The Best Ways to Get Out and Enjoy Sydney This Month

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It's a brand new year, filled with the promise of new albums, new restaurant openings, new regrettable fashion trends. We're only a few days into 2015, so we thought it was high time you delved into some unchartered territory; harbour pools you may have never visited (or since you had water wings), shops you've never perused, films you've never been moved by, meals you've never demolished.

Let's swim, play and eat our way through, with a little retail therapy at the close. Just remember to be a total legend and whack on some sunscreen and a hat before you head out; check out Pretty Shady for their (free) go-to skin savers.

SWIM: WYLIE'S

You mightn't have visited Wylie's since you thought Sea Shirts were cool, but this little gem is worth a nostalgic revisit to kick off the new year. Just south of Coogee Beach along the coastal walk, Wylie's Baths boasts a straight-up picturesque canopy and solid kiosk elevated above the pool — one of Sydney's most beautiful spots to obliterate a Golden Gaytime. While it's pretty packed on weekends with families, the crowd gets a lot more diverse mid-week, and Sydney's senior sunbathing ladies might be happy to assist you with your knitting pattern. Just be sure to bring along your ol' friend SPF30+ and your best Schoolboy Q-style bucket hat; that Australian sun can be fierce on the coast. Check out Pretty Shady for their (free) go-to skin savers.

Neptune St, Coogee

PLAY: ST GEORGE OPENAIR CINEMA

Seven premieres, thirteen previews and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’s 21st birthday are all part of the 2015 St. George OpenAir Cinema programme. Australia’s most legendary tour bus will celebrate her coming-of-age with a special Australia Day screening. And you’re invited to kit-up for the occasion, with the most outrageous tiaras, wigs, feather boas and heels you can lay your hands on. All in all, 42 films will screen between January 7 and February 21. Tickets are currently on sale and tend to go pretty quickly, so get on it. For a full rundown of the program, head over here.

Janurary 7 - February 21, Mrs Macquarie's Point, Sydney.

EAT/DRINK: FINO PAR

Located on the ground floor of TFE’s Vibe Hotel in that Surry Hills-slash-CBD area south of Hyde Park, Fino Par already wins on decor. What used to be a garish lime-green and bright orange concoction called Curve Cafe is now a wide-opened, street-fronting, dark and semi-industrial diner designed by The Gentry. Hiding inside tan leather, the tapas-focused menu, according to Chilean-born, executive chef Nelson Burgos (Foley Lane, Mamasita), is a combination of Spanish, Chilean and locally sourced produce. The man behind the booze is ex-Hello Sailor Brett Harris, who’s created a 100 percent Spanish wine list plus cocktails to boot, regularly centring around Spanish sherry and house, barrel-aged sangria. Read our full review here.

Cnr Elizabeth & Goulburn St, Sydney.

SHOP: THE SOCIAL OUTFIT

Where else can you get recycled vintage Ken Done fabrics and help out Australia's new migrants? Philanthropist and CEO of The Social Outfit Jackie Ruddock is giving you a very good reason to bust out those credit cards: her social enterprise employs and trains migrants in producing fashion with a contemporary Australian aesthetic. Nothing is by accident, down to the Newtown shop fit-out, designed entirely by Nina Maya, a Sydney designer who also contributed to Colour Chameleon, The Social Outfit’s first line, made up of donated digital prints from the likes of Dragstar and Ken Done. Read more here.

353 King Street, Newtown.

Check out Pretty Shady for more summer tips and ideas on how to beat that dastardly sun at its own game.

By the Concrete Playground team.

Top image: Gemma Stiles via photopin cc.