Hi Kurt32,

I am travelling to sydney in Oct and have done some survey.

My travel agent is telling me to explore Aquaruium, etc city options instead f the Blue Mountain tour which will consume my entire day.

Ill just summarise my trip for your clarification :

(Day 1)Oct 1 , 2007 : Arrive Sydney Airport at 2 PM. Checkin the hotel then the evening free

(Day 2)Oct2, 2007 : Sydney half day tour : 1. Pondi Beach

2. Harbour Drop

3. Macquire Museam

4. Opera House ( from outside only )

5. Rockslf day tour with specified itenary :

Evening show boat dinnar cruise

(Day 3 ) October 3, 2007 : Ful day available wither to go for Blue Mountain tour

You may also visit some other places within the city like Wildlife Park, Sydney Tower, Aquarium , revolving restaurant, matilda cruise over the other days. Just to alert to you that all of the above toours are extra chrgd and are easily acessible through Monorail as per my travel agent. The one or two days mono rail pass could be obtained

Vikky

hey thanks for sharing your iterinary. are you planning to hop to other places like melbourne, tasmania etc?

hi Kurt,

I'm not a Sydney expert - literally and figuratviely speaking - but I know exactly where you're coming from. Some others might urge you to stay in Sydney the whole 6 days but I agree with you that you can do the main 'must sees' in the 2-3 days (3 I think...esp. with a young child in tow).

Like you I'm not a beach person...so I'v never done the Bondi thing (who cares!?)...but spent my first time in SYdney which was 3 full days(not knowing if Id go back even though its only an hour away)...doing the sights....Bridge, Harbour, ferries, Manly, Zoo, Gardens, Macquaries Chair...lots of walking...& lots of eating. If you're out and about by 9am you can do heaps...rest for lunch or head back to your hotel for a breather...get out again early afternnoon....keep going til evening...dinner...maybe out again depending on the child.

I think the rest of your time would be best spent heading up to the Blue Mountains...hire a car to self drive for more flexibility. Another suggestion would be do to a Hawkesbury cruise if you like that sort of thing...only about 1 hour or less from Sydney (north)...you could potentially do this on route to BM (in the a.m.) and then have lunch b4 driving to the Mountains (slightly backtracking but worth it IMO).

Also don't discount heading off eslewhere altogether...like Melbourne!!!...only 1 hour flight.....worth the effort IMO :-)

The 2 cities are poles apart in every sense....Melbourne is oft overlooked but definately worth the journey South!

Hope you have a great trip regardless where you end up!

if you want to do the superficial tourist trail around sydney then 6 days is too much.

if u want to discover the real sydney then 6 days is not enough.

I would do 3 days in Sydney, 2 days Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves.

Hi Kurt32

I am travelling to Cairns and Goldcoast but due to shortage of time not going to Melbourne etc.

Cairns i guess offres good tours and Gold Coast for the beaches and night life

Which place in syddney do you plan to stay

Vikky

2-3 days for must sees in Sydney is good. Not sure what is on your list though with a 14 month old the following are good...

Taronga Zoo

Aquarium at Darling Harbour

Opera House

The Rocks

Lady Macquarie's Chair (a walk around the coast looking back at the city, Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Lovely spot to have a picnic lunch.

Ferry trip on the Harbour

For trips out of Sydney...

Blue Mountains in particular ...Leura

Wiseman's Ferry & St Albans

Hunter Valley if you like wine

Bowral

Lake Maquarie

Not sure if you have come across this website http://www.visitnsw.com.au It is a great one for looking at what to do in and around Sydney

im doing the superficial sydney thing :)

ill be there 3 nights

day one: going to manly beach then Home nightclub at night

day two: aquarium, opera house and sydney bridge

day three: blue mountains tour ( 8 hours)

i think Sydney looks a fantastic city but ive decided 3 days will be enough for me. i then go to the gold coast for a while (only like an hours flight away)

the flight to brisbane is also only an hour and a half. The australian zoo which Steve Irwin used to run is by there and was on my plans for a while. currumbin sanctuary is in the gold coast and you can hug a koala there

when i made my itinerary i looked at all the sightseeing stuff i wanted to see in sydney and then appropriated the amount of days required to do what i wanted

the trouble comes when you do it the other way around.

when youre given a set amount of time there (6 days) and then you have to try to find things to fill that amount of time. And you sometimes end up appropriating too much time for what is just a simple experience, just because you have to justify the amount of time youve found yourself staying in that one place.

if youre going to see the opera house, it is only a building. it can be done in two hours. if it only takes two hours then what are you going to do for the rest of the day?

make the most of every minute, and think outside the box. look at a map of australia, look at any nearby cities and then go onto qantas' website and see how long the flights are.

why spend a whole day doing something that can be done in 5 minutes when you could be flying somewhere else and doing something much more interesting

hi,

well, i guess ill disagree about flying off to another city, esp with a 14 month old..its not the flight time, that's the easy bit, its the 2 hours before and after getting to and from the airports the checking in and out of hotels etc..

there is plenty to do in and around Sydney to fill 6 days either hard and fast or slow and easy.

If you want to see iconic sightseeing places nearby to say you have seen Australia, it will not be possible, its sort of like asking to visit Washington State or maybe the Northwest US and see the whole of the US.

But what you can do is get a bit of a taster. As already mentioned the Hunter has a very nice wine region that showcases some of Australia's rural beauty (and great wine) . The Blue Mountains are a great day trip or overnight perhaps including Jenolan caves to have a destination for the day, and these give you an taste about the mountains(hills really) and the bush. Or you can head out to Watsons bay and walk along the cliffs down to bondi beach to get a pretty dramatic view of the sandstone and beach that makes up a huge amount of Australia's coastline. Up to the Hawksbury river just north of Sydney to do a cruise on a peaceful river.

Do what almost no tourist manages and visit Captain cooks landing place at Kurnell (on the southern side of Botany bay), which while it is not well promoted, well serviced and there is not a great amount to see, is one of the most important places in Modern Australian history, sort of like Plymouth rock without anyone around..

You can also do a bush safari in a 4WD bus from the city hotels to get a bit more into the aussie bush thing.

You can do organized bus tours to all these destinations or hire a car and do them on your own timetable..Watsons bay,the cliffs and the hawskbury cruise can be done on public transport, as can Kurnell (but just).

Then there is the wildlife attractions in and around Sydney like fetherdale, taronga zoo, whale watching etc.. which you may already have in your must do basket..

Something no one has mentioned is that you are here during school holidays...it is one of the busier ones as the weather is usually pretty good so you can make the most of Sydney Outdoors.

I hope you are not going to base your visit around things the14 month old will like because TBH they wont remember much if any of the trip and you may well pay a fortune for an attraction and find your little one more engrossed by the ants crawling across the ground than what you have paid for.

I would certainly take the little one to featherdale (don't be surprised tho if they are frightened of the kangaroos...many little ones think they are big dogs...). This is one of the more stroller friendly parks and can be done on the way to the blue Mountains if you drive (or if ona tour they do a flying visit)

The only other destination I would consider in the short time you have would be heading up to either the Gold Coast for a Seaworl visit (but IMHO the Aquarium at Darling Harbour is good for seeing the reef creatures).

In actual fact you have 5 nights....write off day one to a large extent as jet lag will be a killer. This would be a good day for the hop on hop off bus to get an orientation of what you want to see.

You could do a ferry ride up to Bicentennial park.

If you are going to fly anywhere then maybe you should consider the 3 hour flights of Uluru or cairns or IMHO the best option which would be heading off to melbourne.

In short you can find plenty to do for 6 days but it depends on what you want....