Thing To Do & See

Whale Watching Sydney

Humpback and southern right whales habitually shunt up and down the Sydney coastline, sometimes venturing into the harbour. Between May and December, WWS runs two- to four-hour tours (adult/child $85/50) beyond the Heads.

Natural Wanders

Natural Wanders runs exhilarating kayak harbour tours, checking out the bridge, Balmain, Blues Point, Birchgrove and secluded islands and bays. Early-morning paddles also available.

Let’s Go Surfing

You can hire gear (board and wetsuit one hour/two hours/day/week $25/30/50/150) or learn to surf with this salty Bondi crew. It caters to practically everyone, with classes for grommets aged seven to 16 (two hours $59), adults (two hours $85 to $95, women-only classes available) and private tuition (1½ hours $175). North Bondi is a great beach for learners.

Ginseng Bathhouse

Korea comes to Sydney in this marvellous bathhouse, which will eliminate your toxins and have your circulation firing in no time. Separate men's and women's facilities have ginseng spas, hot/cold baths and wet/dry saunas. Pay extra for various massages or be scrubbed to within an inch of your life and emerge on the mean streets of the Cross as smooth as a baby's bottom. Bookings essential.

Bonza Bike Tours

These bonza bike boffins run daily 3½-hour Sydney Classic bike tours – a great introduction to the harbour city, trundling past the Opera House, Hyde Park, Darling Harbour, Chinatown, Sydney Tower and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Other tours tackle the Harbour Bridge, Manly and the city highlights.

BridgeClimb

Once only painters and daredevils (including your author!) scaled the Harbour Bridge –now anyone can do it (Bruce Springsteen, Bette Midler, Will Smith…). Make your way through the departure lounge and the extensive training session, don your headset, an umbilical safety cord and a dandy grey jumpsuit (Elvis would be so proud) and up you go. Even if you’re afraid of heights, the scariest part is crossing over the grates while under the bridge; on the curved span itself the track is wide enough that you never see straight down. Tours last 3½ hours – go to the toilet before you start the climb.

Gordons Bay Underwater Nature Trail

A 500m underwater chain guiding divers past reefs, sand flats and kelp forests.

Opera House Guided Tours

One-hour guided tours depart half-hourly (you’ll save a few bucks if you book online). Tours employ archival video footage to help tell the story of the iconic building’s construction. A highlight is the Utzon Room, the only part of the house to have an interior designed by the great man himself. For a more in-depth nosy around, the two-hour early-morning backstage tour includes the Green Room and stars’ dressing rooms.

Palm Beach

Capped by Barrenjoey lighthouse, Palm Beach is a meniscus of bliss. Nudists nude-up to the north, million-dollar real estate booms in the south, and cheesy TV soap Home & Away is filmed somewhere in between.

BridgeClimb

Once only painters and daredevils (including your author!) scaled the Harbour Bridge – now anyone can do it (Bruce Springsteen, Bette Midler, Will Smith…). Make your way through the departure lounge and the extensive training session, don your headset, an umbilical safety cord and a dandy grey jumpsuit (Elvis would be so proud) and up you go. Even if you’re afraid of heights, the scariest part is crossing over the grates while under the bridge; on the curved span itself the track is wide enough that you never see straight down. Tours last 3½ hours – go to the toilet before you start the climb.

Bondi Beach

Definitively Sydney, Bondi is one of the world’s great beaches: ocean and land collide, the Pacific arrives in great foaming swells and all people are equal, as democratic as sand. It’s the closest ocean beach to the city centre (8km away), has consistently good (though crowded) waves, and is great for a rough-and-tumble swim (the average water temperature is a considerate 21°C). If the sea’s angry, try the salt-water sea baths at either end of the beach; these are perfect for kids. The two surf clubs – Bondi and North Bondi – patrol the beach between sets of red and yellow flags, positioned to avoid the worst rips and holes. Thousands of unfortunates have to be rescued from the surf each year (enough to make a TV show about it), so don’t become a statistic – swim between the flags. Surfers carve up sandbar breaks at either end of the beach; it’s a good place for learners, too. Prefer wheels to fins? There’s a skate ramp at the beach’s southern end. If posing in your budgie smugglers (speedos) isn’t having enough impact, there’s an outdoor work-out area near the North Bondi Surf Club. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), this is the part of the beach where the gay guys let it all hang out. Bondi Pavilion has changing rooms, lockers and a gelato shop. Ice-cream vendors also strut the sand in summer. At the beach’s northern end there’s a grassy spot with coin-operated barbecues. Booze is banned on the beach.