Creative Lunch Club is a global community for people working in the creative industries. Whether you are a graphic designer, a photographer, a marketer, or a filmmaker, the Creative Lunch Club gives you the chance to regularly meet other creatives in your city for lunch.

Paddington Markets have been running every Saturday in the grounds of the Uniting Church on Oxford Street since 1973, which makes them one of the longest-running designer markets in the country. The mix of emerging fashion designers, jewellers, ceramicists and vintage dealers makes them a reliable source for finding something you wouldn't find anywhere else.

The Carriageworks Farmers Market runs every Saturday morning from 8am to 1pm inside the dramatic heritage railway sheds in Eveleigh. It's one of Sydney's best-loved weekly rituals, drawing local producers, bakers and food makers, and it doubles as an informal social hub for the Inner West creative community who make it a regular start to the weekend.

The Commons Surry Hills puts you right in the middle of Sydney's creative heartland, with flexible hot desks, private offices and event spaces in a design-forward fitout. It's a solid spot if you're based in or around the inner city and want to be surrounded by people working in media, design and digital.

Fishburners is Australia's largest startup community and coworking hub, located above Wynyard Station in the Sydney CBD at the Sydney Startup Hub. It's more tech and founder-focused than a pure creative space, but the community events, mentorship programs and networking opportunities make it a solid option for freelancers and creatives working in digital, content or product.

Paramount House in Surry Hills offers day-use coworking inside a restored 1940s Paramount Pictures building, with high ceilings, timber beams, terrazzo tiles and indoor plants creating a space that feels nothing like a corporate office. It's part of the same precinct as the Paramount Coffee Project and Golden Age Cinema, so taking a proper lunch or catching a film between work sessions is very much on the cards.

Level One is a coworking space in Marrickville built by creatives, for creatives, sitting above the Timbermill warehouse on Shepherd Street. The 800-sqm space has a warm, handcrafted feel with bespoke wooden shelving, oversized mirrors, lush indoor greenery and a rope swing dangling from the ceiling, which pretty much tells you everything about the vibe.

The Commons Chippendale is a three-storey refurbished brick warehouse coworking space in the heart of one of Sydney's most creative precincts, five minutes from Central Station. It comes loaded with a professional photography studio with cyclorama wall, a podcast studio, a maker space, basketball court, yoga studio and a library, which makes it genuinely useful for creatives beyond just a desk and wifi.

Toby's Estate Coffee Roasters is part coffee shop, part roastery, with an island brew bar that puts you right next to the baristas and a glass wall straight in…Toby's Estate in Chippendale is part coffee shop, part roastery — with an island brew bar that puts you right next to the baristas and a glass wall straight into the roasting room. Recently crowned the world's best coffee shop by the World's 100 Best Coffee Shops list.

Golden Age Cinema and Bar in Surry Hills is Sydney's only underground cinema, a 56-seat boutique screening room built into a basement on Commonwealth Street. It shows art house films, festival favourites and classics that the multiplex chains won't touch, and the bar upstairs is properly good with a curated cocktail list and free live music on Saturday nights.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia sits on the edge of Sydney Harbour at Circular Quay and is the country's only public collection dedicated entirely to living artists. The permanent collection has over 4,500 works, with a strong emphasis on First Nations artists, and the revolving program of temporary exhibitions keeps it worth returning to.

Paramount Coffee Project sits at the base of the historic Paramount House in Surry Hills and has become a genuine institution for Sydney's creative class. The owners behind it are also responsible for Seven Seeds and Reuben Hills, so the coffee is taken seriously, and the all-day brunch menu hits the right notes without overcomplicating things.

Reuben Hills on Albion Street in Surry Hills is a working micro-roastery and cafe where the coffee is sourced directly from Central and South American farms the team has visited in person. The food menu takes its cues from the same regions, and the industrial-warehouse fitout with exposed brick and concrete has made it a perennial favourite with the creative crowd.

AP House in Surry Hills is a rooftop bakery-cafe known for its sourdough, inventive pastries and distinctive bakes that go well beyond the standard croissant. The elevated terrace setting makes it a good spot for a morning coffee or a slow brunch, and it has the kind of considered aesthetic that keeps it popular with the design set.

Carriageworks is a converted 19th-century railway workshop in Eveleigh, Redfern, that has become one of the most important arts and culture precincts in the country. The scale of the heritage ironwork and brick interiors is genuinely impressive, and across any given year the program touches performance, visual art, fashion, food, music and the beloved Saturday farmers market.

White Rabbit Gallery in Chippendale holds one of the world's most significant collections of 21st-century Chinese contemporary art, with over 3,000 works by more than 800 artists. It's free to visit, runs two major exhibitions a year and is housed in a beautifully converted building. Even if you're not normally into gallery-hopping, this one is genuinely worth your time.

MakerSpace and Co is a not-for-profit public makerspace operating out of an 800-sqm multilevel facility on Gerald Street in Marrickville. The disciplines covered include woodworking, metalworking, digital fabrication, ceramics, printmaking and textiles, and you can access it through a weekly membership or by signing up for one of their courses. It's one of those places that makes you want to actually make things with your hands again.

Wendy's Secret Garden in Lavender Bay is a community garden created over more than 20 years on a strip of disused railway land by the late artist Wendy Whiteley. It's an unusual mix of winding paths, flowering plants, sculptural elements and enormous fig trees right on the harbour foreshore, and it has a quiet, other-worldly quality that makes it one of the most distinctive spots in Sydney.