Royal National Park

You can get to the Royal by following walking paths from various nearby CityRail stations – Engadine, Heathcote, Loftus, Otford, Waterfall – but driving is the easiest way to explore its vast expanse. The park’s nerve centre is at Audley, on the Hacking River, once the heart of the park’s Victorian ‘pleasure gardens’. There you’ll find the main visitor centre, spacious lawns, an old-fashioned dance hall and a causeway. You can hire a canoe or rowing boat from the Audley boathouse and head upstream to picnic spots at Ironbark Flat or Wattle Forest. If you’re a surfer, Garie Beach provides the waves, while further south is Werrong Beach, which is located among littoral rainforest and is the park’s only authorised nude bathing spot. At secluded Wattamolla Beach you can often see migrating whales. Walking trails include Lady Carrington Drive, an easy 10km (six-mile) track along the Hacking River, and the more arduous 26km (16-mile) Coast Track, which hugs the coastline from Bundeena to Otford. Open Park 7am-8.30pm daily. Visitor centre 9.30am-4.30pm Mon-Fri; 8.30am-4.30pm Sat, Sun. Admission $11 per vehicle.