Sydney, Australia - A Great Vacation Destination

Sydney is an interesting place to visit, it is unusual in the sense that it is a large city with towering skyscrapers that is reminiscent of Tokyo or New York but has a very relaxed feeling about it. In the likes of Tokyo, London and New York you find that life is very fast paced, people in suits rushing around but in Sydney despite how it looks it is very relaxed. Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales on the eastern side of Australia but despite what many people seem to think, isn’t in actual fact the capital of Australia. It is quite a large city with around 4.5 million people living there many of whom are immigrants making it one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Some of the alternate names for Sydney are ‘the Harbor City’, ‘the City of Villages’ and ‘the Emerald City’. No doubt you will have seen many pictures of the Sydney harbour with unusual multi-coloured backgrounds, many people think these are enhanced and faked but in actual fact when you see Sydney lit up during the night you will see that it is a spectacular city.

Sydney is very much a harbor city, the harbor there is one of the main areas for tourists when you can see the infamous Sydney harbor bridge and the opera house. There are what is known as ‘water taxis’ that are mini speedboats painted like taxis in yellow that take you around the entire harbor, under the bridge, past the opera house and right back again. It is the best way of seeing all the sites for a relatively small amount of money. Once you have done this you may wish to test your nerve and get the adrenaline pumping but going up the harbor bridge, you are harnessed in and then walk right up the side of the bridge to the very top, you get fantastic view of the whole city and it worth doing (unless your afraid of heights!).

Sydney is renowned for its parks; it has areas such as Hyde Park, the Royal Botanical Gardens and many other national parks within the city which make it a very unusual yet very beautiful place. This along with its many other strong points means it is classed as an alpha+ world city, alpha+ world cities are deemed to be very important in the world economic system making them very important.

Some of the other areas to visit in Sydney are to do with sports; the Olympic stadium from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games is very impressive as well as many of the football, cricket and rugby stadiums. Australia pride themselves on their sporting ability and there is no shortage of it wherever you go, no matter what your sport is you will be able to do it there. Baseball, netball, tennis, football, cricket, rugby, swimming and ice hockey are just a few examples of what there is. If you like to play your sports as well as watch them you will also realize very quickly just how good the facilities are for doing so, you can find public swimming pools, tennis courts and football pitches all over the place, it’s no wonder they are so good at sport!

When the sun goes down the best place in Sydney to be is around the harbor, there are lots of excellent restaurants with panoramic views of the whole city and great food, the people are always very friendly and create a comfortable atmosphere.