39. Sydney & Sydney Harbour

What an amazing city!

Sydney is located on the east coast, 178 miles northeast of Australia's capital Canberra, and 565 miles south of Brisbane (aka Gold Coast area). It is the most populous city in Australia, and the capital of the state of New South Wales. Sydney's population of roughly 5.5 million represents approximately 20% of the country's total population.

Per Wikipedia, at the 2021 census, the most common ancestries were:

English (21.8%)
Australian (20.4%)[N 2]
Chinese (11.6%)
Irish (7.2%)
Scottish (5.6%)
Indian (4.9%)
Italian (4.3%)
Lebanese (3.5%)

I found this surprising, as my personal visual experience would tell me it is far more Asian based than the facts noted above.

The city is remarkably easy to get around in. There is little need for a car, in fact, the cost of parking is supposedly exorbitant, and I would imagine navigating your way around all of the pedestrian tourists might be a challenge. The combination of frequently running ferries, trains, and light rail (trams) around and throughout the city, along with an efficient "tap-on, tap-off" credit card payment system for each of these types of transportation, make it a walker's paradise.

We loved almost everything about Sydney. There was a plethora of eclectic cafes, restaurants, bars, hotels, business areas, shopping, and museums as well as parks and pedestrian areas filled with adult sports and children on swings. Around every corner was a different "modern day Norman Rockwell" scene.

Our hotel was in an excellent location in the CBD (cental business district), down the block from the Queen Victoria shopping building, with easy access to groceries, bottle shop (that's what they call liquor stores here), the tram, the train, Darling Harbor & its ferries. We could be in Sydney Harbour in 15 minutes. We did a walking tour of the city (Mike also did a separate tour of an older community that is part of Sydney called The Rocks), and we spent a lot of time wandering around. This might be the most inviting, inspiring & navigable city I've ever been in.Read more