6 Active Must-Do Outdoor Activities in Sydney

Sydney, the largest Australian city, woos many visitors with its natural as well as man-built attractions and is absolutely worth your visit. However, you could spend weeks in Sydney and still not see it all. Therefore I will point out the six outdoor activities that you must do to get a sense and feel of this marvelous city.

The six active outdoor activities you can't miss in Sydney are:

• Drive to Watsons Bay and walk to the Hornby Lighthouse
• Kayaking Sydney Harbour at sunrise
• Taking the ferry to Manly and walking to Shelly Beach
• Doing the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk
• Swim in the famous Icebergs Pool at Bondi Beach
• Discovering different neighborhoods on foot

To give you a complete guide for your Sydney experience, I will of course also answer the questions of:

• where to stay with your campervan in the city
• how many days to plan for your Sydney city escape

Lastly, I will give you driving tips for Sydney, and I will finish by giving you an insight into our Sydney experience.

This article covers days 8-10 of our 18-day road trip itinerary along the southern East Coast of Australia. Click on the yellow 'Show Entire Route' tab on the top left, to view our in-depth guides to each stop for an even greater insight for your own road trip through Australia.

Let's start with the activities:

Where to stay with your campervan in Sydney

This is one of the questions we get asked most when it comes to including big cities to your campervan adventure. There are four ways we recommend, depending on your preferences and the options available in each city. These are booking an Airbnb (with parking), staying at the parking lot of a hostel (where you have booked a bed), staying at a campground or RV park close to the city or stealth camping/urban parking.

Each city has different characteristics, and when it comes to Sydney, we recommend option one: renting an Airbnb. Ours even had parking included, so we didn't have to worry about where to leave the van. But more about that below, as we describe our experience.

Why do we recommend renting an Airbnb in Sydney? For three main reasons:

• convenient
• comfortable
• authentic

Ideally, you look for an Airbnb during your pre-trip planning in the area of Darlinghurst to have the best base for your time in Sydney. That way, neighborhoods such as The Rocks incl. the Opera House, the Royal Botanic Garden, Paddington, the CBD, Darling Harbour, and many more are in walkable distance, and you save a lot of time compared to commuting each day from an RV park outside the city.

When road tripping with a small campervan, you have the benefit of fitting into regular parking spaces, either on the Airbnb property or on a residential street with free parking. The best areas to look for free street parking are around Erskineville, as well as Coogee, Randwick, and Maroubra. Just make sure that there are no 2p or 4p signs. Those mean that you can park for 2 or 4 hours.

How many days to plan for your Sydney city escape

To explore Sydney beyond just seeing the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, I recommend staying three days and three nights. You will be able to do all of the above-listed activities during that time and maybe a little more.

Driving tips in Sydney including its toll system

Driving in Sydney is comparable to any major city in the world. On the outskirts, it is very calm and easy to navigate. In the city center, as the tunnels and expressways increase, it can be a bit confusing at times. As a driver, have an excellent navigator next to you, and you will be fine. 😉 Should you take a wrong turn once or twice, don't get upset, just go back and start over.

All major cities in Australia, like Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney, have toll roads in and around the city center. The toll system can be quite confusing at first, as it is rather complicated.

In Melbourne and Brisbane, we avoided tolls altogether, simply by setting your Google Maps to avoid tolls under options. In Sydney, however, we went for some toll roads.

Here you can see a map with all toll roads in Sydney.

We used the following toll roads:

• Sydney Harbour Bridge: There is a toll for the southbound direction only. We crossed and paid the bridge on our way back from kayaking.
• Cross City Tunnel: We crossed the tunnel to leave the city and head to the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn at the end of the tunnel and ended up back in the tunnel opposite direction, so going back to where we came from. As this toll gets charged each way, we ended up paying it three times 🙈. Oh well!
• Westlink M7 Motorway: When leaving the Blue Mountains and heading back to the coast north of Sydney.

In retrospect, you can totally avoid the last two tolls without losing much time. As for the Harbour Bridge, the only way to prevent it is to take public transportation or an Uber. We paid AU$3.75 for crossing the Harbour Bridge. The toll charge is different for each section and sometimes depends on the time of day. For more detailed information on all toll charges in Sydney, take a look at the NSW government pdf.

For detailed information on how to pay your toll, should you have used a toll road, take a look at our 'Essentials' article.

Our experience - in love with Sydney

Let's make it simple: we loved our time in Sydney! The three days we had planned were perfect for experiencing everything we wanted.

Our order of the activities mentioned above was the following:

Friday Morning: Drive to Watsons Bay and walk to the Hornby Lighthouse

Friday Afternoon & Evening: Doing the tourist walking tour via the Royal Botanic Garden, to the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and The Rocks

Saturday Morning: Kayaking Sydney Harbour at sunrise

Saturday Late Morning - Early Afternoon: Taking the ferry to Manly and walking to Shelly Beach

Saturday Late Afternoon & Evening: Discovering the neighborhoods of the local tour on foot

Sunday Morning: Sunrise run along the waterfront

Sunday Late Morning - Early Afternoon: Doing the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk

Sunday Afternoon: Swim in the famous Icebergs Pool at Bondi Beach

Sunday Evening: Repacking the van and discovering a couple more bars

All of the above activities were highlights, and there is not one I would not recommend you to do. Should we need to pick one over all others, it would be the kayaking, as it had the biggest wow factor.

We were unsure beforehand whether the Easter Weekend would be a good time to be in Sydney, although we didn't really have much choice with our vacation days set. In the end, it turned out to be perfect timing. The city was emptier than usual, as most Sydneysiders leave the city for the long weekend. Upon getting closer to the city the day before, we had long stretches of traffic jams leading out of the city, while our roads heading towards the city were completely free of any traffic. So pay attention to those long holiday weekends, when planning your trip.

Our city escape was also exactly at half time of our road trip and allowed us to review the first week and look ahead on the upcoming week. We concluded that this first week of road tripping along the South-East Coast of Australia was so intense, diverse, and magical that we would be absolutely happy needing to return home now.

I specifically want to point that out, as so many Europeans always say it is not worth visiting Australia just for two weeks. I strongly disagree. We were happy and satisfied after one week, and it felt like we had been on the road for two weeks already. So don't let arguably too little time stop you from discovering potential dream destinations of yours. It is always worth it if you make it worth it!

However, we still had another week to go, and of course, didn't want to return home yet. We were full of anticipation, as the second leg tends to be more popular and known. Keep on reading if you are curious about our adventures from Sydney to Brisbane. The next stop is at the Blue Mountains.

What is your favorite outdoor activity in Sydney? Share your Sydney love with us in the comments below.