Al Shami, MerrylandsCredit: Destination NSW
Friends enjoying food and drink at Al Shami, Syrian Restaurant, Merrylands. Al Shami is an included location for visitors booked on a Taste of Afghanistan and Syria tour with Taste Cultural Food Tours. For more details, visit: https://www.tastetours.com.au/
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Taste your way through Sydney
Al Shami, Merrylands Credit: Destination NSW
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Savour Sydney’s diverse flavours beyond the inner city’s many excellent restaurants. Harness traditional knowledge on an Aboriginal guided tour in an unexpected location, go behind the scenes in Sydney’s culturally rich suburbs, and be amazed by the city’s edible landscape on a foraging tour — to name but a few enriching excursions worth sampling.
Find bush tucker on an Aboriginal-guided tour
Discover how the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, Sydney’s Traditional Custodians, have harvested the natural bounty of Sydney for tens of thousands of years on an Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour at the harbourside Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Breathe in the fragrant scent of native lemon myrtle — which can be used to make a delicious tea — as you learn how flowering wattles indicate when it’s eel season. Visit an ancient red gum used in Aboriginal initiation ceremonies, taste seasonal bush foods, and be awed by the many ways that plants in the garden are used by First Nations peoples across Australia
Tuck into Sydney’s multicultural food story
Understand the many global cultures and cuisines that have influenced Sydney’s vibrant culinary scene on a guided food tour. Taste how recipes brought from China, Malaysia and Korea are elevated with Australian produce on an excursion to Chinatown, bordering the city centre, with Taste Cultural Food Tours Inc. Or hear the fascinating stories behind the recipes that have travelled all the way from Afghanistan and Syria to the kitchens of Merrylands in the western suburbs.
Sample more of Sydney’s multicultural food highlights with Gourmet Safaris, created by food journalist and broadcaster Maeve O’Meara OAM. Fuel up for the day in western Sydney’s Harris Park, also known as Sydney’s Little India, where you can try a traditional Indian breakfast. You can also meet local producers in Marrickville in the Inner West, or unleash your appetite on a gourmet Italian food tour of nearby Haberfield.
Pair a love of food with an interest in street art on a Newtown Chewtown tour in Newtown with Local Sauce Tours. Get a fun-filled taste of ‘Aussie food’ on a relaxed walk around three central Sydney suburbs, or sink your teeth into Sydney’s own Little Italy in Five Dock, also in Sydney’s Inner West.
Aboriginal Tour, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney Credit: Destination NSW
Guests learning about the rich Aboriginal culture of the Gadigal people on a guided tour in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.
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Aboriginal Tour, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney Credit: Destination NSW
Guests learning about the rich Aboriginal culture of the Gadigal people on a guided tour in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.
Avasana Afghan Street Food, Merrylands Credit: Destination NSW
Friends enjoying food and drink at Avasana Afghan Street Food, Merrylands. Avasana Afghan Street Food is an included location for visitors booked on a Taste of Afghanistan and Syria tour with Taste Cultural Food Tours. For more details, visit: https://www.tastetours.com.au/
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Avasana Afghan Street Food, Merrylands Credit: Destination NSW
Friends enjoying food and drink at Avasana Afghan Street Food, Merrylands. Avasana Afghan Street Food is an included location for visitors booked on a Taste of Afghanistan and Syria tour with Taste Cultural Food Tours. For more details, visit: https://www.tastetours.com.au/
Purchase fresh produce from the source
Learn the stories behind your food when you buy it directly from farmers and producers at Sydney’s farmers markets. On Saturday, make your way to Carriageworks Farmers Markets in inner-west Eveleigh. Fill your shopping basket with everything from artisan breads to single-origin coffee, gourmet meats to freshly-cut flowers as you explore the market with all your senses.
Treat yourself to organic goodies, from homemade jams to freshly harvested seasonal fruit, at the Kings Cross Market in Potts Point’s Fitzroy Gardens, also held on Saturdays. Or head across the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge to browse the offerings of more than 70 stallholders from Sydney and regional NSW at the Northside Produce Market, which pops up in North Sydney’s Ted Mack Civic Park every first and third Saturday morning of the month.
Go foraging with an expert
Feel empowered to forage for your own wild food on a tour with respected forager and author Diego Bonetto, who learned how to seek out wild edible ingredients growing up on an Italian dairy farm. Now, he leads foraging tours in and around Sydney. Whether you join a workshop that takes place in Centennial Parklands, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, or the Blue Mountains, a 90-minute drive west of the city, he’ll show you the edible riches that can be found underfoot, from warrigal greens to chickweed. Or feel the sand between your toes on a walk on Clovelly Beach in Sydney’s east with Bonetto and his collaborator Oliver Brown to learn how to identify and harvest edible sea plants found along the coastline.
Carriageworks Farmers Markets, Eveleigh Credit: Destination NSW
Family enjoying a visit to the Carriageworks Farmers Markets, Eveleigh.
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Carriageworks Farmers Markets, Eveleigh Credit: Destination NSW
Family enjoying a visit to the Carriageworks Farmers Markets, Eveleigh.
Carriageworks Farmers Markets, Eveleigh Credit: Destination NSW
Friends enjoying a visit to the Carriageworks Farmers Markets, Eveleigh.
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Carriageworks Farmers Markets, Eveleigh Credit: Destination NSW
Friends enjoying a visit to the Carriageworks Farmers Markets, Eveleigh.
Enjoy an urban farm experience
Be inspired by the sustainability ethos of Pocket City Farms, which grows organic produce right in the heart of Sydney’s inner west at Camperdown Commons, near Newtown. Sign up for an urban farm tour to learn more about permaculture techniques and how regenerative agriculture can improve the natural environment, tackle food insecurity and take action on climate change.
Reel in your own fish dinner
Revel in feasting on fresh Sydney seafood caught with your very own hands on a thrilling fishing charter with the likes of Off the Map, based in Pittwater in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Whether you prefer deep-sea or estuary fishing, you’ll be taken to the best angling grounds around Sydney for a half- or full-day fishing adventure.
More Inspirational Stories
Mulwala Water Ski Club, MulwalaCredit: Destination NSW
Mulwala Water Ski Club located in the Riverina Murray region in Mulwala, offers an outdoor bar and casual relaxed dining overlooking Lake Mulwala. Learn to water ski on a world-class, private, twin lake the Max Kirwan Ski Park.
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Cool off with an adventure: NSW is a watersports playground
Mulwala Water Ski Club, Mulwala Credit: Destination NSW
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Hot sands, wild rivers, bays with towers of coral and waves that curl like a rockabilly quiff – NSW is a paradise for adventure on and under the water. For adrenaline-chasers, there are world-class waves and whitewater runs, foils and jet boats built for speed, and reefs home to sharks and turtles. For the quiet adventurers, try paddleboard expeditions, fishing for rainbow trout and bass in pristine rivers, and colourful snorkelling spots.
Your next adrenaline hit
Surfing may be the famous action-hero of the NSW watersports scene, but the state’s rivers, lakes, bays and beaches also host a huge diversity of aquatic adventures to get the heart racing. Take in Sydney Harbour’s icons, while spinning, splashing and thundering past in a jet boat with Oz Jet Boating or Thunder Jet Boat. In Western Sydney, Penrith is a hub for adventure. Penrith Whitewater Stadium, purpose-built for the 2000 Olympics, is uniquely set up for both beginner paddling and intense raft adventures, as well as kayak courses where you can test yourself against Olympic times; Cables Wake Park teaches you to wakeboard via zipline (jumps and obstacles included); and Jet Pack Adventures lets you feel like a water-powered Iron Man.
In Brooklyn, on the Hawkesbury River, Jet Ski Safaris will take you around the bends of the river at 30 knots, while Fliteschool Manly and OzFoiling (with multiple locations on the Mid North Coast) will teach you how to cruise the coastline via eFoil, a motorised surfboard that glides above the water like an elegant seabird. Outside of Sydney, on the Murray River, encounter one of the greatest and oldest waterski clubs in the world at Mulwala Water Ski Club.
Find a wave
With reliable breaks on some of the world’s most picturesque beaches, NSW is a premium spot on the international surf circuit. Surfers with their own board and years of experience behind them can find world-class waves all up the coast while newbies can join in on a surfing lesson, all you have to do is choose which one and which beach. You can also practice on a perfectly shaped, perfectly reliable wave (with multiple options suitable for beginners or experts) at URBNSURF, Olympic Park’s surf park, and finish off with a meal at RAFI, the onsite Applejack-run restaurant and bar that overlooks the waves.
URBNSURF Sydney Credit: Applejack_Sandy’s_URBNSURF Sydney
URBNSURF Sydney
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URBNSURF Sydney Credit: Applejack_Sandy’s_URBNSURF Sydney
URBNSURF Sydney
Oz Jet Boating, Sydney Harbour Credit: Destination NSW
Experience the incredible speed of the red shark boats as they blast across Sydney harbour at high speed with Oz Jet Boating.
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Oz Jet Boating, Sydney Harbour Credit: Destination NSW
Experience the incredible speed of the red shark boats as they blast across Sydney harbour at high speed with Oz Jet Boating.
Explore NSW’s coral reefs
The pristine, ecologically rich seas of NSW have seen the development of 10 protected marine parks covering more than 100,000 square kilometres, offering a haven to wildly diverse range of sea life. Beyond those areas, in the harbour and the bays of the coastal cities, there are also vibrant ecosystems ripe for snorkel or scuba dive trips. Self-guided snorkelling can be done in most places along the coast and, provided you have the equipment and training, so can diving. Or learn the ropes with a tour. Woebegone Expeditions and Courses will teach you how to explore the reefs of the South Coast with safe, freediving techniques; Region X Snorkel Tours has you jumping off a kayak with a snorkel around Batemans Bay; and Ecotreasures fits in a headland walk between time in the aquatic reserve around Manly. For new divers, you can explore the lower North Coast with Jetty Dive Centre or the tropical far North Coast with Cooly Eco Adventures. While Sydney Underwater Scooters will set you up with a handheld swim-assister and show you the clear waters and underwater fauna of Sydney’s Gordon’s Bay.
Paddling sunrise to sunset
Every river, bay and lake has a different scene and a different story, and cruising on a kayak, canoe or stand-up paddleboard (SUP) lets you discover at your own pace. NSW is also full of explorers and local experts ready to guide you along the way. In Sydney, Sydney Harbour Kayaks and Sydney by Kayak will introduce you to the harbour at its multicolour best with dawn and dusk paddles. Manly Kayak Centre has both hire and guided options for kayaks and SUP, as well as giving you the opportunity to try your hand at SUPBALL, which is like polo but replaces the horse with a SUP. Cronulla SUP and Balmoral Paddlesurf let you explore less famous, but no less beautiful, beaches of Sydney’s south and north respectively.
On the Sapphire Coast combine your next river adventure with a story, like on Navigate Expeditions’ Aboriginal Culture Tour, where you journey into the land’s Indigenous heritage, or a Kayak and Shuck Tour where you visit the oyster farms. On the North Coast, social enterprise and SUP tour guides Wajaana Yaam Adventure Tours offers cultural eco-tourism on a paddleboard around the pristine waters of Solitary Island Marine Park. Not far away in The Tweed, Watersports Guru offers SUP lessons and hire, allowing you to cruise the waters Cudgen Creek while taking in the local birdlife – if you’re lucky you may even see a pod of dolphins.
Reel in a new experience
With pristine rivers and wild oceans, NSW is a dream for fishing for both newbies and those looking for the next big catch. Out on the oceans of the South Coast Kiama Charter Service will help you pull in your first deep-sea fish (go for blue-eye trevalla, gemfish or hapuka). While Port Macquarie Fishing Charters, Reel Ocean Adventures (in Tuncurry) and Evans Head Deep Sea Fishing Charters, provide the boats, deep-sea equipment and vibes on the North Coast. Inland, learn traditional yabbying in the bush at Narrabri Fish Farm, or set up your own line on NSW’s most epic jetties at Coffs Harbour, Lake Macquarie and Lake St Clair in the Hunter Valley. If you know the ways of a fly fisher, the Snowy Mountains and Blue Mountains are the hot spots.
Kayaking, Sydney Harbour Credit: Destination NSW
Friends enjoying a day of kayaking on Sydney Harbour.
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Kayaking, Sydney Harbour Credit: Destination NSW
Friends enjoying a day of kayaking on Sydney Harbour.
Navigate Expeditions, Kalaru Credit: Destination NSW
Guests on a walking tour with Navigate Expeditions in Kalaru
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Navigate Expeditions, Kalaru Credit: Destination NSW
Guests on a walking tour with Navigate Expeditions in Kalaru