Our Trip
After the experience of a near miss with cyclone Yasi we finally arrived in Sydney right at the beginning of the worst heat wave in the history of the city. While we were there (7 days) it was over 100 degrees F most of those days. It was HOT!! I guess this trip was all about experiencing not only a different culture but extreme weather conditions, long flights and very expensive food as well.
We arrived in Sydney at around 9:00am and took the train to our hotel. We stayed at the Sydney Harbour Marriott, which was a short walk from the train station. Our hotel was located in the Circular Quay area of the city within walking distance of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House.
We loved our location as we could spend a week just walking everywhere if it wasn't so darn hot! When we checked in we were told our room was not ready so we tried to go for a walk around the hotel but only made it about 15 minutes before everyone was tired out. The last 24 hours were very tiring for the whole family so we opted to hang out in the hotel lobby until our room was ready, which happened to be four very long hours later. Once in our rooms we all took showers and a long nap and headed out for dinner.
Our first day in Sydney, to get our bearings, we decided to take the proverbial hop on hop off, open tour bus ride around town. Since we didn't rent a car, we wanted to see places like Bondi Beach, Darling Harbour and Kings Cross among others. We didn't hop off too often as it was over 100 degrees outside but we did see a lot of great areas and were glad we chose that as our first activity.
Sophie's birthday fell on our third day in Sydney. This year she informed us that for some odd reason, she was tired of always being on a "trip" somewhere exotic on her birthday which more times than not falls during Chinese New Year. I still have a hard time grasping this phenomenon, as I would love to go someplace awesome on my birthday every year. We told her she could do, see and eat anything she wanted in Sydney on this day. She chose to go to the Sydney Aquarium and have Italian for dinner. As it turns out this was the perfect way to spend her birthday.
We all had a fabulous time at the aquarium and afterwards ate lunch at Darling Harbour and walked around enjoying all the shops and seagulls. Afterwards we took the ferry back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
If it wasn't so hot at the time I think we would have gone to the zoo, did the Sydney Harbout bridge climb and maybe spent more time at Bondi beach taking surfing lessons. I'll have to make note of that for our next visit! We'd go back to Sydney in a heartbeat!
Fun Facts &Tips
In our travels food is always very important, therefore I'm placing this tip first on my list. When we travel outside of China, we're always on the look out for good pizza. Sydney did not disappoint. We ate at Zia Pina Pizzera three times during the 7 days in Sydney. This was by far our favorite, we could walk there from the hotel and the pizza was excellent. Zia Pina Pizzera is located in The Rocks, an area very close to Circular Quay (our hotel). This area also has excellent shopping and beautiful architecture. It's definitely worth a visit.
We took the ferry almost every day. There is really no need for taxi's if you're going to the major attractions. The ferries are easy, inexpensive and fun. When we were there every Sunday was family day so if you buy tickets once for the whole family, you could use the same tickets all day and go anywhere you'd like.
If you stay in Circular Quay, it's very easy and convenient to take the train from Sydney Airport to the hotel. It takes half the time and substantially less than a taxi. Take the City Circle Line and travel time is 18 minutes to Circular Quay. Our cost was $40.00. I think Sophie was free at the time.
I'd skip all the fancy cruises they try to sell you around the harbour. We found that by taking the ferry we saw everything the cruises had to offer without the extra cost.
Sydney Aquarium:
Located in Darling Harbour, we took the ferry from Circular Quay.
We liked the Great Barrier Reef exhibit and watching the sharks the best. Plan to go early and then have lunch in the harbour. There are plenty of things to do there that can take you through the day.
Blue Diamond Tours:Blue Diamond Tours is a family owned business that picked us up at our hotel for a day of touring the Blue Mountains (about an hour and a half drive west of Sydney). It's a little pricey but I think in the end worth it. The price includes lunch and the ferry ride on the way back to our hotel at sunset. Our group of about 12 people was great, and by the end of the day we all knew each other pretty well. Sean and Sophie (ages 9 and 11) were the only kids on the tour, which was fine except there is a lot of time spent on the road. But other than that they loved Scenic World, Featherdale Wildlife Park, and of course Echo Point where we enjoyed the best views of the Three Sisters mountain range. What we most appreciated about this tour was that our guides, Alena and Roberto were extremely flexible with the schedule depending on the weather at the time and made sure our group stayed ahead of the larger tour groups. Therefore, we waited in very few lines.
Welcome to Sydney, Australia
Sean and Sophie at overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Scott had pre-arranged with the Marriott to make reservations for us and have a cake delivered to the Italian restaurant near the hotel. After dinner the restaurant brought out her candle lit cake while the piano player sang Happy Birthday to her. She ended up having a great birthday in Sydney. How could you not??
Another day we got up early and took a bus tour to the Blue Mountains for the day. This was a long day but it was great to get up to the Mountains and enjoy some gorgeous scenery, fresh air and lots of fun things for the kids to do too. Their favorite part was probably the Featherdale Wildlife Park where they got to interact with kangaroos, wallabies, koalas amount others. We couldn't get them out of that park!
Our last full day in Sydney was spent at Watson's Bay, which is located on the eastern side of the harbor and is the entrance from the Tasman Sea into Sydney. A couple we'd met at Darling Harbor recommended it to us and it was definitely worth a trip. We took the ferry over from our hotel and the ride alone offered amazing views of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. Once we got to the bay, Scott, Sean and I had lunch at Doyle's restaurant while we watched Sophie hang with the locals in the bay. She had a great time in the sand and water. After lunch we took a little hike up to the Gap and then got too hot and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the park. I really liked Watson's Bay; it was casual, beautiful and full of outdoor things to do.
The day after we headed back to Shanghai which, thank goodness was uneventful! While we were in Sydney, we were lucky in that we didn't get any of the aftermath of cyclone Yasi (except maybe the 100+ degree temperatures!). We had a great time in Australia and would really like to spend more time exploring this amazing country. Our only regret was not being able to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. We'd love to go back and visit other areas but in order to do it right, you really need to allocate a lot of time as it's a huge country, much bigger than it looks on the map.
Sean and Sophie killing time in the Blue Mountains.
Check out the photo album.