A two-hour drive south of Sydney in Macquarie Pass National Park, you'll find a hiking track scattered with waterfalls. Walk through the rainforest, eucalypts, Illawarra flame trees and ferns of Clover Hill trail to find a big waterfall and three smaller falls upstream.

If it weren't for the occasional passing ferry, swimmers at Collins Beach could easily be fooled into thinking they were in the middle of nowhere. It's one of Sydney's least-visited beaches despite being just 1.3-kilometres from the Manly Wharf. 

As far as watery day trips go, Wattamolla has everything — not only a waterfall but a lagoon and a beach to boot. It's a bit of an adventure to reach the seven-metre high waterfall, requiring a 50-metre swim from the lagoon's edge to start.

To reach Winifred Falls, you'll need to take the one-kilometre, occasionally steep Winifred Falls Fire Trail, which begins near Audley at Warumbul Road. This more difficult track might sound like a bit of an effort, but it's worth it. 

You'll find this misty, magical swimming hole in the Budderoo National Park, near Robertson in the Southern Highlands — about a two-hour drive from Sydney.