We visited Sydney in November 2025 for my niece’s wedding. It’s been quite a while since we were last in Sydney and we were surprised by how much it has changed. Last time George Street, the main street in the CBD, was choked with traffic from the Harbour Bridge to Central Railway. Now George Street is a pedestrian mall with a tram line running up the middle and new metro stations. Much cleaner and much more pleasant than it used to be.
Unless you are planning to travel outside Sydney, you don’t need a car. Sydney now has world class public transport with trams, light rail and a metro system to supplement the suburban trains and busses. In fact, a car is more nuisance than its worth because parking is difficult to find and expensive, especially in the CBD. If you are staying in Sydney for more than a few days, it’s worthwhile to consider buying an Opal card. An Opal card is a public transport travel card, similar to Hong Kong’s Octopus or London’s Oyster card. You can buy them at the airport or the main concourse at Central Railway for $20, they come with $20 credit and you can top them up at multiple locations. If you don’t want an Opal card you can still use your credit card on public transport but an Opal card has a daily fare cap and a credit card doesn’t.
Because we were staying for a week, we stayed in a serviced apartment near Barangaroo and used our Opal cards on the train network to travel from the airport to the apartment. The cost was $17 each, which is expensive by Sydney standards but a lot cheaper than using a taxi. A taxi from the airport to the CBD can be over $150 plus tolls and card fees, especially if you don’t know the way.
The serviced apartment worked out well for us because we like to prepare our own meals. Eating in cafes & restaurants three times a day, every day, can quickly become expensive. The apartment was also only a few minutes’ walk from Sydney’s Barangaroo and Darling Harbour and was also convenient to the train station.
Getting around Sydney by public transport is easy especially if you use Google Maps for the bus and train timetable. Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach is an easy bus ride from the city although a better beach is Manly Beach. You can catch a ferry from Sydney to Manly from Circular Quay. Manly also has plenty of restaurants and cafes and some great photo opportunities.
Restaurants in the CBD tend to charge tourist prices so that can be expensive. An alternate idea is to catch the train to Newtown, which is about 15 minutes from the CBD and close to Sydney University. As you come out of the railway station at Newtown, if you turn left, you will see almost wall to wall restaurants on both sides of the road and if you turn right, you will also see almost wall to wall restaurants on both sides of the road. Being close to the university, Newtown is frequented by students so there are a lot of cafes and restaurants, there is a huge variety of cuisines and the food is reasonably priced. Well worth a visit.
A quick comment on alcohol; In Australia light beer is low alcohol beer, not low calorie or low carb beer. Also, if you drive, the maximum blood alcohol level permitted is 0.05% and it is strictly enforced with random breath testing common. If you are caught driving with more than 0.05% blood alcohol you can be arrested and your car will be impounded.
Tourist attractions within Sydney include harbour cruises, Darling Harbour attractions, The Sydney Fish markets, The Rocks Market, Kings Cross and many other attractions.
As well as a very pleasant walk around the harbour, Darling Harbour has several restaurants, a Madame Tussauds, an aquarium and several other tourist attractions. If you like Chinese food, Chinatown’s Dixon Street is a short walk from Darling Harbour.
If you like seafood, the Sydney Fish Markets is reputed to be the largest fish market in the southern hemisphere. If you visit, be aware that it is mainly a wholesale fish market so don’t expect it to be pretty. That said, there are several restaurants inside the market and you can buy fresh seafood for a fraction of the cost at a restaurant. We bought three dozen oysters, a kilogram of king prawns and some sashimi grade tuna and salmon for $160, then we had our own private feast inside the apartment 😊.
On weekends, the Rocks Market is the place to go. George Street, from Circular Quay to the Harbour Bridge, becomes a street market on weekends with dozens of stalls selling souvenirs, boutique clothing and food. It is well worth while spending a couple of hours at the market on the weekend even if you don’t buy anything.
If you want some adult entertainment then Kings Cross is the place to go. We didn’t visit but we heard that is can be very educational.
An economical way to see Sydney is to catch a bus to different destinations or catch a ferry across the harbour to Manly where you can spend several hours exploring several beaches and inlets as well as boutique shops. You can also catch a rivercat to Parramatta. The rivercat leaves from the Quay and from Darling Harbour and takes about 90 minutes to travel along the Parramatta River to Parramatta. As well as a relaxing trip, you can see the real Sydney along the way and when you get to Parramatta, you can explore Sydney’s second city before catching a train back to Sydney.
Going further afield, you can use the train network to visit Newcastle in the north or Wollongong in the south or visit the south coast town of Kiama to see the blowhole. You can also take a train west to Katoomba where you can see the iconic Three Sisters rock formation and Megalong Valley. Megalong Valley is a sub-tropical rain forest that is less than two hours from Sydney and is every bit as spectacular as America’s Grand Canyon, but completely different. While in Katoomba, you can ride the steepest railway in the world with a 52 degree incline. Originally a mining railway, it goes voomp straight down the side of the mountain. The mines closed years ago and now the railway is a tourist attraction.
No visit to Sydney would be complete without a day trip to the Hunter Valley. Several tour companies run day tours to the Hunter Valley wineries where you can sample (and buy) some of the finest wines Australia has to offer.
We hope you enjoy your visit to Sydney. Like most cities in the world, you can spend a fortune in Sydney or you can spend a lot less and still have a great time. You could spend months exploring Sydney and still not see it all.