A backpackers guide to Sydney & my favourite things to do in the big city.
If you’re heading to Australia, then Sydney is most likely on your list. Whilst it’s not the capital of the country, it is the capital of New South Wales and is definitely a bucket list place. We spent just under 3 weeks in the big city and the majority of our hostel time we spent at the Wake Up! Bondi Beach, but we moved over to the Wake up! Central one when we extended our trip which gave us a really good experience of Sydney ‘life’.
It’s an impressive city with lots of tourists and of course lots of locals and although it wasn’t my favourite city of Australia it’s kindaaaa essential that you go. I mean, how can you go to Australia and not see the famous sights of Sydney? Anyway, to make it easier I’ve split this blog into sections and hopefully then you’ll get some inspo on what to fill your time with in this sunny city.
Free Things To Do
First up, the city centre. Pretty easy to get around, straight streets and you can walk away from the harbour or towards the harbour really easily – the shops and everything else comes around that. There’s metro entrances near the harbour too if you’re coming in from Bondi/outside of the main CBD, so you can get right into the centre of it all which gives you probably the easiest access to touristy things like the botanical gardens, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge or the ferries.
So, breaking all the myths straight up and I’m gonna just say it IS possible to do activities in the city for fairly cheap or even free. If like me, you’re slightly concerned about how expensive it is for a budget traveller (had a few warnings about super expensive drinks etc) this is a way to see the city without spending silly amounts. So let’s get down to the free stuff first and we have to start with the most famous tourist attraction of them all the Royal Opera House. I mean its impressive and huge so you do HAVE to go see it – I was a lilllll disappointed, it looked a weird grey colour to me not the beaming white, but it is such a significant building its worth it just for that. And of course, if you don’t enter the building or buy tickets to see a show then you can sit on the steps outside and take as many mental images and photos until you’re sick of the sight of it. There’s a few good photo spots for sure – head around towards the botanical gardens where the path splits for a good one or the steps outside the opera house when they’re quieter and finally, around the front left corner where you can see the harbour bridge in front and the house behind you.
This leads nicely onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You can pay to climb the bridge if you’ve got an unlimited budget and this takes you right up to the top of the arch but if you’re a wimp like me (heights, no thank u) or on a tighter budget it is possible to walk the pedestrian path across the base of the bridge if you want to experience just passing across it. Photo spot wise, there is again a fair few spots where you can get a photo with the bridge and there’s a fave we found with friends on one of our last days. Carrying on around the Campbell Cove Jetty in a quieter spot of the harbour is the Hickson Road Reserve and Dawes Point Reserve, head there and you’ll find the best photo spot of both the bridge and the opera house and a bonus of a lovely grass area to chill out on the grass.
Another activity is exploring the Botanical gardens. Beaut to explore, free of course (except if you want to go into an exhibition) and a good spot for chilling if you wanna get out of the sun, we had a few lunches there and the rose garden was particularly pretty. Within the botanical gardens you can access the famous Mrs Macquarie’s Chair which is an exposed stone bench hand carved for the Governor’s wife in 1810. It’s a good spot to walk to or have a photo on and just above the chair is a Mrs Macquarie’s point which is a popular spot for the NYE fireworks too you’re visiting during the Christmas period.
The last free-ish thing that (apart from tons of walking around the city) was Luna Park. If you’re not bothered about the rides then the park itself is free to enter and have a wander around. The ride passes were pretty expensive and didn’t appeal to us, they mostly seemed to be like your typical English seaside amusement park rides which gave me flash backs of Adventure Island (shout out to Southend sea front).
If you want to soak up as much of the city as possible, try checking out a free walking tour. Wake Up! Central hostel does a free walking tour (there are plenty of others too) which gives you a good feel of the city and definitely helps you get your head around it all. If that’s not really your thing, a few free spots on the walking tour would be the Anzac Memorial, the State library (public toilets) and St Marys Cathedral which saves you wandering around on a tour. Walking from St Marys Cathedral to the Library takes you right past the Mint and the Sydney Eye hospital which are pretty impressive buildings too.
Okay so there’s also a few things I’ve missed but what I’ve included has been the main free things which I enjoyed. As a summary, you have also got China town, Darling Harbour, Cockle Bay, the CBD tram has free areas if you fancy experiencing that and the shopping areas for a wander. Shopping is pretty good in the CBD too (try the Cotton On’s if you haven’t found them already in Aus because they do so many beaut bikinis/clothes and very reasonably priced) and shopping obviously can be as free or as pricey as you want.
Paid Things To Do
The first paid touristy thing and my favourite that we did in the CBD was the Chinese Garden of Friendship. It was only $6 entry and really worth the money. In the surroundings of these huge skyscrapers there’s just this peaceful, beautiful garden, which is really calming and it felt like we’d escaped the city completely. If you’re happy to pay the small entrance fee, then spending the afternoon or at least while there relaxing is definitely worthwhile. We found quiet spot in the sunshine and watched the coy jumping about.
Another worth-the-money thing was paying the ferry return fayre to get over to Manly which takes you to the smaller town and ‘raved’ about beach just outside of the CBD. Manly beach itself didn’t impress me as much as I had expected from the recommendations, but it was really nice to have a change of scenery so the ferry fayre felt worthwhile. With quieter shops, bars and restaurants its worth going if the weather isn’t great or if you want an excuse to jump on one of the ferries and explore elsewhere. At the Manly ferry dock there’s a couple of restaurants/bars with nice views out across the water and a particular fave was El Camino, a Mexican restaurant and bar which a friend introduced us too when we hopped on the ferry over.
Food and Drinks
Talking of El Camino leads me perfectly on to food and drinks. Firstly, El Camino is definitely worth a visit, half price frozen margaritas during happy hour which are hugeeeeeee, plus Mexican hats and free nachos! There’s another branch back in the CBD, in the area called ‘The Rocks’ if you don’t fancy going over to Manly for it. Hostel friends led us to this area – The Rocks, which has a few other nice bars, such as The Argyle which can be pricey normally but during happy hour is really reasonable and can get you free bar snacks such as potato waffles with happy hour drinks so that saves sorting dins too.
Not sure about anyone else but food is what my day entirely centres around and for that the place you’ve got to go to is Spice Alley. Slightly out of the main central CBD area but literally 5 mins from Wake Up! Central, there’s a really good selection of food market type stalls with delicious Asian food and a cute casual mixed seating area. It’s perfect for going to dins with people who you’ve recently met as there’s loads of food choices, no drama with waiting for people to order or choose and its loads cheaper (probably nicer too) than (some) restaurant food. If that’s not up your street, then there’s definitely lots of other options.
The market by China Town has a huge food hall selection, as do the shopping malls in the CBD centre, there’s quayside eating in Darling Harbour with a variety of Italian, Spanish, American style foods if you’re looking for a sit down meal somewhere slightly quieter. Finally, if you do find yourself in Chinatown, look out for Emperor’s Garden Cakes and Bakery near to the market and get a bag of fresh Emperors Puffs and they’ll hit alllll the sweet sugary cravings in the right spot.
Sydney’s got a bit of a mixed feelings from me, I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it but I knew I’d regret not going, especially as we were in Australia over Christmas and NYE. I do think whatever you feel, it’s 1000% worth the stop even if just for a few days and to experience it and all its craziness in person!
lots of love,
Han x
hannahshildrake.co.uk 
[…] Finally, we arrived in Sydney after the best month and few days exploring down the east coast. It was such a fab way to see this part of Australia and took so much stress out of planning to get around. I’ve included just a list of the stops we did in case you want to refer back to a skeleton route at the bottom and if you want tips for Sydney, then check out my blog ‘What to do in Sydney’ here. […]
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