Insight Guides Explore Sydney (Travel Guide eBook)

By Insight Guides

Pocket-sized travel guides featuring the very best routes and itineraries.

Discover the best of Sydney with this indispensably practical Insight Explore Guide. From making sure you don't miss out on must-see attractions like the Opera House, Botany Bay, Australia Museum, Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbor Bridge, to discovering hidden gems, including The Rocks, the easy-to-follow, ready-made walking routes will save you time, help you plan and enhance your visit to Sydney.

Practical, pocket-sized and packed with inspirational insider information, this is the ideal on-the-move companion to your trip to Sydney.

- Over 14 walks and tours: detailed itineraries feature all the best places to visit, including where to eat along the way
- Local highlights: discover what makes the area special, its top attractions and unique sights, and be inspired by stunning imagery
- Insider recommendations: where to stay and what to do, from active pursuits to themed trips
- Hand-picked places: find your way to great hotels, restaurants and nightlife using the comprehensive listings
- Practical maps: get around with ease and follow the walks and tours using the detailed maps 
- Informative tips: plan your visit with an A to Z of advice on everything from transport to tipping
- Inventive design makes for an engaging, easy-reading experience
- Covers: City centre, Harbour, CBD and Walsh Bay, Darling Harbour, Elizabeth Bay to Surry Hills, Paddington and Woollahra, Hermitage Foreshore, South Head and Watsons Bay, Bondi, Botany Bay, Manly, Northern Beaches, Blue Mountains and Royal National Park 

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Nov 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781839052002

Insight Guides

Pictorial travel guide to Arizona & the Grand Canyon with a free eBook provides all you need for every step of your journey. With in-depth features on culture and history, stunning colour photography and handy maps, it’s perfect for inspiration and finding out when to go to Arizona & the Grand Canyon and what to see in Arizona & the Grand Canyon. 

Book preview

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With ­top-­quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the world’s most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destination’s many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also ex­cursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments – options are shown in the ‘Food and Drink’ box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised A–Z of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafés and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

You’ll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

© 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

Architecture

Art lovers

Children

Food and drink

Green spaces

Historians

Photographers

Swimmers

Explore Sydney

Beginnings

Free settlers to the present day

Geography and layout

Central Sydney

New horizons

Green dream

Population

Climate

Local life

Politics and economy

Food And Drink

Eating out

High-end restaurants

Casual dining

Ethnic restaurants

Cheap eats

Drinks

Wine

Beer

Cocktails and spirits

Shopping

The Rocks

CBD

Shopping centres

Paddington

Surry Hills

Woollahra

Entertainment

Theatre

Dance

Music

Rock and pop

Classical music and jazz

Film

Cinema

Nightlife

The Great Outdoors

Beaches

Islands

National parks

Walks

History: Key Dates

First settlement

Colonial capital

Gold Rush era

20th century

City Centre Highlights

The Rocks

Sydney Visitor Centre

The Rocks Discovery Museum

The Rocks Market

Cadman’s Cottage

Museum of Contemporary Art

Gannon House Gallery

Argyle Cut

CBD

Strand Arcade

Sydney Tower

Queen Victoria Building

Sydney Town Hall

Hyde Park

Australian Museum

Dinosaurs

Australian fauna

Skeletons and minerals

Indigenous Australians

Watering holes

Harbour Highlights

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Circular Quay

Sydney Opera House

Spectacular design

Concerts and performances

Royal Botanic Gardens

Herbs and roses

Palm Grove

The Lower Gardens

Art Gallery of New South Wales (NSW)

Woolloomooloo

The Cbd and Walsh Bay

St Mary’s Cathedral

Hyde Park Barracks

Rum Hospital

Parliament House

Martin Place

GPO Sydney

Aurora Place

Museum of Sydney

Conservatorium of Music

Government House

Customs House

Walsh Bay

30 The Bond

Darling Harbour

Sydney Aquarium

Wildlife World

Chinese Garden

Chinatown

Powerhouse Museum

Australian National Maritime Museum

Pyrmont Bridge

Elizabeth Bay To Surry Hills

Elizabeth Bay House

Towards Potts Point

Macleay Street

Victoria Street

Kings Cross

A history of vice

Darlinghurst

Darlinghurst Gaol

Surry Hills

Riley Street

Paddington And Woollahra

VICTORIA BARRACKS

GLENMORE ROAD

Chic Boutiques

Art Galleries

JUNIPER HALL

WILLIAM STREET

PADDINGTON MARKETS

Woollahra

Hermitage Foreshore

Foreshore walk

Vaucluse House

South Head And Watsons Bay

Macquarie Lighthouse

Signal Station

Gunnery Range

Sandy beaches

Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage

Hornby Lighthouse

Bondi And Beyond

Bondi Beach

Tamarama Beach

Bronte Beach

Waverley Cemetery

Clovelly Beach

Coogee Beach

Coogee’s saltwater baths

Botany Bay

Towards Botany Bay

Captain Cook’s landing site

Bush walks

La Perouse

Historic buildings

La Perouse Museum

Henry Head Track

The Spit To Manly

Ellery’s Punt Reserve

Clontarf Beach

Grotto Point

Forty Baskets Beach

Manly Art Gallery and Museum

Manly

Northern Beaches

Bungan Beach

Bilgola Beach

Avalon

Palm Beach

The Basin

Blue Mountains

Leaving Sydney

Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum

Wentworth Falls

Leura

Echo Point

Scenic World

Katoomba

Blackheath

Campbell Rhododendron Gardens and bush walk

Jenolan Caves

Early finds

Cave tours

Adventure caving

Mount Tomah Botanic Garden

Royal National Park

Audley

Into the bush

Wattamolla Beach

Forest Path

Accommodation

CBD

Darling Harbour and around

Potts Point and around

Darlinghurst and Surry Hills

Paddington and Woollahra

Bondi and eastern suburbs

North Shore

Blue Mountains

Restaurants

CBD

Opera House and around

Darling Harbour, China Town and Glebe

Potts Point and around

Darlinghurst, Surry Hills and Paddington

Bondi and eastern suburbs

Watsons Bay

Manly

Mobile

Nightlife

Theatre

Dance

Classical music

Jazz

Contemporary music

Film

Bars and clubs

LGBTQ+ venues

A-Z

A

Age restrictions

B

Budgeting

C

Children

Clothing

Consulates

Crime and safety

Customs

E

Electricity

Emergencies

Etiquette

F

Festivals and holidays

January

February

February/March

Easter

May

June

September

December

New Year’s Eve

Further reading

Aboriginal Australia

Art and architecture

Biography

Fiction

Food and wine

History

G

Green issues

H

Health

Healthcare and insurance

Inoculations

Pharmacies and hospitals

Hours and holidays

I

Internet facilities

L

Left luggage

LGBTQ+ travellers

Lost property

M

Maps

Media

Print media

Radio

Television

Money

Cash machines

Credit cards

Currency

Taxes

Tipping

Travellers’ cheques

P

Police

Post

R

Religion

S

Smoking

T

Telephones

Mobile (cell) phones

Time zones

Toilets

Tourist information

Tours and guides

Transport

Arrival

Getting around

Travellers with disabilities

V

Visas and passports

Australia overseas

W

Websites

Women

Weights and measures

Books and Film

Books

Film

Recommended Routes For...

Architecture

From the rugged sandstone of the city’s oldest buildings (route 1), to the grand residences of former times (route 5) and the sleek skyscrapers of today (route 3), Sydney’s urban fabric offers diverse delights.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Art lovers

Explore the shock of the new at the Museum of Contemporary Art (route 1), take a crash course in Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW (route 2) or browse Paddington’s private galleries (route 6).

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Children

Let the kids run loose among the varied attractions of family-friendly Darling Harbour (route 4), marvel at the dinosaurs in the Australian Museum (route 1) or take a dip at some of Sydney’s best-loved beaches (route 9).

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Food and drink

Sydney is a city of many flavours, so grab some Chinese dumplings (route 4), savour fish and chips by the harbour (route 8) or treat yourself to one of its trendy inner-city eateries (route 5).

Shutterstock

Green spaces

Enjoy the diverse charms of the harbourside Royal Botanic Gardens (route 2), the beaches and bushland of the Royal National Park (route 14) and the spectacular scenery of the Blue Mountains (route 13).

Tourism New South Wales

Historians

Get an insight into Australia’s earliest days at The Rocks Discovery Museum (route 1), see how the colony’s elite lived at Vaucluse House (route 7), and swot up on Captain Cook’s landing at Botany Bay (route 10).

Getty Images

Photographers

Wait your turn with the wedding couples at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair (route 2), shoot the length of the harbour from Watsons Bay (route 8) and get the clifftop perspective from the Bondi to Coogee Walk (route 9).

Shutterstock

Swimmers

Savour the tranquillity at Bungan Beach (route 12), discover your own pocket-sized strip of sand surrounded by bush on the Hermitage Foreshore Walk (route 7) and swim with groupers at Clovelly Beach (route 9).

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Explore Sydney

Welcome to the de facto capital of the Lucky Country – a fast moving modern metropolis built around a beautiful blue harbour. But Sydney is also an economic powerhouse, with a progressive arts scene and a wonderful proximity to nature.

For most visitors, their Australian experience starts and ends in the seductive embrace of the Harbour City. Which is appropriate, because Sydney is Australia’s first city in nearly all senses of the word. Canberra might be the modern capital, but Sydney was the first European settlement on the continent. It remains the country’s largest metropolis, its pulsing business and financial engine, and is home to its most recognisable manmade icons: the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

A panoramic view of the downtown Sydney skyline

iStock

Beginnings

When you’re staring star-struck at the magnificence of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, or standing amid the glittering glass-and-concrete jungle of the Central Business District (CBD), it is easy to forget how young a city Sydney is. Just 240 years ago, it was little more than a few squalid huts clinging to the edge of the foreshore on The Rocks.

Indigenous people had inhabited the area in glorious isolation for around 45,000 years before a Yorkshireman arrived and ruined it all for them. Dutch explorers had touched on parts of the Australian continent centuries before, but they saw little of value in the big brown land and it was left to Captain James Cook to ‘discover’ Sydney in 1770. He didn’t hesitate to stick a flag in the land and claim it for king and country – setting a precedent that British backpackers still proudly observe on Bondi Beach to this day.

It took another 18 years before the first European settlement was created in 1788, with the arrival of the First Fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip, who tore up the original name (Albion) and christened the city after Lord Sydney, the British Home Secretary. Phillip only narrowly beat the French to the beach, though (for more information, click here).

Either way, the colonisers had landed and life was about to change dramatically for Australia’s indigenous people. It’s estimated that, prior to the arrival of the First Fleet, between 4,000 and 8,000 Aborigines lived in the region. They are commemorated in place names such as Cammeray (after the Cammeraygal tribe) and Ku-ring-gai (after the Gurringgai people).

The first settlers were a motley collection of convicts and soldiers. Sydney’s early years were grim, with the colony nearly succumbing to starvation in 1790. In 1808, officers of the NSW Corps deposed luckless Governor Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty infamy) in the Rum Rebellion, but it wasn’t until Governor Lachlan Macquarie arrived in 1810 that Sydney began its transformation into a colonial capital. It officially became a city in 1842.

Free settlers to the present day

Apart from some early structures at The Rocks, many of Sydney’s most historic buildings date from Macquarie’s time, including the grand buildings along Macquarie Street. His construction programme also included infrastructure such as roads, bridges and wharves, all of which were erected using the convenient convict labour force.

But by 1830, free settlers were arriving in large numbers and convicts were outliving their sentences and being released into the growing community. The end of transportation in 1840 and the start of the Gold Rush in 1851 completely altered the dynamics of the colony, which had previously functioned more as a military outpost than an urban centre.

Geography and layout

Today’s population may be a relatively modest 4.5 million, but Sydney is not a small city. Its suburbs sprawl across the coastal basin, covering close to 2,000 sq km (1,240 sq miles), but easily the most defining feature of its geography is the harbour (comprising Port Jackson, which lies between North and South heads, Middle Harbour and North Harbour). The harbour divides the leafy north shore from the urban hub of the south, and provides many of the beaches and bays that are Sydneysiders’ favourite playgrounds.

Central Sydney

The CBD stretches from the harbourside district of The Rocks, where Australia’s first European colony was founded, south towards Central Station. It’s a small area, with narrow Victorian streets that are fairly pedestrian-friendly (although watch out for the wing mirrors of the buses that race around this part of town, taking passengers but no prisoners in their vain attempt to keep to a timetable).

Traffic tends to grind to a standstill within the CBD, and during morning and evening peak hours (7–9am and 5–7pm), the problem extends in all directions. Exploring the city centre – the historic Rocks area, the museums and sights of the CBD and Hyde Park, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House – is easily done on foot. Elsewhere, the inner-city neighbourhoods of Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Paddington and Woollahra are particularly rewarding areas for a spot of urban strolling amid pretty Victorian terraces.

New horizons

Developers in this city never sleep, and the skyline is changing dramatically. A whole new suburb has somehow been carved out right next to the Harbour Bridge, and Barangaroo – as it’s known – is quickly becoming a recognisable name, with the three skyscrapers of International Towers Sydney already built, and several new public outdoor areas and an entertainment/casino complex at various stages of development. A total of nine