Last month, we flew to Auckland, New Zealand to attend the wedding of a close family friend. The travel time was long—the longest flight we’ve taken yet at 15 hours and a half hours—but we took advantage of Air Canada’s international fare conditions and added a three-day stopover in Sydney for no extra surcharge! This “travel hack” allowed us to: a) break up a super long travel day, and b) spend three spectacular days in Sydney. Disclaimer: this blog post contain affiliate links. I will earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click on a link and book or purchase a product through these links.
Sydney is such a beautiful city! I visited once 12 years ago for a mere 24 hours and have always wanted to return. So much has changed in 12 years that I felt like I was visiting for the first time. alongside Radwin and the kiddos!
Day 1
Arrival
As usual, we kept the first day pretty lax. The flight, though long, was pretty uneventful and arrived only one-hour behind the original scheduled time. Also, despite all the awful stories we’ve heard this entire year about lost or delayed luggages, ours arrived the same time we did and without issues (phew!).
Transportation to/from the Airport
Sydney Airport is located just 8km from the Sydney Central Business District (CBD) so there are plenty of quick and affordable transportation options. Aside from the common car rental, taxi and shuttle service, train is actually the fastest and most convenient way to reach the city and suburbs. Airport Link, Sydney’s airport train, runs approximate every 10 minutes and the journey to Sydney CBD is a mere 13 minutes.
Travel Tip 1: If public transportation is your mode of getting around, purchase an Opal Card, smartcard tickets that you would use to pay for public transport services in the greater Sydney area and most other urban areas of New South Wales. You can buy an Opal Card at the airport train station or at any convenience store. We purchased ours over the counter at a 7-Eleven. It was really easy to tap on and off buses and trains, and in the long run, cheaper than purchasing single tickets for each individual trip. There is however, a minimum top up value of $20 for an adult card and $10 for a child card.
Due to the size of our party and a total count of eight luggages, we went with a private transfer via Klook, which was also easy and painless to book. Our driver though, was probably the most unpleasant person I’ve ever come across in the tourism industry but that’s not a story for the here and now.
Chinatown
After getting settled into our hotel, we went searching aimlessly on foot for lunch and accidentally ended up in Chinatown. We were travelling with my parents who (mostly my mom) are very peculiar about food so this worked in our favour.
After lunch, we explored the area a little bit and spent some time at the nearby World Square shopping centre, a lovely complex with a number of retail shops, tons of restaurants and cafés, and a supermarket. The latter was extremely convenient for picking up fresh fruit, milk, and breakfast items.
Travel Tip 2: Eating out for every meal can get expensive. Consider staying at one of Sydney’s many popular apartment hotels where you would have multiple bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, separate living room, full kitchen, and a washer and dryer. Depending on your comfort preference, the nightly rate is no different from staying at a 3-star or 4-star hotel.
Relaxing Evening
By late afternoon, we were all feeling fairly jet lagged, so we picked up an extensive sushi spread from a nearby takeaway and spent the evening in.
Day 2
Bondi Beach
We made sure to save a morning and afternoon to visit Bondi Beach, Australia's most famous beach and a beachside suburb in east Sydney. There is no shortage of things to do at Bondi Beach from visiting a local café or bar to browsing the designer boutiques along the promenade, to lazing around in the sun on the soft, white sand, to taking a dip in the ocean swimming pool or the iconic Bondi Icebergs Club.
Much to my disappointment, we didn’t get to do the latter two as we learned the hard way that spring in Sydney is quite chilly and windy. We did manage brunch at Parida Bondi, a cute little café along the promenade, wandered through the Bondi Pavilion, dug our toes into the white Bondi Beach sand, watched some early morning surfers, picked out our favourite Bondi Beach Graffiti Wall artist, and walked a portion of the Bondi to Coogee Coastal Trail.
Darling Harbour
Darling Harbour is a harbour adjacent to city centre of Sydney and the SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct. There is plenty to see, do and eat right here at this harbour, from free attractions like the Darling Harbour Children's playground and fascinating museums to high fashion stores and beauty shops to adult entertainment like The Star Casino.
This was the perfect lunch stop before our next attraction.
SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
We love visiting aquariums and SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium is definitely one of the most spectacular ones we’ve been to. This aquarium features over 700 species comprising more than 13,000 individual fish and other sea and water creatures from most of Australia’s water habitats, including two of only five dugongs (sea cows) on display in the world.
What makes this aquarium stand out are the two large underwater oceanariums that allow visitors to explore the sea life from underwater tunnels. It’s not every day you get sharks, tropical fishes, jellyfishes, rays and sawfishes, sea turtles and even predatory fishes like the black cod swimming around and overtop of you.
My personal favourite is the Penguin Expedition Boat Ride, the world’s first-of-its-kind penguin encounter raft ride where you can get up close and personal to the cutest penguin colony. Who knew King and Gentoo Penguins are so BIG!
Travel Tip 3: You can save up to 25% when you purchase your guarantee entry admission tickets online, which also includes the Digi Photo Pass with 8 digital photos included. To save even more money, consider purchasing the multiple attractions pass if you plan to visit two or more of the following attractions: SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium, WILD LIFE Sydney Zoo, Madame Tussauds Sydney or Sydney Tower Eye.
Day 3
Sydney Opera House
No trip to Sydney is complete without a visit to the Sydney Opera House! Did you know that the building has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and its social asset value is estimated by Deloitte at $11.4 billion!? We took plenty of photos on the iconic steps, browsed through the gift shop then took more photos using the Sydney Harbour Bridge as our backdrop.
I would have loved to drop in for a performance but our short stopover didn’t permit time for one.
Exploring Sydney CBD
We spent the afternoon exploring Circular Quay and Sydney CBD. We wandered in and out of gift shops, stopped in at a random local coffee shop for a much needed latte, and window browsed through some of the luxury shops at Westfield Sydney.
Sydney Harbour
I think the highlight of our trip was the sunset dinner cruise with Captain Cook Cruises. I can’t think of a better way to spend our last evening in Sydney—two hours cruising around Sydney Harbour on an air-conditioned super-cruiser while enjoying a delicious three-course dinner and live entertainment.
Though we didn’t catch much of the sunset due to overcast skies, the views were absolutely spectacular!
My only disappointment was the state of the windows. No one likes staring out of ridiculously dirty windows after paying extra surcharges per person for guarantee window seating.
Final Thoughts
Sydney is a beautiful city and our 3-day itinerary was the perfect gateway to our Oceania vacation.
Have you been to Sydney before? How did you find it? Let me know in the comments below!
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