Sydney (Australia) > Reviews (46)

This is a city that if you want fun you can have it , but there is also a few things you need to be careful about.
First of all lets start at the beginning the airport.
The airport is fairly spacious and easy to get around and well signed posted and plenty of disabled friendly places. There is a food court that has a good range of food ranging from chinese to macdonalds and a number of bars to get a drink. However these are expensive so try to wait if you can.
Try to avoid getting a taxi as they are very good at working out if your not local and will add an extra few miles to your journey. there is however two other alternatives if you are going to bondi there is a bus which will take you and a lot cheaper, or there is always the train. You can get a train to central station which is in the city and you can get a train elsewhere if need be. the draw backs are the bus does go the long way around and the trains are like any other trains, suffers from delays and even cancelations.
Places to stay.
There are plenty of options to stay from backpacker hostels to five star hotels.
Backpacker hostels are are very cheap and will cost upto 10 to 20 dollars per night whoch is about 7 or 8 pounds a night. the pluses to this are ok but for me there are lot of downsides and personally not for me. You are staying with about 6 people in the same room in bunkbeds which means your privacy is non existent, also not sure how safe your stuff is.
There are private hotels where you can stay for about 100 to 200 dollars they will make your breakfast and evening meal, or hotels where you stay for about 40 to fifty dollars anight this is ok and clean and the food is better quality, but not very good for the budget.
Things to do.
The great thing about Sydney is there is loads to do if you like shopping there are fantastic places to shop you have the QVB(QUEEN VICTORIA BUILDING), the town hall shopping complex, you also have centre point tower . check out grace brothers and the david jones stores. if you do not mind there is parramatta shopping mall which is the biggest in the southern hemisphere.
But if you are budget aware you could also shop at paddys market this is cheap where you can buy brand names at cheap prices, however please be careful as not all is genuine.
Beaches.
Most people tend to go to the famous bondi and this is good but it does get crowded, but other great beaches are bronte,coogee,whale beach and palm beach. All these beaches have areas to have bbqs so just take some "snags" for a good old aussie bbq. one thing it is now against the law to smoke on the beaches in New South Wales.
About sharks most beaches have lifeguards and also shark nets to keep these out, however most sharks will not attack, but experts believe they sometimes ,mistake surfers for seals. In the ten years I was there not once did I see or hear ofanyone being attacked in the sydney area. So please just enjoy your day and stay within the flagged areas and you will be fine.
If you are interested in the country areas there are three great fantastic national parks which I recommend, just one hour from sydney you will see what fantastic country Australia, these are Kurrangai, blue mountains and the Royal National parks or if you fancy a weekend somewhere else, there Batemans bay has a number of caravan parks this is beautiful place.

this is down the coast.
You could try jumpimg on a train from central station to Windsor this is very australian town but some gret pubs and scenery.
There is also close to Canberra a place called Queenbeyean this not a place for children as this place is famous for smoking pot openly but if you are still longing for the sixties hippy movement this is the place.
I f you are into motor racing check out bath there is lots of events including the the famous bath24 again I think just motoring dans will really enjoy this place.
Nights out.
Sydney is full of places to go out there is cinemas for the latest films, or along either king st or george street there a lot of pubs or night clubs, or just go for a walk to the rocks for a traditional English pint I usually go there When I have a craving for Bass bitter and there are English puds like the Lord Nelson.
I have missed a lot of places so here is a quick run down,
manly beach, woywoy, Sydney aquairium, the rocks market,opera house, circular quay,darling harbour, olympic stadium, the sydney cricket ground, cetennial park the bicentennial park.
It would be wrong If did not tell where not to go.
Kings cross this has a red light district and strong drugs culture so please try to avoid idf you have children. For you safety the following places should be avoided, as with most cities there are rough areas. they are
Redfearn, waterloo, cabramatta alexandra,
Finally I just want to say I love Sydney but hope I have told you things to watch for I have only tipped the iceberg of things to do so check out tourist information, but if you have familly I highly reccomend this place. Sydney is now americanised but there are still pockets of old England, so whatever you want sydney has it, but just do not go to anywhere you not sure about.
Just one last thing enjoy your holiday and please let me know how you found sydney.