Sydney, Australia is a magnificent city. It’s big, buzzing with people but also beautiful with many gorgeous buildings, many parks and amazing views.

We stayed for a month in the northern suburb of Sydney, called Killarney Heights. From Killarney Heights, it’s a quick 25 min bus ride into ‘downtown’ Sydney and only a 20min car ride to Manly beach (more about beaches below). Here are some of the highlights from our stay:

Sydney Harbor Bridge is a massive steel and concrete bridge that overlooks the bay as well as the Sydney Opera House with its iconic sails. Beneath the bridge is the energetic harbor with many boats & ferries, and even massive eleven-story cruise ships. The bridge is taller than most of the huge boats. On our first day into the city, decided to walk over the bridge to get a good orientation of the city. We started our walk at Milson’s Point, which is on the northern side of the bridge and we walked towards the Opera House. At the end of the bridge we explored ‘The Rocks’, a popular neighborhood in Sydney, with many restaurants and shops. In December (when we visited) there is a famous Christmas market where many local artists sell their crafts, which make great Christmas gifts. It was a pleasant 3 mile walk with magnificent views of Sydney Harbor.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is in a massive building supported by huge columns in the front. Entry is free except for the special exhibitions that change every couple of months. We saw an exhibition on 20th century aboriginal art (this includes abstract art) which was very interesting. We could’ve easily spent more time at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, but we had other places to explore that day. It is located right next to Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

We also visited the Royal Botanic Gardens. The Royal Botanical Gardens had a really interesting exhibition featuring carnivorous plants, such as the Venus flytraps, pitcher plants, and sundews. Next to the exhibition there were sculptures of colorfully painted koalas. The botanical gardens is very well kept and very interesting as it showed many different plants and also had many birds. The ponds were full with jumping fish and eels. The botanical gardens gave us a great view of the city (the Sydney Opera House is right next the botanical gardens). We explored the gardens at the end of the day and got lucky by getting at Mrs. Macquaries Chair just in time to see one of the giant cruise ships depart from the harbor. The cruise ships seem to depart at either 4PM or 7PM each day.

This a pitcher plant on display at the exhibition at the botanical gardens

Darling Harbour is a big square with water fountains, playgrounds, and rope courses. It was perfect for kids like my sisters and me. The water fountains are designed for kids to play around and splash, so bring a change of clothes! We had lots of fun and could’ve spent more time here, especially since we visited on a warm day; the water was refreshing! To the north of the playgrounds, there are many restaurants and bars.

The most iconic building is the Sydney Opera House. We came and explore around the Opera house (the views are amazing) and stayed to watch the Badu Gili, the Sydney Opera House’s night light show (lights were projected on the Sydney opera house). The light show on the Sydney Opera House was incredible. The show itself only lasted 7 min and projected aboriginal art. On other visits to Sydney our parents went to see a symphony in the Sydney Opera House. Then, later, Josie, Oma (our grandmother), and my mother went to the Sydney Opera House to see a play. There are many different rooms and activities happening at the Opera House. Some sell out fast (like the Nutcracker during the holidays) but some shows have tickets available on the day of the show. You can look at their calendar here.

This is one of the designs that appears on the Sydney Opera house during the light show

Before visiting the Opera House (the lights only started at 8:30) we did our own walking tour of the city (without a guide). We stopped at one of the many restaurants at the Barangaroo promenade for a quick snack. It was fun to watch the boats come and go and also for people watching. We continued our walk to the Barangaroo reserve, a gorgeous and new park with amazing views from the water. We continued our walk and had dinner in ‘The Rocks’ neighborhood. There are many British style pubs in Sydney (due to its colonization by Britain) and we had dinner the oldest pub in Sydney, dating from early 1800’s.

Taronga Zoo is the only zoo in Sydney. I say this because with all the renovations the zoo has gone through over the years (it opened in the early 1900’s), it is now being called ‘The New Zoo’ and some people get confused by thinking it is a different zoo. The zoo is home to 350 species of which there are over 4,000 animals, including many of the native species to Australia (you can actually walk amongst Kangaroos and Wallabies!) We saw many koalas, including a mother and baby koala. The zoo is located across the bay from the Sydney Opera House and the views are amazing! The zoo is spacious, well kept and you can spend the whole day here.

Mother Koala with her baby at the Taronga Zoo!

Watching the Kangaroos at the Taronga zoo

Sydney area beaches

There are many amazing beaches in Sydney and here are some of our favorites:

Manly Beach was our favorite beach that we have been to. It is a lot less crowded than Bondi and is still just as pleasant. The beach is almost two miles long and has white soft sand. At the end of the beach there is a salt water pool that is filled straight from the ocean. There is a nice We drove there as it is close to where we are staying, but many tourists take the ferry from the Sydney harbor to Manly beach to spend the day. Manly gets its strange name from the early explorers who thought the aboriginals living here at the to be very ‘manly’. A famous walk is the Manly to Spit bridge Walk. Our family did the one way hike to Spit Bridge. It is 6 miles long, one way, and we took the bus back to Manly. It was a great hike with a mixture of gorgeous ocean views, lush forest and even exploring aboriginals carvings.

The map shows the Manly to Spit bridge route

Bondi Beach a really famous beach because is so-called ‘the best beach in the world’. What we really liked about Bondi beach is in a beautiful bay. We thought Bondi beach was pretty crowded, especially considering we went during the week and compared to the beaches that we have visited before. Up to 35,000 people come to the beach on a hot summers day. After spending some time at the beach we started up the Bondi to Coogee walk. We had to turn around at some point because it was really windy.

This is Bondi beach with all the surfers in the back

Dee Why Beach our least favorite beach so far, as it was dirty with sea weed and the water was cold. But still a lot less crowded than Bondi beach. The beach also has smaller waves and the beach itself is smaller. It also has a salt water pool at one end. This is where the locals come.

Dee why Beach had a bunch of seaweed everywhere

I think Sydney is a fascinating city. When we first got to Australia we thought we would only go to Sydney a couple of times, while in truth we have gone lots of times and want to keep exploring this fun city!