Things to do in Sydney
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EDITOR'S PICK
Sydney Harbour
Sydney's stunning harbour has melded and shaped the local psyche since the first days of settlement, and today it's both a major working port and the city's sparkling playground. Its waters, beaches, islands and shorefront parks offer all the swimming, sailing, picnicking, walking and real-estate fantasies you could wish for.
The best way to view the harbour is by private yacht (yeah, right). Lacking this, just take a harbour cruise or catch any one of the many ferries that ply its waters. You can also fly above it via a scenic flight. The Manly ferry offers vistas of the harbour east of the bridge, while the Parramatta RiverCats cover the west. You can also visit some of…
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Bistrode
Once awfully offally, Bistrode moved to a less blood-splattered menu when husband Jeremy Strode opened Bistrode CBD and wife Jane Strode took the helm here. More Asian flavours have crept into the British-influenced dishes, and the food remains as excellent as ever.
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Formaggi Ocello
Like lactose? Then Formaggi Ocello is for you. Display even the slightest hint of dairy devotion and you’ll have the staff at your elbow. Cheeses are mostly Italian, Spanish and French, with some top Aussie selections, too. Check out the humongous cheese wheels in the ageing room. Also serving soups, salads, focaccias, panini, wine and coffee.
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Title
Offbeat and downbeat, Title is a left-leaning book and music store focusing on distinct pop-cultural streams, seemingly determined at random (but probably at the owner’s whim – how very High Fidelity ). Jazz, hip hop, Latin, classical, electronica and soul CDs and vinyl shoulder up next to imported Neal Cassady biographies and Courtney Love’s diary.
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Pier
Bobbing with the marina yachts on stilts over Rose Bay, Pier serves exhilarating seafood – some critics have suggested that it's the best fish restaurant in the country. Certainly you can be guaranteed a memorable meal, gazing at the harbour from the deck or from inside the glassed-in pavilion. Pier is on New South Rd, the main road between Double Bay and Vaucluse.
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Sydney Taronga Zoo's Australian Animals Tour and Sky Safari
by Viator
Get the VIP treatment and see Sydney’s Taronga Zoo from a different perspective. On this small group tour you will be led by an expert guide who will take you…Not LP reviewed
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Bird Cow Fish
As the name suggests, there’s plenty of creatively prepared flesh on BCF’s menu, but locals and cross-town venturers are here as much for the munificent fromage (1/2/3 cheeses $13/17/22) as the meat. Forty ‘elite’ Australian and international cheeses (mostly French and Italian) generate a delicious whiff. The espresso’s as good as it gets.
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Arq
If Noah had to fill his Arq with groovy gay clubbers, he’d head here with a big net and some tranquillisers. This flash megaclub has a cocktail bar, a recovery room and two dance floors with hi-energy house, drag shows and a hyperactive smoke machine. Look out for the notorious Fomo foam party.
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Bald Rock Hotel
Surrounded by brick walls and mechanics in Rozelle’s industrial hollows, this blue-collar pub (1876) has only just ripped out the scungy carpets and attempted to spruce itself up. The results (thankfully) are far from convincing – it’s still a pugilistic docklands boozer with heaps of charm. Trivia on Thursday; live bands on Saturday; acoustic stuff on Sunday.
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Sydney Theatre Company
Established in 1978, the STC is Sydney theatre’s top dog and has been an important stepping stone in the careers of many famous Australian actors (including Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving, Toni Collette and Miranda Otto). Another alumni, Cate Blanchett, is due to finish her stint as co-artistic director in 2013.
Tours of the company's Wharf and Sydney theatres are held at 10.30am on the first and third Thursdays of the month ($10). Performances are also staged at the Sydney Opera House's Drama Theatre.
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Goat Island
Goat Island, west of the Harbour Bridge, has been a shipyard, quarantine station and gunpowder depot in its previous lives. Three-hour heritage tours depart at 10.30am on Sundays from Cadman's Cottage; bookings essential. On the last Sunday of the month the boat departs the island 45 minutes later (and costs $3 more), allowing extra island time for a picnic lunch (bring your own).
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Ryan’s Bar
On hot summer’s weeknights, Ryan’s outdoor courtyard is packed with after-workers and travellers, sipping not-so-subtly-named cocktails such as the Get Sum and the Golden Nuts. Sexy anticipation laces the air, put momentarily on hold as the punters scoff affordable bar food (pizza, pasta, salads and burgers; mains $10 to $16). A vibrant place to launch your evening.
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Leona Edmiston
Leona Edmiston knows frocks – from little and black to whimsically floral or all-out sexy. Her exuberantly feminine, flirtatious and fun designs are cut from the best cotton, silk and jersey fabrics in colours that range from luscious, sophisticated reds to pinstripes and polka dots. Also at Westfield Bondi Junction, Westfield Sydney, Chifley Plaza and the Strand Arcade.
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Hogarth Galleries
A cultural beacon in an obscure Paddington laneway, Hogarth has supported and promoted Aboriginal art since 1972. Honouring established artists and sourcing up-and-comers, Hogarth exhibits contemporary dot paintings, basketry, framed prints, fabrics, spears and didgeridoos. From Oxford St take Shadforth St, turn right onto Walker Lane, then right again to enter from the side lane.
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The Gumnut Teagarden
Housed in the leafy backyard of a wonderfully preserved Rocks cottage (1829), the Gumnut serves good, old-fashioned nosh such as sandwiches, pies and ploughmen's platters. The antique theme carries through to tables fashioned from Singer sewing machine bases. Expect quality coffee and cakes Granny would be proud of. Chill out to live jazz on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons.
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Yu
Debut the sassy new Eastern Suburbs you at Yu. Sydney’s best house DJs and vocal MCs spin hip hop, nu-skool, vocal and funky house in three rooms divided by sliding video screens. Do Over Sunday sessions give you the chance to relive the highlights of Friday and Saturday nights. Upstairs is Soho Bar, an art-deco space where visiting celebs repair to shoot pool.
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Bar Quattro
As you sit admiring Hyde Park, you wouldn’t think that 10 years ago this sandstone cafe was one of Sydney’s most nefarious public toilets. Today’s comings and goings focus on the waistline rather than the zone immediately below it – chat, drink coffee and work your way through the traditional Italian menu. Sassy Euro staff and superb seafood pasta.
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Oceanworld
This ain’t the place to come if you’re on your way to Manly Beach for a surf. Inside this daggy-looking 1980s building are underwater glass tubes through which you become alarmingly intimate with 3m sharks. Reckon they’re not hungry? Shark Dive Xtreme takes you into their world… Crocodiles and large turtles also put in an appearance.
On weekends and school holidays, kids aged five to 13 can snorkel around a tropical reef ($75 including entry).
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Juniper Hall
Paddington’s oldest home (1824), this restored Georgian mansion was built by Robert Cooper with profits from his gin business (he named it after the essential gin-making ingredient). It’s owned by the National Trust but it's usually tenanted as a commercial property.
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Erciyes
Shamelessly kitsch Erciyes flaunts its fluoro lighting, mirror-faced wall, plastic table cloths, disco ball and audience-participatory belly-dancing on Friday and Saturday nights. No one’s pretending that this is anything more than a good-value, good-time Turkish eatery with a big screen for big Fenerbahçe SK soccer games. Twenty-two types of Turkish bread!
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King Street Wharf
Cockle Bay Wharf in ultramodern metal drag, the $800-million King St Wharf continues the Darling Harbour precinct north beyond Pyrmont Bridge. All the plush apartments are sold and the office space leased out, but you can still get a sniff of the high life at the waterfront bars and restaurants.
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Judgement Bar
Many Sydneysiders only know the grungy Judgement Bar as a blurry memory before being trundled into a taxi at the end of a big night. It's a shame, as it's actually a nice spot to sneak into during the day for a quiet, unpretentious bevvie and filling pub grub. The best that can be said for the main Courthouse Hotel bar downstairs is that it beats drinking on Taylor Square.
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Iain Dawson Gallery
This hip new gallery specialises in emerging Australian artists (Hugh Ford, Miranda Skoczek) in their first years of professional artistry. Sculptors, photographers, painters and screen printers – buy 'em now before they make it big!
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Adriano Zumbo
Crafty Adriano gets up at 3am every day to bake the amazing edibles on sale in his superskinny patisserie. The slenderness of the shop will be inversely proportionate to the girth of your waistline if you visit too often: the macaroons, the lemon and rhubarb tarts, the pain au chocolate and the orange almond cakes are as astonishing to look at as they are to eat.
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McIvers Baths
Perched against the cliffs south of Coogee Beach is the women-only McIvers Baths. Well screened from passers-by, this spot has been popular for women's bathing since before 1876. Its strictly women-only policy has made it popular with an unlikely mixture of nuns, Muslim women and lesbians. Small children of either gender are permitted.
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Toko
Great sushi, quick and easy, is on offer at this small but popular place. Warm up with a bowl of miso soup, then grab those rolls and nigiri morsels as they pass by. More substantial noodle soups, along with gyoza, yakitori and teriyaki, are also on the menu. End it all with dessert: tempura banana with green tea and vanilla-bean ice cream. Yum.
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