Place
Sydney, Australia
Location
Sydney is the provincial capital of New South Wales and is located on the southeastern coast of Australia about 800 km northwest of Melbourne. Those visiting can find places to stay in Sydney on Expedia.
Climate and Geography
Situated on an area of 1687 km² between the Blue Mountains to the west and Tasman Sea to the east, Sydney sits in a coastal basin on a ria (an area where rising ocean levels have flooded what used to be river mouths). This makes Sydney’s harbor, Port Jackson, the largest natural harbor in the world and is also the reason that Sydney has more than 70 beaches, including the famous Bondi beach.
The weather in Sydney is rarely surprising or uncomfortable. Summers are hot and winters are not too bad either. January is the hottest month with average temperatures ranging from 19 to 26°C. Those averages can be deceiving though, as most years Sydney will record a few days of 40+°C temperatures. July is the coldest month with average temperatures of 8 to 16°C. There is no rainy season, and Sydney is said to have more than 300 days of sunshine per year.
Description
Sydney is the oldest, biggest, and richest city in Australia. With immigrants accounting for 75% of population growth, Sydney is as multi-cultural as they come, and international restaurants are easy to find. The weather is hot and dry. There are parks and waterways everywhere and beaches line one side of the city while mountains the other. It’s not surprising that every time anybody makes a list of the best cities in the world to live in, Sydney is on it.
Wealth, beaches, and weather have made Sydney a popular tourist destination. In 2009 Sydney received 22.6 million domestic visitors and 2.7 million more from abroad. Although you will have to share the city with a lot of tourists, there are a lot of well-developed facilities for travelers.
The most obvious choices for adventure travel in Sydney are ocean sports, like diving, surfing, kitesurfing, sailing, and the like. Not as obvious are the inland activities offered by the Blue Mountains, such as rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking and whitewater rafting and kayaking. In Sydney, you get the best of both worlds. You can even climb the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge legally with a tour. The only thing Sydney doesn’t have is a ski hill, though the nearest one isn’t all that far away—only about a six-hour drive.
Activities in the Sydney Area
- Adventure racing
- Hiking and trekking
- Rock climbing
- Abseiling
- Canyoning
- Caving and spelunking
- Coasteering
- Mountain Biking
- Scuba-diving (wreck and reef)
- Snorkeling
- Kiteboarding
- Windsurfing
- Surfing, boogie boarding, and body boarding
- Stand-up paddle boarding
- Sailing
- Hot air ballooning (wildly popular)
- Skydiving
- Horseback riding
- Kayaking (whitewater, lake, and ocean)
- Whitewater rafting
- Parasailing
- Paragliding
- Hang gliding
- Sky diving
- Bungee jumping
- Hot air ballooning
- Rock climbing (all levels)
On a Budget?
- Sydney has no shortage of hotels and hostels tailored to fit every traveler’s budget, with dorm beds starting at around $20 USD. Camping generally starts around $40 USD for two people per night, but there is a campground on Cockatoo Island where you are allowed up to four people on a site for the same price.
- With all manner of exotic foreign places to eat in Sidney, it may be hard to stick to a budget. Cheap breakfasts and lunches can be found for around $6-9 USD per meal and low-end dinners will start around $10 – 12 USD. Shopping in supermarkets is cheaper and prices of many common items are available on University websites like this one.
Photos
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Images (in order) courtesy of Vermin Inc, Ernst Moeksis, tarotastic, Michael Dawes, End of Level Boss, tarotastic, doug.deep, Tooley, dicktay2000, pj_in_oz, kagey_b, and Kinho Pizzato on Flickr.
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