Beaches, Sydney

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Arguably, one of the most spectacular of the Harbour bays as it provides you with great views of the Sydney skyline and then, just two minutes walk brings you to The Gap and the vast ocean views from the clifftop vantage point.

Watsons Bay is synonymous with Doyles - possibly the most famous restaurant in Australia. Bayside location at the ferry station, Doyles is just expanding and expanding! Top notch sea food, its cataering for all tastes and all budgets these days, including the takeaway fish and chip kiosk at the ferry station itself.

But there's more to Watsons Bay than simply Doyles. The immediate vicinity of the ferry station other than the restaurant are a couple of small but pleasant beaches, an open air sea-water swimming pool as well as a large grassy area for eating those fish & chips you have taken away from Doyles. Walk up the hill to the bus station and the ocean and The Gap - famed lover's leap section of the cliff tops overlooking the ocean.

WB is also the ideal start for the South Head walk, which is part of the Sydney Harbour National Park - see next tip.

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One of the must-do attraction in Sydney is the coastal walk. You can either start from Bondi or Coogee to complete this walk. It will take about 3-4 hours depending on the length of breaks you may want to give. If you start from Bondi, you will go down south to Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly, Waverley Cemetery, Gordon's Bay and finally Coogee. As well as enjoying the breathtaking ocean views, you can jump into the cool ocean to chill and relax.

Although Coogee is not as popular as Bondi, it has developed in recent years with more cafes and restaurants. The coastal walk I have been mentioning either starts or ends here in Coogee. You can relax in the beach and enjoy the ocean as much as you want.

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Bondi Beach is probably the most famous beach in Sydney. This long beach streches about 3 km and you can enjoy the big waves of the ocean. There are trendy cafes and restaurants close to the beach. The lifeguards are always around just to make sure everybody is safe. If you are not a good swimmer, it is better to stay with the crowd while you enter the ocean. Due to big waves, you can be dragged into the bottom. Bondi Beach is a good spot for spending a lazy day, but you can also try the coastal walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee offering fantastic sea view. Check out my coastal walk tip for details.

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This lovely beach is better than Bondi in my opinion. There is a natural barricade of rocks breaking the big ocean waves, which enables you to enjoy the ocean. There is also a swimming pool with ocean water for kids. I enjoyed swimming in Bronte more than the other beaches in Sydney.

Tamarama is just in the south of Bondi. After a few minutes coastal walk, you reach the beach. It is a small but good enough to chill and relax. If you plan to do the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee, it is worth to stop by here, but it is not easy to fill a whole day.

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Sydney beaches are heaven for surfers. apart from that, barbecue picnic on a sunny day is not a bad idea.

Bronte Beach is located close to the city, and is less crowded than the famous Bondi Beach. not only is the beach nice for surfing, picnic and barbecue facilities is also provided in the park nearby, where you can have a good time barbecuing with your friends.

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They amplitude of beaches in Sydney... While I was there we saw multiple beaches, here's the list and what I thought and did.

1. Coogee Beach (On Day 1, we started at this beach and walked, and walked and walked the scenic route to Bondi Beach). It took us about two and 1/2 hours. It was wonderful and a great way to start my travels in Sydney. At coogie beach, you can dive in and take a swim in the ocean and then start your hike. As you walk, you get amazing views (pics below), you see people playing rugby, you pass through a graveyard (which was a little disturbing), climb on rocks and have a lot of fun while exercising. (PIC 1 and 2)

2. Manly Beach - the three hour walk. So Manly Beach was nice, slightly crowded the day we went, but beautiful. We decided to do the walk, and it was amazing. We came upon a lot of small beaches with beautiful water. It was very romantic and a fun hike. THere are a lot of beaches along the way and you at one of them you can even see penguins ( but we didnt' see any). (Pic 3)

3. Watson Bay-again really pretty, fun to sit and have some fish and chips. IF you go off and ask follow the path to the hike above and keep going towards the national park area, you can ask people about "Cook Beach". A very small secluded beach taht's hard to find unless you go looking for it. The sunset there was amazing!!! (Pic 4)

(FOR THE ABOVE 3-- IF YOU GET DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, just follow the paths in the book (esp for the Manly beach one), we improvised a little so that we could see what we wanted)

4. Dee Why Beach - we stopped here briefly, the tides were strong and it started to rain, so we didnt' get to enjoy it as much as I would have like to, but there are usually lots of surfers out here and it's got good places to eat and usuall crowded.

5. Avalon- also good for surfing

6. Palm Beach-- also very pretttty, a beautiful drive up that way, and we got to see all the beaches on the way up. (PIC 5)