Things to do when it's raining

   Things To When It's Fine      Coastal Walks   

Eat and Drink

Head into a bar, bistro, coffee shop or restaurant and enjoy your favourite food and drink. Pig out, there is nothing much to do at Bondi when it's wet.

Surf the Internet

Be more positive. Catch up on your email, look at pictures of Bondi all taken when it was fine. Study up on the history of Bondi by Googling for topics such as "bondi surfing", "bondi trams", "bondi lifesavers", and even strange things like "black sunday 1938", "bondi redex trial", "bondi mermaids", "wonderland city tamarama" and "bondi march past team".

There is plenty of free Wi-Fi in Bondi, including the whole park where Wi-Fi is provided by the Waverley Council. The era of Internet Cafes has passed (remember them?) but some general stores still have a couple of terminals down the back. More than half the visitors to this page are now using phones.

Read Books, Newspapers or Magazines

There is a bookshop on the left as you walk up Hall Street. It includes a nice coffee shop, so even if you are illiterate you can be part of the action.

There is a newsagent in Hall Street, and another on Campbell Parade. Plenty of magazines, from surfing, tattoos and music to hobbies and science and lots of celebrity gossip magazines. Plenty of shark, spider and snake stories to terrify the tourists.

There are three daily newspapers in Sydney, all published in the morning. The Telegraph specialises in tabloid sensations, celebrity struggles, unsolved murders and organised crime. The Herald appeals to coffee drinkers, lefties and greenies, many of whom live in Bondi. The Australian is more conservative and has extensive coverage of politics and climate change. All three papers cover sport in great detail.

Go Shopping in Bondi Junction

Bondi Junction is the regional shopping centre for the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. It has the second largest Westfield in NSW.

There are endless coffee shops, two food courts, and a lot of smaller eateries in the side streets. Check out the enormous Apple iPhone and iPad shop, right near the footbridge over the main road.

Go on a Bus Ride

Here are three choices.

First Idea. Go on the open-top double decker tour. See everything in just a couple of hours. Hop on and hop off at any stop.

Second Idea. Catch the 382 to Watsons Bay (every 20 minutes), then catch the 324/325 to Circular Quay, then catch the 333/380 back to Bondi. Take something to read just in case, and have a snack at Circular Quay.

Third Idea. Catch the 333 to Circular Quay, then catch the Watsons Bay ferry. Have some fish and chips at the Watsons Bay wharf, then catch the 382 bus from Watsons Bay back to Bondi Beach. The ferry timetable is complex, but basically on weekdays a ferry runs every 30 minutes from 10:10 am to 3:10 pm. On weekends, it's every 45 minutes from 10:15 until 5:00 pm.

Go to the Movies

There are no picture shows at Bondi Beach any more (there used to be at least three) but there is a cinema complex in Westfield at Bondi Junction, on the northern side of the main street. Any bus to Bondi Junction. All first-release films.

There is a cinema complex at the city end of Paddington called the Verona, and a twin named The Chauvel in the Paddington Town Hall building. Take the 380 or 333 bus, ask the driver. Both these choices show films that are more up-market.

Go to a Museum

Here are three, all close to public transport.

The Museum of Sydney (known as moz) is right at a 380/333 bus stop in Phillip Street just up the hill from Circular Quay. It has new exhibitions about Sydney, some permanent exhibits about Sydney, and a great set of model ships of the first fleet which arrived in 1788.

Slightly down the Hill and towards the Opera House is the Justice and Police Museum. This sounds deadly dull, but it's actually great, with amazing exhibitions of Sydney's past, highlighting criminal activities, murders, kidnappings and robberies, not to mention police corruption. As shown in a video at the last exhibition, a prostitute who grew up in Dover Heights (just past North Bondi) named corrupt police on national television and was promptly murdered. There are also exhibits of famous crimes such as "the shark arm case" and "the pyjama girl murder", and the case where a schoolboy from Bondi was kidnapped and murdered after his parents won the Opera House Lottery.

Lastly there is a Jewish Museum in Darlinghurst. Get off the bus just before Taylor Square, and it's on a corner, right round the other side of the Supreme Court buildings.

Hold Your Own Party

Finally, go to the bottle shop in Hall Street and the IGA supermarket and the cake shop and the deli to buy some favourite nibblies and drinkies. The botle shop is next door to the supermarket. Start your party about 5pm and party on.

Take the Bondi Trivia Quiz

Think you know about Bondi and Australia, then try the Bondi Trivia Quiz.

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Last Updated - Sunday 19th June 2016