Features & Reviews
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Learn more about Sydney with a selection of Where Magazine’s favourite feature stories. Discover the Sydney that locals know, with tips on finding the best day trips, beaches, fashion, shopping districts, coffee – plus expert advice on buying indigenous art. You’ll even find out more about historic Sydney and how it came to be the thriving place it is today.
It’s just a short hop across the harbour from the city centre, but Balmain is a very different world. This colourful suburb, named after Scotsman William Balmain, assistant surgeon on the 1788 First Fleet, is one of Sydney’s most charming ‘villages’ and famous for its groovy ...Read Article
Though louder, brighter and sunnier than its southern counterpart, Sydney has traditionally been known as Melbourne’s ‘poor cousin’ when it comes to fashion. But it seems the harbour city has now emerged from Melbourne’s more classic fashion shadow with the reputation as an e...Read Article
Sydney’s seafood is so good it’s off the scale writes Donna Coutts
You don’t need to be any sort of whizz at geography to look at a map and see that Australia is well placed when it comes to seafood. Stand on any Sydney ocean beach – Manly, Bondi, Clovelly, Coogee, Cronulla:...Read Article
You don’t need to be any sort of whizz at geography to look at a map and see that Australia is well placed when it comes to seafood. Stand on any Sydney ocean beach – Manly, Bondi, Clovelly, Coogee, Cronulla:...Read Article
Anne Matthews looks at a new era of ‘runs on the boards’ for the Sydney Theatre Company.There’s a real buzz in the evenings these days at Walsh Bay on the northern side of The Rocks. This once rundown port area with its distinctive heritage-listed finger wharfs has been transformed...Read Article
It’s just a short hop across the harbour from the city centre, but Balmain is a very different world. This colourful suburb, named after Scotsman William Balmain, assistant surgeon on the 1788 First Fleet, is one of Sydney’s most charming ‘villages’ and famous for its groovy ...Read Article
Flour and French voices float on the air all through the night at Becasse Bakery. The central marble table is a flurry of activity: confit garlic bread, croissants, brioche, burgers, baguettes. Dozens of different breads to be packaged off to our ever-growing family of restaurants: Becasse, Qu...Read Article
Everyone knows that breakfast is the meal that’s supposed to set you up for the day. Solid, uninspiring, good for you – that’s breakfast. Unless you’re seated at a café on Bronte Road, that is, where breakfast is both a culinary adventure and a beach experience.
Bront...Read Article
Bront...Read Article
You can feast your eyes on a view. But can you taste a view? In Sydney, absolutely. To eat before a view of this sparkling jewel of a harbour is to lift Sydney’s top dining experiences from world-class to something out of this world. The turban of scampi at Guillaume, for instance, or glo...Read Article
For decades, fine dining restaurants have sprung up around Sydney’s waterfronts, offering innovative cuisine, extensive wine lists and dazzling waterviews. But no matter how famous the chef, or how highly awarded the food, none of them have earned as much affection in the hearts of Sydneysider...Read Article
Don’t be put off by the exterior of The Shark Hotel in Liverpool Street because once you have climbed the stairs and entered the enormous lounge at the top with its marvellous art deco bar, Holy Basil heaven is just a few more steps away. This Laos-Thai restaurant was packed to the gunnels wit...Read Article
Robert Hughes, art critic for Time magazine described the contemporary Aboriginal Art Movement as “The last great art movement of the 20th century” and as we all know Robert Hughes is no lightweight in the art world.
Aborigines throughout Australia have been painting in caves, engraving...Read Article
Aborigines throughout Australia have been painting in caves, engraving...Read Article
There are only a handful of structures in the world which act as a symbol for their country: Big Ben in London, the Empire State Building in New York, the Great Wall of China - and the Sydney Opera House. Its gleaming white shells, which seem to float on the deep blue waters of Sydney Harbour, are i...Read Article
If you go down King Street today, you’ll never believe your eyes, for hidden in a laneway, in one of the city’s oldest commercial buildings, is Kingsleys Australian Steakhouse.
Famous for its steaks of the finest cuts, Kingsleys clubby yet romantic ambience and the building’s fasc...Read Article
Famous for its steaks of the finest cuts, Kingsleys clubby yet romantic ambience and the building’s fasc...Read Article
Fancy something Japanese for dinner? You’d be hard pressed not to end a day exploring the delights of Kings Cross (The Cross), Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay than by dining at Kujin in Elizabeth Bay Road. A stone’s throw from harbourside mansions, historic Elizabeth Bay House and the rich...Read Article
As children lark around a fountain dedicated to Dante, and the waning winter sun illuminates the terracotta tiles of the piazza, you’d swear you were in any one of a hundred small Italian towns. In fact the location is the Italian Forum in Norton Street, Leichhardt, just a short trip fromthe b...Read Article
There’s no better city than Sydney for eating by the water. Within the harbour alone, Sydney can offer more than 300km of coastline. Then there’s Manly and beyond to the north and Bondi and dozens of other wonderful beaches to the south. And don’t forget the climate. Expect daytime...Read Article
Pack your basket with gorgeous food and pull up a patch of grass in the picnic capital, writes Donna Coutts
Sydney’s great asset is its great outdoors. So why eat inside when you could be out by the harbour? There’s no shortage of perfect picnic spots. And we have plenty of praise for b...Read Article
Sydney’s great asset is its great outdoors. So why eat inside when you could be out by the harbour? There’s no shortage of perfect picnic spots. And we have plenty of praise for b...Read Article
Following are a few little truths we feel you should know. Why? Well, without these truths at your disposal there is a grave danger you will live your life unfulfilled. We suggest repeating them like a mantra whenever there’s a risk you’ll work too hard or go without gorgeous cream cakes...Read Article
Sydney was first settled by Europeans over 220 years ago, and hides a wealth of historic buildings, cobbled streets and statues to remind you of its turbulent past. Follow the colonial trail and you’re in for a treat: not just a history lesson, but lots of fun.
The oldest part of Sydney ...Read Article
The oldest part of Sydney ...Read Article
Learn how to turn beautiful seafood into a memorable meal at Sydney Seafood School writes Donna Coutts
The story of why Sydney Seafood School came to be doesn’t quite go like you’d expect. It wasn’t a marketing department’s canny idea to cash in on our current love affair wi...Read Article
The story of why Sydney Seafood School came to be doesn’t quite go like you’d expect. It wasn’t a marketing department’s canny idea to cash in on our current love affair wi...Read Article
From A-list exclusive hangouts to tapas bars, wine gardens and jazz houses, Sydney has a fantastic selection of small bars with something for everyone day and night. Many of these bars are well-kept secrets amongst locals, but are now shared with you.Beach Haus9A Roslyn Street, Potts Point.
If you ...Read Article
If you ...Read Article
Great news: You’ve made it to Sydney and you’ve a night off with a night out in mind. There are hundreds of restaurants to choose from but reservation waiting lists are weeks long for some of the good ones, so you’ve heard. Not such good news, perhaps.
Now for really great news: T...Read Article
Now for really great news: T...Read Article
Visit Sydney’s museums and historically significant buildings and spaces you’ll learn a little of this city’s story. You’ll learn about the land’s traditional owners, about British settlement from the late 1700s, about the goldrush and subsequent immigration boom in the...Read Article
Just across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, on Sydney’s North Shore, a whole new leafy, harbourside world awaits. Here, the lower North Shore and the suburbs of Neutral Bay, Mosman and Balmoral with their beautiful harbour beaches, substantial Federation mansions, high-end shopping, restaurant...Read Article
If ever a city deserved the title of ‘Miss Congeniality’, Sydney is the one. With her breathtaking natural beauty, undeniable charisma and laidback sense of fun, Sydney is irresistible at any time of the year.
Where else in the world can you wander through the beating heart of the city&...Read Article
Where else in the world can you wander through the beating heart of the city&...Read Article
The neighbouring Sydney suburbs of Balmain and Rozelle offer the perfect blend of cosmopolitan village life with tree-lined streets, stunning redeveloped terraces, excellent harbour views, boutique shopping and a superb culinary culture.
The missing piece in this region’s picture of perfectio...Read Article
The missing piece in this region’s picture of perfectio...Read Article
When Captain Arthur Phillip saw the original inhabitants of Sydney’s Northern Beaches, he admired their confidence and ‘manliness’ so much that he decided to name a beach in their honour. Today, Manly Beach draws thousands of people to its sparkling beaches and laidback lifest...Read Article
Sydney is a city of water and beaches, from the spectacular harbour that defines the city, to Bondi Beach, the long strip of white sand that’s as famous for its surf lifesavers as it is for the beach itself. Of course, both of them are ‘must-sees’, but if you’re a beach lover...Read Article
The rise and rise of the luxury watch. By Anne Matthews.
There’s an entirely different world of watches and purchasers out there waiting to be discovered – people who splurge on not just a good (and very stylish) Rolex for, say, $8000 to $12,000, but a diamond-encrusted Chopard for $1...Read Article
There’s an entirely different world of watches and purchasers out there waiting to be discovered – people who splurge on not just a good (and very stylish) Rolex for, say, $8000 to $12,000, but a diamond-encrusted Chopard for $1...Read Article
William Street, in the heart of inner-city Paddington, is a charming, historic area famous for its Victorian terrace houses. It attracts an eclectic mix of bohemian artists and those who are wealthy enough to afford the astronomical house prices, and the combination of the two has created an unusual...Read Article
Woollahra, one of Australia’s wealthiest suburbs, is luxuriant, elegant and drips glamour. But foodie? Most people don’t know that Woollahra has some of Sydney’s most fascinating foodie shops. Take a walk down genteel Queen Street, and in between sleek eateries and fashionista bout...Read Article