making wine since the 1820s, longer than anywhere else in the country, and it built its name on semillon and shiraz. A day trip strings together cellar doors, a long lunch among the vines and a cheese or chocolate stop on the road home, all of it under the blue line of the Brokenback Range.
See the best Hunter Valley day trips →The harbour
One of the great natural harbours on earth.
Sydney Harbour runs 240 kilometres of shoreline in from the heads, deep enough for the largest ships and scattered with islands, coves and little beaches. The Opera House and the Bridge stand at its centre, and the green-and-yellow ferries crossing it are the best-value sightseeing in the country. It is the front yard, the highway and the postcard all at once.
Harbour cruises & boat trips →Whale season
The humpback highway runs past the heads.
Each autumn tens of thousands of humpback and southern right whales migrate north past Sydney, close enough to the heads that the boats reach them inside half an hour. Breaches, tail-slaps and mothers shepherding calves, with the cliffs of the national park behind them. The season runs May to November and peaks in the middle of winter.
- 1 Sydney: Whale Watching Adventure Cruise
- 2 Sydney Whale-Watching Cruise Including Lunch or Breakfast
- 3 Sydney: 2-hour Express Whale Watching Cruise
By place
Sydney and the country around it.
The harbour for the icons. The Rocks for the old town. The Blue Mountains out west. The Hunter Valley up north for the vines. Port Stephens for the dolphins. Jervis Bay south for the white sand.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Cruise if you want the harbour slow. Bridge climb if you want it from the top. Whale watching in winter, a wine day up north, or the city on foot.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
Never been? Here is a long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
Just added