In the minds of many overseas visitors, Sydney is synonymous with Australia. With a population of over four and a half million and home to Australia’s largest port and airport, Sydney is the city most travelers visit first when they come to Australia. Since the first settlers arrived in the late 18th century, Sydney has been a city of migrants from all over the world. Some have integrated fully into the general culture, while pockets of the city have distinctively ethnic flavors. As a coastal city with a warm, temperate climate, Sydney is as much a city of beach lovers as it is a dynamic urban jungle. These are some of Sydney’s major tourist centers:
Sydney CBD
The Sydney Central Business District is the business and shopping heart of Sydney. Towering over a thousand feet above the ground, Centerpoint Tower dominates the skyline and is as much a symbol of Sydney as are the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Bustling George Street is the main thoroughfare in the CBD and where one of its most popular shopping centers, the marvellously restored Queen Victoria building can be found. Another popular shopping area not far from Centerpoint is the Pitt Street pedestrian mall, with its scores of trendy clothing boutiques and other shops.
The area around the 60 storey MLC Centre is the financial district of Sydney. For a busy financial district studded with skyscrapers, this part of the CBD has a remarkably spacious atmosphere, thanks largely to the sprawling Martin Place pedestrian mall. Originally established in the latter part of the 19th century, a blend of glass and steel modern buildings and stately Victorian era sandstone structures such as No. 1 Martin Place, now a fashionable shopping center, make Sydney’s financial district arguably one of the most beautiful and relaxing of its kind in the world.
Potts Point is within easy walking distance of Kings Cross, but demographically a world away. One of Sydney’s most affluent neighborhoods, Victoria Street, Potts Point is where diners go for Italian cuisine as opposed to the pasta that is served on the Kings Cross end of the street. While that may make this beautiful historic suburb sound snobbish, such is not the case. The atmosphere in Potts Point is welcoming, laid back and relaxed.
The main street in Potts Point, Macleay Street begins where Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross ends, near the Kings Cross Tourist Information Centre. From that point on, the atmosphere becomes distinctly quieter and more refined. Shoppers looking for upmarket clothing boutiques find them on Macleay Street. Afterwards, they stroll to their favorite café for an alfresco lunch. Visitors combine a day of shopping and dining with a self guided tour of the village and its many historic landmarks, such as Elizabeth Bay House, originally owned by Alexander Macleay, after whom Macleay Street was named. Within walking distance of Kings Cross Station and other major public transportation services, Potts Point is the place to stay for those who want easy access to all of Sydney’s attractions and enjoy having the finer things in life at their doorstep.
8+ hotels and other accommdation in Potts Point and surrounds
Hotel Price Range:
Prices range from $120 – $300 per night
Best suited for:
Couples
Amenities:
Shops, Cafes, Restaurants, Kings Cross
Transport:
Trains, Buses
Kings Cross
Politely described as bohemian, Kings Cross is the premier backpackers destination in Sydney. Centrally located and within walking distance to Kings Cross Station and the major bus lines on William Street, Kings Cross is ideal for travelers who want to explore Sydney by day and be close to the action by night. An eclectic mixture of the sleazy and sophisticated, Kings Cross is not for everyone, but it is a one-of-a-kind Sydney attraction.
Darlinghurst Road is the main street in Kings Cross and many first time visitors get the mistaken impression that the adult venues on Darlinghurst Road are all there is to this vibrant suburb. However, Victoria Street, which parallel’s Darlinghurst Road on one side of William Street and extends to the other side of William Street via an overpass is a very different experience. Many of the popular Kings Cross backpacker lodges can be found on the east side of Victoria Road and the west side is peppered with Italian cafes and popular local pubs.
12+ hotels and other accommdation in Kings Cross and surrounds
Hotel Price Range:
Prices range from $25 – $220 per night
Best suited for:
Single Travelers, Backpackers, Young Couples
Amenities:
Shops, Cafes, Restaurants
Transport:
Trains, Buses
Bondi
Sydney’s Bondi is one of the world’s most famous urban beaches. During the hot Christmas holiday season, as many as 10,000 people somehow find a spot to call their own along its wide, crescent shaped half mile long sands. Directly in the center of the beach is Bondi Pavilion, home of the world famous Bondi Lifesaving Club. Within the pavilion are public changing and showering rooms. Outside, alfresco cafés cater to hungry beachgoers. On the southern end of the beach, starting at the Bondi Iceberg’s private salt water baths is a cliffside walk that meanders around the headland to the trendy upmarket beach suburb of Tamarama.
Campbell Parade, the wide road that skirts Bondi Beach, is crowded with restaurants, souvenir shops, hotels and other businesses that cater primarily to the beach crowd. Behind Campbell Parade is where the backpackers’ lodges and boutique Bondi hotels and B&Bs are located. Bondi caters to its eclectic mix of locals and overseas visitors with an astounding number of cafés and restaurants that feature menus from virtually every corner of the world.
The Rocks, nestled between the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge at the end of Sydney Harbour, is the birthplace of modern Sydney. It was here that convict laborers built Sydney’s first permanent sandstone structures and was the hub of activity throughout the 19th century. Today, these old former warehouses and factories have been restored and transformed into a fascinating variety of gift shops, restaurants, cafes and galleries largely geared towards the tens of thousands of tourists who visit the historic Rocks each year. On weekends, over a hundred stallholders set up the Rocks Market, which is popular with locals and tourists alike.
Its close proximity to the ferries of Circular Quay, which transport thousands of workers back and forth between North Sydney and the CBD make the Rocks area popular with Sydney’s business community. The nearby Gallery of Contemporary Art draws Sydney art lover’s to the region as well, making the Rocks far more than just a tourist area. On any given day, casually dressed visitors and business dressed executives mingle freely together in the magnificently restored pubs and alfresco cafes in and around the Rocks.
Shops, Cafes, Restaurants, Sydney Opera House, Circular Quay
Transport:
Trains, Buses, Ferries
Darling Harbour
Located within walking distance of the Central Business District, Darling Harbour is a vast, purpose built convention, exhibition, shopping and entertainment complex. With a wide pedestrian promenade along the edge of Cockle Bay with views of the city skyline just across the water, it is a popular weekend gathering place for locals and tourists alike. The center of activity in Darling Harbour is the large, multi-storey complex of shops, restaurants and cafes, many of which include outdoor seating areas where diners can enjoy the harbour and city view. East of this is the Maritime Museum, a large, interactive museum chronicling Australia’s rich maritime history.
West of the shopping and dining complex is the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre and the popular Darling Harbour parks area, which includes the circular Tumbalong Park with its waterfall walkway and the Chinese Garden of Friendship, an enclosed garden that includes a garden walk around its manmade lake and a popular café and gift shop. At the western edge of Cockle Bay, straddling both the CBD and Darling Harbour, are the Imax Theatre and a number of small cafes that cater to both tourists and lunchtime workers from the CBD. Nearby are a number of hotels that cater to both business travelers and families.
10+ hotels and other accommdation in Darling Harbour
Hotel Price Range:
Prices range from $150 – $350 per night
Best suited for:
Single Travelers, Backpackers, Young Couples
Amenities:
Shops, Cafes, Restaurants, IMAX, Museums, Aquarium, Convention Center
Transport:
Buses, Ferries, Monorail, Lite Train
Coogee
Often compared favorably to its busier and more famous neighbor, Coogee is located just a few miles south of Bondi. Almost identical in size to Bondi, Coogee is where residents of nearby Randwick flock to the beach in the summer. Thanks to its growing reputation as a laid-back version of Bondi, the construction of some large hotel resorts and a growing number of backpacker and Bed & Breakfast resorts, Coogee has come into its own as one of Sydney’s major tourist centers. A popular swimming beach, when the waves get too rough for toddlers, the saltwater Wylie’s Baths on the headland just south of the main beach make Coogee popular with families. Wylie’s Baths can easily be reached by way of another of Coogee’s popular attractions, the seaside Bronte-to-Coogee path.
With its increased popularity, Coogee has also grown into a vibrant restaurant and nightlife center, with innumerable restaurants and cafes scattered along Coogee Bay Road, which is also where the popular Selina’s Entertainment Centre is located. The beachfront Arden Street, too, is lined with cafes, shops, alfresco restaurants and two large hotel/resort complexes. For all its modernity, though, Coogee retains its local flavor. This is reflected in the fact that some of the suburb’s prime real estate is still the iconic Coogee Oval. Located in the center of town just up from the beach, Coogee Oval becomes crowded with locals whenever the local football teams are playing a home game.
Just across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and accessible by ferry from Sydney’s Circular Quay, Manly is Sydney’s largest beach community. Unlike Sydney’s most famous beach, Bondi, Manly is largely a family community with a proud local sporting history. It is, however, also Sydney’s biggest beach and as such caters to the tens of thousands of beachgoers who flock there whenever the sun is shining.
Manly’s main shopping district is located along the narrow strip of land between Manly Cove, where the ferry lands, and South and North Steyne Roads, which form one continuous beachfront road. Linking the cove to the beach, the Corso is a wide pedestrian mall that is filled with shops, restaurants, cafes and shopping centers that cater to tourists and locals alike. A favorite holiday Australian holiday spot, there are dozens of accommodations in Manly, ranging from backpacker lodges to family oriented hotels and large resorts, many of which are located opposite the beach on and near North Steyne Road.
Shops, Cafes, Restaurants, Beach, Manly Ocean World
Transport:
Buses, Ferries (about 30 min to Sydney CBD)
Parramatta
Sydney’s oldest and largest inland suburb, Parramatta is a large and vibrant multi-cultural mix of business, industry and entertainment facilities surrounded by the city’s sprawling Western suburbs. With easy access to the heart of Sydney via bus, train or the Parramatta River ferry, it is also a popular tourist and convention center. While there are still many fine examples of 19th and 20th century architecture in and around Parramatta, much of its growth occurred during the second half of the 20th century, giving it a distinctly modern ambiance.
Because of its western location and links to north, east, south and west bound transportation, Parramatta makes an ideal base from which to explore not only Sydney but all of New South Wales. It is less than an hour by train from Parramatta to the Blue Mountains in the West, half an anhour by ferry to Sydney’s Circular Quay by ferry and an hour by train, bus or car from the South Coast or Central Coast of New South Wales. Within the Parramatta CBD, the Church Street Mall and Westfield Shopping Center are the main shopping areas. The residential areas around the CBD have been designed with outdoor loving families in mind, with the Parramatta Valley cycleway along the Parramatta River to Olympic Stadium in Homebush being a popular location attraction.
Shops, Cafes, Restaurants, Near Sydney Olympic Park
Transport:
Buses, Trains, Ferries (35 min by train to Sydney CBD)
Homebush Bay – Sydney Olympic Park
Homebush Bay was a small, rarely visited inner-west suburb of Sydney until it became the home to Sydney Olympic Stadium when Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympics. While the older villages of Homebush and Homebush West remain quaintly old-fashioned, within Olympic Park large highrise hotel, residential and commercial developments are transforming it into a modern urban center.
Olympic Park is one of Australia’s most vibrant sports, recreation and entertainment complexes. Aside from hosting regular large scale sporting events, the park and stadium host dozens of small scale events as well as providing classes and training facilities for dozens of sports ranging from archery and BMX bike racing to swimming. There is an over 20 mile long bike track within the confines of the 1062 acre park. Divided into three interconnected circuits, cyclists can choose between the Olympic, Heritage or Parklands circuits.
Where to Stay in Sydney
Sydney
In the minds of many overseas visitors, Sydney is synonymous with Australia. With a population of over four and a half million and home to Australia’s largest port and airport, Sydney is the city most travelers visit first when they come to Australia. Since the first settlers arrived in the late 18th century, Sydney has been a city of migrants from all over the world. Some have integrated fully into the general culture, while pockets of the city have distinctively ethnic flavors. As a coastal city with a warm, temperate climate, Sydney is as much a city of beach lovers as it is a dynamic urban jungle. These are some of Sydney’s major tourist centers:
Sydney CBD
The Sydney Central Business District is the business and shopping heart of Sydney. Towering over a thousand feet above the ground, Centerpoint Tower dominates the skyline and is as much a symbol of Sydney as are the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Bustling George Street is the main thoroughfare in the CBD and where one of its most popular shopping centers, the marvellously restored Queen Victoria building can be found. Another popular shopping area not far from Centerpoint is the Pitt Street pedestrian mall, with its scores of trendy clothing boutiques and other shops.
The area around the 60 storey MLC Centre is the financial district of Sydney. For a busy financial district studded with skyscrapers, this part of the CBD has a remarkably spacious atmosphere, thanks largely to the sprawling Martin Place pedestrian mall. Originally established in the latter part of the 19th century, a blend of glass and steel modern buildings and stately Victorian era sandstone structures such as No. 1 Martin Place, now a fashionable shopping center, make Sydney’s financial district arguably one of the most beautiful and relaxing of its kind in the world.
Potts Point
Potts Point is within easy walking distance of Kings Cross, but demographically a world away. One of Sydney’s most affluent neighborhoods, Victoria Street, Potts Point is where diners go for Italian cuisine as opposed to the pasta that is served on the Kings Cross end of the street. While that may make this beautiful historic suburb sound snobbish, such is not the case. The atmosphere in Potts Point is welcoming, laid back and relaxed.
The main street in Potts Point, Macleay Street begins where Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross ends, near the Kings Cross Tourist Information Centre. From that point on, the atmosphere becomes distinctly quieter and more refined. Shoppers looking for upmarket clothing boutiques find them on Macleay Street. Afterwards, they stroll to their favorite café for an alfresco lunch. Visitors combine a day of shopping and dining with a self guided tour of the village and its many historic landmarks, such as Elizabeth Bay House, originally owned by Alexander Macleay, after whom Macleay Street was named. Within walking distance of Kings Cross Station and other major public transportation services, Potts Point is the place to stay for those who want easy access to all of Sydney’s attractions and enjoy having the finer things in life at their doorstep.
Kings Cross
Politely described as bohemian, Kings Cross is the premier backpackers destination in Sydney. Centrally located and within walking distance to Kings Cross Station and the major bus lines on William Street, Kings Cross is ideal for travelers who want to explore Sydney by day and be close to the action by night. An eclectic mixture of the sleazy and sophisticated, Kings Cross is not for everyone, but it is a one-of-a-kind Sydney attraction.
Darlinghurst Road is the main street in Kings Cross and many first time visitors get the mistaken impression that the adult venues on Darlinghurst Road are all there is to this vibrant suburb. However, Victoria Street, which parallel’s Darlinghurst Road on one side of William Street and extends to the other side of William Street via an overpass is a very different experience. Many of the popular Kings Cross backpacker lodges can be found on the east side of Victoria Road and the west side is peppered with Italian cafes and popular local pubs.
Bondi
Sydney’s Bondi is one of the world’s most famous urban beaches. During the hot Christmas holiday season, as many as 10,000 people somehow find a spot to call their own along its wide, crescent shaped half mile long sands. Directly in the center of the beach is Bondi Pavilion, home of the world famous Bondi Lifesaving Club. Within the pavilion are public changing and showering rooms. Outside, alfresco cafés cater to hungry beachgoers. On the southern end of the beach, starting at the Bondi Iceberg’s private salt water baths is a cliffside walk that meanders around the headland to the trendy upmarket beach suburb of Tamarama.
Campbell Parade, the wide road that skirts Bondi Beach, is crowded with restaurants, souvenir shops, hotels and other businesses that cater primarily to the beach crowd. Behind Campbell Parade is where the backpackers’ lodges and boutique Bondi hotels and B&Bs are located. Bondi caters to its eclectic mix of locals and overseas visitors with an astounding number of cafés and restaurants that feature menus from virtually every corner of the world.
The Rocks
The Rocks, nestled between the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge at the end of Sydney Harbour, is the birthplace of modern Sydney. It was here that convict laborers built Sydney’s first permanent sandstone structures and was the hub of activity throughout the 19th century. Today, these old former warehouses and factories have been restored and transformed into a fascinating variety of gift shops, restaurants, cafes and galleries largely geared towards the tens of thousands of tourists who visit the historic Rocks each year. On weekends, over a hundred stallholders set up the Rocks Market, which is popular with locals and tourists alike.
Its close proximity to the ferries of Circular Quay, which transport thousands of workers back and forth between North Sydney and the CBD make the Rocks area popular with Sydney’s business community. The nearby Gallery of Contemporary Art draws Sydney art lover’s to the region as well, making the Rocks far more than just a tourist area. On any given day, casually dressed visitors and business dressed executives mingle freely together in the magnificently restored pubs and alfresco cafes in and around the Rocks.
Darling Harbour
Located within walking distance of the Central Business District, Darling Harbour is a vast, purpose built convention, exhibition, shopping and entertainment complex. With a wide pedestrian promenade along the edge of Cockle Bay with views of the city skyline just across the water, it is a popular weekend gathering place for locals and tourists alike. The center of activity in Darling Harbour is the large, multi-storey complex of shops, restaurants and cafes, many of which include outdoor seating areas where diners can enjoy the harbour and city view. East of this is the Maritime Museum, a large, interactive museum chronicling Australia’s rich maritime history.
West of the shopping and dining complex is the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre and the popular Darling Harbour parks area, which includes the circular Tumbalong Park with its waterfall walkway and the Chinese Garden of Friendship, an enclosed garden that includes a garden walk around its manmade lake and a popular café and gift shop. At the western edge of Cockle Bay, straddling both the CBD and Darling Harbour, are the Imax Theatre and a number of small cafes that cater to both tourists and lunchtime workers from the CBD. Nearby are a number of hotels that cater to both business travelers and families.
Coogee
Often compared favorably to its busier and more famous neighbor, Coogee is located just a few miles south of Bondi. Almost identical in size to Bondi, Coogee is where residents of nearby Randwick flock to the beach in the summer. Thanks to its growing reputation as a laid-back version of Bondi, the construction of some large hotel resorts and a growing number of backpacker and Bed & Breakfast resorts, Coogee has come into its own as one of Sydney’s major tourist centers. A popular swimming beach, when the waves get too rough for toddlers, the saltwater Wylie’s Baths on the headland just south of the main beach make Coogee popular with families. Wylie’s Baths can easily be reached by way of another of Coogee’s popular attractions, the seaside Bronte-to-Coogee path.
With its increased popularity, Coogee has also grown into a vibrant restaurant and nightlife center, with innumerable restaurants and cafes scattered along Coogee Bay Road, which is also where the popular Selina’s Entertainment Centre is located. The beachfront Arden Street, too, is lined with cafes, shops, alfresco restaurants and two large hotel/resort complexes. For all its modernity, though, Coogee retains its local flavor. This is reflected in the fact that some of the suburb’s prime real estate is still the iconic Coogee Oval. Located in the center of town just up from the beach, Coogee Oval becomes crowded with locals whenever the local football teams are playing a home game.
Manly
Just across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and accessible by ferry from Sydney’s Circular Quay, Manly is Sydney’s largest beach community. Unlike Sydney’s most famous beach, Bondi, Manly is largely a family community with a proud local sporting history. It is, however, also Sydney’s biggest beach and as such caters to the tens of thousands of beachgoers who flock there whenever the sun is shining.
Manly’s main shopping district is located along the narrow strip of land between Manly Cove, where the ferry lands, and South and North Steyne Roads, which form one continuous beachfront road. Linking the cove to the beach, the Corso is a wide pedestrian mall that is filled with shops, restaurants, cafes and shopping centers that cater to tourists and locals alike. A favorite holiday Australian holiday spot, there are dozens of accommodations in Manly, ranging from backpacker lodges to family oriented hotels and large resorts, many of which are located opposite the beach on and near North Steyne Road.
Parramatta
Sydney’s oldest and largest inland suburb, Parramatta is a large and vibrant multi-cultural mix of business, industry and entertainment facilities surrounded by the city’s sprawling Western suburbs. With easy access to the heart of Sydney via bus, train or the Parramatta River ferry, it is also a popular tourist and convention center. While there are still many fine examples of 19th and 20th century architecture in and around Parramatta, much of its growth occurred during the second half of the 20th century, giving it a distinctly modern ambiance.
Because of its western location and links to north, east, south and west bound transportation, Parramatta makes an ideal base from which to explore not only Sydney but all of New South Wales. It is less than an hour by train from Parramatta to the Blue Mountains in the West, half an anhour by ferry to Sydney’s Circular Quay by ferry and an hour by train, bus or car from the South Coast or Central Coast of New South Wales. Within the Parramatta CBD, the Church Street Mall and Westfield Shopping Center are the main shopping areas. The residential areas around the CBD have been designed with outdoor loving families in mind, with the Parramatta Valley cycleway along the Parramatta River to Olympic Stadium in Homebush being a popular location attraction.
Homebush Bay – Sydney Olympic Park
Homebush Bay was a small, rarely visited inner-west suburb of Sydney until it became the home to Sydney Olympic Stadium when Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympics. While the older villages of Homebush and Homebush West remain quaintly old-fashioned, within Olympic Park large highrise hotel, residential and commercial developments are transforming it into a modern urban center.
Olympic Park is one of Australia’s most vibrant sports, recreation and entertainment complexes. Aside from hosting regular large scale sporting events, the park and stadium host dozens of small scale events as well as providing classes and training facilities for dozens of sports ranging from archery and BMX bike racing to swimming. There is an over 20 mile long bike track within the confines of the 1062 acre park. Divided into three interconnected circuits, cyclists can choose between the Olympic, Heritage or Parklands circuits.
Where to Stay in Sydney Map
Content by: Rob Schneider, Image Credits