The Time Out Sydney team shared their very favourite hotels and stays from 2024 – a glorious list of the very best places we rested our heads in the year that was. Now, looking to the year ahead, we’ve put together our NSW travel bucket list for 2025 – the towns, villages and out-of-the-way islands in NSW that we’re dreaming of visiting in the next few months.
1. Seal Rocks
Melissa Woodley, Travel and News Editor
"I’ve had Seal Rocks on my NSW bucket list for almost a decade, and as a beach-loving road tripper, it’s pretty surprising I haven’t ticked it off yet. With swimming, kayaking, hiking and hopefully some seal-spotting on the agenda, I just know I’m going to love it there. Bonus points if I can find a cosy little beach cabin for the weekend."
2. Narooma
Rebecca Hegedus, Video Editor
"Narooma looks pretty and sounds like a vibe, plus the seals look cute."
3. Bermagui
Alice Ellis, Editor in Chief
"My family went to Bermagui for a bodyboarding trip without me while I was hard at work, and they said the beach, the nature, the people and the oysters were just beautiful. I got big FOMO."
Granite Belt, Tenterfield
Alex Johnston, Social Media Manager
"I've always been enticed by what winemakers are up to in this area. While you might not think of the place as having a cool climate, it sits nestled right in the great dividing ranges and it offers beautiful, untouched country charm among the hills (and offers some fantastic Italian-style reds that echo Piemonte)."
Mollymook
Avril Treasure, Food & Drink Editor
"I turned 30 this year, and it turns out the rumours are true: life just keeps getting better. Some of my girlfriends gifted me a pink surfboard, which is officially the Best Present Ever. I grew up surfing in Freshie, and can’t wait to hit the waves again this summer. My first stop? Mollymook on the South Coast. Or, to be specific, nearby Narrawallee Beach. Gin-clear rolling waves, here I come (and, likely, a few nosedives)."
Wagga Wagga (specifically for Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras)
Alannah Le Cross, Arts and Culture Editor
"It’s not unusual for me to make the trek back to Wagga Wagga, the regional NSW city in which I was born, about once a year. However, my OG hometown is at the top of my bucket list for one great big colourful reason: Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras. The Riverina’s celebration of LGBTQIA+ pride has been running since 2019, and I’ve somehow never lined up a trip (usually citing exhaustion from partying too hard at Sydney Mardi Gras a week earlier, honestly). But it warms my soppy, queer heart, knowing that every year my family gets dressed up in their sparkles for what my nephew emphatically refers to as 'the rainbow parade of love' on Wagga's main street. (I just hope my parents won’t charge me the Airbnb rate for their granny flat, haha…)"
Lord Howe Island
Winnie Stubbs, Lifestyle Writer
"When I was asked by Time Out Australia's Travel and News Editor to share the one place in the whole of Australia that I’m dreaming of visiting in 2025, I said Lord Howe Island – the UNESCO-listed subtropical island off the coast of Port Macquarie. I could list hundreds of other spots I’m keen to explore in NSW next year (I can’t wait to step back in time on my annual pilgrimage to the beautiful Shoalhaven region, and I’ll definitely be heading back to Byron via the Central Coast and Yamba), but Lord Howe isn’t budging from the top of my list."
You can keep an eye out for the Time Out Australia team’s bucket list destinations for 2025 (NSW-based and beyond) over here.
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