Sydney · Australia, New Zealand

Overview

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Sydney belongs to the exclusive club of world cities that generate a sense of excitement from the air. Even at the end of a marathon flight across the Pacific, there's renewed vitality in the cabin as the plane circles the city, crossing the branching fingers of the harbor, where thousands of yachts are suspended on the dark water and the sails of the Opera House glisten in the distance. Endowed with dazzling beaches and a sunny Mediterranean climate, its setting alone guarantees Sydney a place among the most beautiful cities on the planet.

At 4 million people, Sydney is the biggest and most cosmopolitan city in Australia. Take a taxi from Sydney Airport and chances are that the driver won't say "G'day" with the accent you might expect. A wave of immigration in the 1950s has seen the Anglo-Irish immigrants who made up the city's original population enriched by Italians, Greeks, Turks, Lebanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thais, and Indonesians. This intermingling has created a cultural vibrancy and energy -- and a culinary repertoire -- that was missing only a generation ago.

Sydneysiders, as locals are known, embrace their harbor with a passion. Indented with numerous bays and beaches, Sydney Harbour is the presiding icon for the city, and for urban Australia. Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of the 11-ship First Fleet, wrote in his diary when he first set eyes on the harbor on January 26, 1788: "We had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbor in the world, in which a thousand ships of the line may ride in the most perfect security." It was not an easy beginning, however. Pushing inland, Australia's first settlers were confronted with harsh, foreign terrain that few of thempossessed skills to navigate. They were the first round of wretched inmates (roughly 800) flushed from overcrowded jails in England and sent halfway around the globe to serve their sentences.

Sydney has long since outgrown the stigma of its convict origins, but the passage of time has not tamed its rebellious spirit. Sydney's panache and appetite for life are unchallenged in the Australian context. A walk among the scantily clad sunbathers at Bondi Beach or through the buzzing nightlife districts of Kings Cross and Oxford Street provides ample evidence.

Although a visit to Sydney is an essential part of an Australian experience, the city is no more representative of Australia than Los Angeles is of the United States. Sydney has joined the ranks of the great cities whose characters are essentially international. What Sydney offers are style, sophistication, and good -- no, great -- looks; an exhilarating prelude to the continent at its back door.