Seven Surprising Things About Sydney

We expected beautiful beaches and prawns on the barbie. We didn't expect any of this.

Brent and I have lived in many well-known cities, including London, Bangkok, Istanbul, and Mexico City. We loved each one for different reasons, but they were all incredible.

Now we get to add another incredible city: Sydney, Australia.

Why makes this one so special? London has better culture, Bangkok more energy, and Mexico City has better food.

But Sydney is probably the most beautiful city we’ve ever lived in.

That harbor! Those coastal walks! The beaches! And yes, that famous bridge and even-more-famous opera house.

Speaking of that bridge and that opera house, Brent and I have frequently been underwhelmed by tourist attractions that were supposed to wow us.

I was definitely not underwhelmed by either the Sydney Opera House or the nearby Harbour Bridge. They’re even more impressive in person than they are in pictures.

That Opera House! That Bridge!

On the other hand, we expected to be wowed by those two attractions.

Here are seven things that surprised us about Sydney, Australia.

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1) Sydney Harbour is huuuuuge.

Like many coastal cities, Sydney is positioned around a harbor.

But unlike many cities, the harbor is massive, and the city stretches outward all around that harbor, which is the focus of everything.

Indeed, Sydney Harbour — officially, if boringly, known as Port Jackson — is the largest natural harbor in the world, stretching 20 kilometers, or twelve miles, from the entrance at Sydney Heads to Parramatta River in the Western suburbs.

Sydney Heads, the opening to the massive harbor.

With all that harbor comes lots of coastline — and dozens of bays, inlets, and coves. And dotting those smaller bodies of water are well over a hundred public beaches. That gives Sydney what is possibly the most beaches of any city in the world.

The various sides of the harbor are connected by a few bridges, but mostly by fast-moving passenger ferries.

Sydney’s massive harbor looks like a giant tree root reaching deep inland.

And if all this waterfront isn’t enough, the coast outside the harbor provides even more waterfront, almost all of it publicly accessible via a network of stunning coastal walks.

It truly is beautiful.

2) Manly Beach is way better than Bondi Beach.

Speaking of beaches, Sydney has two very famous ones: Manly and Bondi.

To my surprise, I much preferred Manly. Why?

Both Manly and Bondi are classic beaches: long stretches of golden sand cupped between two dramatic headlands.

Do you like California’s Venice Beach? If so, you’ll love Bondi. It’s mobbed with people — the “beautiful” crowd looking to see and be seen, sweaty guys lifting weights and showing off, and teenagers blasting music.

Basically, it’s Baywatch: Australia. In fact, there is actually a show set there called Bondi Rescue.

There’s also nothing that separates the beach area from the busy parking lot and street running along it.

Bondi Beach — on a not-crowded day!

Manly Beach, meanwhile, is longer than Bondi’s, but it feels smaller, calmer, and more intimate. There’s a lovely row of trees separating the beach from the road and urban area just beyond.

Plus, Manly is a great body-surfing and swimming beach. The regular swells rolling in off the Pacific are big enough to be fun, but rarely so big as to be dangerous.

Unlike Bondi, Manly has a very good selection of restaurants, cafes, and coffee shops, many of them along a pedestrian only street just a few minutes walk from the beach.

Now this was our kinda place.

Ladies and gentlemen, Manly Beach!

3) Sydney is full of … national parks?

Part of Sydney Harbour is a national park — Sydney Harbour National Park. In fact, the Sydney area is home to eighteen national parks.

But are they really national parks? Our home state of Washington back in the U.S. has fifteen times the land area of Sydney, but only three national parks — which is actually a lot for a U.S. state.

Indeed, it turns out in Australia “national” parks are actually created and administered by the country’s states. And those states are considerably more, um, liberal in what they deem a “national park” than the rest of the world.

That means Australia has over 600 national parks. Meanwhile, America only has 63 and Canada has 38.

It’s not that Sydney’s national parks aren’t interesting. But I associate the words “national park” with a certain kind of grandeur.

Most of Sydney’s national parks don’t qualify, although some definitely do:

Sydney’s Royal National Park actually deserves that designation.

What Australia calls “national parks” are what much of the world would call “state parks” — and at least one Sydney newspaper columnist has called on the state and federal governments to create a new system more in line with what the rest of the world.

To which I say, “Good on ya, mate!”

4) The jacaranda trees are like being inside a Claude Monet painting.

Jacaranda trees are native to South America, but they have become hugely popular Down Under. And every spring — of course, that’s September, October, and November in Australia — Sydney is filled with amazing purple flowers bursting forth from thousands of jacaranda trees.

By sheer luck, Brent and I spent our first five days in Sydney’s Kirribilli neighborhood — which happens to be home to the McDougall Street Jacaranda Trees, possibly the most beautiful such trees in the city.

It was a little like being inside the painting of some impressionist master.

I might have taken a few photos.

As an added springtime bonus, Sydney is also filled with tons of blooming jasmine. That means you’re walking around a painting by Claude Monet…that also smells like heaven.

5) Sydney Harbour is even more beautiful at night.

I said before that Sydney Harbour was beautiful. It’s even more beautiful at night.

One of my favorite walks in the city was one along the harbor starting at the Mary Booth Lookout Reserve and ending at Luna Park.

The walk is only a kilometer in length, but take a look at what you see.

Sometimes they even do light shows projected onto the Opera House. Wowza.

Farther on, you come to the Harbour Bridge, which is likewise more beautiful at night. Meanwhile, Sydney’s iconic ferries crisscross back and forth, glowing in the dark like luminescent fish.

You should definitely take some time to sit on one of the many benches or seawalls to soak in the views.

Continuing on, you come to Luna Park, Sydney’s famous — and famously historic — amusement park, the old fashioned lights of which are also more dazzling after the sun goes down.

But speaking of the park…

6) Luna Park is more “interesting” than “fun.”

Luna Park is the name for the world’s first “chain” of amusement parks, all based on the original Luna Park, which opened in 1903 on Coney Island in New York City. There have been many Luna Parks all over the world — not all of them officially associated with Luna Park’s founders — and some thirty-four of them are still in operation.

One of the best and most famous surviving examples of a “Luna Park” is Sydney.

This is still very much an old-style amusement park, and it’s a bit like stepping into the past. The park had previously fallen on hard times, but the classic buildings and structures have since been restored, and the rides still have names like “Wonky Wonk,” “Turkey Trot,” and “Loopy Lighthouse.”

The retro look and feel is pretty interesting.

But it might be more “interesting” than “fun.”

Yes, the old-time attractions are great to see. But the feeling of nostalgic wonder soon fades. The park has added modern thrill rides, but the area is so small that these rides are very small too. The “Hair Raiser” drop-ride stands only fifty meters/164 feet tall and is over in about fifteen seconds.

Fortunately, admission is free — though you pay for the rides — and it’s definitely worth seeing. But keep your expectations in check.

7) You won’t need alarm clocks in Sydney, because you’ll have cockatoos and lorikeets.

Australia is famous for its wildlife — kangaroos, koalas, platypus, wombats, and dingoes, to name a few.

But it is also home to many strange and colorful birds, including emus and cassowaries.

Brent and I spent much of our time in Sydney in Cronulla, a beach suburb, and we saw cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets, kookaburras, Australian magpies, pelicans, and, of course, seagulls.

We also heard them — especially the cockatoos and rainbow lorikeets, which are especially vocal at sunrise and sunset.

Alas, I ain’t talking the sweet trillings of a nightingale.

Sometimes cockatoos and rainbow lorikeets also screech at each other.

The call of the cockatoos — or is that screech? scream? squawk? — can hit 135 decibels. That’s as loud as a freaking air raid siren.

Meanwhile, rainbow lorikeets congregate in trees in very large numbers. And they tend to screech at each other almost as loudly and obnoxiously as cockatoos.

During our time in Cronulla, I often enjoyed getting up for the sunrise, which was around 5:30 AM. Thanks to the cockatoos and lorikeets, I didn’t need to worry about setting an alarm clock when I wanted to get up that early.

On days I did want to sleep in? I was still greeted by a chorus of “Squawk screech screech squaaaaaawwwwwwk.”

That’s cockatoo for “Too bad, so sad, mate.”

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More in our Seven Surprising Things series:

• Seven Surprising Things About America

• Seven Surprising Things About Bangkok

• Seven Surprising Things About Malaysia

• Seven Surprising Things About Cambodia’s Angkor Wat

• Seven Surprising Things About The Netherlands

• Seven Surprising Things About London

• Seven Surprising Things About Italy’s Cinque Terre

• Seven Surprising Things About Sarajevo

• Seven Surprising Things About Athens

• Seven Surprising Things About Lake Como, Italy

• Seven Surprising Things About Belgrade (and Serbia)

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Michael Jensen is a novelist and editor. For more about Michael, visit him at MichaelJensen.com.