From gay clubs to designer duds

Noteworthy for: For one day each March, Sydney taxis are replaced by Dykes on Bikes as Oxford Street closes to (regular) traffic for the famous Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade.

Word to the wise: The newly-restored Paddington Reservoir Gardens on the corner of Oatley Road are a lovely place to relax after pounding the pavement.

Stretching from Hyde Park in the CBD to Bondi Junction, Oxford Street is one of the city's most popular thoroughfares. The western tip running through Darlinghurst is considered the city's premier gay and lesbian hub, but as you travel east towards Paddington, fashion boutiques begin to dominate.

Despite an increased colonisation of the fashion strip by high-street brands that has prompted higher-end designers including Belinda Seper and Collette Dinnigan to flee to the more exclusive suburbs of Double Bay and Woollahra, there's still some great offerings here, especially at 'the intersection' (cnr of Oxford Street and Glenmore Road) where labels including Scanlan & Theodore, Kirrily Johnston, Willow and Bassike hold court.