Sydney Nightlife: Places and Districts to Go Out in Sydney

  Sydney Harbour at Night

Sydney is at once a vibrant and easy-going city, and visitors can revel in some seriously jumping and diverse nightlife. Australians are renowned for their love of a beer or two, and there are few better places to enjoy a cold one than in Sydney.

First things first: many of Australia's drinking establishments are known as 'hotels' owing to a long tradition of providing people with a room after they had had a drink. The term 'bar' is generally applied to trendier joints and top-class hotels.

Pubs are more popular with travelers, and many cater for students and backpackers by offering cheap drinks deals and happy hours. The best pubs tend to be in the more established regions such as Woolloomooloo and The Rocks. Beachside pubs where you can have a drink and gaze out to sea can also be found in Coogee and Bondi.

The city also has a plentiful supply of live music with a number of good jazz haunts and gig venues right the way across the city, from Darling Harbour to Kings Cross, Oxford Street and the Rocks.

But that’s not to say that Sydney nightlife is all about beery types and scruffy live music joints. The city deals in low-slung cool like few others, and the areas of Darlinghurst and Surry Hills are also pretty well-endowed with bars. These come into their own on broiling hot summer evenings when you can sit out on the terrace of some cool hangouts and get some great people-watching done.

In keeping with its slick, stylish image, the Sydney gay and lesbian scene has always been extremely active. Much of the action centers around Oxford Street, which runs from Hyde Park to Centennial Park. Every March, the gay community lets its hair down in a pretty serious way by hosting the world-renowned Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Other centers of nightlife in Sydney include Kings Cross, which as well as being known for its strip joints, brothels and sex shops is one of the main clubbing areas, with a whole raft of trendy clubs and bars.

Darlinghurst Road, meanwhile, is the marvelously seedy eye of the storm and is conveniently placed near to the rash of hostels on Victoria Street – ideal for an early morning stumble home after a long night of dancing.

Clubs in Sydney vary, but many venues tend to be bars which open late and clear the tables away to provide dance floors. These places are often cheap and cheerful, friendly and, with a laidback, unpretentious vibe draw in backpackers like moths to a flame.

All in all, if it’s nightlife you’re after - whether it’s a few quiet beers at a beach bar or an all-nighter in one of the city’s many clubs - Sydney is very unlikely to let you down.

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