SYDNEY TRAVEL TIPS: 13 Things to Know Before You Go

13 things to know before you go to sydney australia i'm chris this is yellow productions and i do videos to help you travel intelligently comfortably and affordably and in this video i'm going to be giving you some tips on how to get into sydney how to get around what to eat what to do where to stay and even when to come all right let's get right into it the first things to know is just some general information about sydney sydney is located on the southeastern coast of australia it's the capital of new south wales sydney is considered one of the most diverse cities in the world with more than 40 percent of the population here originally hailing from outside australia while sydney originally started life as a british prison colony it's now most well known for its amazing harbor magnificent beaches delicious cuisine all wrapped up in a modern city with classic british roots that remains distinctly australian all these things combined makes sydney one of the world's most popular tourist destinations the second thing to know is just a little bit of information to help you get oriented around sydney life in sydney revolves around the harbor and sydney is often nicknamed the harbor city now the downtown area is known as the central business district and really a lot of the major attractions you'll be interested in as a visitor of sydney are in the central business district there's the city center which is the part that has all the high-rise buildings but just next to the city center over to the west is the rocks this is the colonial start and this is where the bay bridge is and some of the city's oldest bars this area where i'm standing right now this is darling harbor darling harbor is also home to the wildlife zoo madame tussauds the maritime museum the sydney international convention center and of course a really neat ferris wheel right over there to the west of darling harbor is city west is home to sydney's fish markets many more maritime themed spots and sydney's major casino the star casino to the south is city south you'll find hay market chinatown the central station area with lots of markets cafes chinese culture and some cheaper accommodation and shopping in this neighborhood now over to the east you'll find kings cross woolamalou and moore park you'll find busy nightlifes coffee shops fashion and entertainment by day and of course sydney is also famous for its beaches there's over 100 of them here but i'll talk more about sydney's beaches in section number six the third thing to know is how to get into sydney if you're flying in then chances are you'll be landing at sydney international airport it is 10 kilometers to the south of the city center there's about 40 airlines that fly into there qantas is the major carrier that flies into sydney airport a couple ways to get into the city there's certainly buses there's certainly taxis but i think the best way if you're staying in the central business district is to take the train it takes like 15 minutes from the airport into the city center that's what i did today cost you 19 australian dollars if it's a few of you maybe take a taxi or an uber because you could save some money but if it's just one do the train pretty solid fast and efficient now if you're already in australia you could take a train into sydney's central train station which happens to be close to chinatown if you come from melbourne in the south it'll take you 11 and a half hours from brisbane in the north it'll take you 13 hours you can even take a train from perth on the west coast that's gonna take you four days and if you need to stow your bag someplace sydney central station has a convenient baggage storage area where you can store large suitcases for 15 dollars for same day pickup or 24 for next day pickup another option if you really don't have all that much money you can take a bus into sydney right below the central train station is the sydney coach terminal where you'd arrive if you're taking a long distance bus like greyhound if you're coming in by cruise ship you'll be coming into one of two cruise ship piers here in sydney one is the white bay cruise terminal it's about six kilometers away from the city center or this pier which is the overseas passenger terminal it is right at circular key so if you're picking between cruises and you see that one of them docks at the overseas passengers terminal that's the better one now the fourth thing to know is about getting around sydney and i mentioned the harbor city so the coolest way to get around sydney is on the harbor there are tons of ferries that'll take you almost anywhere you want to go on the harbor right now i'm on one of the ferries in darling harbor but the city's hub of fairies is a circular key over by the opera house from there you can take ferries to the taronga zoo across the way to manly beach and all the way down to the olympic park and you you can almost treat these public ferries as a sightseeing cruise and one of the neat things is in addition to you know buying tickets you get these rechargeable opal cards to go on but you don't even need that you can actually just use if you have a credit card a visa or mastercard that has the tap feature you can use those to tap on and tap off any of the fairies which also works on the trains that we're going to talk about here next one of the coolest fairy routes for sightseeing is definitely the one that goes from darling harbor to circle key or vice versa it takes 15 minutes it takes you underneath the sydney harbour ridge it takes you by the opera house so if you're short on time this one takes you by the big attractions and only costs a few australian dollars the sydney also has a pretty good rail transit network as a visitor you'll probably be most interested in the city circle loop it's a train that basically runs in a circle around the central business district you'll also find some useful light rail services as well with your opal card you can tap on and tap off or again with your visa mastercard tap on tap off that's what i do here now if you're taking the light rail because it's just kind of open here there's no gates where you tap in and tap off or at these readers right at the side of the station remember to tap off so it knows how much to charge you to there are three light rail lines l2 and 3 go from central up to circular key and then l1 will bring you over to the star casino and the fish market of course my favorite way to get around sydney is to walk and what's kind of cool if you're walking is there are all these signs around sydney that tell you where you are and where things are tell you how to get to central station tell you how to get to the capitol theater in the age of google maps this is still really convenient to know that you're on the right path by the way when you're walking in sydney make sure you look both ways before you cross the street they even have some things in the crosswalk often to remind you it'll say like look left look right just look both ways because cars might be coming from the wrong direction rather than where you expect if you're used to cars driving on the right sydney has a pretty good bus network particularly useful if you're going down to bondi beach you could also ride bikes around sydney it's a really bikable sydney if you didn't bring a bike most people don't there's plenty of bike share bikes strewn around i've seen a lot of the lift bikes hanging out around the city you could rent a car but not really going to be useful for the city center parking is expensive hard really only useful if you're going around the suburbs or going between cities but if you do rent a car please don't speed they use tons of speed cameras here not just like ones at a point in time but they also average your speed over a distance so drive the speed limit if you are renting a car please i found taxis and ride share to be plenty full in sydney but i did find uber sometimes forcing me to come to dedicated pickup and drop-off zones pluto in bondi beach is pick up and drop off that's a new one to me now the fifth thing to know is about what to eat and sydney has an amazing international food scene but in particular sydney is super well known for breakfast and brunch options it seems like you find a pancake restaurant on about every corner the other thing sydney is really known for is it's chinatown sydney has the largest chinatown in all of australia and really it's an asia town of all sorts of asian cuisine but my favorite asian cuisine in sydney is malaysian cuisine particularly at this place mamak they specialize in roti this is basically like a pulled flatbread and i've also got some me goring thank you very much that's delicious noodles right here a spicy noodle this place is super busy so make sure you come right when they open otherwise you're gonna be waiting a long time and make sure you get the malaysian tea this is the tea tarek it has a frothy top it's sweet and hot and delicious but this roti you can see them making it out in the window it's the roti that everybody's here for and on the dish here it comes with a double lentil fish curry and some chili sambal some spicy chili i got a couple extra those to take back home delicious let's dive into the meatball ring right here it just came out of the kitchen it's hot [Music] the noodles are just the right amount of kind of spongy and chewy and it definitely has a good kick to it okay i decided to say this outside because it was a little too loud in there and you can see here making the roti in the background so for dessert i got the sendal which was super delicious it looks kind of weird these are noodles made of pandan leaves which makes them green served with coconut milk and ice and it's just really good but i want to point out ordering in sydney restaurants including this one there's a qr code on the table and so you need your cell phone to be able to order there if you don't have a cell phone they do take orders up at the cash register you tell them your table number and then they bring the food out but this is something i'm seeing more and more often is the pay ahead and then get your food and it's kind of nice because then you can leave right at the end and you're not trying to look for a bill and you know taking 10 more minutes to leave so i like that trend another really excellent malaysian spot in sydney is hojak they've got two locations this one's in chinatown and i came here for the laksa laksa is a malaysian soup that's spicy with a coconut base and two types of noodles egg noodles and rice noodles two types of meat chicken and shrimp and this one quite delicious for dessert i topped it off with the tea tedrek affigato ice cream which has that little coffee thing on the side you pour it on you eat it for a little bit while the ice cream is hard and then you drink it and of course to wash it all down i didn't have enough iced malaysian tea so i got an ice malaysian tea anyway this is another super solid malaysian spot in sydney now if the lines of mamak and hojak are too long another really solid malaysian spot it's called malay malay just on the back side of paddy's market this place is open late it's open until midnight every day they specialize in hainanese chicken which is super popular in malaysia and singapore even though it's a chinese dish but chicken with some dipping sauces really quite tasty and they've also got roti too the roti here was served with kind of a saute peanuty sauce sydney is known for its fresh seafood and right now i'm at the sydney fish market this is the 32 seafood platter from the fish market cafe here at sydney's fish market what do we got in here we got some fried fish we got some baby octopus we've got some oysters we've got some calamari over here all served on a bed of i'd call them french fries but they would call them chips um super delicious this place in addition having some of the freshest seafood around they also do seafood auctions you can get in there to see it like they do tours at like 6 40 in the morning i did not do one of those it'll cost you extra to do that and you can just take a look at all the raw seafood and live things they have on sale it's definitely worth the visit here even if you don't like seafood now in sydney's central business district they've got a lot of really neat food courts one of my favorite is in the gateway office building it's right across from circular quay what do i like here they have din tai fung soup dumplings in a food court i've never had din tai fung in a food court i say it's my favorite heroes i've eaten a gazillion times i've eaten din tai fung a gazillion times but these little soup dumplings mmm they're really good they're really flavorful and i've never been able to get them to go quickly it's like kind of place you have to wait for hours here you can just order from like a kiosk and then they call your food in like five minutes and they've got little soybean drinks that i was drinking right here i've got one of their pork belly buns you can get this just an order of one for about five australian dollars crispy sweet delicious and also really unique this food court dentai fung has rice dishes where you can get a few small bites and some of din tai fung's delicious fried rice now for a really unique food court like experience that's just focused on asian food head over to spice alley this place is about three blocks south of sydney's central station and it is kind of like a singaporean hawker center here you're going to find all asian food you will find hainan chicken you'll find malaysian food indonesian food ramen it is super delicious it's outdoors though so make sure you come here on a good weather day because if you're here on a rainy day kind of like this one then you'll have to be just under the few tents that they have sydney is a city of some really tasty pastries and for some of the best and probably most expensive head over to coit dessert bar this is about three blocks from spice alley and two of their most popular one is passion fruit one is kind of brownie nutella flavor what is a man to do and presented with two best options the answer is get both see what i do for you the two of these cost 30 australian dollars total not each not cheap but they were super delicious and definitely satisfied my mid-afternoon sweet tooth let's talk about coffee for a moment some could say sydney ciders consider their coffee a religion and actually i found the source for that religion the ministry of coffee but the coffee in sydney is cappuccino it's really good i don't like coffee a lot of places because it's often bitter hard to drink but it's just smooth they have a super great coffee culture here and it's all espresso based drinks so if you like coffee you're gonna love sydney check out some of the local small chains you won't find many starbucks here which is probably a good thing now if you're looking for some classic australian food head no further than harry's cafe do wheels this place is sydney's first food truck it's been here since 1945 what are they famous for they are famous for their tiger pie this is a beef meat pie with mashed potatoes mushy cheese and gravy and for 15.90 australian dollars you get it with fries and a soda so let's go ahead and dive into this meat pie with gravy right here i gotta cut it open by the way it's a food truck so there's only a few stools right on the side of the road they've got a few other locations in sydney but you'll want to come here to the original in willamaloo super cool because it's the only neighborhood that has eight o's in it they're good it's flavorful there it is you can see the beef inside and lots of famous people have eaten here from pamela anderson to colonel sanders the sixth thing to know is about nightlife and if you're looking for some place to party and get your drink on then the cheapest place to do that where people party late is kings cross station of the same name you can take to get here the biggest icon here is the coca-cola billboard right there at the major intersection now some other great places for nightlife in sydney is just in the city center central business district and also in the rocks there are some great pubs there as well now you'll find many of the pubs actually have hotel in their name because in days of old in sydney you had to offer accommodation in order to sell alcoholic drinks now sydney has some interesting things related to when bars and pubs close when they stop serving alcohol so they need to close at 3am but they don't let in any new customers after 1 30 in the morning so lockout lock in you're locked in or you're locked out so don't expect to bar hop after 1 30 in the morning oh and if you're more in a day drinking the nightlife the opera bar is the place to go for that more about that and things to do the seventh thing to know is about the beaches in sydney and sydney has over 100 beaches there are a lot of them as a visitor i think the coolest beach you could visit is this beach manly beach why well because you can get here with a ferry from the central business district from circular quay the ferry takes 30 minutes it brings you to manly wharf and then just a three block walk brings you here to manly beach this really big crescent-shaped beach waves coming in here popular for surfing along that main shopping street you'll find all the big surf brands rip curl quick silver oakley lots of restaurants to eat lots of bars to drink at just kind of a cool vibe here in manly if you prefer swimming there is another beach actually right by the manly wharf that's netted in so you can swim in there safe from all the ocean creatures that might be trying to get you here in these australian waters now if you don't really want to get in the water but you just want to enjoy the nature the great news is that there's some really great coastal walks both at manly and at bondi now if you come to manly right as you get to manly wharf there's an information kiosk you can pick up this map and it has all these routes that are all these neat coastal routes so if you like walking you'll like these routes but just remember keep left just like they drive to the left when you're walking here you're gonna keep to the left as well but sydney's most popular and iconic beach by far is this beach bondi beach this beach in the summer is packed wall-to-wall people today it's the winter so it's not that busy but something that makes this beach really cool is this swimming pool right down here this is the bondi icebergs club and it's a public swimming pool you can pay nine dollars to go in protected from the waves you would not want to swim out there on a day like today but you can swim right in here and actually there are people swimming in there today if you didn't bring a towel that's okay you can rent a towel for just four dollars but there's actually more protected pools like this all up and down the sydney coast there's about 40 of them in total amongst all of the sydney beaches coming to bondi beach you can take the bus to get here from circular key the 380 or the 333 takes about 45 minutes to get here or you could take an uber that's what i did 25 minutes and about 25 australian dollars from the city center to bondi beach and you know what even in the winter this is a pretty neat place to come i i really wish i brought my swimsuit to go in that swimming pool now if you're looking for the best spot to get a selfie with the beach it's actually going to be just up above from the icebergs club actually there's this manufactured lookout right here that's got a bench on it and even a shade sail doesn't protect you from the rain but will protect you from the sun in the summer now if you're not into getting in the water good news there's a great coastal walk here too this one has an awesome map you can see all of the different bathrooms it's 15 minutes to get down here to cloverley beach and you can even go even further down to coogee beach the eighth thing you should know is about shopping and in sydney there is a lot of great shopping i think shopping is maybe one of the number one pastimes of visitors to sydney and it's not just that the shops themselves are cool but the places where you shop are really cool this is the strand arcade built in 1891 and it is just a truly amazing place now the heart of shopping in sydney is on george street which is in fact where this strand arcade is george street is the kind of pedestrian street that has the light rail that runs from circular key to central station you'll find most of that section has a lot of good shopping though you'll find the heart of it right at the intersection of george and king street now if you are coming here to shop you should know the stores close really early like 5 p.m it is 5 15 p.m and some of these stores are already closed uh 7 p.m maybe some of the stores stay the latest but then that's it they're shut in sydney typically on thursdays is late shopping day where stores will be open as late as 8 or 9 p.m but don't expect to be shopping late any of the other days another really iconic shopping center is the queen victoria building often known as the qvb this building is from 1898 and is probably one of the grandest shopping centers i've been to it is five floors and the whole place really does look like something that queen victoria would build herself by the way where's the piano coming from there's someone playing piano just about five feet over there but just remember this place closes early too the strand arcade closed at 5 30. the queen victoria building closes at you'd think someplace this grand with so many shops would stay open later not so much except on thursdays if you're interested in more of the flea market shopping experience then head no further than paddy's markets in chinatown this place is open wednesday to sunday there are hundreds of vendors in here that sell everything from inflatable kangaroos to cell phone cases to additional suitcases for you to take home if you bought way too many souvenirs this isn't really where you go for high end this is where you go for cheap and affordable in addition all the souvenirs here there's also a small farmer's market tucked in the back it seems like you get everything in this place yes even a massage now if you're hungry after shopping at paddy's markets head up just one floor to market city where they have a really impressive food court mostly asian foods here but super legit the ninth thing you should know is about money and by the way i'm walking on the street from the manly wharf to manly beast and what you should know about money is that they use the australian dollar from sydney all of australia at the time i made this video one us dollar was a dollar fifty australian dollars sydney is a very card friendly city i saw very few places that were cash only maybe only one or two shops here and there pretty much everything else takes credit cards which is pretty nice mastercard visa some places like aldi where i just got this bottle of water charge the per surcharge to use the credit card but they still took it if you're looking to get cash best place to do it like exchange is not really to exchange your money at the airport but to use an atm atms will always give you the best exchange rate better than those money changers at the airport and finally they do tax free shopping here you can get 10 tax back at the airport on purchases over 300 at stores that participate in that the 10th thing to know is about where to stay and if it's your first time in sydney you should definitely stay in the central business district because that's where all the tourist attractions are now i've got a few specific hotels for you if money is no object stay at this one this is the park hi it's sydney it is right across from the opera house it is right underneath the bay bridge it's right next circular key this is an amazing property it's like a thousand dollars a night so i only say that if money is no object or you have a lot of hyatt points a couple other solid options that i've stayed at and i can personally recommend is the marriott circular key which is right in front of that big train station the sheraton grand hyde park is nice in front of australia's oldest public park and the hyatt regency over in darling harbor is australia's largest luxury hotel and so that's a pretty nice one too the 11th thing to know is about the language and the primary language in sydney is english but they'll be speaking australian english which is a heavily accented with lots of slang and so if you've learned what you consider to be proper textbook english you might not understand what they're saying here half the time but that's okay you will pick it up pretty quickly you'll also hear a lot of other languages though sydney is very cosmopolitan and so expect to hear a lot more than english the second language after english is mandarin chinese the top thing to know is about the weather and when to go remember the weather down here in sydney is reversed from the northern hemisphere so winter here is in july and august and then summer here is in december to february the summers are warm the winters are mild you're not really going to be freezing here in sydney and actually i'm shooting this in the winter quite comfortable and just kind of a long sleeve fleece and some long pants now i said summer can be quite hot you'll definitely want shorts and t-shirts or some short skirts if you come here in the summer best time to come is really shoulder season so spring and autumn september to november april to may and now to answer the question of how much time you should spend in sydney i would say no less than three days but there's easily seven days worth of stuff in sydney particularly if you're exploring all of the outskirts and things just outside of the cbd but the central business district a solid three days of stuff number thirteen let's talk about things to do the most iconic thing to do in sydney is to visit the sydney opera house and you can certainly take in the show while you're there what most people probably don't realize from all the pictures is that there's actually a gigantic bar right underneath the sydney opera house in true australian style actually it's two bars there's the opera bar and the opera kitchen but from here you can get some great views of the fairies going in and out of circular key and over this way you can get some great views of the harbor bridge too now the harbor bridge right there you can walk across it it's pretty neat to walk across it so the part of the harbor bridge you can walk on for free is the deck right here the parts you get to do if you pay hundreds of dollars is you get to climb right up here on the top of it you can see those little people that look like ants right now they are doing the hundreds of dollar bridge climb or if you want a great view you can go up on top of one of these pylons here for like 19 australian dollars though check the hours it's only open a few days a week if you want to do that but the views are definitely rewarding now after you visit the opera house take a stroll through sydney's royal botanic gardens showing australia's british heritage they continue tradition of really neat public gardens some people come here to have a picnic some people come here to admire the plants and the flowers many of the sydney ciders come here just to take a run along the harbor it's great either way and even better admission to the botanic gardens is free walking through the botanic gardens here in sydney is a little reminiscent of central park in new york city not because it's in the center of the city but because there's high-rise buildings right on the edge of the gardens neat view now if you're a true animal lover and you've got about a half day visit the taranga zoo this zoo it's on the other side of sydney harbor from the central business district to get here you take about a 15-minute ferry from circular quay and then you take a cable car or a ropeway a sky ride up to the top of the zoo and then you walk your way down what's really neat about the taranga zoo by the way we're looking at it down below me that's the elephant enclosure what's really neat about the tauranga zoo is the enclosures for the animals are actually really quite nice they feel quite natural they don't feel like cages i didn't feel sad for the animals while i was looking at them here but they have a great australian animal exhibit you can see the koalas outdoors they spend their time mostly sleeping and you can see the tasmanian devil here you know what tasmanian devils do they mostly sleep at the top they have a really neat gift shop and you know i saw in it real animals i saw a turkey strolling around the gift shop well definitely check this one out it does close early they close at 4 30 so make sure you plan your time accordingly take the cable car up walk your way down and then when you get to the bottom the last ferry leaves at 7 pm so you got plenty of time to stroll from the top all the way down and still catch that ferry back to sydney oh and definitely admire the great views of sydney from this zoo as well i think you get some of the best views of the bay bridge and the opera house by the giant gorilla up here you know i've been to a lot of zoos around the world and this sky ride makes the taranga zoo one of the coolest if you like sky rides the san diego zoo also has a really neat sky ride too now as you likely can see sydney is quite a modern city but if you want to see some of the historic parts of sydney then come here to the rocks where the british landed where city started where the post boxes where you mail letters look like that that's right now here in the rocks the center of it is right here this is the rocks square they have a really neat weekend market out here there's a cool thai noodle place called peanut and i just think this is like a really neat fountain oh if you like pubs some of the city's oldest pubs are here as well one to check out is the australian heritage hotel and from the earlier conversation you remember it's not an actual hotel that's what they call a bar of old and because the rocks is built on the rocks where the harbor bridge is there's these interesting stairs these are the argyle stairs they'll take you up to the higher levels make sure you explore all the little back alleys of this neighborhood because they're all really neat this is also how you'd get to the harbor bridge you'd climb the argyle stairs to the bridge stairs which then takes you across the harbor now if the neighborhood around the opera house the botanic garden the rocks and the bridge is sydney's most touristy area darling harbor comes in at a close second in particular that line right over there those are people lining up for the sea life aquarium madame tassouds and the zoo so there's a center of tourist activity right here but it's not just like neat to come to darling harbor because it's touristy also i really love the big promenade that you can walk around darling harbor really great in the daytime pretty cool in the evening too when they light this whole neighborhood up and if you're really a glutton for walking which i am you can actually walk all the way along the harbor front from here to the opera house or vice versa if you're here with some kiddos of the younger variety they might enjoy luna park this is australia's version of disneyland located just across the harbor from circular quay yes you can take a ferry over there check the days they're open though because they're only open seasonally now if you want to try your luck at some games of chance good news for you sydney has a pretty big and cool casino known as the star there's also hotel here buffets restaurants cheap eats on the casino floor when i walked through they had some pretty inexpensive breakfast specials but this one's worth a look if you like gambling what i did find extra interesting though is they're definitely catering to the chinese tourists because all of the signage was in english and chinese if you like museums then sydney has a heck of a good deal for you because all of the public museums in sydney are free including the national maritime museum but if you can only pick one and you like art then check out the art gallery of new south wales for modern art and an extra cool thing about the art gallery of new south wales is on wednesday nights it's open until 10 p.m so you can get your art viewing on late at night and you can have another late museum night at the museum of contemporary art they're open until 9pm on fridays if you like science that's going to be the powerhouse museum and if you want to learn about the aboriginal history check out the australian museum that's just a short list there's plenty more and the last thing to know is that i've got more videos on australia and beyond but in particular if you're going to australia's second biggest city melbourne you might enjoy checking out my melbourne travel series right here things to know cheap eats and a tour with a local who lives in melbourne ben the travel man if you haven't seen it check that series out right here as usual i won't say goodbye because i'm going to see you right over there

Channel: Yellow Productions

Views: 384,953

Keywords: Yellow Productions, sydney, sydney travel, travel sydney, sidney, travel sidney, sidney travel, australia, sydney australia, australia sydney, sydney travel guide, travel guide sydney

Id: Y2LDOYEDGCI

Length: 32min 21sec (1941 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2022