If you want to plan an exciting day trip in Sydney with kids, make sure to include a ferry ride. Then figure out which stops would make a good addition to your day, and you’re done. Moreover, public transport is very affordable on the weekend. So what are you waiting for? (I know, packing for day trips can be so exhausting. But you won’t regret the effort, I promise.)
Let’s take the Parramatta Rivercat and explore the Cabarita Wharf stop as a fun day trip. I hadn’t initially planned it as a day trip, but we found so many things to do once we got off the ferry at Cabarita that it ended up filling our whole day.
Getting to Cabarita: take the ferry
The best way to get to Cabarita is taking the scenic Parramatta Rivercat, a public ferry ride that takes you upstream from the deep blue waters of Sydney Harbour to the Parramatta River. You can either start at Circular Quay or Barangaroo, or from the other side: Parramatta, Sydney Olympic Park or Meadowbank are all convenient stops. This is the F3 ferry line.
We either take the train to Meadowbank, then walk to the ferry from the train station, or ride the ferry from the CBD: Circular Quay or Barangaroo. The latter is a longer ride. Either way, it’s best to leave your car at home, so you won’t have a headache about finding parking (and paying for it), you can simply enjoy the beautiful ferry ride.
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The best things to do at Cabarita with kids
Cabarita Wharf is a great base for a fun day with kids. It’s hard to define which Sydney suburb this is: Inner West, or Western Sydney? Either way, the area is not too well-known and boasts brand new family-friendly facilities.
Let’s see our favorite things to do:
Swim or have a picnic at Cabarita Beach
The wharf is at the edge of Cabarita Park, which has a small beach, a large playground and lots of green space.
Cabarita Beach is on the Parramatta River, it has gentle waves, and it’s the closest swimmable beach to Parramatta. The sand is mixed with pebbles and shells, and even though it’s not among the typical beauties of Sydney when it comes to beaches, it’s a lovely addition to a warm day spent in the area. If you get lucky you can even see seals or dolphins in the water.
Shady picnic benches are right behind the beach, and the beach itself has some natural shade, as well.
Don’t forget to bring buckets and spades, or a set of construction vehicles. The presence of so many broken shells make this beach even more exciting to my son who loves to carry all the pebbles and shells with his little dump trucks and loaders.
Go to the riverside swimming pool
If you don’t feel comfortable swimming at Cabarita Beach, no worries. The Cabarita Swimming Center has a shaded toddler pool that looks out over Parramatta River, and there’s a grassy area right next to the pool.
For older swimmers there’s a 0.5 – 1 meter deep leisure pool and an Olympic pool. All pools are outdoor salt water pools, but they’re heated throughout the summer season (from September to April) to 27°C.
Enjoy the Cabarita Park playground
There’s another mandatory stop in Cabarita Park once you’re done with the beach and/or the swimming pool: the fabulous playground!
With salt and rubber under their feet and shade clothes over their heads, kids can safely enjoy this spacious, recently rebuilt playground. The tall wooden house in the center is the first thing you’ll likely notice, and it has a long slide, fire poles and stairs to climb.
The climbing mound with its in-laid double slide and climbing net offers challenges to younger kids, but older ones enjoy running or biking up and down, as well. Primary school age kids will also appreciate the large climbing net dome, with hammock type seats.
The Pentagon swing set has two baby swings and three belt swings, and no, they won’t collide, but they almost do, and kids never cease to get bored with them. The colorful bucket merry go round is cute and a hit for kinds of any age. Then there’s a see-saw and a twirling twister. And lovely patches of sand, in case you didn’t play enough at the beach.
The different play equipments are well-separated from each other, so both younger and older kids can have fun without disturbing each other (that’s not a guarantee though, but the design of the playground makes it a possibility 😀 ).
Kids can ride their bike or scooter around the playground on the outside path. A toilet block and a rotunda is near the playground. Though it’s not fenced, the road is not right by the playground.
The Cabarita Park playground is not the biggest adventure playground, but it has a lot to offer for kids of any age, and it’s a delightful addition to a ferry trip to Cabarita.
Bike around Cabarita Park
You find quite a number of paths for the kids to ride their bikes or scooters on inside Cabarita Park, and large grassy areas are suitable for outdoor play and family picnic. Views at the Parramatta River shoreline are especially lovely.
Walk to Breakfast Point
But if you’d explore further, a scenic paved walkway runs from Cabarita Park to Breakfast Point, and further to Wangal Reserve. It’s easy and flat (and pram-friendly), far from the road (except for a short section just before Wangal Reserve at the end, but even those are quite residential streets) and runs along the water, fringed by palms and native shrubs. Rainbow lorikeets like feeding on the sweet nectar of the blooming shrubs in spring!
Breakfast Point offers distant views of Sydney downtown and the Harbour. It’s a pleasant walk, and the Wangal Reserve with its playground is a tempting destination for kids.
Explore the Wangal Reserve
Wangal Reserve is a lovely waterfront park with pleasant walkways and a small beach, but the highlight for kids will be the playground. Actually, I really appreciate this playground, too, as it’s one of the best nature themed playgrounds we’ve ever found in Sydney. And believe me, we’ve visited quite a number of playgrounds with my son since we moved here.
The Wangal Reserve playground consists of several spacious areas, partly shaded by trees and directly by the water (but there’s a fence!). The different play areas are so well-separated that you won’t even notice some of them at first.
Older kids will love the huge tunnel slide with its cool climbing structures and tunnel bridge, young ones will be obsessed with the timber boat which has its own play area. There are different types of swings (baby swing, belt swings, saucer swing, accessible swing), a spinner, musical features and a water park with tiny dams, water pumps and channels that everyone will love!
An obstacle course is made of logs and ropes, and at the tip of the reserve and away from the rest of the play equipment, you find a fabulous flying fox (if you’re looking for it).
Parents are treated with Parramatta River views and shady benches. Good luck to tempt your kids to walk back to Cabarita Park to take the ferry back home. But since the waterfront walkway is pram-friendly, our walks back often looked something like this: a tired toddler eating in the pram while mum was pushing it and taking in the views. No complaints.
130 ideas to get your family outside, no matter the season or the weather:
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