Sydney has three official nude beaches, and if that isn’t choice enough for you, there are three more that are not officially recognised but nude nonetheless, and then there are another two official nude beaches at about an hour’s drive from the city. Are you confused? Well, we were when we first tried to create our naked itinerary. So for everyone’s convenience, here’s a map:
Birdie Beach, Budgewoi Peninsula, Budgewoi, Central Coast Council, New South Wales, 2262, Australia
Werrong Beach, Otford, Wollongong City Council, New South Wales, 2508, Australia
Washaway Beach, Clontarf, Northern Beaches, Sydney, Northern Beaches Council, New South Wales, 2093, Australia
Little Jibbon Beach, Royal National Park, Sutherland Shire, Sutherland Shire Council, New South Wales, 2232, Australia
Little Congwong Beach, La Perouse, Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, Randwick City Council, New South Wales, 2036, Australia
Lady Bay Beach, Watsons Bay, Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, Woollahra Municipal Council, New South Wales, 2030, Australia
Obelisk Beach, Mosman, Lower North Shore, Sydney, Mosman Municipal Council, New South Wales, 2088, Australia
Cobblers Beach, Mosman, Lower North Shore, Sydney, Mosman Municipal Council, New South Wales, 2088, Australia
That is a lot of nude beaches for one city. We don’t know if there are any official statistics of cities with the most nude beaches, but from our own quite extended experience, Sydney is likely to score pretty high. We decided to focus on the official nude beaches, which was enough to keep us busy for a couple of days.
CREDITS: We were able to find the nude beaches in Sydney as well as in other places in Australia thanks to the website of the Australian Naturist Federation.
Cobblers Beach
Let’s start with the beaches that are literally in downtown Sydney. Truth to be said, because of its many bays, Sydney is a city with an extremely long coastline. Longer than most other cities in the world. So it would have been easy to hide some nude beaches in remote areas on the outskirts of the city. But that’s not what happened. Cobblers Beach is located just a stone’s throw from the Opera House in the upscale Mosman neighbourhood. In other words, if you like to live close to this nude beach, you better have a fat wallet.
We were told that Cobblers is the best of the downtown Sydney nude beaches, and after visiting all three of them, we can only agree. The setting is really nice, with rocks in the backdrop and an emerald-coloured sea in front of you. The stretch of sand is probably less than 100 meters and there’s another 20-30 meter patch of grass for those who don’t want to get sand in their butts.
What we enjoyed most on Cobblers was the atmosphere. Many of the visitors seemed to already know each other or were just meeting when we arrived. People were talking and joking, smiling and saying “G’day mate”. The kind of atmosphere that immediately makes you feel comfortable.
Obelisk Beach
On the south side of the same peninsula where Cobblers is, you’ll find another official nude beach called Obelisk. Both beaches are about a 15-minute walk from each other and you need to park at the same parking lot. By the way, parking is $4 AUD per hour or $10 AUD per day. If you’re planning to spend some time on the beach, a day pass may be more interesting.
Obelisk looks pretty much the same as Cobblers. There’s no grass, but some rocky parts to sit on if you don’t like the sand. The water is the same blue and the beach is about the same length. But the vibe could hardly be more different. We were one of only two couples on this beach, although there were at least 50 or so people.
When we found a spot at one end of the beach, two guys stood up at the other end and moved closer towards us. They didn’t even try to hide that they came for the people watching. The hiking trail next to the beach looked as if a lot of people with a serious cold had just passed by. But this wasn’t the cold season. Truth to be said, we would also find this at other hiking trails next to nude beaches in Sydney.
Lady Bay Beach
Here’s a funny side story. When we asked people on social media to vote for Cobblers, Obelisk, or Lady Bay as their favourite Sydney nude beach, someone replied that he would love to visit a ladyboy nude beach. Someone else stated that he rather didn’t see any ladyboys on nude beaches. We imagine that some discrepancies may have occurred in our statistics because of participants who need new glasses or who believe that Sydney has this magical bay filled with naked ladies.
The truth was quite far from that. Once again the large majority of the beach visitors had come on their own. Although there were some ladies, most were gentlemen. No ladyboys that we were aware of, for the record. Yet the atmosphere was pretty nice and we didn’t feel like all eyes were upon us, as happened at Obelisk.
What we liked the most about this beach was the view of the Sydney skyline. We like the idea of being so close to the city centre, knowing that there are thousands of people on the other side, behind the windows of their skyscrapers. Having important meetings, making deals, or doing the dishes, while we are skinny dipping in their backyard. Maybe they’re naked too, who knows? Next time we should bring binoculars. Wouldn’t that be a funny sight? Naked beachgoers peeping into the textile world. Anyway, we digress.
More nude beaches in Sydney
In the northern part of Sydney is Washaway Beach, and in the south you can find Little Congwong Beach and Little Jibbon Beach. All three are unofficial nude beaches, meaning that the city has not officially declared that nudity is allowed there (or has put down any signs), but that people are known to get naked at these beaches anyway.
One could wonder why that is necessary when there are already three official nude beaches in the city. Why can’t the naked people stay at those beaches? If you think this too, you clearly haven’t driven around Sydney yet. This city is huge and during peak hours it takes a long time to get from one end to another. And the inner city tollways also make it pretty expensive. We’ve carelessly driven around Sydney for 5 days, this has cost us almost 100 Australian dollars. That’s 70 American ones or 60 Euros. So we imagine that some people just prefer to get naked on a beach closer to home.
Nude beaches close to Sydney
We had the official and unofficial nude beaches inside Sydney and we can honestly say that we were surprised at how beautiful they are. We can’t imagine an urban nude beach in Europe being this picturesque. But then again, this is Australia, a country famous for its spectacular beaches. And some of these can be visited without a bathing suit too.
About an hour south of Sydney is Weerong Beach, a beautiful stretch of probably about 200 meters long. To get there, you need to park at Otford Lookout and then hike for half an hour down. Because of this hike, the beach isn’t very popular so you’ll get lots of space for yourself.
An hour north of Sydney is Birdie Beach, which looks like one of those typical Australian beaches that you see in any non-naturist travel blog. So we’re happy that we can put such a picture on this blog as well! The advantage of Birdie Beach is that the parking is right next to the beach, the disadvantage is that parking is $8 AUD for the day.
Before we visited Sydney, we never thought that a big city could ever be a nude beach destination. After all these years of naked travelling, it’s great to still learn new things.
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What was your reaction when those two guys moved closer for watching? Have you addressed them about this or in some other way indicated that this is inappropriate?
We just left. It was easy to see that this kind of behaviour was standard at this beach rather than an exception.
I don’t live in Sydney now, but I doubt the beaches, and nude life in general, have changed much in the last 10 years.
Firstly, N&L may have been lucky, or well advised, because all the beach sand disappears at high tide. Secondly, Obelisk, and to a slightly lesser extent Lady Bay and Little Congwong are mainly gay beaches. Couples go there by mistake, and single females never go. Also, on sunny weekend days, all the beaches get very crowded, so there is no privacy.
Sadly, nude beach culture in Sydney is either gay or voyeur, or both in the case of Obelisk. Cobblers is the exception.
How did N&L enjoy the hike back up from Werrong? It was too steep and tough for me on a hot day.
We really enjoyed the hike! The way back is quite steep, but the beach was enough of a reward