Come fly with me: Sydney shines

I checked into the Four Seasons Sydney rather late on a Sunday and on a day that had suddenly become cold and windy. Looking out of the full-length windows from this iconic building on to the Opera House ahead of me and Harbour Bridge to my left and with only the rest of the evening left to explore, I took up James, a new friend who runs a chauffeur company Get Chauffered, on his offer to whisk me around and show me the best of the city.

"I don't want to do the usual sightseeing," I told him, getting into the car. He knew that, of course. So I knew I would get a feel of the pulse of the city, not just the postcard-coming-to-life version.

Just as London is associated with Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and red buses, New York with Statue of Liberty and Empire State, Sydney, in much the same way, is synonymous with the two monumental structures, and grand though they certainly are, there is much, much more. As we headed from the sumptuous Four Seasons to the meandering streets of Darlinghurst, where charming leaf-ridden homes echoed European countryside yet reminded me of Notting Hill, and later the little boutiques in Double Bay (nicknamed Double Pay!), where homes were converted into boutique shops, looking like piccolo-perfect churches, I began to get a sense of what this "more" meant. I felt the gust of wind as we stepped out for a moment at Bondi Beach to watch powerful waves crash against the shore and then, within minutes, I was at the northern tip of South Head, catching a view of the city as the sun began to sink lower into the abyss below. A drive down Watsons Bay viewing the entrance into Sydney Harbour and passing striking million-dollar homes, we arrived at Camp Cove, protected by rocks on both sides, where I revelled in the rustling stillness, at odds with the wild waves of Bondi. A moment later I was passing through Rosebay with the Harbour on the right and the city lights twinkling through the trees in the distance, as we made our way back into the city.

And within this hour of daylight, a sunset and a few hours of evening, with dinner and gelato in Newtown (uncannily similar to London's Camden), I had found those gems scattered over the city for which I would return. Had it not been for James, I might have left with a somewhat lacklustre impression of this beautiful place.

— For more from Meera Ashish log on to www.meera-ashish.com