Shopping The Rocks

This is duty free heaven. Opals, merino fleeces, gold, aboriginal art and other things visitors think are quintessential Australian purchases. These are displayed here in beautiful cases and are supposedly sold cheap. Do all your duty free shopping here if you have your passport on you and that's your main priority, but you'll be missing out on the lovely old sandstone buildings and yet another almost flawless view of Sydney Harbour—if none of the big cruise ships are in the way. The loveliest buildings are made from big pale blocks laid down in the 19th century with sloping verandas. It's all been done up of course and over taken with shops tailored to the visitor, and even the old dock warehouses have been smartened up and are being used as upmarket restaurants of all things. It is because its closeness to the shipping terminal that's made the area so visitor focused but you can still get drunk in one of the local pubs—they almost all claim to be Sydney's oldest—and wander round the old terrace houses that run under the bridge.

On Sundays there's a covered market selling nice gift-y things. It's probably a bit over priced but the atmosphere is worth paying a bit extra for. A shop selling all kinds of beads, one selling candles of all shapes and sizes, several galleries, one with lots of highly breakable objects in it, and one of the best vintage clothes shops in Sydney add a bit of charm to the roster of duty-free shops dressed up like they're wool mills on the harbour.
Walk up from Circular Quay for some decent free entertainment, this is one of the prime positions for buskers in Sydney, check out some modern art in the Museum of Contemporary Art and eat an ice cream on the lawn watching the ferries leave the quay.