Sydney's Best Ice Skating Rinks to Spin Around This Winter

While Australian winters can get pretty chilly, we’re not often blessed with really fun cold weather (much to our disappointment). We don’t really get snow — or any of the fun activities that it encourages. Thankfully, the Winterlight wonderland in Parramatta’s Prince Alfred Square‚ back for a ninth year in 2019, is aiming to right this grievous wrong. From Friday, July 5, you can delve into the kind of winters you see in movies.

The festival has all the icy activities you could ever want to try — from zooming down a slick ice slide to gliding gracefully across an ice pond (otherwise known as ice skating). A turn about the rink will cost $24 (including skate hire), but after you ease your tired feet back into normal shoes and try to remember how to walk, the real fun begins.

Winterlight will be decked out with a delicious range of market stalls serving up belly-warming winter treats. Parramatta’s Live and Local musicians will provide the soundtrack while you eat and, once you’ve suitably warmed yourself back up, you can enjoy the amusement rides (including a ferris wheel), circus skills workshops and the interactive neon art installation.

Sydney winters mightn’t be known for their ice and snow; however, that doesn’t mean you can’t slide across a frozen surface in the centre of the city. From June 28 to July 21, St Mary’s Cathedral forecourt will become a winter wonderland thanks to the return of the Skating At Sydney Festival.

With the event back for another year, all of the frosty fabulousness Sydneysiders know and love will return to the CBD. It’s the next best thing to heading to Europe when it’s oh-so-cool, just without the bone-chilling, teeth-chattering cold.

The lineup of events includes not only regular ice skating, but a ‘date and skate’ night each Tuesday, plus a 90s and 00s-themed evening every Thursday from 5pm, which will see you skating to disco and R&B bangers. Both nights will feature $10 espresso martinis. Entry to the area is free, but you’ll have to pay for all of the fun stuff, with the fest open from 10am–9pm Monday to Wednesday, 10am–10pm on Thursday to Sundays.

Grab your woollies and get ready to celebrate all things chilly at the Bathurst Winter Festival. The two-week event celebrates the magic of the colder months — just because it’s winter doesn’t mean you can’t get out and have a fun time. Located three hours’ drive northwest of Sydney, the city of Bathurst will light up in a blaze of colour as interactive light installations project onto the town’s historic architecture. Rug up and head along to the Winter Playground, where you can get your Nancy Kerrigan on at the ice-skating rink for $12.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy riding the giant ferris wheel, too, and that’s only five dollars a pop. Held on the first and second Saturday, there will also be two all-day festival highlights. The first, Ignite the Night, will kick off the festival with local tunes, brews and light shows scattered around the village. The second, Brew and Bite, features heaps of food trucks offering gourmet food, along with lots of warm drinks, including the all-essential mulled wine and cider. Spread across the town, much of the festival is free — making it a good excuse to get out of town for a weekend this winter.

As the winter chill takes over Sydney’s lower north shore, you have two choices: you can achieve hermit status by staying at home, or you can make the most of a cold situation and head down to Luna Park Sydney’s Winterfest. Running from Friday, July 5 to Monday, July 22, the amusement park will be offering a bevvy of food and wintry activities to suit all visitors, with an ice-skating rink as the star of the show. On Friday and Saturday nights, Luna Park will stay open until 10pm making it a top date night destination. Surprise your partner with some laps around the rink before dinner at carousel-inspired diner The Hungry Horse or upmarket restaurant The Deck. Follow up with a romantic Ferris wheel ride, then warm up at a number of pop-up stalls — last year, they served Baileys hot chocolate, caramel pretzels and gooey s’mores. The rink is free with an unlimited ride pass ($53). For a nighttime date, the Twilight Saver ticket ($37 per person) will sort you out, giving you access to everything — including all the rides and ice-skating — after 6pm.

Image: Oliver Minnett

In Sydney, the water doesn’t freeze over in winter — except in Bondi. The suburb’s beachside ice skating rink will pop up again for three weeks this year, giving you the chance to glide over ice as you watch surfers ride waves in the ocean. The rink will be set up at Bondi Beach Pavilion from Friday, June 28 to Sunday, July 21. Skate sessions will start on the hour each hour from 10am till 9pm. Each turn on the ice and skate hire will cost $22 for adults — and, if you’ve got kids in-tow, $12 for toddlers, $18 for kids and $69 for the whole fam. For those who need to brush-up on their skating skills, there’ll be classes Saturdays at 9am — they cost $29 and include entry into the following 10am session. Less of a skater and more of a watcher? There’ll be ice show performances on Saturdays at 5.45pm and ice hockey demonstrations on Sundays