Some of the best walks on the Northern Beaches start or end in Manly. Manly might be best known for its beautiful beaches, but it has more to offer than just coastal trails. You’ll also find Sydney’s best harbour walk, and a great bush track too.

We’ve hiked every trail in Manly and we’ll give you the low down on the best ones - as well as one to skip - and a few in the surrounding area.

Here are the best walks in Manly.

Manly Walks

Spit Bridge to Manly

Distance: 9.6km not inc side trails
Elevation: 283m
Difficulty: Moderate
Type of trail: One way

This is the most well known walk in Manly and for good reason. The Spit Bridge to Manly walk really is a fabulous trail from start to finish, it’s easily one of the best harbour walks in Sydney.

With incredible harbour views, pretty bush land, Aboriginal engravings and the chance to visit lots of secret beaches, which you’ll likely get all to yourself, it’s a hard one to beat. You can even stop for a coffee part way along the trail!

For a real treat we’d highly recommend taking the unmarked side track to Washaway Beach, one of Sydney’s best secluded beaches.

The Spit to Manly walk is one of the hillier harbour tracks and there are quite a few staircases to navigate. The path is well maintained throughout though, so most people won’t find it overly taxing.

You can walk it in either direction and it doesn’t really make a difference to difficulty. However, we usually finish in Manly because it’s a nicer end, with a ferry back to the city and the chance to stop at one of the many bars and cafes.

You can read our detailed track guide, including all possible side trails here.

Dee Why to Manly

Distance: 6.4km
Elevation: 100m
Difficulty: Easy (moderate via the low tide track)
Type of trail: One way

This is our second favourite Manly walk after the one from Spit Bridge. There are fabulous ocean views as you walk along the cliff tops, four incredible beaches and the chance to take an adventurous route to the Manly Wormhole if you’re walking at low tide.

It’s a really picturesque track with lots of pretty vegetation, including wildflowers in spring, as well as those great sea views and whale watching opportunities in season (May to October). As you near Curl Curl Beach there are lots of rocky platforms which make wonderful picnic spots, as well as great photo opportunities.

The trail has some stairs, but overall it’s pretty easy. The hardest bit is probably walking along the beaches because of the soft sand - but even that could be avoided by using the tracks that run behind the beaches if you prefer.

The low tide route is a bit more of a challenge as there is a lot of rock hopping - it’s similar to the last part of the Figure of 8 Pools walk but shorter. You’ll then arrive at the incredibly picturesque wormhole.

We’ve got all the details including the wormhole detour in this post.

Manly Dam Circuit

Distance: 8.3km (1km more than the sign says)
Elevation: 191m
Difficulty: Easy
Type of trail: Circuit

Yep, one of Sydney’s best bush walks is actually in Manly! Manly Dam has a number of walking trails, but by far the best is the circuit which takes in all the prettiest areas in the reserve.

As well as walking through some stunning and usually quiet bushland, you’ll also walk alongside the dam with great views and lots of birdlife.

There’s a waterfall, many picturesque overhangs and even a good chance of spotting wallabies if you’re walking early or later in the day.

The track is generally in good condition but the signposting is pretty poor, we’ve outlined all the places you might take a wrong turn in the post linked below. The trail does undulate in places with a few short climbs, but there is also a lot of flat track and it’s fairly easy overall.

Here’s our guide both to the circuit track and the rest of Manly Dam.

Manly to Shelly Beach

Distance: 3.2km
Elevation: Flat
Difficulty: Easy
Type of trail: Return

This is the easiest walk in Manly and extremely popular. If you’re walking on a weekend and are crowd averse we’d recommend starting very early! That being said it’s popular for a reason, it’s very scenic and paved the whole way so it’s suitable for everyone.

Manly to Shelly Beach - Best Manly Walks

The views of both Manly and Shelly Beaches are fabulous, as well as out to the ocean, where you’ll often see lots of snorkellers. If you are walking when it’s quiet there’s also a great chance of spotting the cute Eastern water dragons along the last part of the trail.

When you arrive at Shelly Beach you can stop for a coffee or lunch at the Boathouse Cafe, which is a little on the pricey side, but it does great food!

The trail is completely flat so it’s as relaxing as any Sydney walk gets!

Manly North Head

Distance: 9km
Elevation: 121m
Difficulty: Easy - Moderate
Type of trail: Circuit

The Manly North Head walk offers the chance to explore some of Sydney’s military history as well as amazing whale watching opportunities from multiple points along the trail.

You’ll walk along the cliff tops, through hanging swamps, past old military fortifications and along the Fairfax Loop with fabulous ocean and harbour views.

There are a couple of side tracks (to the Quarantine Station or Hole in the Wall) you can take to extend the walk, or you can shorten it slightly by taking a bus back to town, so it’s a great trail for however long you feel like hiking for.

There are a couple of climbs at the beginning of the walk, but then it’s predominantly flat after that, with the chance to stop at a cafe part way. It’s a very leisurely and relaxing track.

You can read all the details in our North Head trail guide.

Manly to Bondi

Distance: 80km
Difficulty: Moderate/hard (depending on how many days you choose to walk it in)
Type of trail: One way

If you want to see the best of Sydney’s harbour and beaches, as well as challenge yourself to a long distance walk, this is the one for you. You can walk the trail in one go, or do sections over a number of weekends, which is what we’ve done - although we want to do it all in one go at some point!

I know keen people who have walked it in just two days, but it’s typically walked in four, because it divides very nicely into four almost equal sections.

You can do each day using public transport, which is pretty much how you have to do it anyway as most sections don’t have an accommodation option.

The walk showcases the very best of the harbour, city and beaches and no part of the trail is difficult. In fact, the majority is easy, what makes it a challenge is the distance, as each day is fairly long at roughly 20km.

Every section has the option to stop for a dip and lunch along the way, so you can definitely make it feel like a holiday as you go and carry very little weight!

The signage is excellent now - something that wasn’t the case for individual legs of this walk before - so you can relax and enjoy the views without having to worry about route finding.

Manly Lagoon to Queenscliff - one to skip

We found this walk on the Northern Beaches Council website and it sounded pretty good, strolling along Manly Creek and Manly Lagoon. Unfortunately this is probably the worst walk in Sydney.

The first ten minutes are pretty nice, as you stroll alongside the lagoon and it’s all very pleasant and relaxing, but then you hit the road. And you walk alongside the road and then across a field for the entirety of the rest of the walk.

I am guessing that whoever wrote about this walk has never actually done it! We’d highly recommend skipping this one and opting for one of the walks close to Manly if you’ve already done all of our suggestions above!

Walks just outside of Manly

Seaforth Oval to Bluff Lookout Loop - 6km, 15 minutes drive from Manly

Distance: 6.3km
Elevation: 236m
Difficulty: Moderate
Type of trail: Circuit

This great loop track just outside Manly is a much less well known walk and one of the best walks in Garigal National Park. The circuit links up four tracks to form one fantastic bush walk.

Almost as soon as you set foot on the trail you are immersed in the forest and feel like you’ve truly got away from it all.

As well as some very pretty bush land you’ll pass picturesque overhangs, dense patches of mangroves and get some fabulous views of Bantry Bay from Bluff Lookout.

There are loads of great picnic spots along the way - our favourite being the rocky outcrop just below the offical Bluff Lookout - it has the same great views but there’s never anyone else there!

The track has a mixture of good well formed paths and some rougher sections where you have to climb up rocks (nothing too difficult though).

You can read more in our detailed track guide.

Long Reef Headland - 7.3km, 15 minutes from Manly

Distance: 6.1km as a circuit, 4.8km as a return walk
Elevation: 79m
Difficulty: Easy
Type of trail: Return or circuit

This gorgeous and easy walk has great coastal views the entire way.

Whilst you can make it a circuit, we recommend doing it as a return walk instead, as one half of the trail is much prettier than the other - we outline both versions in this post.

The walk takes you along the beautiful Dee Why and Long Reef Beaches before heading up the hill at Long Reef Headland for some truly spectacular views - and whale watching ops between May and October.

From the headland you can wander down to two additional beaches at Long Reef Aquatic Reserve, which hardly anyone ever does, so they feel like secret spots!

There are great views of Curl Curl and Manly from there.

We particularly love this walk in the late afternoon when the whole area is bathed in golden light and you can finish up walking along Dee Why Beach in the twilight.

Narrabeen Lagoon, Jamieson Park to Middle Creek - 11.5km, 25 minutes from Manly

Distance: 5.4km
Elevation: Flat (the entire loop of Narrabeen Lagoon is only 7m elevation)
Difficulty: Easy
Type of trail: Return

You can walk the entire circuit of Narrabeen Lagoon which is 8.6km, however plenty of it runs beside fairly busy roads, so we’ve chosen by far the most beautiful section instead.

From Jamieson Park to Middle Creek there are no roads, far less people and a whole lot of gorgeous scenery.

You’ll walk through forest, some of which feels really jungly. There are giant Cabbage tree palms and loads of ferns, giving it a fantastic wild feeling, which is so different from the rest of the Narrabeen Lagoon circuit.

You’ll cross picturesque bridges, as well as hug the shoreline of the lake for much of the way. It’s another walk we like doing in the late afternoon because you can watch the sunset from Pipeclay Point, which is always a real treat.

The path is in great condition, there’s no watching your feet needed, so you can truly relax and soak up the serenity of this part of the lake.

We’ve got more details in our guide to Narrabeen Lagoon, which also includes other things to do there besides walking.

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