Sydney

Though it is not Australia’s capital, which is Canberra, Sydney is the perhaps its most emblematic city, with that famous opera house being one of the most easily recognizable man-made structures in the world. Australia’s well-known convict history set its roots down under in this town, but the largest city in Australia, with more than five million inhabitants, has come a long way since then. Sydney is a strange combination of natural wonders, a quintessentially English town, and a different thing altogether – something modern, innovative, and new. We won’t say that it’s a stone’s throw away, but Sydney is worth a trip of any length, any day. The downtown, very cosmopolitan area of Sydney may make you feel like you’re in London on a very hot day, but then London doesn’t have the Sydney Harbor national park, with plants you will not find elsewhere on the planet in the wild.