A visit to Sydney isn’t a fait accompli until you’ve spent time really taking in the city’s most striking jewel: Sydney Harbour. The meandering natural waterway is the world’s largest natural harbour, and one of the most picturesque, stretching from the heads at its ocean gateway for 20-kilometres inland, and edged by the native bushland of Sydney Harbour National Park.
All that shoreline means plenty of opportunities to escape the bustle of the city and discover for yourself the beauty and appeal of this glittering showstopper. Here are seven awesome ways to explore Sydney Harbour.
Get On It – Float Your Way Around Sydney Harbour
Feel the sea breeze on your skin as you set out from shore aboard a harbour vessel. Your options are as extensive as your budget and your sense of adventure.
For just a couple of dollars, you can catch one of Sydney’s commuter ferries to various points around the harbour and enjoy iconic water and city views on the way. An absolute must-do trip for any visitor is the Sydney to Manly ferry, a half-hour commuter cruise offering some of the best boat-based harbour panoramas around.
Up your budget and you can enjoy a more leisurely introduction to the harbour aboard one of the many Sydney Harbour tours plying the waters. Take your pick of sightseeing cruises, sunset cruises, dinner cruises, paddle steamer show boats and more.
Between May and November, you can also journey through the harbour and beyond the Sydney heads to seek out migrating humpbacks on a whale watching cruise.
If you prefer your floats to be self-drive, kayaks can be hired at rental outfits around the harbour, or you can join kayak and stand-up paddle boarding tours and explore bays and nooks that most visitors never get to see.
Get In It – Take A Dip At One Of Sydney’s Harbour Beaches
Many visitors to Sydney make straight for the city’s most famous stretches of sand: Manly Beach and Bondi Beach. If you’re after a more serene dip in the world’s most famous harbour though, then search out one of the low-key Sydney harbour beaches.
With 322-kilometres of shoreline, Sydney Harbour itself is home to more than 20 sandy beaches that are perfect for cooling off, or enjoying a tranquil waterside picnic away from the hordes.
Some Sydney harbour beaches are easily accessed by bus or car, such as Shark Beach at Nielsen Park in Vaucluse, or Balmoral Beach in Mosman. Others, though, the real hidden gems, can only be reached by hiking along the harbour’s bushland trails, like the tiny beaches dotting the Spit Bridge to Manly walk. For some, like Store Beach in Manly, access is only by boat or kayak.
Get Over It – Take In The Views From Above Sydney Harbour
If you’d prefer to experience Sydney Harbour without getting wet, you can put some distance between you and the water on one of the bridges spanning the harbour.
The greatest of these is, of course, the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and if you have time for only one bridge stroll, make it this one.
There are several ways to get familiar with the famous steel ‘coathanger’, which was built in 1932. You can pay a few hundred bucks, don a boiler suit, carabiner up with a group of others, and climb the 134-metre-high arch (by all accounts an unforgettable experience and something we will definitely do one day).
You can also visit the Pylon Lookout on the south-eastern corner of the Bridge where, for $15, you can learn about the history of the Bridge and climb 200 steps for sensational views.
Or just enjoy a free walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge along the pedestrian walkway, from The Rocks on the city side to Milsons Point on the north side (or vice versa). There’s also a cycle path on the western side of the span.
With more time, you can seek out the alternative – and equally stunning – city and harbour views offered on walks across some of Sydney’s other harbour-spanning bridges, like the striking Anzac Bridge that crosses from Pyrmont to the harbour-side enclave of Balmain; the Pyrmont Bridge to Darling Harbour; and the Gladesville Bridge, with its sweeping Sydney panoramas.
Get Alongside It – Stretch Your Legs On A Harbourside Hike
Much of the harbour east of the Harbour Bridge is framed by natural bushland protected as Sydney Harbour National Park. This beautiful edging of nature along the city’s headlands and islands lends Sydney an entirely unique feel among the world’s cities: a green metropolis.
Across all three of Sydney’s headland peninsulas – North Head, Middle Head and South Head – you’ll find harbourside hikes that bring you right alongside the water and serve up spectacular views across the city and the harbour.
There are plenty of Sydney Harbour walks to choose from, but highlights include the Rose Bay to Watsons Bay walk on the south side of the harbour; the Bradleys Head to Chowder Bay walk through Middle Head and, our personal favourite, the spectacular, 9-kilometre Spit Bridge to Manly Walk on the north side.
Pack a picnic for a stop at one of the parks or peaceful beaches you’ll find along the way, or set your sights on a fish and chips meal and maybe a craft beer at the end.
It’s not often you get to say you’ve been hiking through the bush in a major city.
Get In The Middle Of It: Visit A Sydney Harbour Island
Did you know there are five islands in Sydney Harbour? Each offers a unique opportunity to appreciate the harbour, and Sydney’s heritage, from a completely different perspective.
Four of the islands are part of Sydney Harbour National Park: Goat Island, Clark Island, Fort Denison and Shark Island. Goat and Clark can be visited on organised guided tours, including an Aboriginal cultural tour that visits Clark Island, while Shark Island and Fort Denison are visited by Sydney’s commuter ferries; you can stop off at Fort Denison for a tour, or disembark on Shark Island for a picnic with spectacular views right up the harbour.
The fifth island, Cockatoo Island, is also accessible by ferry. It’s a World Heritage site for its convict heritage. It has great eating and drinking options, plenty of spots to lay out a picnic spread, and you can even stay overnight in a heritage house, apartments, or in a tent. Imagine watching the sun rise over Sydney Harbour, from the middle of it!
Get Under It – Gear Up And Go Diving In Sydney Harbour
With some of the world’s most famous diving destinations stealing the limelight in Australia (think the Great Barrier Reef, HMS Yongala, Ningaloo Reef, etc), many people don’t realise that there is some excellent diving to be had right here in Sydney.
For one thing, close to 600 species have been recorded in Sydney Harbour; that’s more than the Mediterranean Sea! Sydney is also a great place to learn to dive, as the bays are sheltered and the shore dives are mostly straightforward and relatively shallow.
A number of tranquil dive sites dot the inner harbour and just beyond the heads, offering up plenty of diverse marine life, from nudibranches, sea horses and flashing cuttlefish, to friendly gropers and wobbegong sharks, even dolphins for the extra lucky.
One particularly special sea creature, the weedy seadragon, is endemic to southern Australian waters and can be found at certain dive sites around Sydney, drawing enthusiasts from across the world. We’ve spotted just one in all of our Sydney dives, but it was worth the wait.
Get High Above It – Take A Sightseeing Flight Over Sydney Harbour
You’ve been on it, over it, in it, alongside it and under it, but what you really want is the bigger picture: Sydney Harbour from the air.
Both seaplanes and helicopters take visitors on breathtaking flights over Sydney Harbour and, in the case of the seaplane at least, for not much more than it costs to climb the Harbour Bridge (although the experience is far shorter).
From up high, you’ll see the spectacular cityscape of Sydney reaching out to the Blue Mountains, and the glittering arms of Sydney Harbour stretching its fingers as far inland as Parramatta. From experience, Dan can tell you it’s a brief trip, but an exhilarating one.
Insider’s Tip: If you’re arriving in Sydney by plane, depending on your flight path, you might find you actually get a Sydney Harbour fly-over for free en route to Sydney Airport. Keep an eye out the window when the Captain announces you’re starting your descent!
With so many options for exploring the world’s most beautiful harbour, where will your Sydney adventures take you?