Things to Do in Sydney: Harbour Icons, Clifftop Walks, Markets and Wildlife

The most rewarding days in Sydney combine its architectural icons with outdoor walks along sandstone cliffs and commuter ferry rides across the harbour. Rather than rushing between indoor ticket counters, build your itinerary around the water and the coastal headlands. Use our 3-day Sydney itinerary to group these sights by geographic zone.

Walk from the Royal Botanic Garden to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge

Start at Mrs Macquarie's Point at the northeastern tip of the Royal Botanic Garden, where a sandstone bench carved in 1810 for Governor Lachlan Macquarie's wife frames the classic postcard angle of both the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Founded by Governor Macquarie in June 1816, the thirty-hectare garden is Australia's oldest scientific institution and is completely free to enter from dawn to dusk. Follow the curved seawall around Farm Cove to Bennelong Point to inspect Jørn Utzon's vaulted ceramic shells up close or join an architectural tour of the Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre. From Circular Quay, climb the Cumberland Street stairs in The Rocks to walk the free 1.14-kilometre eastern pedestrian deck of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to Milsons Point.

Hike the 6-kilometre Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk

Carved into the Hawkesbury sandstone cliffs of the Eastern Suburbs, the Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk links five beaches and four sheltered bays in roughly two to three hours on foot. Starting above the saltwater lap pool of Bondi Icebergs, the paved clifftop path winds past Aboriginal rock engravings at Marks Park, the narrow surf cove of Tamarama, the family parklands of Bronte, the concrete snorkelling channel of Clovelly, and the wooden boat ramps of Gordon's Bay before finishing at Coogee's historic ocean baths.

Explore free museums and sandstone arcades in the city centre

When midday sun or a sudden coastal shower arrives, step inside Sydney's historic cultural institutions, many of which offer free general admission. Opposite the Circular Quay ferry wharves, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) showcases contemporary Australian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art inside a sandstone Art Deco building. Along the eastern edge of Hyde Park and the Domain stand the Australian Museum (founded in 1827 as Australia's oldest natural history and anthropological museum) and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where the classical nineteenth-century sandstone courts now sit beside the glass-and-rammed-earth pavilions of the Sydney Modern Project (Naala Badu) overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay.

Ride the public ferry across Sydney Heads to Manly and Taronga Zoo

• Circular Quay to Manly (F1 ferry): The thirty-minute public ferry crossing from Wharf 3 at Circular Quay to Manly passes directly past the Opera House, Fort Denison, Bradleys Head, and the open ocean swell between North Head and South Head. Once at Manly Wharf, walk down The Corso to Manly Beach and continue along the coastal path to sheltered Cabbage Tree Bay and Shelly Beach.
• Taronga Zoo and Bradleys Head (F2 ferry): Ride the twelve-minute ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo, where koalas, platypuses, kangaroos, and giraffes occupy terraced hillside enclosures overlooking the city skyline, or walk the bushland foreshore track around Bradleys Head within Sydney Harbour National Park.
• Eat Sydney rock oysters and tour the Blue Mountains: Dedicate a morning to shucked oysters and grilled barramundi covered in our Sydney food guide, and take the two-hour intercity train from Central Station to Katoomba for a Blue Mountains day trip to Echo Point and the Three Sisters.