Many beaches from around the world are well known, with just the name instantly bringing up images of blue waters, white sands, and hot sunny days.
However, a few beaches around the world bring this image up like Bondi Beach, which is located in Sydney, Australia, and has thoroughly confused many people about its popularity.
Bondi is known worldwide for many reasons, it was featured on television, offers world-class restaurants, and proximity to Sydney CBD, along with perfect sand quality makes it popular with a wide range of visitors. The weather at Bondi is close to ideal year-round for trips to the beach and surf.
Bondi beach pulls so many people because of its sheer size, beauty, and close location it has to Sydney, with the pool located on it just as famous as the beach itself.
The multitude of restaurants, picturesque scenery, and closeness to the capital city of Australia means that it gets a lot of media through movies and TV.
The last bit going for the beach is that it has a good mixture of waves and a calm ocean to allow for a large number of people to be on the beach at any time.
Understanding the entire story behind Bondi Beach is essential as all the things that have made it one of the best places to go to when visiting Australia.
With many natives seeing it as a tourist hotspot, many more loathed not being at the beach as much as possible.
Knowing as much about the beach will mean that you can safely enjoy it when you visit it, knowing more than even some locals.
What Makes it Famous?
Three things have created a large amount of love and infamy around Bondi Beach, festivals, water activities, and surfers have caused the beach to be trendy.
This is because these three on their own would make most beaches popular.
However, because the beach has all three, it has become almost a household name as people from around the world know about it.
The festivals that are held at, near, or on Bondi Beach easily number in the hundreds each year and this draws in crowds from around the world.
Just the three largest festivals, the Vans Bowl-A-Rama, the Festival of winds, and the Sculpture by sea festivals, are all massive and draw thousands of people from around the world.
This already makes the beach famous. However, in between these festivals, vacation goers enjoy much more.
The world-class snorkeling and the ocean water swimming pool that anyone can do at any time, along with the many hotels and restaurants that line the beach, draw people from around the world.
These are the things people would expect to find at several different beaches at a time; however, at Bondi Beach, you can experience almost everything you can do at a beach all in one location.
How Popular is Bondi Beach?
On average, Bondi Beach receives just over 2.5 million visitors per year, which is extremely large and enough for the suburb to rival the tourist rates of some small countries.
Overall, the beach is so famous because it is inevitably a free place to go and is extremely close to many tourist spots in Sydney.
However, it is even more popular if you are willing to spend some money as it has enough things to do to last a family several weeks.
This has made the beach a mainstay and one of the most popular places to visit when you are visiting Australia, with many tourists visiting in summer only going to stay at the beach.
As you get to know the country more and more, and the temperatures continue to rise you may find yourself not wanting to leave the beach at all.
Usually, those visiting the beach in the Australian summer quickly learn that staying in the cold ocean waters or the ocean-fed pool is the best place to be.
As otherwise, you may not be enjoying the vacation for long. All of this has driven the popularity of the beach more and more, as people flock towards it during the hottest Australian summer.
Where Did Bondi Get its Name?
As with many names in Australia that sound a bit odd to the English language, the name of Bondi Beach comes from the aboriginals that used to call the country home.
Between 1855 and 1877, the Bondi estate owners started working on making the beach available to the public but still made threats to stop access.
It was not until 1882 that the government stepped in and made it permanently accessible to the public.
The word Bondi means water breaking over rocks, sometimes interpreted as the noise of water breaking over rocks.
This name is quite befitting for the beach as there are many waves and even more rocks that are constantly making sounds.
The name has stuck since the beach was first used and has remained unchanged.
As the community around the beach started growing and becoming more and more, with hotels, people, and many more gathering at the place, the entire suburb was named after the beach.
The beach and suburbs are a part of Sydney and can be reached within 30 minutes drive from the city’s center.
What Makes Bondi Beach Special?
There are several things about the beach that people around the world have come to love, with many people that have not been to the beach aware of why it is so special.
However, as you visit the beach for the first time, it will help to know what to look out for, and where to go to get the most out of your visit.
This is because many people are overwhelmed when they first visit the beach, unsure about where to go or even really what to do.
Getting to know the beach, where to go, and what will allow you to enjoy the beach to its fullest is an integral part of understanding and enjoying Bondi Beach.
Size
Bondi beach stretches 1 kilometer along the shore, with most of this space being safe to swim in and even more being the perfect ocean to surf in.
Further, the beach stretches 100 meters from where the ocean starts and the sand stops, making it a location where thousands of people can relax without having to stress about finding a space to relax in.
This sheer size has drawn people because it means that they can be assured that there will be space to lie and sunbathe while also being assured that there will be space to swim in the ocean.
Finding locations like these can be rare, with most beaches worldwide being extremely mixed, with the average beach having more rocks and rough waves than anything else.
Closeness
Because the beach is so close to the city of Sydney, it is considered close and personal with the populace, which has further increased its popularity as the city has a dense population.
This means that naturally, there are a lot of people at the beach, and they are all spreading the word about the beach evermore.
Bondi Icebergs
Called one of the most photographed pools in the world, Bondi Icebergs is an ocean-fed pool that runs along a large part of the beach.
With fresh, cool saltwater flowing into it constantly without the danger of the large waves or other people being slammed against you while they are surfing.
One of the more important things to note about the pool is that it also offers easy access to hotels, restaurants, and leisure centers at the beach.
Final Thoughts on Bondi Beach
Bondi Beach has long been one of the most popular beaches in the world, with many beachgoers quickly learning that it is a great place to relax for the day.
If you are not in the mood for sunning and swimming, the beach offers many activities and the chance to join in some of Australia’s best festivals.
Whatever you do, be sure to put on enough sunscreen. No one wants to have memories of weeks of painful skin and burning baths.
