We loved visiting Sydney! But we didn’t love the cost of it. As a couple that lived in one of the most expensive places in the United States, the San Francisco Bay Area, my husband and I didn’t expect Sydney to be just as expensive, if not more! However, we discovered a few tricks to minimize the high cost of visiting this wonderful and delightful city.
Here’s our top six ways to save while exploring Sydney.
1. Happy hour. Happy hour. Happy hour!
The key to affordable eating and drinking in Sydney is Happy Hour.
This cannot be emphasized enough. Be strategic about your outing so that you end up with a late lunch or early dinner right at Happy Hour. We found most restaurants and bars offered half-price drinks, two-for-ones, and/or daily food specials from about 3 or 4 in the afternoon until about 6 or 7 at night. But make sure you do a little research, so you know ahead of time the hours. We recommend scouting out restaurants your first day out and noting their happy hour specials, or download a cool local guide phone app, The Happiest Hour (for Sydney and Melbourne venues) to get details. Be aware that some places take the term “Happy Hour” very literal and only offer specials for one hour, so know before you go.
2. Book an Airbnb or a backpacker/hostel
The view of Sydney from our Airbnb…only $70 per night!!!
This is one of our favorite ways to save on costs. We promise…we keep trying to book hotels…but they are usually more expensive, they don’t have as much space, and they don’t have kitchens (which is another key to saving money). We personally choose Airbnbs because the hostel crowd tends to be younger, and we are older. We also prefer our own private room rather than shared dorm-style rooms (which is where you can really save a bunch of money!) Plus, Airbnbs have a variety of options. You can get your own home or go with a cheaper studio with basic kitchenette amenities, which usually works just fine for cooking meals. Or you can get a room in someone’s home and get the perks of being a “roommate”. This generally means great spacious shared kitchens, living room areas and patios. During our stay in Sydney we had a private room in someone’s flat right in the heart of the city. Since our host worked a lot, we found that most of the time we had our own full kitchen, full living room, private bathroom, private room with balcony, and access to two other shared balconies with amazing views. All of this was at half the price of a private Airbnb apartment or standard hotel!
3. Book a place where you can prepare your own meals
The Norfolk in Surrey Hills makes fun of high drink prices.
This is a HUGE cost-saver! The reason is, you can go to the store and buy three meals including cocktails for the price of one lunch or dinner in a restaurant. It doesn’t mean you have to NEVER go out to dine…it just means you can reduce your costs by preparing your own “less important” meals and put the money towards going out to a few select restaurants you really want to experience. This is especially great if you are not a “foodie”. Plus, by shopping at the local grocery store you get to experience more of what it’s like to actually live there. And you get to interact more with the locals, which is one of our favorite aspects of travel. Some of our best exchanges with locals have happened while we were navigating through local grocery stores and markets.
4. Drink wine not beer
To save money in Sydney, drink wine!
I know this is a little biased coming from a wino…but it’s actually a cost saver! To go along with buying your own meals, when you buy your own alcoholic drinks, go for the wine over beer. We found Australian wines to be very good even at the $8-$10 bottle range. Beer on the other hand is outrageous at about double the price you pay in the United States. Trust us…to save money, pass on the beer when you’re “down under”!
5. Pick one or two excursions, but look for other low-cost or free activities
One of our favorite low-cost activities was a visit to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum.
So, you’ve always wanted to tour the Sydney Opera House…great! Pay the $40 AUD to go on the tour. Just decide ahead of time what is a “must see” and what is a “want to” see. Sure, this sounds like a bummer because it’s not as spontaneous as just randomly selecting a tour or excursion, but it’s truly a great way to save money and still do the activities you want. Sydney offers so many free community events that are wonderful, so you will definitely be able to fill your time with plenty of activities and sightseeing at a fraction of the cost. Some of the free or low-cost activities we experienced during our visit included: stopping by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Hyde Park Barracks Museum; exploring the historic “Rocks” section of town; taking a ferry to Manly Beach (using a metropolitan transit “Opal Card” it cost about $5 each way versus $60-$90 for a Harbor cruise); strolling through the entire Royal Botanical Gardens; relaxing at Hyde Park and dozens of other unique and fantastic public areas; and attending several free cultural activities throughout the city. Sydney is known as one of the most diverse and inclusive communities in the world and offers free cultural activities almost every weekend of the year…so go ahead and enjoy all they have to offer!
6. Skip the taxis and either walk or use public transit
Sydney’s Chinese Friendship Gardens is an inexpensive and beautiful site to visit.
We learned this lesson right from the start when we were exhausted from our 12-hour flight. We took a taxi into town paying $70 AUD for a 20-minute ride. Transportation costs can be extremely expensive here. But on the bright side, we found Sydney to be extremely walkable. Unlike cities like San Francisco that can be hilly, or New York that can be extremely crowded and confusing at times, Sydney is flat, has a sensible layout and is only really crowded in the shopping district (and you can easily go around this if needed). We highly, highly recommend you save your money and walk Sydney because much of its charm lies in the beautiful parks and the harbor area. Plus, Sydney is one of the cleanest, safe-feeling big cities we’ve ever experienced. As an added bonus, its modern art-like architecture is also best seen on foot. If walking is a problem, try one of Sydney’s pay-as-you-go bikes. These can be rented at one location and returned at hundreds of other locations throughout the city.
We used an “Opal Card” to take a $10 ferry ride to Manly Beach (one of our favorite places in Sydney!)
And finally, you can always use the Sydney Train to get around by subway. There are many options available to ride the train including using the Opal Card, which gives you access to all mass transportation in Sydney including ferries, metro trains, light rails, and buses using pre-paid, pre-loaded amounts. You can buy a card at many retail outlets or at transit stations. One thing to note, if you add money to the card online, it takes about an hour to post, so don’t try to do it as you are catching the ferry (like we did) or you might be unexpectedly delayed.
Have you visited Sydney and found other ways to save? If you’d like to share any suggestions, use the contact page to let us know.
