When you walk through any entrance, you can take paths to different floral areas. The gardens overlook the harbor and the breeze is wonderful. You can take a mini tram or train through the gardens if you don't want to walk. There are benches everywhere to rest if you tire out. The smells are wonderful from eucalyptus trees to flowering bushes of all kinds. The fruit bats hang from the trees in full view and the birds are everywhere as well as little lizards if you really watch. You can watch the tall ships and all the activity in the harbor. You can see the opera house, the harbor bridge, and it is in the middle of the city. Don't miss it no matter when you are there.

Occupying the headland between The Domain and the Opera House, the Royal Botanic Gardens make for wonderful relaxing walks and certainly provide some of the city's finest green space. The location couldn't be better, offering stunning views of the harbor. It also makes for a good safe place to sit and relax or perhaps enjoy a picnic.

However, the gardens themselves are good but not spectacular with typically well-kept gardens, duck ponds, etc. There is a lot of open lawn, which lends itself to the place feeling like more of a pleasant park as opposed to an impressive garden. In fact, there are signs encouraging visitors to walk on and enjoy the lawns. And as refreshing as that is, you won't be as impressed by the plantlife on display as you would be at, say, Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens.

What is undeniably impressive is the abundant birdlife. Particularly at dawn and dusk. I remember watching a parakeet trying to bite the shiny metal of a drinking fountain when I was there. The palm grove is home to a large colony of fruit bats. They really become noticeable at dusk. Look out, too, for nocturnal possums.

Aside from the palm grove, points of interest are the rose garden, herb garden, Chinese gardens, as well as duck ponds. Near the duck ponds is a popular cafe as well as the Sydney Tropical Centre where you can see both native plants and exotics within its glass pyramid (cost $2.20).

There is also a visitor center (9:30am-4:30pm) in the southeast corner where where the 1.5 hour, free guided tours commence (daily 10:30am; no bookings required).

There's also a trackless train that runs through the gardens every twenty minutes (9am-5pm daily, until 6pm in the summer; $10 adult, $5 child). The main pick-up point for the train is near the Opera House. You are alowed to hop-on and hop-off as much as you like, as your pass is for the entire day.

Admission to the gardens in general is absolutely free, and the operating hours are daily from 7am-sunset.

One of Sydney's best keep secrets. Everyone knows it there, but for some reason it never gets appreciated as one of the greatest attractions of the city. It is an amazing garden/park with Chinese, rainforest and native vegetation throughout and also large grassy areas. It has a revolutionary attitude with signs requesting visitors walk on grass and 'hug trees'. Some of the views across Farm Cove of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge are real postcard shots...got to be seen to be believed!!

Every weekday lunchtime the Gardens are full of 'office joggers', the suit wearers who change into their lycra outfits for their lunchtime exercise...quite an amazing, if somewhat amusing, sight of herds of them rushing round the gardens in half an hour!

One final surprise that the Gardens have is that of the native colony of fruit bats or flying foxes as they're sometimes known. Hundreds of these beautiful animals roost in the trees during the day -- a must-see!

Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens quickly became my favorite place in the world to jog. It’s a very user-friendly park; signs even encourage visitors to "Please Walk on the Grass." The extensive paths lead from the entrance at Macquarie and Bent Streets through rose and herb gardens, past the Government House out to the landmark Sydney Opera House. While lapping around the Opera House, check out that famous sail-inspired roof. Up close, it’s even more richly textured than you imagined.

Next, reenter the Gardens continuing along the waterfront. You’ll come to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, the lookout from which the wife of an early governor would watch the harbor. Take a moment to savor the view from her vantage point. The trail then leads back towards town past the Andrew Charlton Pool. For $A2, you can refresh yourself in its saltwater.

Besides the Garden’s impressive collection of plants, you’ll also get to see ibises, magpies, mynas, cockatoos and other feathered friends. If you hear a loud "cheeping" commotion in the trees above, look up: there’s a good chance it’s a bevy of giant fruit bats making all that noise. They tend to be messy, so be careful you don’t get splattered on.