Sydney Australia
 

In about a month will be heading down to Sydney for a little vacation for myself and to visit a friend.

I was wondering has anyone here on RS been to Sydney before? Any tips on things to do down there? And which hostel is good/cheap to stay at for at least 2-4 weeks!

I can't offer too much insight since I was only in Sydney for 3 days back in 2010. The best advice I can offer you is bring double the amount of money you would usually spend if you were in an American/Canadian city (a 12oz regular drip coffee at Starbucks was 4.50 AUD, CocaCola at 7/11 was on special 4.00 for two cans, a BBQ duck at a shitty hole-in-wall chinese restaurant was close to 40.00 AUD)

A few places I went to:

Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge
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Katoomba Scenic World
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Three Sisters Rock Formation
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3700/1...84d4e3cc_b.jpg

Bondi Beach
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3802/1...66db2a91_b.jpg

I've stayed at a handful of hostels in Sydney. There wasn't one that I particularly liked and never went back to the same one. It all comes down to cost and location. Even hostels are very pricey, and they are even more so especially during their summer months.

If you want to stay at King's Cross, I would avoid Asylum as it was pretty grimy (but one of the cheapest ones).

Chinatown is pretty close to the CBD and has tons of hostels there. Of the ones I stayed there, I would probably recommend Base Hostel as it was generally clean and it's good if you like to party (there's a bar right next door). You can get a better rate if you pay by the week. On the contrary if you want quiet, then I'd suggest Big Hostel and it's just as clean.

Other than the things already mentioned above, I'd recommend checking out Manly Beach and Hunter Valley (day trip).

Expect your mind to be blown at how expensive normal things cost. Airport transfers cost you $15-16 one way (and it's only 8 km to their city centre). A bottle of water at a convenience store is 4$, but you can buy a bottle of wine for $6. Soft cones at McD's are only $0.30.

I am currently living in Sydney right now for school, I can definitely agree that the price is double from back home. Some additional things I can add to check out would be the fireworks at darling harbour every saturday at 830pm which is free and pretty nice, check out the taronga zoo, and the bondi to coogee walk.

I'm planning on going to Sydney next year and I'm wondering when is the best time to visit in terms of weather and price of the tickets. I'd rather not go when it's 30 degrees cause it's way too hot for me. Are tickets cheaper around September time or when are they cheaper usually?

Everything said in Post 2 is what I was going to say :)

Have fun, I've been there plenty of times. It is more expensive than Vancouver though. Our summer is their winter, and vice versa.

Darling Harbour is one of my favorite places.

Well if you decide to go, the weather should be around spring. It's gonna start getting warm, it gets warm real quick and in summer it goes up to around 35 or so. September would be cheap since school will be starting for most people so it should be counted as an off peak time. Just go when everyone has school or work, and things will be cheaper.