Sydney, Australia.

Sydney. It’s impossible to miss out on this most iconic of cities – and you can’t really come back from an Australian holiday without some photos of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge in your collection. But don’t just look at the attractions – get closer. The Opera House has four restaurants and six bars so it’s worth going inside to find out more.



Recent holidaymakers say the backstage tours are worth taking and point out that the five different auditoriums put on a huge range of performances – don’t think the place is off limits just because you don’t like opera. Find out more at www.sydneyoperahouse.com.

If you’ve got a head for heights you can get up close and personal to the Harbour Bridge as well – on a 3-and-a-half hour climbing tour up and over its famous structure. Check it out at www.bridgeclimb.com. If you don’t fancy this, you can find a more stable viewing platform at the south east corner of the bridge near the Rocks.

Harbour boat tours are worth considering, though returning holidaymakers say you don’t need to spend a fortune on a dinner cruise if you don’t want to. Take a typical commuter ferry over to Manly Island and imagine what it must be like to live in this most beautiful of cities.

Back on dry land it is worth walking around as much as possible. Sydney has a string of great parks and gardens – you can swim in outdoor pools on the edge of the Harbour in several places – the best is probably the weirdly-named Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool near the Royal Botanic Gardens overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay. And while the skyscrapers catch the eye it’s worth heading to places like Paddington to look at some of the classic Victorian terraced homes as well – you can find details of walking tours at www.sydneywalkingtours.com.au while www.sydneyaustralia.com is the official site for the City as a whole.

More about Sydney

Once upon a time a visit to Sydney, Australia, was regarded as a sort of ‘once in a lifetime experience’. Being literally ‘at the other end of the world’ as far as Britain was concerned, a visit to Sydney would entail literally ‘days’ of travel – with days being ‘lost’ in the course of the journey due to its ten hour different time-scale. Hailing from a long line of sea-faring captains – which extend even to the days of the original ‘sailing ships’ – visiting Australia on a regular basis was even regarded as ‘commonplace’ amongst members of my family. In fact, one of my ancestors was ‘born at sea’ and saw Australia before first setting foot on British soil at the mature age of two!

Even with the advent of air travel, Sydney, Australia, still represented a ‘distant destination’ – and hardly the place one would elect to visit for a mere week’s holiday! In fact, it became ‘common practice’ for one to ‘break’ one’s journey and perhaps stay a night in either Hong Kong or Singapore. But since both these locations are also subject to ‘time-differences’, sleeping on demand still presented a few problems.

Now, with air travel having seemingly reached an epic point in ‘time travel’, people board a plane and make the journey to Sydney in ‘one go’! After all, not many hotels can compare with the luxury of night-time ‘club class’ travel – where a surfeit of champagne takes precedence over plain water…… Sydney seems suddenly to have become a very popular holiday destination with British tourists.

It’s claimed that Sydney can be comfortably visited at any time of the year since its temperatures rarely fall below 10 degrees centigrade in winter while its summer temperatures are usually about 25 degrees centigrade - 77 degrees Fahrenheit, although on certain particularly hot humid days this figure can rise to 40 degrees centigrade – 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Such humidity is often associated with Sydney’s peak summer climate, but it is also claimed that prevailing ‘sea breezes’ serve to dissipate the discomfort that would be experienced in inland venues.

And the occasional brief torrential downpours that occur also serve to mitigate any prevailing humidity. What constitutes Sydney’s overwhelming charm as a holiday destination – that induces British tourists to travel to the other side of the world? Described as ‘Australia’s oldest, largest and most diverse city’, the first image that one associates with Sydney is its ‘harbour front’ – and, of course, its spectacular ‘Sydney Harbour Bridge’.

Described by many as a structure that rather resembles a ‘vast coat-hanger’, Sydney Harbour Bridge is 134 metres high and 502 metres long, and it took nine years to construct it. A total of 1,400 workers were involved in its construction – and it’s believed that sixteen people died following ‘construction accidents’. The bridge can be crossed by car or train, but it’s also possible to cross it on foot, and thereby gain a stupendous view.

Sydney Harbour itself is one of the city’s prime attractions. It’s even been described as ‘the shimmering watery soul of the city of Sydney’. But not only is it a major port in its own right, but it also lays claim to proximity with a surfeit of bays, beaches, coves and waterside parks. Ferry boats and yachts of all sizes and descriptions are a constant sight that can be seen dotted across the water’s perimeter. And ‘The Sydney Harbour National Park’, which borders the quay offers numerous opportunities for leisurely walks and strolls alongside the harbour front. The national park also incorporates five islands, all of which can be visited by ferry boats. Likewise, ferry boats transport tourists to innumerable other sites, including ‘Doyles Restaurant’ at Watsons Bay, which not only provides panoramic views of the harbour, but which also offers seafood of exceptional quality, and is even referred to as ‘the King of Sydney Seafood’.

Beaches abound within the periphery of Sydney, Bondi Beach in particular being justly famous and described as ‘one of the world’s great beaches’. Bondi is the closest beach to the city centre, and it is also claimed to be ‘the widest beach’ in Sydney, with an average water temperature of 21 degrees centigrade. It is also popular with surf-riders. Attending an evening show at the Sydney Opera House is also a ‘must’ for any visitor to the city. Referred to as a ‘mandatory sight’ and described as ‘Australia’s most recognizable icon’, the Sydney Opera House has even been called ‘a celestial piece of architecture’. But it’s claimed that the most superlative view of the building is obtained from the sea when one travels into the quay by ferry boat.

Another of the city’s focal landmarks is the Sydney Tower, with an Observation Deck that occupies it 76th floor. The tower also has two revolving restaurants, from where diners can gaze down at the harbour city as they slowly rotate around. Construction work started on the tower in 1970 but it was not officially opened until August 1981.

Sydney is a metropolitan city and also multicultural. It is regarded as Australia’s ‘chief commercial, financial and industrial centre’. And it is estimated that more than two million tourists visit Sydney annually. And tourist havens of all kinds abound in the area, with the ‘city centre’ itself lying south of the harbour. Particularly popular with tourist is an area known as ‘The Rocks’, which features cobbled streets, renovated colonial buildings, cafes, and numerous tourists’ shops, The Rocks Market – composed of 150 stalls and open at the week-ends, Colman’s Cottage – Sydney’s oldest house, and The Garrison Church – Australia’s first church – which was erected in 1848, and which faces Argyle Place, a British style village green.

Close by, on Kent Street, is the ‘Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel’, which vies for supremacy as being Australia’s oldest pub with ‘Hero of Waterloo’, situated on Windmill Street. Popular too is Darling Harbour, situated on the west of the city, with its Harbour-side Shopping Centre, several museums, and King Street Wharf – an area bustling with bars, cafes and restaurants.

Restaurants and shops abound too in Sydney’s Chinatown, which is also situated west of the city. And ‘The Chinese Garden of Friendship’ which can be located in Darling Harbour, is described as ‘an oasis of tranquility’. Sydney, it is claimed, has evolved into a ‘sparkling, progressive metropolis that’s endowed with a staggering expanse of natural beauty’. And it’s also claimed that ‘in all but name, it constitutes Australia’s capital city’…

Roberta Crookes has worked as a newspaper journalist throughout most of her life, writing news stories, editorial features, advertisement supplements, and reviews. And in the course of her work she has interviewed many famous people from all walks of life. She has also managed to combine parallel careers in both journalism and acting, and, being Welsh speaking from North Wales, her main television featured parts have been Welsh language roles with BBC Wales.