2024 has been a big year for Bondi. Back in January, the sparkly stretch of sand was crowned as the best beach in the world for people watching by Lonely Planet, and another survey from the online language learning marketplace Preply found that Bondi’s beachgoers are the worst behaved in Australia, according to residents. Now, a survey has awarded Bondi as the most Instagrammed location in the whole country.
The result came off the back of an analysis of Instagram hashtags for 25 popular locations across Australia by data analysers at NZCasinoClub – the hashtag #bondibeach was featured on 1.93 million Instagram posts, giving it the edge over our magnificent Sydney Opera House (whose hashtag was used on 1.05 million posts). Of course, this research is possibly more of an accurate reflection of the proclivity of 'grammers in certain locations to add hashtags to their posts than how "grammable" they are. (If we go off Tripadvisor data, the Opera House is still the number one tourist destination in Sydney, with Bondi Beach coming in a fair bit lower at number 12.) That said, the volumes of posts of Bondi Beach are clearly huge, and a reflection of how photogenic the place is.
Half of the top ten most Instagrammed locations were here in the Harbour City – the other Sydney spots that found their way onto the list of the most Instagrammable spots are: Sydney Harbour Bridge (Bridge Climb selfie, anyone?) which came in at number four with 683,400 posts; Darling Harbour, which came in at number five with 678,100 posts – and, a surprise entry of The Grounds of Alexandria, sitting at number nine above the gorgeous Whitsundays, with 120,300 posts.
Bondi is clearly Instagrammable thanks largely to its sparkling shores, but we’re willing to argue that a good proportion of posts feature the iconic Icebergs pool, some aesthetically-pleasing eats and a fair proportion of fitness inspo shots taken at the outdoor gyms dotted throughout the wellness mecca.
Keen to get amongst it? Here’s our guide to Bondi.