The best summer school holiday activities in Sydney

There are only so many times you can go to the beach and cinema, so we’ve rounded up a total of 54 epic events across NSW hotspots – including the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), State Library, Museums of History, Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Australian Museum, the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Opera House and more – a lot of them free. There's something for every taste, click here to see them all.

The new Urbnsurf Sydney is a good place to let kids blow off some steam in the sunshine. The "Bays" offer safe, gentle, rolling green and whitewater waves perfect for those who are learning to play in the waves. To use The Bays, it's just $39 per kid. You can also do a Boog in the Bays session, which are a great way for kids to build confidence on a bodyboard while developing the basic, fundamental skills. They also offer up Spring Multipacks here so you can surf more for less during the holidays.

The Australian National Maritime Museum knows exactly how to cater to enquiring minds. School holiday workshops this summer are pretty wild, including a shipwrecked torchlight tour, underwater drones, and musical storytellings of the sea and fossil model making. There are free educational trails all around the museum and the Kids on Deck section will be open all holidays with a heap of interactive activties. There are also two fascinating exhibits to check out at the moment: Challenging the Deep and Ocean Photography. You can check out their full program here.

Ninja Parc South Granville is a perfect stop for kids wanting to burn off some steam while simultaneously finessing their parkour skills. Featuring rope climbs, bouldering challengers, vertical and horizontal doors, a sea of poles and, the ever-classic ‘warped wall’, this gym-meets-play extravaganza is totally equipped to obliterate every last vestige of school holiday boredom. 

The beloved Opera House knows how to put on a killer school holiday lineup to entertain little minds and this October is no different. Stetch those little imaginations with the Operation Ouch twins bringing their epic medical show to Sydney. A stage-adaptation of beloved book character Grug in Grug and the Rainbow by author Ted Prior is perfect for the real little ones, and the bigger kids will enjoy Architecture Club. Strap in!

Manly Surf School runs lessons across Collaroy, Long Reef, Palm Beach, and, of course, Manly Beach. They run daily dunks in the ocean. You can either book your kid into a single or multiple (group) sessions, or into a school holiday program. You can even take a lesson along with them.

Who said school holidays were just about the kids? This family staycation has a little bit of fun for everyone. Spend the night at the 5-star Pullman Hotel in Hyde Park and fuel up on scrumptious breakfast spread before venturing out to Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. There's 60 tanks and three oceanaria filled with more than 13,000 animals from 700 different species to discover. The package also includes parking, a wlecome ammenity and surprise kids kit for your holidaying convenience.

Hidden deep (well, kind of deep) within the heart of Centennial Park is a playground like no other. Fit out with a wild tree house, bamboo forest, a fancy water-play area, banksia tunnels, turtle mounds and dry creek beds, this ‘wild play’ locale is full of wonderful nooks and crannies that keep kids fresh, entertained and connected to the big outdoors, all from within the controlled paradise of Centennial Park. 

Enrol the little dancer of the house into one of Sydney's most established dance school's school holiday workshops. The classes dabble in everything from jazz, to contemporary, to hip-hop, to theatre. The classes target both beginners and kids who have been dancing since they could walk, so hit up the timetable to find something that suits. Learn from some of the best including performers from Grease The Arena Spectacular, the Moulin Rouge in Paris and Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. The multi-day workshops will take place at the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct.

The work of the late May Gibbs has given Australian children wondrous fantasies for years, with The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie enduring as an essential component in our collective childhood memory. Nutcote is where Gibbs wrote her books and long-running cartoon strip Bib and Bub. Reminisce about Gumnut babies and Banksia men in that childhood fantasy world when you visit the museum, learn about Gibbs and her characters, and then relax in the gardens.

IMAX Sydney closed for a rebuild back in 2016, and after a longggg wait, it's finally relaunched in October 2023, better than ever, in the W Sydney building. When we say this is huge news, we mean it. IMAX Sydney’s new movie screen is the third largest in the world, spanning a staggering 693 square metres. If you're looking to get the title of coolest parent ever, a seat in one of IMAX's private pods or recliner chairs might just bring you one step closer. You can book tickets for IMAX Darling Harbour over here.

Spend hours cooing over a barnyard of baby animals: chicks, lambs, calfs, kids, ducklings and rabbits, you name it. The almost too adorable experiences at Golden Ridge Animal Farm are largely aimed at human kids wanting to learn about the 500 furry and feathered farm residents – but grown-ups can tag along too.

Would you believe kids as young as three can do indoor skydiving at iFLY in Penrith? It’s all about the "look mum, look dad" here, as the indoor skydiving takes place behind glass in the middle of the venue – so even being a spectator is fun. They also have a camera taking pictures throughout your ‘dive’ so you can purchase your most impressive pose – complete with g-force cheeks.

When it rains in Sydney, it pours. So it pays to have a few wet-weather saves up your sleeve for when the kids are home and bored with Youtube and colouring-in. Luckily, our city has a whole load of indoor playgrounds and kid-friendly museums – as well as craft workshops, leisure centres and active areas – to keep ’em busy. Click here to get inspo.

Sutherland Shire's state-of-the-art, multi-purpose venue is hosting a massive kids festival this October complete with orchestras, theare, and arts and dance classes. Expect appearances from the ABC's The Listies, comic magicians, and theatre puppets. Show tickets are $29, workshops are $15 and there are also free events in the program so that school holiday fun doesn't need to break the bank. 

Game on, Sydney. Last summer, Australia’s very first interactive gaming rooms opened in Darling Harbour, offering full-scale, immersive versions of Squid Game, Angry Birds, Ghostbusters and a whole lot more. Little ones aged five and up can come for the adventure, too, with light-hearted games featuring beloved characters from Paw Patrol and Shaun the Sheep. You can find Immersive Gamebox next door to Sea Life, with sessions running daily from 10am until 6pm on weekdays and 8pm on Friday and Saturday nights. 

If you’ve ever wanted to get seriously close to tigers (without there being a terrible ethical or safety problem in the way), this is your chance. Tiger Trek is an entertaining but also hugely educational experience that helps you make better supermarket choices to help protect the endangered Sumatran tiger's habitat. The Tiger Trek is included in your ticket to Taronga, so it's free to zoo attendees.

Squeeze the last out of Sydney's warm weather, with these family-friendly pools. There are delightful nooks in our most popular beaches and aquatic centres, with slides and dumping buckets to keep things exciting. Here's our pick of Sydney's best.

A cold breeze is brewing and Elsa is calling. There's icy fun on in Sydney this winter, so you can practice your ice-skating twirls, double axels and graceful tumbles. Click through for our guide to permanent ice-skating rinks as well as temporary pop-ups in Sydney and nearby.

Sydney's playgrounds are the perfect place to use up any pent-up energy. Let wriggly little ones run free at these parks and playgrounds that know how to entertain the real bosses of the household. Click through to see our top picks and find one you haven't been to before.

This little pocket of Alexandria is the perfect place to hide out on a rainy day. You’ve got 9 Degrees for indoor climbing, Hijinx Hotel for group challenges (more info below), Holey Moley mini golf, boozing for the grown-ups at Rocks Brewing Co – plus an arcade of retro games, bowling and laser tag at Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq. Inside, there are bowling lanes, an interactive 3D theatre ride (our pick of the whole venue), a laser tag zone for kids, the tightest dodgem track you’ll ever come across, and a whole lot of arcade games.

It's time for the imagination to run wild at the Botanic Gardens. The school holiday program is jam packed with visits from gardening pro Costa, whimsical garden tours, rain forest in a jar workshops, and First Nations water tours where you'll hear stories of how important waterflows were to the native Gadigal people and splash around. The program also extends from the Royal Botanic Garden right through to Australia's largest botanic garden at Mount Annan so you can have floral fun all over Sydney.  Book yourself and the little ones in for fun that is equally cultural and exciting as it is botanical. 

VR experiences are picking up steam in Sydney, and they're only getting cooler and more realistic as time goes by. Horizon of Khufu takes you back in time over 4000 years back to places that only pharaohs (and tomb raiders) dared go. The event is even approved by the NSW Department of Education so the kids won't even know that they're learning while they're gaming. The only other cities you can currently purchase tickets for this event are Montreal, London and Atlanta so don't miss out on this worldwide thrill.

The Fullerton is a hotel partly housed in what used to be the Sydney General Post Office (GPO), a heritage building that was built back in 1887. It was Sydney's first major development, and regarded as a building that would come to symbolise Sydney in the way the Houses of Parliament in Westminster represent London, and the Eiffel Tower, Paris. You can discover the rich history of the building and the Post Office on the 90-minute GPO Heritage Tour. Their resident guide will take you on a journey through time, sharing the tales and legends of the city’s iconic Grand Dame. Book here.

Swim in a giant cereal bowl ball pit, tip-toe around a floor of lava, or enter a neon polka dot universe or an old-timey carnival in this incredible challenge rooms 'hotel' where no two rooms are the same. You’ll have just four minutes in each room to earn as many points as you can – it's a fun, high-energy vibe for the whole family.

If the Art Gallery of NSW wasn't already on your radar for the school holidays (how could it not be?), you might want to put it on now. The gallery is a super kid-friendly space for exploring art and it's a great place to foster creative minds. These winter school holidays, kids can craft in the 2025 Hive Festival. Some other workshops for little hands include printmaking portraits and sketching botanicals.

Luna Park was already pretty magical, and then they went and launched ‘Dream Circus’, an enchanting $15 million immersive experience. A high-tech ‘Magic Box’ inside Luna Park’s existing 3,000 square metre Big Top building has custom-designed 360-degree projections, motion-activated LEDs and hologram technology. Tickets for the Dream Circus experience are on-sale over here. The hour-long experience is priced at $35 for children and $45 for adults. 

Want your kid to get benefit out of their screen time? Children aged 5-13 can develop valuable computer skills at a two- to three-day Code Camp. There are 121 Code Camp locations around Australia, though they can also join in online. Choose a camp based on their interests – there are themes such as Roblox Legends Camp (where they'll learn to code their own Roblox game), Drone Camp (program and code a drone), YouTube Creators camp (for budding content creators), and even a DJ Camp.

There are Holey Moley centres all over Sydney now, but one of the newest ones is right next door to the aforementioned Hijinx Hotel challenge room hotel, and the ever-popular Archie Bros Cirque Electriq. Holey Moley features 27 pun-tastic novelty putt-putt holes spread across three madcap courses. Good for kids and adults alike. 

Every school holidays, Leichhardt's creative haven Art Est hosts a whole bunch of creative workshops. Budding artists can get their hands busy learning the ropes of skills including illustration, painting, cartooning, mixed-media art and more with several one-to-two-hour workshops. Check out the program and make a booking here. This activity is eligible for Creative Kids Vouchers.

Sydney is home to some pretty fascinating museums – some that you may not have even heard about. Places where you can learn about nature, science, design, ships, time, military history, society, the police force and more. Rain or shine, head out on a journey of discovery at these all-weather-friendly houses of knowledge.

Bowling is a lark for all ages, and Strike Bowling has multiple venues throughout Sydney, inclduing the harbourside location at King Street Wharf, complete with a cocktail bar, three escape rooms and gourmet nibbles; the Entertainment Quarter location in Moore Park, as well as the Chatswood, North Ryde and Castle Towers bowling alleys.

If your child is a budding Mozart, the Sydney Youth Orchestra school holiday program could be just the place for them this break. They'll be led by some of Australia's finest conductors and musical tutors to develop their musical skills with an orchestral and band setting. Their final learnings will be showcased in a big concert at Sydney Conservatorium of Music on the final day of the program. Tune those instruments!

Taronga TV isn't a bad way to while away a gnarly weather day, when you don't feel like leaving home. Taronga TV features some live streams from animal enclosures, as well as behind-the-scenes 'sneak peeks’ and after-hours footage revealing what the keepers and animals get up to when the park is closed to the public.

Sydney Olympic Park has you covered with an action-packed program of autumn holiday activities. Their school holiday fortnight of fun is designed for kids of all ages and abilities. Choose from $22 archery sessions, beginner diving lessons and ball game clinics led by sports stars, or opt for the full experience with all-day recreational and aquatic camps. Plan ahead and book your spots before they sell out.

Pottery is so hot right now – and the best part is, you can get stuck into it as soon as your hand-eye coordination is good enough to grab some clay and roll it into sausages and snails. A bunch of local ceramics studios have adapted their businesses (with some kid-friendly offerings to boot) so you can make some muddy magic at home.

If you’re hoping to stay ‘Cool for the Summer’, then you’ll be happy to hear that Australia's first inflatable mobile waterpark is making its grand return to the Entertainment Quarter in January. You can dive into a world of aquatic adventures at Waterworld Central Sydney from January 6-31, 2025, with inflatable pools, a massive 80-metre waterslide, giant zorb balls and more. 

Whether you, your kids or your mates want to get out in Sydney to see the Christmas lights in 2024, we have you covered with our guide to all the best places Sydney Christmas lights, in the CBD, surrounding suburbs, and all the places just out of Sydneytown that do truly incredible festive light displays.