Best parks and green spaces in Sydney

Sydney's outdoor spaces range from the iconic harbour foreshore to the vast Blue Mountains National Park an hour west of the city. Here are the green spaces that Sydney residents use most and value most highly.

Royal Botanic Garden — the 30-hectare garden on Farm Cove is Sydney's most visited park and one of the world's most beautifully situated — the harbour views, the rose garden, and the Fleet Steps that connect the garden to the water create a daily escape that CBD workers access at lunchtime and families visit on weekends.

Centennial Parklands — the 360-hectare park between Paddington and Randwick is Sydney's Central Park equivalent — the horse paddocks, the cycling paths, the rose garden, and the Moonlight Cinema in summer create year-round utility for the eastern suburbs community that has made it the city's social commons.

Blue Mountains National Park — an hour from the city, the Blue Mountains is one of the world's great accessible wilderness areas. The Three Sisters at Echo Point, the Scenic Railway at Katoomba, and the 140 kilometres of marked walking trails create an outdoor experience that Sydney residents treat as their backyard.

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park — the national park at Sydney's northern edge encompasses Aboriginal rock art sites, the Hawkesbury River estuary, and the Pittwater waterways that make it the most scenically complex natural area accessible from the city.

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