We’ve just returned from our visit to Sydney, where we spent two nights at QT Bondi, an upmarket boutique apartment hotel, just one minute’s walk off Bondi Beach. If your room points towards aptly-named Beach Road, like ours did, then you can spot a glimpse of the beach. All you need to do is stick your head out from the tiny balcony and look hard right down the road. QT BONDI HAS THE PERFECT LOCATION On the photo above, with the beach and the famous Icebergs swimming pools in the front, you can see two taller buildings in the back. One on the very left-hand side, then another, tower-like one, slightly further to the right. QT Bondi is located in the building complex directly to the right of the latter one, right next to the beach. The beach-facing part of the building is owned by another company, which […]
Rose Bay to Watsons Bay Walk
From Circular Quay it’s only a bit over ten minutes by speed catamaran to Rose Bay, the starting point of one of the most spectacular walks we’ve done in Sydney. The walk follows the coastline from Rose Bay to Watsons Bay all of about 8km distance with only a few exceptions, when the path is a bit further inland. More than half the distance is through light woodland, so that you are not fully exposed to the sun, and there are several cafes and picnic stops along the way. From nearly all points you have beautiful views of the city and the harbour and of the many ships and boats in between. The vegetation is abundant and we saw many lizards, cockatoos, kookaburras, rainbow lorikeets, parakeets, butterflies, and other colourful birds and animals. After about two hours and a half, despite many stops to shoot photos […]
Taronga Zoo to Balmoral Beach Walk
This walk has become one of our classics each time we visit Sydney and not a single trip to this town has passed without us doing at least one Taronga-to-Balmoral walk. It follows the twisted coastline around peninsulas and bays through thick subtropical jungle and shrub along beaches and on top of cliffs. Taronga Zoo is very easy to reach from Circular Quay by ferry (it’s the first stop if you’re on the right ferry). The zoo itself has been on our list for a very long time to visit with our niece (my wife’s brother’s daughter, who lives in Sydney with her parents), but somehow we always get carried away with lots of other activities and haven’t managed to take her to the zoo yet. Today we saw many very large lizards (the largest one probably 80cm in length from nose to tail, and very […]
Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk
We had done the walk before, but it is always great fun to walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach. The walk is about 6km long, but feels longer, because it is usually rather crowded, so you can’t walk at full walking speed, and it does go up and down the cliffs. With all the stops to shoot some pictures, take a rest, sit down at one of the various cafes along the route to rehydrate or have a coffee, and considering we happened to have picked the hottest day of the year (38.8 degrees, hottest day in Sydney in 2016), it took us a very pleasant three and a half hours from start to finish, serious walkers can easily complete the walk in less than one and a half hours. If you choose to walk all the way to Maroubra, then you should add another one and a half […]
The Baxter Inn, Sydney’s Best Cocktail Bar
We met up with a few friends at The Baxter Inn, yesterday, a basement whiskey honky-tonk of great style and true awesomeness, half way between Darling Harbour’s Sea Life Aquarium and Pitt Street in Sydney’s CBD, and equidistant to Wynyard and Town Hall train stations in 152-156 Clarence St. The little brother of Darlinghurst-based Shady Pines Saloon, The Baxter Inn opened only a few years ago, but has already become the established star of the Sydney bar scene. The entrance is well-hidden in a dark backyard of an industrial building. Often the lines of admirers stretch all the way to the street, though, giving good indication of the direction of the entrance. The atmosphere inside is dominated by dimmed warm light, heavy wooden furniture, and – the center piece of the bar – a giant, beautifully backlit wall of whisky, whose upper shelves are only accessible by scrolling ladders, so […]