A week in Sydney doesn’t do it justice…but let’s face it, that’s about the time most Americans will get when you consider the 15 hour flight each way to get there. This clean, modern, hip city has so much to offer – from a half-dozen bays and beaches, each with their own unique style, to museums and fantastic public art, to multicultural events, to amazing outdoor urban parks and open space, to bars and restaurants on every corner. You can see why a week flies by so quickly.
There’s tons of things to see in Sydney including beautiful parks, community spaces, and unique public art.
During our visit to Sydney we made the most of it by staying in an Airbnb in the neighborhood of Darlinghurst (it was our first time renting a private room…our usual go-to is private apartments all to ourselves.) It was about a 10 minute walk to the central Hyde Park so it was very easy for us to get straight into the city. There’s a metro Sydney Train stop at the park (Museum stop), which was also a perk. We often like to explore a new city by foot. And boy did we do that!
In 7 days we visited the following places: Hyde Park, Royal Botanical Gardens, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Barracks Museum, The Chinese Friendship Garden, Circular Quay, the Sydney Opera House, Kings Cross neighborhood, Bondi Beach, Manley (town and beach), The Rocks historical section of town, Darling Harbor and Darling Quarter, and we attended a free Chinese New Year cultural event and took a city tour on the Big Red Bus. Overall, we felt like we covered most of the city’s highlights, but we also know there’s certainly more that we didn’t see that will have to wait for next time.
With any new place, there’s bound to be a few surprises along the way. Here’s a list of 10 things we discovered about Sydney.
It is expensive!Â
Before our travels we lived in one of the most expensive places in America, the San Francisco Bay Area…so it takes a lot to catch us off guard. Sydney took us by surprise with its consistently high prices that rivaled San Francisco. At first we blamed it on being in tourist areas but we soon realized it was everywhere. If you are looking to visit, expect food, drinks, and transportation ($56 USD for a 20 minute taxi ride to the city!) to be on the high side. Or you can read my blog “Six Ways to Save Sightseeing in Sydney” to find ways to reduce costs while you’re there.
It is clean, feels safe, and is friendly (for a city)
Sydney Australia is one of the cleanest, safe-feeling cities we’ve visited.
Again, our reference is cities like San Francisco, New York, Portland, Los Angeles, all of which have some elements of bad neighborhoods, grime, and adhesiveness. Sydney had very little of this. We wandered through many neighborhoods during our visit and even the few that appeared to have a “run down” nature seemed to be relatively respectable and didn’t showcase thugs with attitudes. We were on foot all over the downtown part of the city and saw maybe five or six homeless people in the park (and we considered that a few of them might just be hung over, broke, sleeping backpackers). On the friendly side, we found most bartenders and servers to be nice although sometimes a bit stoic, which is similar to London (not surprising since British ties are still very strong throughout Australia). Two of the most friendly people we met were blue-collar workers that helped us through the train system…which is a continual reinforcement of our philosophy that the “regular folk” are always much nicer to be around in any culture
The building architecture is an attraction all on its own
Sydney offers a mix of modern and historical buildings side by side.
Sydney’s high-rise buildings are an amazing site to see. Somehow builders have managed to create not only functional offices, retail, and living spaces, but it is crazy to see how many buildings are actually works of art as well. One of our favorite areas was Darling Harbor where modern buildings dot the landscape all around the water. Some buildings have incorporated the original old warehouse architecture with modern and creative design additions. You could spend a whole day walking around checking out buildings and feel like you’ve visited an art gallery.
It has awesome parks and public spaces
All throughout Sydney is a wide array of parks and outdoor public use areas. As you wander around the city, you’ll come across places like Hyde Park, The Royal Botanical gardens, and Darling Quarter, all which offer outdoor areas with either open grassy stretches lined with trees, flowers, and lush plants, or urban squares with tons of seating areas and places to relax. You can spend a whole day with a blanket and picnic basket just soaking in the sun, people watching and napping.
The bay is not overbuilt
A view of Sydney from the Harbor. It’s a big city with a charming small town feel.
Although it is an urban city with high-rises at the central business district, somehow Sydney has managed to keep the feel of a community with moderately sized housing units all around the bay. What does this mean for you? It means a charming feel across the entire city. Especially when enjoying a ferry or boat ride. It’s not overwhelming like some big cities and creates a very approachable, warm feel.
People like to dress up for weekend nights out (and I mean really dress up)
It’s only fair to confess…me and my hubby aren’t the dress-up types. So wandering through the city streets at night we clearly felt a little out-of-place in our shorts and t-shirts as herds of beautiful people scurried to their favorite restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. This isn’t uncommon for a weekend night in a city. But what was unique was that it seemed to be everyone. Young, old, locals, tourists, everyone…even our Airbnb host! And it was everywhere. Nice restaurants, dive bars, clubs…you name it! Our advice, if you’re planning on a dinner or evening out in Sydney, bring something really nice to wear (if you don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb…like we did). Or make it back home before the evening begins 😉
It has tons of community and cultural events
Free cultural events are happening nearly every weekend in Sydney.
Sydney proudly declares itself one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world and celebrates it regularly with hundreds of cultural events each year. When we visited it was Chinese New Year and the city was putting on tons of free events in every neighborhood all month-long. Our advise, if you visit, be sure to research ahead of time to see what events are going on. It’s a fantastic way to really live like a local and be a part of Sydney’s fantastic community.
There are no late dinners (but there is drinking until 3 in the morning)
After a day of exploring the city it’s easy to lose track of time and end up at a restaurant a little late. But be forewarned…you wont find many restaurants serving meals past 9 or 10. Our Airbnb host mentioned that it isn’t customary for Australians to have big late dinners. And we found out the hard way after a late return our second night there. We stopped by four places and each had stopped serving food. However, they were still serving drinks. After asking about the nightlife, we found out from our Airbnb host that Central Sydney clubs generally admit people until about 1:30 in the morning, but they institute a sort of “lock down” until last call at around 3 am. We thought it was an interesting way to minimize DUIs. Either way, it’s good to know when food or drinks stop.
It feels young and chic
The famous Bondi Beach in Sydney showcases the “young” vibe of the city.
Between the finely dressed business people at happy hour, or the beautiful people “dressed up to the nines” going out on the town, or the older, amazingly fit and tan people at the local beaches, Sydney just feels young and chic. No matter what the age, people here seem to have found the fountain of youth but in a very approachable way. We were happy to be a part of it!
Even the crows have accents
Yep…it’s true! The crows here literally have a different squawk than the ones in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. And that’s not the only thing that’s a little different to get used to. Although we share the English language, our Australian cousins use certain words and phrases that are different. Garbage is rubbish. Bathrooms are toilets. Bell peppers are cruciferous. “I need that right away” is “I need that straight away”. “Top off” is the term for “fill up” or reload. “Give Way” on a road sign means yield. It was fantastic observing some of these differences…although it was a bit challenging at the grocery store self-check out when I was looking for bell peppers. Who would have thought it was a cruciferous??? That one stumped me!
