Sydney Opera House

Jørn Utzon won the competition in 1957 with a drawing that nobody knew how to build; the engineering took another six years to solve and the building opened in 1973, a decade late, many times over budget, and with its architect gone from the project. UNESCO listed it in 2007, which is unusually fast for a modern building.

The shells are not white. They are tiled in over a million glossy and matte tiles in two off-whites, which is why the surface changes all day.

What it costs

⭐ The outside is free and the forecourt, the steps and the walk around the point are public at all hours.

Going inside is ticketed, two ways: a guided tour, or a ticket to whatever is on. ⭐ The performance is usually the better value, and it is the only way to see a hall being used for its purpose.

When to go

⭐ Come at sunrise for the building and in the evening for the performance. Standing on the steps at seven in the morning with nobody else there is a genuinely different experience from the middle of the day.

Getting there

Five minutes’ walk east from Circular Quay station, along the water.

If you only have an hour

Walk the forecourt, up the monumental steps, all the way round the point at water level and on into the Botanic Garden. Thirty minutes and it costs nothing.

What people get wrong

⚠️ The best view of it is not from it. It is from Mrs Macquarie’s Point in the Botanic Garden, or from a ferry, or from the bridge — all free. Standing underneath the shells you cannot see the shape at all.