Some of the best walking in Sydney begins right outside your hotel door. If you are staying in Potts Point, you are within easy reach of several harbour walks that take you past the Opera House, through the Royal Botanic Garden, along the foreshore to Circular Quay and up to some of the finest lookout points the city offers. No car, no ferry, no planning required beyond a comfortable pair of shoes and a rough sense of direction.
Holiday Inn Sydney Potts Point sits at the top of a neighbourhood that slopes gently toward the water, making it a natural starting point for walks around Sydney Harbour. Guests in harbour view rooms can see the bay from their window before they even step outside, starting the walk right at their door.
The Neighbourhood You Walk Through First
Potts Point itself rewards a slow start. Macleay Street runs through the heart of the neighbourhood with a steady line of cafes, bakeries and small grocers that are well-suited to a pre-walk coffee or breakfast. The residential streets leading down toward Elizabeth Bay are lined with Art Deco apartment buildings and fig trees, and the pace is noticeably quieter than the CBD even on a weekday morning.
It takes approximately ten minutes to walk from the hotel to the water’s edge at Elizabeth Bay. Once you arrive, you’ll see the harbour stretch out before you, with various walking routes branching off in different directions. You can head south towards Rushcutters Bay or turn north towards Woolloomooloo and the city foreshore. Most guests choose the route toward the city, which is described in detail below.
For more on what the immediate neighbourhood offers, the hotel’s guide to things to do in Potts Point is a useful companion.
1. Potts Point to Woolloomooloo: The Warm-Up Walk
The walk from Potts Point down to Woolloomooloo is short, around 15 minutes, and it works well as either a standalone afternoon stroll or the opening leg of a longer harbour route. Head down Victoria Street from the hotel and follow the path toward McElhone Stairs, a historic sandstone staircase that connects Potts Point to the suburb of Woolloomooloo below. The stairs are well-maintained and the descent gives you a view over the finger wharf before you reach the bottom.
Woolloomooloo Wharf is one of the longest timber wharves in the world and sits on the edge of a sheltered bay. The ground floor has a cluster of restaurants and bars, and the water view from the end of the wharf is worth the short walk out. It is a calm spot, particularly in the morning before the lunch crowd arrives.
From Woolloomooloo, the route continues along the harbourside path toward the Domain and the Royal Botanic Garden.
2. Potts Point to Royal Botanic Garden Walk
Continuing from Woolloomooloo, the path follows the foreshore past the Naval Depot and into the Domain, a large open parkland that connects the inner city to the waterfront. The walk from Potts Point to the Royal Botanic Garden takes around 35 to 45 minutes at an easy pace, and the path is flat and clearly marked for most of the way.
The Royal Botanic Garden covers 30 hectares along the harbour foreshore and you can enter from multiple points along the Domain path. Once inside, the route toward Mrs Macquarie’s Chair takes you along the water’s edge through landscaped gardens with direct views across Farm Cove to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
This section of the walk is one of the most photographed in Sydney, and for practical reasons: the sightlines here are wide and unobstructed, and the combination of water, gardens and landmarks is hard to replicate anywhere else in the city. It is also a comfortable walk. The path is paved, shaded in places and accessible for most fitness levels.
3. Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and the Harbour Lookout
Mrs Macquarie’s Chair is a sandstone bench carved into a headland at the tip of the Royal Botanic Garden peninsular. It was cut in 1810 for Elizabeth Macquarie, wife of the then Governor, who reportedly used the spot to watch for ships arriving from England. The lookout here gives you a direct view across to the Opera House on the left, the Harbour Bridge in the centre and the North Shore skyline on the right. It is one of the cleaner panoramas available on a Sydney harbour walk because the headland sits out into the water, clearing the surrounding tree line.
From the hotel, the walk to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair takes around 50 minutes at a relaxed pace. It is a natural turning point if you want a shorter route; from here, you can either continue toward the Opera House or loop back through the Botanic Garden toward the CBD.
4. Potts Point to Opera House Walk
Continuing from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, the path follows the foreshore around Farm Cove and arrives at the Sydney Opera House precinct in around 15 minutes. The full walk from Potts Point to the Opera House takes approximately one hour from the hotel, depending on how much time you spend along the way.
The Sydney Opera House is located on Bennelong Point, and the surrounding concourse is open to the public all day. Visitors can walk around the base of the building and enjoy views of the harbor from the lower concourse. Guided tours of the interior are available daily for those who wish to explore inside.
From the Opera House, Circular Quay is a five-minute walk along the foreshore, past the ferry wharves and the Museum of Contemporary Art. This makes the full Potts Point to Circular Quay walk a natural endpoint for the day’s route, with easy options for a meal, a drink, or a ferry ride back along the harbour if your legs have done enough.
5. A Sydney City Walk Worth Taking Twice
The route from Potts Point through Woolloomooloo, along the Domain, past Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and around to the Opera House and Circular Quay covers roughly 5 to 6 kilometres in total. At a comfortable pace with stops, it takes around two to two and a half hours.
What makes it one of the better Sydney city walks is the consistency of what you see along the way. The harbour is present for most of the route, the path is accessible and well-maintained, and there are enough stopping points, gardens and viewpoints that you can extend or shorten the walk depending on the day.
You can also break the walk across two mornings – walk to Woolloomooloo and back one day, then do the full harbour loop the next. Staying in Potts Point makes that kind of flexibility easy because the starting point is always right outside your door.
Returning to the Hotel
After a morning or afternoon walking around Sydney Harbour, Potts Point has a good range of places to stop before you head back to the hotel. Macleay Street has several cafes suited to a mid-afternoon break, and the quieter streets around Challis Avenue are worth a short detour if you want a slower finish to the day.
The Sirocco Restaurant & Bar at Holiday Inn Potts Point is a practical option for dinner when you have already covered a lot of ground. The restaurant is on-site, the menu is solid, and after a full day on the harbour foreshore, it is a reasonable preference to stay close to home.
The hotel’s position in Potts Point means that whether you walk for two hours or five, you arrive back at a neighbourhood that is pleasant to move through at the end of a day. That is part of what makes Holiday Inn Sydney Potts Point a practical base for anyone who wants to explore Sydney’s harbour walks without spending unnecessary time in transit between their accommodation and the places they actually came to see.