Visiting Sydney, Australia

[plainjane]

I'm going to be in Sydney for 4 days in March.

Right now the to-do list is:
- zoo
- aquarium
- do one of the coastal walks (e.g. from Bondi Beach)
- market on Saturday

We will not have a car.

We like to walk (nature or cities), see museums, galleries, bookstores, old architecture, neighbourhoods with stores highlighting local makers, and eat good food.  Alcohol is not of interest.

Any suggestions?

[pachnik]

I went to Sydney once a while ago and I loved the Botanical Gardens there.   It was really neat seeing birds of paradise in their natural habitat.

[Mrs. PoP]

We were in Sydney early April 2014, and the #1 thing I would recommend is bringing an umbrella/poncho and being prepared for rain.  We didn't and weren't and had to improvise. 

4 days isn't much time in Sydney, but...

The botanical garden is great and free to walk through on your way to/from various destinations like the opera house (definitely see this in person!) or Circular Quay.  Listening to the wild cockatoos in the garden was pretty awesome. 

We did the Taronga Zoo (with the ferry from Circular Quay).  It was expensive, but as a zoo lover it was worth every penny (including the additional ones we spent for a "koala encounter").

If you like art and museums, I would definitely recommend looking the Biennale (a large art exposition in various locations around the city), which is happening again this year, starting in March.  (Hopefully this coincides with your visit.)  We were there over the last Biennale and went to a few locations (which were either free or low cost) and it was great.  One I won't soon forget was taking a ferry out to Cockatoo Island (a former prison compound) to view installation art pieces in a very unique setting.  It was an amazing way to combine the location (a world heritage site), the rich history, and art all into a pretty awesome day for very low cost.  I gushed about it to Mr PoP for days and would have gone back to spend a second day but we ran out of time on our trip. 

Here's the link to this year's Cockatoo Island exhibit - https://www.biennaleofsydney.com.au/20bos/venues/cockatoo-island/ 

[marty998]

Northern part of the CBD and surrounds is best if you are staying in the city.

See if you can book a day trip to the Blue Mountains / Katoomba. Beautiful scenery.

[JLR]

Are you planning on going to Wildlife Sydney Zoo next to the aquarium at Darling Harbour, or to Taronga Zoo? I haven't been to Wildlife (I think we are going in April), but enjoy Taronga. There is also another aquarium over at Manly, but we prefer the Darling Harbour one.

We enjoy walking around the city. We've had fun in the past doing the Tank Stream multi geocache (GC1CR58), if you 'cache. :) Downstairs at the Post Office was my favourite segment of that cache.

For a nice, long walk around you could start in Hyde Park, enjoy the avenue of trees and check out the Australian Museum nearby ($15/adult). St Mary's Cathedral and Hyde Park Barracks are nearby. I like to head down Macquarie St and check out what is happening for free at the State Library of NSW. Either way, you could then do a nice walk through the Botanic Gardens, check out Mrs Macquarie's Chair, walk along the water around Farm Cove (read up on some of the early settlement history, and imagine it 230 years ago). Check out Government House (in the gardens), then head on to the Opera  House. Walk from the Opera House, past Circular Quay (looking out for the markings on the ground that note the 1788 shoreline). Walk from Circular Quay onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge (looking at a map, we seem to have accessed it via the stairs on Argyle Street, near the corner of Cumberland St.) It costs money to to the Bridge Climb across the arch of the bridge, but it is free to walk across the regular part of the bridge.

After crossing the bridge we like to take the underpass at Fitzroy St and make our way down Alfred St South, back towards the harbour. You get some beautiful views, and go past the North Sydney Pool, which is a bit famous as you can do laps with views of the bridge. You might enjoy continuing around to Luna Park and having a walk through. It is free to enter, but you pay for the rides, etc. Maybe get someone to take your pic inside the big mouth. :)

Then the Milson's Point wharf is nearby. We like to then take the ferry to Darling Harbour. This will bring you close to the aquarium and Wildlife Zoo. We like to walk past the Chinese Garden of Friendship (must go in one day), then make our way under the overpass, past the old entertainment centre site and towards Paddy's Markets at Haymarket. From Paddy's Markets we like to enter Dixon St (the view is better from this end of Dixon) and get Chinese food. :) Around here is known as Sydney's Chinatown.

From here you are only a few blocks from Central Station, to return to where ever you are staying. :)

[plainjane]

Thanks for the reminder about the Botanical Gardens.  They are definitely on the list.  We were thinking the Taronga Zoo.

Biennale wasn't on our radar at all, thank you for the link.

JLR - that sounds like a great day.  Do you have a favourite Dixon St restaurant?

[apdale]

If by chance you are scuba certified, we had a great time diving with Dive Centre Manly on some easy shore dives - and this was after diving at the GBR in Cairns.

Definitely look into the Blue Mountains, we took the public trains to get there.  No need to pay a tour company at all.  We stopped at Featherdale Wildlife Park on the way back from the Blue Mountains and enjoyed it, my wife has a Koala obsession and she got plenty of time to see the many koalas there.

Food can be pricey in the tourist areas, we found it worth our time to adventure out of the main tourist spots and found food for 1/3 the price, I believe we ate in the Newtown district and had some good food.

[JLR]

Our favourite place to go in Dixon St is actually a little bakery looking place. It is about the second shop in on the left from the Paddy's Markets end. They do pork buns, which are my husbands favourite. There is also something they sell through a little window on the outside - maybe like a freshly made doughnut ball? They seem to be really popular. There is often a long line up at night for them.

One night when we were there they had a food market, so had extra food stalls set up through the middle of the walk through area. This was great to sample lots of different things. But usually we just grab a bag of pork buns and wander around. :)

[FrugalUndercover]

The bakery place is Emperors Garden Bakery and the associated yum cha restaurant is the first place on the left, both are good - I would recommend the yum Cha if you were looking for somewhere to dine in.  The 'puffs' through the bakery window are inexpensive and delicious

[FrugalUndercover]

Btw I would definitely take a ferry from circular quay, they depart regularly and are part of the public transport system.  Easy way to get to tooronga zoo and will give fantastic views of the opera house and bridge from the water :)  from nights have a market on Dixon st in Chinatown with good street food / atmosphere, sat night often has fireworks at darling harbour