Best Parks in Sydney: Complete Guide to Green Spaces

Sydney's parks and open spaces are one of the city's most underappreciated assets: the Royal National Park on the southern boundary (the world's second-oldest national park, established 1879), the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park on the north, the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area to the west, and the parks of the inner city (Centennial Park, the Domain, the Royal Botanic Garden) provide a range and quality of green space that few global cities of Sydney's density can match.

Centennial Park, Centennial Park (Moore Park, 189 hectares, free) is Sydney's central recreational park: horse riding, cycling (hire available), walking, formal ponds with black swans, the café, the Moonlight Cinema in summer, and the Federation Pavilion where Australia was proclaimed a nation on 1 January 1901. The park is genuinely excellent for any pace of activity from intensive exercise to quiet picnic.

Royal Botanic Garden, the Royal Botanic Garden (free, adjacent to the Opera House) combines world-class botanical collections with harbour views across Farm Cove and provides Sydney's most beautiful free walk combining gardens and harbour scenery.

Manly Scenic Walkway and Sydney Harbour NP, the Sydney Harbour National Park on both harbour shores (Middle Head, Nielsen Park, Dobroyd Head) provides bush walking with harbour views that the inner-city parks cannot replicate. The Spit to Manly Scenic Walkway (9km) is one of Sydney's most rewarding free walks.

Royal National Park, the Royal National Park (35 minutes south of Sydney CBD) has the Coastal Track (26km, can be walked in sections, free), the Audley weir and picnic area, the Curra Moors heath walking, and the Wattamolla lagoon and beach within one of Australia's most significant national parks.

Hyde Park and the Domain, the Domain and Hyde Park in the CBD provide the central city's formal open space, with the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park, the Art Gallery of NSW in the Domain, and the Domain's free outdoor concert events through the summer providing inner-city parkland at its most accessible.