Sydney

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Introducing Sydney

At the heart of Sydney - Australia's oldest, largest and most diverse city - is the outrageously good-looking Sydney Harbour. Like a psychedelic supermodel, the city curves and sways through this glamorous maze of sandstone headlands, lazy bays and legendary surf beaches. The Sydney experience is essentially physical - dunk yourself in the Bondi surf, sail under the Harbour Bridge on a yacht, jog along the Coogee cliff tops or rampage through Centennial Park on horseback. Everybody seems to be outside - the beaches are swarming, street cafés buzz and the harbour blooms with sails.

Jealous as hell, the rest of Australia stereotypes Sydney as more body-beautiful than bookish, more carpe diem than museum - a narcissistic 'Sin City' fixated on sunglasses, salons and soy lattes. Sure, there's a lot of blonde dye in Bondi, but the genetic legacy of the British and Irish convicts who built Sydney is more evident in gutsy self-belief than anything mirror-worthy.

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Sydney Opera House at dusk.
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Sydney Opera House at dusk.

Lonely Planet photographer
  • Glenn Beanland
  • Lonely Planet photographer
  • Minus 15 ice bar, Circular Quay.
  • Art work at Artspace, Woolloomooloo.
  • Australian Centre for Photography, Paddington.
  • Outdoor dining at The Rocks Cafe, 99 George Street, The Rocks, with Sydney Harbour Bridge in background.
  • Patrons on balcony of Sydney Opera House.
  • Interior of Queen Victoria Building.
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