What have you done or want to do in Sydney? My son has fallen in love with an Australian woman and moving to Sydney. My DH and I will be visiting in about 3 weeks for 10-11 days. We’ll be staying near downtown and have our Airbnb booked. We like to hike and kayak. I love to bike. I plan to visit the Blue Mountains, go to the opera house, spend time around the harbor, go on a walk to the beach, go on a whale watch tour, hang with DS and get to know his girlfriend…Anything that you have done which is a “must” or is on your bucket list for Sydney? Any excursions will need to be a day or two as DS and his girlfriend will hopefully have gainful employment then and of course the purpose of the trip is to spend time with them. It will be winter and think snorkeling at the Great Barrier is out of the question.
Dinner in Chinatown, a walk through the Darling Harbour area, and shopping in The Rocks are nice additions to consider. Go on a harbor boat tour. Enjoy your visit!
The Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb?
There is a wonderful hike to Bondi Beach.
http://short-walks.com.au/new-south-wales/sydney/bondi-to-bronte-walk/
http://bonditocoogeewalk.com.au/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/bondi-to-coogee-walk-coogee-beach
We took a bus to get to Bronte. It’s along the cliffs and was not too difficult. Did it in August and the weather was fine – sunny but not too hot. +1 on a harbor cruise as a way to familiarize yourself with the area.
Royal Botanic Gardens near the Opera House. If you are staying near the Rocks, sunrise yields some glorious shots of the Opera House.
DH went to the Blue Mountains for the day – took a regular bus, not a tour.
Probably not on your agenda, but we LOVED Tasmania. Exceeded all my expectations.
Second on the walk from Bondi to Coogee beach. Brother lives in Coogee, and I think we walked south of Coogee. There are wonderful coastal walks all around Sydney. I especially liked the area around Manley as well.
The Chinese market was good shopping.
The bridge climb looks fun but pricey! Maybe a flight to Melbourne instead. It looks like we can spend some time entertaining ourselves on the coastal hikes.
Your list looks great. We took a train to the Blue Mountains - Leura? - and hooked up with a bus there and had a great hike. The next day the train station there was snowed in, that was in October.
Melbourne is a great idea - it is so totally different, more European, and we wished we had spent more time there. But then we were visiting a country, not our family.
Just south of Wollongong there is an area called Kiama which looks just gorgeous, I’ve only seen pictures and explored via Google earth but I want to go. There’s a trail along the water and a blowhole - at least if conditions are right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiama_Blowhole
Go on a wine tour. I tried bubbly red wine for the first time.
Doing the bridge climb is the biggest thing I didn’t do that I wish I had. Couldn’t tell you the name of the restaurant but ate dinner across from Opera House with glass walls. Spectacular view.
Our S went on the bridge climb with his marching band. I believe he enjoyed it and they got a special group rate. There may be other options for the bridge climb possibly with other companies. It may have been one of the things that started his later love of rock climbing.