Sydney’s Top 10 Bike Trails
When I first started thinking about Sydney trails, my head was filled with thoughts of steep hills, cars and faded white pictures of bikes on green patches on the road. After a much exploring, I can now reveal that Sydney has some very good places to ride if you have the motivation to going exploring. These rides should get you pumping those tyres up.
Rides include Centennial, Iron Cove, Narrabeen, Olympic Park, Parramatta River. Cooks River, Prospect Reservoir, Brighton le Sands, Lane Cove, the M7 Cycleway and La Perouse
FOR LOOPS: CENTENNIAL PARK
Pedal into pure joy at Centennial Park! Over half a million happy riders a year can’t be wrong. Spin around the 4km ‘Grand Drive’ loop, where it’s blissfully flat, one-way, and mostly car-free. The best part? You rarely have to stop – a true Sydney cycling miracle! Want some hills? Head up towards the Paddington gates at the northern end.
Once you set your mind to riding at Centennial Park, it really isn’t that hard to work out what to do. You go around a few times and then you explore. If you have kids, they’ll love the kids’ track and playground at the park’s south end, and the car-free track at Queens Park.
This explorer’s ride, as shown in the RideWithGPS map, is a fantastic loop around the Centennial Park area, best ridden clockwise. It takes you past the racecourse and through the UNSW precinct towards Green Square and Zetland, then up the famous Bourke Street cycleway, before returning to the park via Fox Studios. Naturally you do this once you have done a few laps of Centennial Park.
Read more about Centennial and Moore Park here
NO ROADS – EASY: HEAD TO OLYMPIC PARK
Get ready to grin at Sydney Olympic Park! With 35km of fantastic, safe, double-lane trails, you’ll discover heaps of stunning scenery and cool spots.
Driving in? Parking’s a breeze, just aim to arrive before 11 am on sunny weekends if you want the pick of the spots. Even better, hop on a train! Rhodes Station is perfect for instant trail access, and Olympic Park Station works well too. Both have lifts for your bike! Just remember to skip peak hours; Sundays are super chill for bikes on trains. You can even arrive by ferry for an extra splash of fun!
Olympic Park – 35 kms of riding – no roads
This is the probably the best ride, it includes the three spiral mountains, some great bird spotting swamps, is all shared paths and it goes past both of the bicycle hire centers. Really it doesnt matter much where you go, all good.
Read all about the great riding at Olympic Park here or Garry post for overseas riders on average joe
FOR WHITE CRANES AND A GREAT BEACH: NARRABEEN LAGOON AND DEE WHY
Get ready for a delightful 23km ride around Narrabeen! This sunny adventure offers three fantastic sections: head north past the lagoon to the beach, enjoy a super popular and casual loop around Narrabeen Lake, or cruise east on a great shared trail to Dee Why Beach. With coffee stops, photo ops, and relaxed pedaling, it’s a blissful three-hour escape you’re sure to love!
Ride around this beautiful and lake and head to beaches to the north and south
This is a shared path only ride around Narrabeen. Free parking in the Cromer area, there are no trains to put your bike onto in this part of town.
Find out all about Narrabeen lake and Dee Why here
Can’t make it all the way to Narrabeen? No worries! Catch a ferry to Manly instead. If you’re driving with bikes on board, you can park around Seaforth. Either way, you’ll enjoy a fantastic ride mostly on cycle trails, heading down past the golf course to the northern end of Manly Beach, then tackling a climb up to North Head before returning
RIDE AROUND THE BAY AND UP THE CREEK: IRON COVE
Rise and shine for a fantastic 15km ride in the Iron Cove area! Hop on a train to Summer Hill or drive directly to Iron Cove. Get ready for flat, wide paths and loads of fun. It’s truly delightful, though it can get lively with runners and walkers (who call the 8km loop “the Bay Run”) on sunny weekend mornings after 8 am. For variety, you can venture into Callan Park and ride up Hawthorne Canal to Summer Hill, where the Green Way is set to open in Spring 2025! AND IT DID
Read about the Iron Cove trail, Callan Park and Hawthorne Canal here
TO CONNECT: COOKS RIVER
If you have any interest in exploring Sydney, you will ride the Cooks River trail more than once. It follows the drainage channel that turns into a big river all the way from Strathfield to Tempe where you come a junction in the trail. There is a slight drop all the way to water so catching a train to Strathfield to do it one way is a good plan. One thing in favour of this trail is that it is mostly under tree cover.
Here is the Strava ride of the path itself that ends at Mascot where it goes on road. The section at the airport is now on a fabulous path with a bridge on the other side of the canal. You will now miss it.
Here is the RideWithGps trace of the path that ends at Mascot where it goes on road. At airport, the path now is on the north side of the Alexandra Canal.
Take the train and ride down the Cooks River as explained here >>
And for more Olympic Park riding: PARRAMATTA TO RHODES
What a great ride this is! Catch a train to Rhodes Station, then travel across the railway bridge to the north side of the river at Meadowbank and follow the track all the way to Parramatta, a distance of 13 km. There are great cafes in Parramatta, and if you’re really keen you can ride around Parramatta Park as well. If you want to get on at the Parramatta end, get off at Westmead Station and roll down the hill to Parramatta Park.
Read all about the fantastic trail from Rhodes to Parramatta here
FOR CYCLING AND STEAMED VIETNAMESE BUNS: PROSPECT RESERVOIR, GUILDFORD AND CANLEY VALE
Fairfield and surrounding districts has many shared trails where bike riding is encouraged. Many of these are connected via train lines and Guildford station is a great place to start riding. The trail mentioned in this post travels from Guildford via the edge of Prospect Reservoir to Camsley Farm. Then it veers east and takes you down to Canley Vale for 26km of good riding. I explain the choices from there. Highlights include the historic Greystaynes Aquaduct, passing Lizard Log Park and riding continuously through the parks near Cecil Hills and Fairfield.
Guildford to Prospect Reservoir to Canley Vale
This great loop near the centre of our city starts in Guildford and passes through Canley Vale It is part of the Sydney 150 BikeTrail
FOR COASTAL AND BAYSIDE SCENERY AND NO ROADS: BOTANY BAY AND CRONULLA
This fantastic seaside track from Kyeemagh towards Cronulla offers over 15km of road-free riding, perfect for all skill levels – strong riders can tackle the whole thing, while others can explore sections to find their favourite bits. The area around Brighton-Le-Sands can be busy on weekends, but it soon thins out after Ramsgate; then, the stretch from Taren Point to Shark Park is particularly enjoyable with stunning bay scenery. It’s completely flat, making for an easy ride, and for a refreshing end, consider parking near a bayside pool for a post-ride dip in the ocean.
Here is a photo album from Kyeemagh to Shark Park and here is a photo album of Taren Point to Cronulla. Pretty nice eh !
We now have a new option in this area - The Muddy Creek extension
Read more about Botany Bay, Woolooware, Cronulla and Woronora here
RIDE A ROAD WITH NO CARS: LANE COVE NATIONAL PARK
Lane Cove National Park is a cyclists dream before 9am. No cars, wide smooth roads and great Aussie bush and water glimpses to ride through. After 9am, the traffic is just people driving into the park to enjoy some terrific Aussie bush, just like you. Read more about it here >>
This is one of the go around markers on the popular Greater Sydney Bike Trail
Using the CycleSydney map as a reference. your ride is the wiggly green line running through the park. It is 6km from one end to the other on a very smooth road.
FOR THE THIN WHEELERS THAT DON’T WANT TO DO ROADS : M7 CYCLEPATH
This 40km cyclepath that follows the monster M7 freeway is pretty unique in Sydney. You can ride almost the whole way without stopping. Its has proved to be very popular on this website and super popular with those that run thin wheels. It is a really cool to see so many cyclists out on this track every weekend.
If you stare into the CycleSydney map, you will find a long continuous purple line throught the Western Sydney Parklands. Look for small green squares with M7 captions. That is your super long M7 bike track.
Read all about the M7 and the paths of the Western Parklands that surround are in the area. Stations near the trail are Bella Vista Metro. Rooty Hill and Edmonson Park. If you can find the LEGEND on the CycleSydney map, you will be able to toggle on all the stations and wharfs that will accept bicycles across Sydney.
MALABAR AND LA PEROUSE
This actually is mostly roads but they are really wide. Its our favourite ride in the East because it is fun for us slower riders and it sure is scenic. Faster riders are always in this area and many divert from Anzac Parade at Malabar to follow the same path around to Little Bay.
A short video here and another below
Read more about the ride here with a map
Now that you have done a few of these great rides, take it up a notch and ride the 220km Greater Sydney BikeTrail
This guide really nails the practical details that actually matter when planning a ride. The tip about hitting Olympic Park before 11am on weekends is the kind of local knowledge that saves a lot of frustration. I've always thought Sydney's cycling infrastructure was patchy, but seeing these routes mapped out like this makes it look way more connected than I realized, especially the transitions between Cooks River and the other westren trails.