Sydney has a global reputation for sun, surf, and skyline icons, but those of us who actually live here know there’s far more to the city than beach days and Insta shots on the Opera House steps. I wanted to build a guide for visitors and locals who lean a little nerdy, a little curious, and a little tired of seeing the same five activities recommended over and over. Sydney is also one of the most expensive cities in the world to explore, so this list focuses on free things to do for us nerdy types.

Think of it as a treasure map for museum wanderers, history hunters, architecture admirers, street-art collectors, and anyone who prefers their adventures with a dash of quirk.

I didn’t include the cost of transpostation in this guide, but once you’re in the neighbourhood, the discoveries are. Query your inner explorer, tighten your walking shoes, and let’s head into the corners where Sydney hides its stories.

Oh, and scroll down to the bottom for a Google map to help you find these spcial spots.

Walks (guided and self guided)

1) Walk On Water: City of Sydney history walk guide- From the drains and sewers under the surface of the ground to spectacular fountains in parks and plazas, the city is full of water features. Some you are meant to ignore, some are there to be noticed and enjoyed. link

2) Sydney’s blue plaques - These are literally what they sound like, they are plaques that are, well blue, dotted around the city which celebrate heritage by recognising people and events from our state's history. On October 11, 2022, the first three blue plaques were installed in the Sydney area to honor the lives of May Gibbs, Brett Whiteley, and Sir Edward Hallstrom. Link

3) Dictionary of Sydney App Walks - A historian-in-your-pocket app with routes themed around architecture, industry, language, and oddball heritage. Link

4) Rocks Free History Tour - 1.5-hour daily walking tour that starts at 6 p.m. at Cadmans Cottage, exploring Sydney's historic Rocks district. It is a "pay what you think it's worth" tour, so it's important to bring cash to tip your guide. The tour covers topics like the area's convict history, historic pubs, and mysteries link

5) International Greeter Program Walking Tours - One of the best value experiences you’ll ever have. Volunteer locals take you on a personal wander through their favourite pockets of the city. Link

6) Yananurala – Walking on Country - Yananurala expands the Eora Journey with a series of stories, artworks, and viewpoints along 9 kilometers of Sydney foreshore, from Pirrama (Pyrmont) to Wallamool (Woolloomooloo Bay). It’s a way to learn on Country, connecting with histories and perspectives that long predate the skyline. link

The Mitchell Reading Room at the State Library New South Wales

Museums & galleries with free entry

7) Art Gallery of NSW – Free permanent galleries, Yiribana Gallery, European classics, contemporary installations, a colourful Kusama, and some of the best free city views in the CBD. link

8) Brett Whiteley Studio (Surry Hills) - A preserved creative space filled with sketches, notebooks, paint-smudged ephemera, and works in rotation. Link

9) Mitchell Library Reading Room (The State Library of NSW) - This space is a Sydney landmark that has been welcoming readers and visitors since 1942. One note of pop culture history. The photo for the cover of Duran Duran’s 1983 album Seven and the Ragged Tiger was shot on the steps of the Mitchell Library. Link

10) Chau Chak Wing Museum (University of Sydney) - Mummies, minerals, archaeology, taxidermy, and university collections spanning 6,000 years. Link

11) White Rabbit Gallery (Chippendale) - One of the most significant collections of contemporary Chinese art that ranges from playful to brain-bending. Link

12) The Australian Museum’s fluorescent Mineral Display - A quiet room where rocks glow under UV like radioactive Skittles. Oddly hypnotic. Link

Chau Chak Wing Museum on the Unviersity of Sydney campus

Indigenous knowledge, art & sites

13) Cadi Jam Ora – First Encounters (Royal Botanic Garden) - A thoughtful garden walk sharing Gadigal knowledge, plant uses, and stories of early contact between Aboriginal and European societies. Link

14) Barangaroo Ngangamay (Barangaroo Reserve) - Etched into the sandstone steps are five rock engravings, hand-carved by male Aboriginal Elders. These engravings act as keys to unlock five short films. link

15) Indigenous whale carving site (Ball’s Head Waverton) - You don’t need to go too far out of the city to experience traditional rock carvings. This rock engraving looking out across the harbour was first documented by Europeans in 1898.While the exact date of creation is unknown, from the style of engravings it is generally dated to be between 3,000 and 4,000 BC. link

16) Edge of the Trees (Museum of Sydney) - This site-specific work by artists Fiona Foley and Janet Laurence, symbolises the interaction between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in this space. Link

Urban design & public art

17) Paddington Reservoir Gardens - This unusual part has to be seen to be believed. A sunken garden built inside a 19th-century water reservoir. Hailed as a blend of the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Paddington Reservoir Gardens opened in its current form in 2009. Archways, industrial remnants, and lush landscaping. Link

18) Tracey Emin’s Birds - Tracey Emin's work The Distance of Your Heart is a public art installation in Sydney featuring more than 60 delicate, handmade bronze bird sculptures placed around Sydney. Some become a scavenger hunt; others appear when you stop looking. Link

19) Forgotten Songs (Angel Place) This work by Michael Thomas Hill is made of birdcages suspended above the footpath, broadcasting recordings of species once common in the CBD. Part art, part ghost chorus. Link

20) Inner West Street Art (Newtown, Enmore, St Peters) - Melbourne may have Hosier Lane, but street art in Sydney is no slouch. The Inner West neighbourhoods of Sydney is home to some of the most unusual, creative and vibrant street art you will ever see. Some of the big hitters like Scott Marsh, Anthony Lister and Fintan Magee either got their start and/or still share work here. But be warned, this is not a small area to cover, consider focusing in on a section or prepare yourself for a long day of walking. Link

21) The Royal Clock and The Great Australian Clock (The Queen Victor Building) - The QVB houses not one but two amazing time pieces. The Royal Clock is a mechanical storytelling machine that comes alive every hour between 9am and 9pm, it briefly illuminates to display dioramas depicting English royal history. The Great Australian Clock, also in the QVB, claims to be the world’s largest hanging Animated Turret Clock. created over a 4 year period by clockmaker Chris Cook and arriving in June 2000 for installation in the Queen Victoria Building, at a cost of more than $1.5 million dollars.

22) Berlin Wall Segment The wall segment is located in the garden of the Goethe-Institut (German Cultural Centre) in Woollahra. A German-Australian businessman originally brought the segment to Australia in the 1990s. After his death, it was stored in a warehouse in western Sydney and was almost forgotten until it was rediscovered in 2019. Link

23) Carillon tours (University of Sydney) - the instrument consists of a minimum of 23 cast bronze bells that are fixed in place and tuned chromatically - only one of 3 in all of Australia - link

24) Gadigal Station - named one of the world's most beautiful passenger stations for 2025 by the Prix Versailles competition, this new metro station was recognised for its modern, innovative design, which features sandstone walls, monumental columns, and art installations. Link

The great outdoors (No surfboard required)

25) Walk Across the Sydney Harbour Bridge I know, I know, this one might seem obvious, but at a time when a walk over the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge will set you back over $250 a head, walking across the bridge remains free and iconic. link

26) Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden (Lavender Bay) - A sculptural garden built from reclaimed railway land, with winding paths and secret corners.Amazing views of the harbour too. Link.

27) Waverley Cemetery - Intricate angels, eccentric epitaphs, and layers of Sydney’s social history carved into stone. See graves of notable Australians including Edmund Barton, Henry Lawson and Dorothea Mackellar link

28) Sydney Writers Walk (Circular Quay Foreshore) Bronze plaques celebrating local and international writers who crossed paths with Sydney. link

29) Foundation Park (The Rocks) - Created in 1972 and tucked behind a row of shops, the site is made up of what were eight terrace houses constructed in the mid-1870s that were demolished in 1938. Link

30) The Observatory Hill Time Ball - The time ball drops daily at 1 pm — a historical system once used to synchronise maritime clocks. Watching it fall is like seeing a Victorian-era notification system in action. Link

31) The Wollemi Pine (Royal Botanic Gardens) - Wollemia is a genus of coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae, endemic to Australia. This pine is special because it is a "living fossil" and one of the world's rarest trees, previously thought to be extinct and known only from fossils dating back 200 million years - link

32) Cockatoo Island / Wareamah - This UNESCO World Heritage listed site is a short ferry ride from the city. Wander the free areas and you’ll feel like you’ve stepped into a steampunk field notebook, where sandstone quarries and turbine halls guide you around this island with memories of the layer of Sydney history. link

Google Map

Where possible, we’ve mapped out the locations for you. (some items cover too much ground to be mapped.) The numbers on the map are the same as the list number. Find the map here

Featured