Travel: Australia - Sydney
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Anyone stay at ParkRoyal Darling Harbour Sydney before?
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Today is our last day in Sydney. Free n easy 5 days 4 nights.
At Sydney airport, do pick up the blue copy of Sydney guide, there are discount coupons on the last few pages. If travelling in a large group, better take a few copies as I do not know if the coupons are for per persons. So far, I was able to use a coupon to buy tickets for myself and #2.
There was a display of fireworks in Darling Harbour last night and we watched it at the balcony of the serviced apt we are staying in :celebrate:
Hubby and elder boy did the Bridge Climb and Opera Hse (on 2nd day of arrival) and Plyon Lookout (4th day). They then went around snapping photos.
I and #2 did a water taxi ride to Opera Hse, walk in Circular Quay, shopping in Woolworth (2nd day), Sydney Aquarium, National Maritime Museum and onboard Captain Cook's ship (4th day).
Do not recommend the water taxi for young children. Water can b quite choppy. We wanted to take a bigger ferry (can buy combined tickets to Sdyney Aquarium, buy separately $53 in total for myself & #2) but missed the ferry by 15 mins.
We took a 2 hours train ride to visit Blue Mountain (3rd day). Did bushwalks, took the rides at Scenic World. The vast mountain is breathtaking. We were told that coral fossils was found on the sides of the cliff and the mountainous area was once part of the ocean. Missed the Echo Pt walk becos our last bus (the red bus Explorer) had left the bus stop. Luckily the other bus (Trolley Explorer) agreed to take us back to the train stn. FOC too.
Restaurant food along Darling Harbour and Circular Quay are expensive and not as good as Fremantle. At the other other side of Darling Harbour, there is a small foodcourt inside the mall. Lots of tempting ice cream stalls.
Had dinner at Nick's, so salty.
Had dinner at Pho (next to the Meriton serviced apt at Kent Street), generously serving at affordable price.
Had a Chinese dinner at Emperor's Garden Restaurant in Chinatown, all dishes only one size serving. Ordered 4 dishes (stir fry pork slices with veg, a green veg, a claypot tofu with seafood, a seafood fried rice), bill came up to $80+.
Had dinner at Blue Fish, beer battered fish and chips was disappointing.
Our lunches were mostly simple takeaway sandwiches or burgers.
Though it is summer now, the winds are chilly and the sky is mostly cloudy. Better for children to wear long pants and bring along a light jacket.
Today is our last day. Planned to go to Hay's Mkt later. -
hi jennifer, thanks for the detailed description. did u take any day tours for the sydney trip? seems like everything was free n easy n u navigated around the area yourself?
in your opinion, which r the must-go places? tks! -
We visited Hay’s Mkt (opens on Wed to Sun only). The 1st level is like our make shift night mkts- many stalls selling the same things (clothes, bags, wigs, hair extensions, miscellaneous small electronics gadgets, toys), some selling sweet confectionary like Turkish delights, soft nougats, assorted nuts in assorted flavours, massage services. The other section is the wet mkt (vegs, fruits, fish, meat).
Many stalls are operated by Chinese speaking Canto. I find the Chinese stalls operators more friendly. The rock melon is only $2 each.
There are factory outlets (apparels, shoes), coffee houses, restaurants, yoghurt n ice cream kiosks in the upper floors.
Think we spent at least 2 hours walking around looking at stuff. -
Near Town Hall Rail Stn is a more up mkt shopping mall QVB. The inside of the mall has a nostalgic feeling- stained glass, old floral iron railings along the sides and staircases, two beautiful old clockworks hanging from the ceiling.
Another shopping mall is The Galeries. We visited the Kinoku… bookstore. Very good selection of books.
Opposite The Galeries is Woolworth where we did our groceries. There are many small convenience shops around, but the prices are slightly higher than Woolworth. For example, on our 1st night, we bou a 200g of can Milo at $4.95 from a convenience shop. Woolworth was having a promo for 450g at $4.60
Town Hall Rail Stn also has its own shopping mall. -
foreverj:
We did not rent a car, but chose to take the train to go to Blue Mountain. We walked to Darling Harbour (abt 3 to 4 traffic junctions, the distance between each junction is relatively short), took a train to Blue Mountain on our own (did not join any day tour). We relied mostly on public transport to explore the place.hi jennifer, thanks for the detailed description. did u take any day tours for the sydney trip? seems like everything was free n easy n u navigated around the area yourself?
in your opinion, which r the must-go places? tks!
Parking in Sydney is expensive and peak hour traffic is not sth we want to grapple with
The city centre is like our housing estate, very easier to navigate around. Just need to remember the street names and some bldg. The bldgs are not very tall, we can see our serviced apt (a taller one) from afar. -
I think must-go places depend on who u are travelling with.
For my family, we split up into 2 groups - #2 with me, elder boy with hubby.
I took #2 to the Sydney Aquarium and we spent at least 3 hours looking at marine animals. Onboard the Captain Cook's ship was fun too. There is another ship that offers dining cum seeing sailors setting sails, but we did not go for this one.
National Maritime Museum is free entry since we bou the tickets to Captain Cook's ship. There is a Shark exhibition on now, so my boy got to see 2 exhibits of the sharks' jaws with the rows of pointy teeth. There is also an exhibit of sharks teeth from the diff ages. We learnt that some sharks shed 10 thousand teeth in their lifetime. We saw the original maps & transcripts, sea voyage equipments, china recovered from sunken ships. -
tks jennifer! thats the thing abt the city. if staying in city, shld not drive. expensive n stressful to navigate. possible to share on hw much u spent in total? airtic, accomodation plus expenses there. if not convenient to share publicly, can pm me. many tks!
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While researching on places to visit with children, I did not see any mention on Luna Park. http://www.lunaparksydney.com
It is located opposite Sydney Opera House, the other end of the Harbour Bridge. To go there, can take the train (Milsons Pt stn) or take the ferry from Circular Quay or take the water taxi from Darling Harbour.
We did not hv time for this free entry to park, pay for rides only amusement park. -
foreverj:
possible to share on hw much u spent in total? airtic, accomodation plus expenses there
Thinking back on how much we spent and how much activities we covered, I think we did not get our money worthwhile :lol:
SIA flights already costed us slightly more than $4 (elder boy has to pay for adult fare).
Accommodation was around A$1.6k with 3 days internet access and late checkout.
I took about A$400 cash with me, left A$100 (Aquarium A$53, Captain Cook A$50+, water taxi A$50). Hubby paid with his credit card for the dinners at Circular Quay, Chinatown and Darling Harbour. Think the most expensive dinner was at Circular Quay, ard A$180 for 4 main courses.
Blue Mountain was return train cum Red Explorer bus @ Blue Mountain, ard A$190 (family 2 A, 2 C).
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