Travel notes // Manly

I've stayed in the CBD enough times that Sydney has started to feel predictable. Martin Place. Surry Hills. Paddington. The same cafés, the same walks, the same routines.

This trip I stayed in Manly instead.

It's only twenty minutes from Circular Quay by ferry, but it feels much further away than that. The city slowly disappears behind you, the harbour opens up, and by the time you arrive it feels as though you've travelled to an entirely different place. Not another suburb. Another city.

There is a slower rhythm to Manly. People seem less interested in where they're going than they are in enjoying the walk there.

I spent most of the stay without much of a plan, wandering the laneways behind The Corso and following whichever street looked interesting. That's usually how you find the places you remember.

Norma's Deli was one of them. The sort of neighbourhood café that makes you wish it was around the corner from home. Nothing trying too hard, just good food, good coffee and people who looked like regulars.

Butter Boy Cookies was impossible to walk past without stopping. Warm cookies, butter in all the right places, and a queue that suggested everyone else had already worked out what I was about to discover.

Felons Seafood became an easy place to linger over lunch. Fresh seafood, cold drinks and the sort of view that quietly reminds you why Sydney remains one of the world's great harbour cities.

Rollers Cafe had that effortless beachside energy that seems unique to Australia's coastline. Cyclists stopping for coffee, sandy feet, dogs waiting patiently outside. Nobody appeared to be in much of a hurry.

And then there was Anita's Gelato.

Some places become part of every trip without you intending them to. Anita's is one of those. You tell yourself you'll only have one scoop because you've already eaten too much, then somehow you're standing outside with two flavours wondering why you even tried to negotiate with yourself.

What surprised me most about Manly wasn't the beach.

It was how complete it felt.

You could easily spend a long weekend without feeling the need to head back into the city. Good cafés, neighbourhood bars, restaurants tucked into side streets, the ferry when you wanted the skyline, and enough distance from the CBD that Sydney started to feel like a place people actually live rather than somewhere people are constantly passing through.

I'll still stay in the city sometimes.

But next time I'm booking the ferry before I book the hotel.