Welcome to 'Straya! What to see in Sydney and around?! Amazing views and useful tips
Hello and welcome to Australia or Straya as the locals like to say!
I’ve been waiting a long time to arrive to this beautiful continent and finally here I am! 🙂
I arrive in middle of December, which is their beginning of the summer! There is no need to say, it was extremely hot!
Let’s start with the Tips before getting to there.
Get your visa from here: https://www.australia.gov.au/
You can do everything online. Upload documents, get approval and get your visa.
Before getting on the plane don’t get any food with you in Australia, as it’s strictly forbidden.
Once you get there get used to Australian accent, which after a few days i got used to and even started to like it!
For example: Good day – G’day, also they love to say mate. G’d mate, hawaya? – Good day mate, how are you? So, be prepared for that and many others.
For many and for me Sydney was the start of my Australia adventure. There is soo much to see in and around Sydney, so better to get started!
What to see in Sydney?
I spent almost 3 weeks in that cool city. Thankfully in a friend’s house as the rent there was extremely high. The surprising was that they charge the rents in weeks, not months. So most of the rents there were about 300/350$ per week for a room in an average good neighborhood. So, I was very lucky :))
First things, first!
I couldn’t wait to see the Sydney Opera and the Downtown of Sydney.
Sydney’s Harbour is must see!
Sydney’s Harbour
On the left you can see the Harbour Bridge and on the right Sydney’s Opera and in front is their public ferry transport, which you can use with your daily public transport pass. On the Bridge you can walk for free or you can pay and go on the top of it 😉
Royal Garden! Here you can see amazing parrots and if you feed them which is forbidden, they would come to your shoulder
Only be careful about their nails as they are quite sharp 🙂
Next I’d recommend to do Bondi to Coogee walk. It is an amazing coastal walk very worth taking!
The first picture is a pool with ocean water, but safer (no sharks) This first one was paid (around 5/6$) but there are others for free. You will see plenty of them on the coast. Tip: Use very often 50+ sun’s cream, in Australia I’ve never seen a sun’s cream under 50, because the sun is extremely strong.
The whole walk could take you up to half day, if you jump into the water in every occasion, which I did… it was over 40 degrees
Next go to Manly!
You can get to there using the public boats, which I mentioned in the beginning.
While traveling by boat you are going to see that amazing view to the Downtown. Tip: On Sundays you can travel all day for price of 2.7$!
So, Manly is a suburb of Sydney. There is nice treks and beautiful spots where you could watch whales in their migration season, which is end of June and beginning of July.
Once you get there walk to the end of left side of the beach and through the rocks you will see a secret spot. Look at it bellow.
Don’t get scared like me, it is only a few meters and then you will see a nice view and interesting rocks from there
After that you could walk to Manly Lagoon and from there to North Head, from where you can see in the water whales , but if you are out of season you can see barely the downtown of Sydney.
If you have binoculars would be definitely useful. After you finish the the walk and enjoying the view, there is a bus nearby where you can get to the port back to Sydney.
It’s time to get out of Sydney and check out what’s awaiting us there 🙂
What to see out of Sydney?
Let’s start with Blue Mountains
To get there are several ways, by bus, train or car. I would recommend to rent a car and post in a Facebook Travelers Sydney Group for example and find other buddies to travel together (It’s eco and cheaper). Most importantly to be there before 10/10:30 am, because the Chinese buses arrives at 10:30 and you won’t enjoy the beautiful viewpoints there. I am not racist, but I’ve seen them by myself 5-6 buses coming together and you won’t be able to get to get a picture easily. So, have that in mind 😉
Three sisters
Here is the starting point for the Blue Mountains (for the buses) I was at around 10am, and it was like exactly 10 minutes before the buses and I could enjoy the view.
Wentworth Falls
That was the pack of the car… For good or bad I was with 4 girls from 4 different countries… 😀
The next is Bundeena to Otford trek – 30km of pure joy
Tips: Before getting there prepare good. Sun’s cream 50+, hat, sun glasses, at least 3l of water and food. Download the maps of the region is also recommended.
There is two ways, to start from Otford and finish in Bundeena (closer to Sydney) or the opposite.
I did Bundeena-Otford because of the nice sunset at the end (you will see later in the article) and also there are amazing 8 figure pools, which you should check the tides in order to see them. Prepare yourself for a long walk, but you won’t mind it as there are many nice viewpoints, beaches where you can rest a bit and jump into the water.
Here is the start. Don’t worry the Aussies loves to mark everything and explain, so it is hard to get lost.
This white rock is called wedding cake.
On the way you will see very interesting shaped rocks like these
After the Wedding cake it comes the first beach where you can relax and jump into the water – Marley beach
I still remember the exact feeling how after 2h of trekking in 40 burning degrees to jump into the cold water… precious!
The next is the Eagle Rock where is a nice shadow spot to have a lunch and have a short nap 🙂
There wasn’t much time to have a rest, because there was so much to see and enjoy on the way. Next is my favorite beach – Gary’s beach
Isn’t it perfect? It was wild, with so a little people! Very nice sand…clean water. I could stay here whole summer and do surfing 🙂
Dreams, dreams…. stayed there 30 minutes and had to go. Next was a Palm Forest very very noisy because of the cicadas (very annoying insects) So I run through there very fast and it was getting as well late.. for 8 Figure Pools, which I wanted to see the most.
These pools were created naturally in the perfect shape of 8… there were a few… INCREDIBLE! Reminder: check the tides before going there as it could be dangerous 😉
As a perfect finish of the trek, I was gifted with this stunning sunset view!
As you can see from the photos the trek was more than worth it. To get back to Sydney, simply get the train from the train station in Otford. It will take you around an hour to the city.
Aand last but not least let’s check it out where to see a kangaroo around Sydney?!
The answer is Morisset Park!
Prepare lots of bananas and carrots! They love bananas and like carrots. You will have the amazing opportunity to feed a kangaroo by yourself in their natural habitat.
Here I am going to pause it and I hope to see you in my next article which will be for Tasmania!
credits to @zgierka for some of the photos
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