Budget · 3-hour walk · Sydney
Circular Quay and The Rocks in three hours
The opera house and the botanic gardens point, then the oldest quarter of the city and the bridge.
Everything Sydney is known for is arranged around one harbour inlet and this walk does a loop of it: ferries and buskers at the quay, the opera house on its point, the gardens behind it, and the sandstone lanes of The Rocks on the other side. The bridge pylon lookout is a fraction of the price of the climb and nearly the same view.
The route, stop by stop
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Circular Quay
Where the First Fleet landed in 1788 and where every harbour ferry still leaves from.
15 min here Walk here → -
Sydney Opera House
One million tiles, none of them white up close. The hour-long interior tour is the only way past the foyers.
40 min here Walk here → -
Royal Botanic Garden
Free, open daily, and Mrs Macquarie's Chair at the far point is the spot for the opera-house-and-bridge photograph.
30 min here Walk here → -
The Rocks
The colony's first European settlement, slum-cleared and nearly demolished in the 1970s until the unions blocked it.
25 min here Walk here → -
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The pedestrian walkway is free. The southeast pylon lookout is a small ticket and 200 steps.
25 min here Walk here →
More in Sydney
Every walking route in Sydney, or the full Sydney guide for where to stay and what a day costs.