South Coast NSW

The South Coast is paradise without pretension, a place to wriggle your toes into brilliant white sand while guzzling down a meat pie. The stretch unfurls south from Sydney to Eden along coves, saw-toothed sea cliffs and bays where emerald waves lavish foam onto soft, squeaky sand. It's not as popular as NSW's North Coast and, frankly, locals couldn't be happier about that.

The Indigenous Yuin and Dharawal peoples have long enjoyed the region's bounty, for millennia gathering oysters that now grace restaurant tables up and down the coast. The land has deep significance for Aboriginal communities: Montague Island (Barranguba), with its multitude of seals and bird life; pert Pigeon House Mountain (Didthul); and ancient sites across Murramarang and Booderee National Parks.

Mass tourism has unquestionably altered destinations like Jervis Bay. But thrilling isolation isn't hard to find, especially amid the Sapphire Coast's untamed national parks and whale-rich shores.