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From Moon Sydney & the Great Barrier Reef
Sydney spreads itself sumptuously along its sunken river valley, hemmed by some of the world’s most expensive real estate. Pricey or not, people come to Sydney and fall in love. The beauty of the harbor, the majestic buildings in the town center (Central Business District or CBD) harking back to prosperous times that started back in the early 1800s, and the proximity of some of the world’s most famous and surfable beaches along the Pacific coast, together with the city being the hub from where to reach the rest of this rather large country, all make for a popular gateway to Australia and a stunning city in its own right. Here are the highlights you need to see when visiting Australia’s largest city.
The Rocks: This is where it all started, where the First Fleet landed and the first settlers arrived, voluntarily or not. There is a great atmosphere of history in the air, the buildings are all wonderful, and the area is dotted with cafés, restaurants, and shops.
Sydney Opera House: It really doesn’t get more iconic than the Sydney Opera House, one of the most widely recognized buildings in the world.
BridgeClimb: To get a view like no other, climb Sydney Harbour’s iconic “coat hanger” bridge. It looks steeper than it is and the climb is slow with plenty of breaks, making it accessible for nearly everybody.
Manly Ferry: This commuter ferry goes past the opera house, all along the harbor, and past the islands to the entrance to the ocean at Manly. For a handful of dollars you get hundreds of dollars worth of views.
Macquarie Street: If you just see one street in Sydney, this must be it. Every building is historic, and the road stretches from the opera house, past the Royal Botanic Gardens, to Hyde Park. Take your time and pop into all the buildings along the way, and you’ll have a great idea of Australia’s history.
Hyde Park Barracks: This museum concentrates on Australia’s first settlers, the workers that built the colony—how they lived, worked, struggled.
Art Gallery of New South Wales: Located in the beautiful Domain, with great views, the gallery is a fantastic collection of old European, contemporary, indigenous, and ancient Asian art.
Sydney Tower Eye: Get a good overview of this sprawling metropolis from up high. You can even do yoga or be daring and do a skywalk.
Taronga Zoo: Sydney is all about views—even the zoo has them. Stand by the giraffes and see the Sydney skyline, opera house, and bridge from there. Oh, and the animals, from near and far, are wonderful, too.
Bondi Beach: This is one of the best-known beaches on the globe. Curved along the bay, fringed by rocky outcrops and the “village,” as the suburb proudly calls itself, the beach attracts surfers, bathers, and the famous lifeguards. And the stunning Bondi to Coogee walk starts here.
The region of Cairns and the Northern Reef offers a plethora of thrill-seeking activities, be it bungee jumping, ziplining, or wild-water rafting, as well as more serene ways of spending the day, such as taking the cable car to Kuranda, doing some shopping in the market, and taking the scenic railway back. Here are the can’t-miss sights and activities for your trip.
Flecker Botanical Gardens: Imagine walking from a bustling city center into a wild and luscious rainforest within 30 minutes. The botanical gardens are slightly more manicured and not as wild as the forest farther up the coast, but that means that you can safely walk along boardwalks taking in the incredible plants that grow here, view special exhibits, and stop for coffee, all without worrying about the indigenous wildlife eating you while you are in the jungle.
Kuranda: Take a cable car up over the rainforest’s canopy, see the cockatoos sitting on the treetops, then visit colorful markets in Kuranda over lunch and get back to the starting point in a historic train that trundles past waterfalls and across gorges—this is quite simply one of the region’s best days out.
Undara Lava Tubes: Just when you think nature could not get any more impressive than the magnificent Great Barrier Reef and the luscious tropical rainforest, then you’ll walk through a maze of enormously large tubes that were formed from lava flow some 190,000 years ago. Add to that a hike around a crater and toasting your morning bread at a bush breakfast, and you get an all-round Outback experience that is hard to beat.
Fitzroy Island: After a mere 45 minutes on the ferry from Cairns, you are on a (nearly) deserted island offering self-guided walks through the rainforest, a white sandy beach that is flanked by giant boulders, and the possibility of encountering green sea turtles when snorkeling. But this desert island also comes with a beach bar and snacks.
Lizard Island: The only continental islands close to the outer Great Barrier Reef, an hour’s flight from Cairns, the Lizard Island group offers pristine water, easy access to the colorful reef, untouched beaches, and a true desert island experience. The star of the islands is Lizard Island and its award-winning five-star luxury resort, where celebrities come to take advantage of the combination of unspoiled nature, luxury amenities, and utter seclusion.
Daintree Rainforest: Covering some 1,200 square kilometers north of Cairns, the World Heritage-listed Daintree is the largest continuous rainforest area in Australia. At an estimated 180 million years old, some tens of millions of years older than the Amazon rainforest in South America, it is also the oldest rainforest in the world, containing examples of fauna and flora that are not found anywhere else on the planet.
