Australian National Maritime Museum

Beneath an Utzon-like roof (a low-rent Opera House?), the Maritime Museum sails through Australia’s inextricable relationship with the sea. Exhibitions range from Aboriginal canoes to surf culture and the Navy. You can almost taste the salt. Free tours happen half-hourly from 10am to 2.30pm; kids’ activities happen on Sundays between 11am and 3pm. Outside, the austere 100m-long Welcome Wall honours Sydney’s migrants, allowing families to inscribe names and register their history on the database. Entry to the permanent indoor collection is free; the cost of touring the vessels moored outside varies, with the ‘big ticket’ (adult/child/family $30/16/65) covering the submarine HMAS Onslow, the destroyer HMAS Vampire and an 1874 square rigger, the James Craig. Occasionally a replica of James Cook’s Endeavour also drops anchor.