A Guide to Sydney Harbour Beaches #1

Previously I wrote a blog on Sydney Northern Beaches rockpools. Perhaps swimming in a pool is not your thing and you prefer beaches. The water in many ocean beaches is usually choppy and more suitable for surfing and catching the waves. By contrast, there are plenty of beaches within Sydney Harbour and the water is calm. Generally speaking, the water west of Sydney Harbour Bridge is too polluted, but in the east it is spoiled with many beautiful beaches great for swimming.

Again I am lucky enough to have visited and swum in many of these, so all photos were taken by me 😀. Here I am going anticlockwise from north to south, and you can follow the links to Google Map to see where these are located.

Quarantine Beach is in North Head near Manly. It is next to the North Head Q Station, which is an old 19th century quarantine station that turned into an accommodation and a tourist attraction, including the famous ghost tour. Anyway, back to the beach, it is part of Sydney Harbour National Park rather than Q Station. There is no toilet or shower facility at the beach, but you can dine and wine (and use the toilet) at the café and restaurant right next to it.

To get there, vehicle access is limited within the Q Station, so you have to park your car at the entrance and walk down to the beach (~10 minutes down or ~15 minutes up). For public transport, catch bus 161 from Manly Wharf towards North Head and get off at Q Station.

My rating: ★★★

Store Beach is next to Quarantine Beach within Sydney Harbour National Park. There is no road access to the beach at all, making it very exclusive. Most people visit the beach by boat, yacht or kayak. On any sunny summer weekend, there can be 20+ boats moored in front of the beach and it can get surprisingly busy. Otherwise, you may be able to reach there by climbing the rocky shore during low tide (I have not tried myself). Or in my case, I swam from Quarantine Beach and back which was over a kilometre in total (not recommended if the weather is not good or if you are not a good swimmer). Obviously I did not have my phone with me when I visited the beach, so the above photos were taken from Little Manly Point Park opposite.

My rating: ★★★★

Collins Beach is next to Store Beach and is accessible via a short walk from Little Manly Point Park. While Manly Beach is highly popular, this beach remains off the beaten track and it is possible to have the beach all by yourself on a quiet weekday if you are lucky. There is no toilet or shower facility but there is a small cascade at the beach (I am not suggesting that you can pee there 😂). Because it is located in a cove, the water is usually very calm but can be a little dirty sometimes. But as you can see from my photos, on the day I went there, the water was pristinely clean. It is hard to believe that such paradise is located inside a bustling metropolis.

My rating: ★★★★

Little Manly Cove is on the other side of Little Manly Point Park and surrounded by multimillion dollar mansions. There is an enclosed bath for swimming on the left and a boat ramp on the right. It is more for the millionaires to moor their boats than swimming (they mostly have private swimming pools in their homes). There is a small park and a restaurant next to the beach too.

To get there, it is a 15-minute walk from Manly Wharf.

My rating: ★★★

Manly Cove Beach is split into east and west by Manly Wharf in the middle. It is very popular with picnickers and young families who prefer swimming there to catching waves in the main Manly Beach. On the east side there is a kayak hire next to the wharf, great if you want to venture out to Store Beach above. On the west side there is a shark net protecting swimmers. However, with frequent ferries coming in and out next to the beach, I would rather swim somewhere else.

My rating: ★★

Delwood Beach is great if you want to avoid the crowd from Manly Cove. Just 5 minutes walk past West Manly Cove and immediately you feel like a local rather than a tourist. The beach itself is small and rocky, but the water is cleaner than Manly Cove and you can see plenty of fish. There is no toilet or shower here though, the closest one is in Fairlight Beach next door.

My rating: ★★★

I already mentioned Fairlight Beach in my previous blog so I will not repeat myself here. The beach is nicer than the rockpool hence my higher star rating.

My rating: ★★★★

Dirty Haul Beach is nothing more than a dirty patch of sand in North Harbour. There is no walking access to the beach and I don't think it is good for swimming or anything else.

My rating: ★

Forty Baskets Beach is more for rich people parking their boats than swimming. There is a swimming enclosure but I have never tried swimming there. The area is very nice and picturesque though.

My rating: ★★

Reef Beach is a quiet beach along the Manly to Spit Bridge Coastal Walk. The only way to get there is to walk 10 minutes from Forty Baskets Beach or 15 minutes downhill from Tania Park in Dobroyd Headland. Before the construction of the walking track and a toilet, it used to be a secluded beach popular with nudists. Nowadays there is a sign stating "nude bathing prohibited".

My rating: ★★★

Washaway Beach is a remote beach and is very hard to get to. After walking down a rough rocky track through some thick bushes (there is no sign), you will reach a clifftop overlooking the beach. The only way to get to the beach is to climb down a rock ladder well hidden from first timer. It is so secluded that it becomes an unofficial nude beach. As it is directly facing the entrance of Sydney Harbour and the ocean, the water can be a bit rough for swimming.

My rating: ★★★★

Castle Rock Beach is a tiny beach in Clontarf. As the name suggested, there is a big rock on the right hand side of the beach. Because it is in the inlet of Middle Harbour, the water may not be as clean as the other beaches.

My rating: ★★

Clontarf Beach is a large beach near Spit Bridge. Similar to above, the water may not be as clean. However, the park and the playground next to it is very pleasant and popular with families, and there is a café and a restaurant too.

My rating: ★★★

This concludes the first blog covering all harbour beaches in Sydney Northern Beaches. In the next blog I will cover the beaches in Lower North Shore, so stay tuned.