Lonely - Sydney City Guide

Welcome to Sydney

Book a window seat for your flight to Sydney: day or night, it sure is good-lookin. Scratch the surface and it only gets better.

Brash is the word that inevitably gets bandied around when it comes to describing the Harbour City, and lets face it, Sydney is one hot mess! Compared to its Australian sister cities, Sydney is loud, uncompromising and in-your-face. Fireworks displays are more dazzling here, heels are higher, bodies more buffed, contact sports more brutal, starlets shinier, drag queens glitzier and chefs more adventurous. Australias best musos, foodies, actors, stockbrokers, models, writers and architects flock to the city to make their mark, and the effect is dazzling: a hyperenergetic, ambitious marketplace of the soul, where anything goes and everything usually does.

Defined as much by its rugged coast as its exquisite harbour, Sydney relies on its coastal setting to replenish its reserves of charm; venture too far from the water and the charm suddenly evaporates. Jump on a ferry and Sydneys your oyster the harbour prises the citys two halves far enough apart to reveal an abundance of pearls. On the coast, Australia ends abruptly in sheer walls of sandstone punctuated by arcs of golden sand. In summer theyre covered with bronzed bodies enjoying a climate that encourages outdoor socialising, exercising, flirting and fun.

After a lazy Saturday at the beach, urbane Sydneysiders have a disco nap, hit the showers and head out again. Theres always a new restaurant to try, undercover bar to hunt down, hip band to check out, sports team to shout at, show to see or crazy party to attend. The citys pretensions to glamour are well balanced by a casualness that means a cool T-shirt and a tidy pair of jeans will get you in most places. But if you want to dress up and show off, theres plenty of opportunity for that among the sparkling lights of the harbour.

National parks ring the city and penetrate right into its heart. Large chunks of the harbour are still edged with bush, while parks cut their way through the skyscrapers and suburbs. Consequently native critters turn up in the most surprising places. Great clouds of flying foxes pass overhead at twilight and spend the night rustling around in suburban fig trees, oversized spiders stake out the corners of lounge room walls, possums rattle the roofs of terrace houses, and sulphur-crested cockatoos bleat from the railings of urban balconies. At times Sydneys concrete jungle seems more like an actual one and doesnt that just make it all the more exciting?

Bondi Icebergs pool ()
OLIVER STREWE / GETTY IMAGES

Why I Love Sydney

By Peter Dragicevich, Author

My visits to Sydney were becoming increasingly frequent before I decided to up sticks and move to the city in 1998. Sure, it was the glitzy side that first attracted me the sense that there was always something thrilling going on somewhere, and if you turned the right corner, you could be part of it. That sense remains, but Ive discovered much more to love: the lively food scene, endless days at the beach and the way Sydneys indigenous and convict history is so often hidden in plain sight.

For more about our author, .

Sydneys Top 10

Sydney Opera House ()

Striking, unique, curvalicious is there a sexier building on the planet? Seeing such a recognisable object for the first time is always an odd experience. Depending on where you stand, Jrn Oberg Utzons Opera House can seem smaller or bigger than you think its going to be. It confounds expectations but its never disappointing. Most of all, its a supremely practical building and what goes on inside (theatre, dance, concerts) can be almost as interesting as the famous exterior.

Circular Quay & The Rocks

KEVEN OSBORNE / FOX-FOTOS.COM

Sydney Harbour National Park ()

Spread out around the harbour, this unusual national park offers a widely varied set of experiences, all with a blissful harbour view. In this park, its equally possible to separate yourself from civilisation or be surrounded by traffic. It incorporates harbour islands, secluded beaches, ancient rock art, lighthouses, untouched headlands and, right in the middle of the city, a historic cottage. You can kayak into otherwise inaccessible beaches or cycle along well-tended paths. Pack a picnic and disappear along its bushy trails. South Head cliffs

Sydney Harbour

KEVEN OSBORNE / FOX-FOTOS.COM

The Rocks ()

Australias convict history began here with a squalid canvas shanty town on a rocky shore. Its raucous reputation lives on in atmospheric laneways lined with historic buildings, more than a few of them still operating as pubs. Sure, the place is overrun with tacky, overpriced stores and package tourists, but there are some great museums here as well. When it all gets too much, head through the convict-hewn Argyle Cut () to the less frantically commercial Millers and Dawes Points.

Circular Quay & The Rocks