Sydney Hotel | ||
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| Sydney | ||
| Find out where to go and how to plan your trip to Sydney with our Destination Guides! Get recommendations on attractions, restaurants, and hotels, and up-to-date weather, health tips, and general information for Sydney. | ||
It might seem surprising that Sydney, established in 1788, is not Australia's capital. Yet the creation of Canberra in 1927 - intended to stem the intense rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne - has not affected the view of many Sydneysiders that their city remains the true capital of Australia, and certainly in many ways it feels like it. The city has a tangible sense of history in the old stone walls and well-worn steps in the backstreets around The Rocks, while the sandstone cliffs, rocks and caves amongst the bushlined harbour still contain Aboriginal rock carvings, evocative reminders of a more ancient past.
Flying into Sydney provides a thrilling close-up snapshot of the city as the aeroplane swoops alongside sandstone cliffs and golden beaches, revealing toy-sized images of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House tilting in a glittering expanse of blue water. Towards Mascot airport the red-tiled roofs of suburban bungalows stretch ever southwards, blue squares of swimming pools shimmering from grassy backyards. The night views are nearly as spectacular, skyscrapers topped with colourful neon lights while the illuminated white shells of the Opera House reflect on the dark water as ferries crisscross to Circular Quay. Sydney has all the vigour of a world-class city, and a population approaching five million people; yet on the ground you'll find it still possesses a seductive, small-town, easy-going charm. The furious development in preparation for the year 2000 Olympics, heralded as being Sydney's coming-of-age ceremony, alarmed many locals, who love their city just the way it is. It was not so much the greatly improved transport infrastructure, or the $200 million budget which improved and beautified the city streets and parks, but the rash of luxury hotels and apartments still adding themselves, often contentiously, to the beloved harbour foreshore. It's a setting that perhaps only Rio de Janeiro can rival: the water is what makes the city so special, and no introduction to Sydney would be complete without paying tribute to one of the world's great harbours. Port Jackson is a sunken valley which twists inland to meet the fresh water of the Parramatta River; in the process it washes into a hundred coves and bays, winds around rocky points, flows past the small harbour islands, slips under bridges and laps at the foot of the Opera House. Taken together with its surrounds, Sydney is in many ways a microcosm of Australia as a whole - if only in its ability to defy your expectations and prejudices as often as it confirms them. A thrusting, high-rise business centre in the CBD , a high-profile gay community in Darlinghurst , inner-city deprivation of unexpected harshness, with the highest Aboriginal population of any Australian city, and the dreary traffic-fumed and flat suburban sprawl of the Western Suburbs , are as much part of the scene as the beaches, the bodies and the sparkling harbour. But all in all, Sydney seems to have the best of both worlds - if it's seen at its gleaming best from the deck of a harbour ferry, especially at weekends when the harbour's jagged jaws fill with a flotilla of small vessels, racing yachts and cabin cruisers, it's at its most varied in its neighbourhoods , not least for their lively café and restaurant scenes. Getting away from the city centre and exploring them is an essential part of Sydney's pleasures. A short ferry trip across to the leafy and affluent North Shore accesses tracts of largely intact bushland, with bushwalking and native animals and birds right on the doorstep. In the summer the city's hot offices are abandoned for the remarkably unspoilt ocean and harbour beaches strung around the eastern and northern suburbs. Day-trips away offer a taste of virtually everything you'll find in the rest of Australia. There are magnificent national parks and native wildlife - Ku-Ring-Gai Chase and Royal being the best known of the parks, each a mere hour's drive from the centre of town. North of the centre the Central Coast is great for surfers, and has more enclosed waters for safer swimming and sailing. Inland, the Blue Mountains offer tea rooms, scenic viewpoints and isolated bushwalking. On the way, and along the Hawkesbury River , are historic colonial towns. Inland to the northwest is the Hunter Valley , Australia's oldest and possibly best-known wine-growing region, amongst pastoral scenery. Port Jackson , more commonly known as Sydney Harbour , carves Sydney in two halves, linked only by the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Harbour Tunnel. The South Shore is the hub of activity, and it's here that you'll find the city centre and most of the things to see and do. Many of the classic images of Sydney are within sight of Circular Quay , making this busy waterfront area on Sydney Cove a good point to start discovering the city, with the Opera House and the expanse of the Royal Botanic Gardens to the east of Sydney Cove. It's also near the historic area of The Rocks to the west, and prominent museums and art galleries. From Circular Quay south as far as King Street is the Central Business District (CBD), with pedestrianized Martin Place at its centre. Just east of Martin Place, Macquarie Street is Sydney's civic streetscape, lined with fine colonial sandstone buildings including the New South Wales Parliament House. Beyond Macquarie Street the open space of The Domain stretches to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. To the south of the Domain, Hyde Park is very much the formal city park, overlooked by churches and the Australian Museum and with a solemn war memorial. Park Street divides Hyde Park into two; heading west along it you reach the ornate Town Hall , around which Sydney's shopping heart is focused, including the glorious Queen Victoria Building. Watching over it all is the AMP Centrepoint Tower , with 360-degree views from the top. The city's two main thoroughfares of George and Pitt streets stretch downtown to the increasingly down-at-heel Central Station and the area known as Haymarket , where a vibrant Chinatown sits beside the entertainment area of Darling Harbour , with its major museums and attractions. East of the city centre, following William Street uphill past Hyde Park, is Kings Cross , Sydney's red-light district and major travellers' centre, full of accommodation, strip joints and late-night cafés. The adjacent waterfront area of Woolloomooloo is home to a busy naval dockyard and some lively pubs. North and east of "the Cross" you move gradually upmarket, with the Eastern suburbs stretching along the harbour to Watsons Bay, meeting the open sea at South Head . Running south from the head are the popular and populous Eastern Beaches, from Bondi through Coogee to Maroubra ending at La Perouse and the expanse of Botany Bay . Further south brings you to surf territory at Cronulla and the Royal National Park across Port Hacking. From the southeast corner of Hyde Park, Oxford Street steams through the gay, restaurant, club and bar strip of Darlinghurst , becoming increasingly upmarket through gentrified Paddington , which has Centennial Park as its playground. South of Oxford Street, opposite Paddington, Surry Hills is another up-and-coming area, with plenty of action on Crown Street . The nearby Sydney Cricket Ground and Fox Studios are twin focal points at Moore Park . On the western side of Surry Hills is Central Station; heading west brings you to Sydney University, surrounded by the café-packed and youthful areas of Newtown and Glebe. West of Glebe, ugly Parramatta Road heads to Italian dominated Leichhardt and westwards to the Blue Mountains . The bushclad North Shore of the harbour is very much where the old money is. There are some wonderful spots to reach by ferry, from Taronga Zoo to Manly . North of Manly the Northern Beaches stretch up to glamorous Palm Beach which looks across to several national parks, including Ku-Ring-Gai Chase . Flowing towards Pittwater and Broken Bay is the sandstone-lined Hawkesbury River . North of here, the Central Coast is a weekend beach playground for Sydneysiders, while the Hunter Valley is the place for wine tasting. More: Sydney attractions, restaurants, hotels, weather, health etc. |
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