SYDNEY · AUSTRALIA
The harbour out front, the mountains behind.
Harbour cruises, the Bridge climb and the Opera House. Whale season off the heads, koalas at the zoo, and the day trips west to the Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley vines.
Only here
Three things you can only do here.
Cruises and city walks turn up in every guidebook. Climbing the steel arch of the Harbour Bridge, stepping in under the Opera House sails, and a working harbour this big belong to Sydney alone.
Up the arch
Climb the Harbour Bridge
Sydney started the idea of climbing a bridge for the view, and the great steel arch over the harbour is still the one everyone pictures. You clip onto a line and walk the curve of the span to the summit, 134 metres above the water, with the Opera House and the whole harbour spread out below.
- 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 forecourt it is all white sails; inside it is concert halls, theatres and the story of a building that nearly never got finished. A guided tour takes you in under the shells, often with a rehearsal going on somewhere below, through a building that exists nowhere else on earth.
- 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
On the water
Sail Sydney Harbour
The harbour is the reason the city sits where it does, one of the finest natural harbours anywhere. Out on the water you pass the Opera House, slide under the Bridge and round the headlands to where the harbour opens to the Pacific, and the whole city finally makes sense.
- 1 Sydney: Harbour Dinner Cruise with 3, 4 or 6-Course Menu
- 2 Sydney: Harbour Cruise with Buffet Lunch
- 3 Sydney Harbour Starlight Dinner Cruise from Darling Harbour
The first thing to book
Start with the one everyone books.
If you do one thing in Sydney, this is where most travellers begin.
The classics
Sydney's Most Popular Experiences
The Opera House, the Bridge, the harbour cruises and the Blue Mountains. The days most people come to Sydney for.
Where to begin
The days a Sydney trip is built around.
The harbour cruises, the Bridge climb, the Opera House, the Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each one.
The big question
How to see the harbour.
It is the reason the city sits where it does, so the how is half the fun. Three ways onto Sydney Harbour, depending on how close to the water you want to be.
Hunter Valley
Australia’s oldest wine country.
Two hours north of the harbour, the Hunter has been making wine since the 1820s, longer than almost anywhere in the country. This is semillon and shiraz country: cellar doors among the vines, long lunches with the growers, and cheese and chocolate stops between the rows.
Read the guide: the best Hunter Valley day trips →Whale season · May to November
From May, the giants pass the heads.
Every winter, tens of thousands of humpbacks track up the coast past Sydney on the long run north, close enough to spot from the clifftops and closer still from a boat. Cruises run out through the heads to meet them breaching and tail-slapping in the open swell.
Whale watching cruises →An hour west
Where the city gives way to the bush.
Ninety minutes from the harbour the suburbs run out and the land drops away into a maze of eucalyptus valleys, blue with the haze the gum trees throw off. Day trips run to the Three Sisters at Katoomba, down the cliffs on the Scenic Railway, and along the lookouts above the forest.
- 1 All Inclusive Blue Mountain,Scenic World,Lunch,Koalas,ferry
- 2 From Sydney: Blue Mountains Full-Day Trip
- 3 Blue Mountain Small Group Scenic World, Wildlife, Waterfall
After dark
The harbour doesn’t clock off at five.
When the lights come up, the city shifts gear. Dinner cruises slide out under the floodlit Bridge, ghost tours work the back lanes of The Rocks, and the Opera House fills for the night’s performance. The best of Sydney after dark, most of it on or around the water.
See all 24 evening experiences →By place
Pick a corner of Sydney.
The harbour for the cruises and the climb. The Rocks for the old streets. The city for the Opera House and the gardens. The Blue Mountains for the bush, the Hunter for the wine, Port Stephens for the dolphins.
By activity
Or pick how to spend the day.
A harbour cruise if you want it easy. The Bridge climb if you want the view. Whales in winter, a ghost tour after dark, and wine, walking and kayaks in between.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Sydney? Here is a long weekend that takes in the harbour, the mountains and the coast without a wasted hour.
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