Sydney South

This corner of Sydney measures its green space differently, an entire national park older than almost any other on Earth sitting where most cities would put a suburb. The Royal has been protected since 1879, second only to Yellowstone, its Coast Track running along whale-watching clifftops between swims, Wattamolla's lagoon and waterfall the pick of them. Catch the little ferry from Cronulla across to Bundeena to enter the park the slow way. At Kurnell, Kamay Botany Bay marks where Cook's crew and the Gweagal people first faced one another in 1770, a meeting now told from both sides.