What’s Sydney’s best beach and why?

What’s Sydney’s best beach? Someone from out of Sydney asked me that question over the Christmas break and I struggled to answer – even though I live at Coogee Beach. Your favourite can depend on your mood on the day as much as the waves, weather, surf and swell. The stretches of sand that define the geographic boundaries of Sydney are as different as the tribes that inhabit them.

Avalon Beach at sunrise.Credit: Brook Mitchell

So I composed a quick A to Z guide to our city’s coastline. Life over lockdown may have been not so great for some in Greater Sydney, but let’s count our beach blessings in alphabetical order.

A is for Avalon – the navy blue and white striped T-shirts from the parody Avalon Now were more like prison stripes over Christmas when these northern beaches residents were officially confined to their insular peninsula. Most were happy to pull up the drawbridge and make sandcastles by themselves – in smug self-knowledge they had one of the best beaches to themselves. Athol Beach, though, is my pick for the As. This Mosman harbourside treasure is often empty and you can collect seashells just as artist Arthur Streeton did in the 1890s at his nearby bush camp.

B is for our best known: Bondi. With its hipsters and gentle waves, and a kilometre stretch of golden sand, as opposed to the more ochre/red colours of the northern beaches, it’s easy to see its appeal. Being a bay, it’s great for beginners catching breakers and safe for swimmers. B is also for Bronte’s bogey hole, Balmoral’s Bathers’ Pavilion, Bilgola’s rockface, Bundeena’s remoteness and Brighton-le-sands’ netted swim spot. Bungan is a little beauty, nestled between Newport and Mona Vale. Its remoteness and difficult-to-access rockpools earn points from adventurers.

C is for Coogee, Clovelly, Curl Curl, Currawong, Collaroy, Clontarf, Chinaman’s, Camp Cove, Cronulla, Collins, Clifton Gardens and, of course, Cobblers Beach. For me, Coogee wins the battle for best C spot – a protected bay for swimming and a stretch of sand for walking. Though I could be convinced to love Cronulla. So many Cs start the names of suburbs by the sea. You can see why. It’s almost onomatopoeia.

Bondi.Credit: Steven Saphore

D is for Dee Why and Double Bay, but also Delwood, a pocket-handkerchief-sized delight on Manly Cove’s western stretch, best for ferry watching.

E is for Elouera in the south and Elvina Beach, a bay on Pittwater that even has a Sheridan beach towel named in its honour and gets my pick as best beach to arrive at by boat.

F is for Fairlight, Fairy Bower, Forty Baskets and Frenchman’s, but Freshwater is the most fabulous for me because of its 50-metre pool.

G is for Gunyah, a gem near Bundeena, and Green Hills, north of Cronulla, whose surfie gangs were made famous in the book Puberty Blues. Gordons Bay, with its big blue gropers, sand rays and schools of garfish gets my vote for best Sydney snorkel spot in the east. In the north, Great Mackerel is a great place, and sounds more like an exclamation than a beach.

H was for Harbord until it changed its name to Freshwater in 2008 because, as a local said at the time, “it sounds more appealing and will help real estate values”. Right on both counts.

For pet owners, K is for Kurnell’s dog-friendly beach. Here at Captain Cook’s landing spot, look longingly across Botany Bay to the landing place of French navigator La Perouse, known in local lingo as La Pa.

L is also for Long Reef, destination of many a high school geography class to view its honeycomb weathered sandstone and chocolate shales. Then there’s Little, Long and Lovett Bays, Little Congwong, Lady Jane/Lady Bay and Lady Martins Beach. The latter is practically a private beach for the people of Point Piper. (No need for them to keep it to themselves.)

Manly is most famous of the Ms, and maybe my sentimental favourite from childhood family bus/train/ferry trips. Mona Vale and the harbour’s Milk Beach are marvellous, but the grittier Malabar, with its ocean pool, and Maroubra’s south end, for beginner surfers, have much to commend them, including free parking.

Manly Beach.Credit: Rick Stevens.

In the Ns, Newport is nice, but Narrabeen gets my vote from the 1970s, when half of the western suburbs used to holiday here, and the van park was known as “Narramatta”.

Obelisk, on the harbour, should not be overlooked, even if you need to get your gear off to go.

P is for glorious Pittwater and its procession of beach promenades from Palm Beach down. While “Palmy” is the second home for well-heeled Sydneysiders, for me the old-worlde charm of Parsley Bay pips it at the post.

Q is for Queenscliff – the surfers’ choice thanks to its waves – and Quarantine Beach near North Head, well worth a visit as a reminder of how we dealt with deadly diseases more than a century ago.

Rose Bay and Ramsgate are often forgotten in the R beach department. Not so Redleaf and its magnificent harbour pool. Nor Reef Beach, which wins the R trophy if only because it will be forever associated with one of its most avid devotees, rugby league legend Rex Mossop and his bid to stop naked bathing here.In 1976 he made a citizen’s arrest of a nudist who walked past his Balgowlah home, insisting he “didn’t think male genitalia should be rammed down people’s throats”.

Shelly Beach, South Steyne, Sans Souci, Silver, Sandringham, Seven Shillings, Store and Sirius Cove have the S department covered. Strangely Shark Beach’s shark nets, also known as Kutti Beach in Nielsen Park, gets my vote as most protected harbour swim spot.

Crowds at Redleaf in Sydney.Credit: James Alcock

T for Towra Point in the south is best for boating. Tiny Turimetta on the northern beaches is one of the most dangerous, bookended as it is by rips.

Up north, W is for Washaway in Clontarf, Warriewood and its surf break. Down south, Wanda’s sand dunes are wonderful if you want to escape the crowds. A sad side note is it’s the site of one of our most enduring tragedies, the unsolved 1965 murders of teens Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt.

Y is for Yarra Bay and the multi-cultural characters who come here to swim and visit the nearby sailing club, which boasts some of the city’s best beer prices.

If there’s an X or Z beach, I’m yet to discover it. Have I forgotten any? Of course. I’m sure avid beach-goers will let me know. Manly still gets my vote, for its underwater wonder world and ocean swimming community. But it’s like choosing your favourite child. Secretly, some of us have a favourite strip of Sydney sand.