Sydney, with a population of over 5 million, is Australia’s most populous city. It’s consistently been voted in the top ten of the most liveable city’s in the world. Set around the world’s largest natural harbour, this city has so much to offer.

I was lucky enough to live here for a year many years ago and it was a pleasure to come back again on this trip. Yet again we had an action packed few days, exploring the city by foot and using its extensive public transport system to get around.

You can walk across the Harbour bridge for spectacular views but you can also take the formal Bridge Climb tour. The photo above is us at the summit! It’s a well organised tour, very safe and professionally run, it’s an easy ‘climb’ too. We would recommend doing this for the experience and the views across the harbour! Note you can’t take any cameras/phones with you!

The harbour is well served by the ferry boats that connect the numerous bayside communities to each other and to the city. The ferries are a great way to get out into the harbour without having to take an organised tour.

A 30mins trip out to Manly beach on a sunny day is a great way to see the harbour, passing the Heads (harbour entry/exit) on your way. Head to Circular Quay for the main ferry station which is close to the Opera House.

Whilst there we went to see a play at the Opera House, it has great acoustics and it’s interesting to see the inside of the building too.

We took the coastal walk from Coogee beach to Bondi beach one morning.

It’s an easy walk north along the coast with some lovely views and plenty of places to stop if needed!

Walking through the City is great too, it’s a vibrant place with plenty of buzzing restaurants and bars, at the weekend it’s packed until the early hours! There is a mix of old and new architecture that makes walking interesting.

You are bound to see a number of Ibis birds around Sydney, they are extraordinary looking birds, nicknamed ‘Bin Chickens’ as they eat from the food left in bins and on the ground.

We went for a walk round Darling Harbour which has lots of waterside restaurants and attractions, often with weekend fireworks too.

There is also a nice walk near Wooloomooloo where there are some lovely bayside apartments and restaurants as well as a ‘Sculpture Walk’, you can also see some naval vessels moored up.

Nearby is a famous pie shop called Harry’s Cafe de Wheels, below is their classic ‘Tiger’ offering…

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is well worth a visit, a good collection of classic and contemporary, European and Aboriginal works. I loved the way they mixed up the pieces across the exhibition spaces.

There are two distinct galleries here, North and South and we actually missed the North gallery on our first visit, this contains purely contemporary works and is also impressive.

We had a fabulous week in this great city, now we head to Port Douglas in Queensland to see the Great Barrier Reef…