The Most Unusual Airbnbs In Sydney, Australia

This bush retreat is located on the doorstep of Sydney city but feels a world away from civilisation, nestled in between two towering gum trees overlooking a bucolic reserve brimming with wildlife. Available from $121 a night, this luxury private treehouse in Greenwich is a leafy 15-minute bush walk to the Sydney Harbour waterfront and just a five-kilometre commute to the inner-city.

Loads of Airbnbs in Sydney boast about their water views, but none — literally none — can offer the 360-degree vistas of Sydney Harbour that this luxury yacht does. For $219 a night, you’ll board the 46-foot ‘Europa’ — a hand-made Wauquiez Centurion C45S — before enjoying a tour of the iconic waterway then mooring for the night at Elizabeth Bay or Taronga Zoo.

This Airbnb looks like something J.R.R. Tolkien dreamed up to sit next door to Bilbo Baggins in Hobbiton, but it’s a very real property you can find in Bilpin in the Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney. The $1100-a-night Enchanted Cave is built onto a natural rock platform, featuring a fire, a spa and uninterrupted views of World Heritage Listed national park as far as the eye can see.

On the one hand, ‘The Little Black Shack’ is a very literal — and accurate — description of this Airbnb, but it doesn’t tell the full story. A more complete name would be ‘The lovingly restored Little Black Shack perched on the water’s edge at Pittwater’s stunning Mackerel Beach with the bucolic Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in the distance’. You can rent this gorgeous two-bedroom timber and sandstone fisherman’s cottage for $501 a night.

Okay, sure, this Airbnb isn’t quite in Sydney — it’s in Seal Rocks, three hours’ north of the city. But that’s exactly the charm of these Heritage Listed assistant lighthouse keepers’ cottages surrounded by the unspoiled greenery of the Myall Lakes National Park. Escape the hustle and bustle by shacking up in these beautifully restored 19th Century cottages sitting between the Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse and the beach for $390 a night.

Located above a working art studio in the trendy inner-west neighbourhood of Marrickville, this Airbnb is an airy space on the first floor of an old warehouse that began life as a bakery in 1985. The massive warehouse loft apartment is a bargain at $119 a night, and includes a turntable with a few hundred records from the 1970s and ’80s, as well as a veggie garden, chickens and a hammock in the backyard.

The rusted corrugated iron exterior doesn’t look like much from the outside, but this $300-a-night Airbnb is full of treats inside. The Shed has been crafted out of recycled and reclaimed materials — right down to the door handles and bathroom fittings — and is surrounded by permaculture gardens on a 160-acre farm in the bucolic Kangaroo Valley, south of Sydney.

Find 12 of your closest mates and pack them into this $1500-a-night property on the clifftops of Whale Beach on the Northern Beaches for the ultimate seaside getaway in Sydney. Keanu is an open-plan beach house with a huge heated pool and decks galore overlooking the water… talk about an entertainer’s delight.

Introducing the best Airbnb in Sydney, ranked the No.1 property in the entire city thanks to 400-plus glowing reviews. Hosts Vinh and Stuart were among the first Airbnbers in Sydney and nabbing a $77-a-night stay at their prized Pyrmont property isn’t easy — there’s even a code word hidden in their marathon website listing.

Welcome to a little slice of the Wild West in the Hunter Valley, a renowned wine-growing region two hours north of Sydney. Sleeping 10 at a price of $298 a night, Walkers Run — decorated with knick knacks that would look more at home in New Mexico than New South Wales — is situated on 30 acres of private property crawling with kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, goannas, birdlife and other native Australian animals.