During our stay in Sydney, we visited two of the city’s most popular suburbs.
Manly is a beach-side suburb of Northern Sydney accessible via ferry from Circular Quay.
Everyone we know who’s spent time in Sydney urged us to visit Manly, and it received a glowing recommendation from more than one of our Sydney tour guides. The sales pitch: not only is Manly a great destination in itself, but why pay over the odds for a tourist harbour cruise when the 30-minute ferry ride to Manly offers the same views at a fraction of the price?!
On every other day of the week, Sydney public transport charges are capped at $15 per person, but on Sundays, the cap is just $2.50. Hence… Manly becomes an especially popular destination on Sundays, where you get an hour’s scenic ferry ride (there and back) for less than the price of coffee at Starbucks!
Unfortunately for us, our only Sunday in Sydney provided less than ideal weather conditions, with skies overcast all day. It was still hot though, and the beaches were busy throughout our visit, even when there were a few drops of rain in the late afternoon.
As for Manly itself, well it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. In my mind, Manly was a bohemian village with galleries, cafes and a small beach. In reality, it is a substantial suburb with a bustling shopping and eating district, and more than one beach. I should have paid attention to our friend Andy, a former resident of Manly: he told us that it can be a real bubble – for residents of the suburb, there are very few things that you need to leave the area to find, so you can sometimes forget that Sydney’s CBD is just 30 minutes away.
As this map shows, there is a small beach either side of the ferry terminal, but the main beach is across the peninsula, a short walk down Wentworth Street or Victoria Parade, between which, many of the town’s shops and restaurants are located.
Although Manly Beach is the largest and most central, providing visitors with 18 1 choices of ice cream and fish and chip shop within a 200 yard radius, there are two other beaches close by which we much preferred: Freshwater Beach (a favourite with locals) is a 30 minute walk to the north, whilst the much narrower Shelly Beach – so-called because much of the sand is covered in a layer of tiny sea-shells – is a short walk to the south.
As we were leaving Shelly beach at the end of our visit to Manly, we came across a Water Lizard by the side of the footpath who seemed entirely oblivious to the number of people frantically reaching for their cameras! Further down the path we saw signs advertising the eye-watering penalties imposed on anyone attempting to capture one of these these protected reptiles – $20,000, or a 6-month prison term!
In all honesty, I cannot say that Manly appeals to me as somewhere to live. However, we really didn’t explore much more than the three beaches, and the boardwalk between then. We have since been told that there is a lot more to Manly than the sand and surf, so I guess we’ll need to make a second visit, and this time get further from the beaten track.
1 There could be more than 18 ice cream and fish and chip shops – we lost count!
With Bondi having surely the most famous beach in the world, this is – of course – another “must see” destination for any visitor to Sydney.
Bondi is one of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, only a few miles from our apartment in Potts Point. After enjoying a late lunch with our friends Paul and DJ, we didn’t get out to Bondi until after 4pm. Despite the late hour, and overcast skies, we saw dozens of surfers. Although this is a serious surf destination, there’s nothing “elitist” about Bondi, and if we hadn’t known otherwise, we’d have thought we were visiting just another NSW beach, with plenty of family groups and tourists strolling around.
As with Manly, my preconceptions of Bondi proved to be well off-the-mark. I was expecting a glamorous resort, with glitzy waterfront hotels and packs of bikini-clad roller-skaters parading up and down the strip. In fact, Bondi has working-class roots and a proud and still-visible history, and the sea-front (excluding the beach!) is not dissimilar to what you would find at any number of traditional British coastal resorts.
Although Bondi Beach is by far the most internationally famous, there are actually a number of beaches on this stretch of the eastern-Sydney coastline. A coastal trail running from Bondi to Coogee links these beaches together, providing some pretty cliff-top views and serving as a popular jogging route for locals.
Along the trail, we passed Bronte Beach (second only to Bondi in size) and the tiny but very picturesque Gordon’s Bay. Because we were arriving so late, there were very few people about, but it was easy to imagine how busy these beaches will get at peak times.
Bronte Beach
Gordon’s Bay
Half way to Coogee we made an unexpected discovery. As a result of recent cliff erosion, a part of the coastal walk was subject to a detour, and we found ourselves walking through an enormous cliff-top cemetery.
Waverly Cemetary
We arrived at Coogee shortly before dusk. Whilst the beach was emptying fast, there were a number of sea-front bars that were just beginning to come to life. We might have dabbled… if we’d not already been feeling sleepy from a little too much beer and wine over lunch!
Coogee Beach at dusk
