Sydney and Surrounds

Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast. It is built around Port Jackson, which includes Sydney Harbour, and has been called the "Harbour City". It is Australia's largest financial centre and a major international tourist destination, notable for its beaches and twin landmarks: the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

Sydney harbour is like an embracing arm of the ocean, and it is hard to imagine a more beautiful location for a city. Because detached living is so popular here, Sydney is very spreadout.

The City, or the Central Business District, CBD, is however compact. Kings Cross houses a distinctive mix of worldly pleasures on the one hand and good restaurants and low-cost housing on the other. The inner-city suburbs to the east of the City, like Darlinghurst and Paddington with its long Oxford Street, have some of the best shopping, pubs and entertainments and are known as relaxed, gay and free from prejudice. Manly with its restaurants and beach life lies north of Sydney harbour, on the North Shore. Glebe is a student dominated suburb. In fashionable Double Bay the houses are expensive and the shops exclusive. The opposite is to be found, among other places, in Redfern, poor and largely populated by aborigines, who are more or less invisible in Sydney’s more affluent areas.

For attractions and sightseeing, visit Attractions Sydney.