A Week in Sydney - Access Sydney

The rebuilt sandstone shoreline of Barangaroo Reserve from the harbour — Photograph by -wuppertaler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

A week is enough to stop sightseeing and start swimming before breakfast, which is what living here is actually like. It adds a proper day in a national park and leaves room to go back to whatever you liked.

The plan

Days 1–5 — As above.
Day 6 — ⭐ the Royal National Park — The second-oldest national park in the world, south of the city. Train to Otford or Loftus for the coast track along the cliffs, or to Cronulla and the ferry across to Bundeena for the northern end. ⚠️ The full Otford-to-Bundeena walk is a serious day — around thirty kilometres and no shops.
Day 6, the alternative — Wollongong and the Sea Cliff Bridge, about an hour and a half south, on a line that runs above the sea for much of the way. Or Newcastle, two and a half hours north, which has ocean baths of its own and a fraction of the visitors.
Day 7, morning — ⭐ Swim. Bronte, Coogee or Manly, at seven, with everyone else who lives here. This is the thing you will actually miss.
Day 7, afternoon — Go back to whichever day you cut short. It is almost always the harbour.

The Opera House and the harbour seen from the pylon lookout — Photograph by Ymblanter, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

⛔ Do not fold Uluru or the reef into a Sydney week. Both are several hours by air in each direction and each deserves its own trip; attempting one costs you two days and gives you an afternoon.

Shelly Beach at Manly, sheltered water and palms behind the sand — Photograph by Hardlinerr, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

What this plan is built around

Not a list of sights, but the constraints. ⭐ The fare caps — daily, weekly, and a much lower one on Sundays — mean that once you have hit a cap every further trip that period costs nothing, so a ferry-heavy day is cheaper than it looks and doing all your travelling on one day beats spreading it. ⚠️ The weather decides the order, not the plan: a clear day goes to the harbour and the coast, a wet one to the free galleries and the Barracks, and every plan here can be reordered on the morning without losing anything. ⚠️ The UV inverts the usual rhythm — the middle of a summer day is the worst time to be on an exposed clifftop walk and the best time to be indoors. And ⚠️ Sunday is the cheap day and the busy day at once, so use the cap and start early.

Mackenzies Bay, a rocky cove on the coastal walk — Photograph by Maurice van Creij, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Other lengths

5 daysFive Days in Sydney 3 daysThree Days in Sydney 1 dayOne Day in Sydney

Checked on 7 September 2026. Fares, caps and journey times change — confirm before you travel. All sixteen sights, one page each, in Landmarks & Sights.