Walking Bondi to Bronte

Six kilometres, two hours if you stop, and the single best thing to do here that costs nothing.

The coastal walk starts at the south end of Bondi, below Icebergs, and runs to Coogee. Most people do the first section — Bondi to Bronte, about 2.5 kilometres — and that is the stretch worth doing if you only do one.

It takes forty minutes at a walk and two hours if you stop, which you will: at Mackenzies Bay, which is a beach for about three weeks a year and a rock shelf for the rest of it; at Tamarama, which is smaller, steeper and has a rip that catches people out every summer; and at Bronte Baths at the far end.

Go early. In November the Sculpture by the Sea installation puts thirty thousand people on a path built for a few hundred, and between eight and eleven on any summer Sunday it is slow going. First light is a different walk entirely.

From the front door it is nine minutes to the trailhead: down Ramsgate Avenue, along the promenade past the pavilion, and up the steps at the far end.