Sydney Travel Guide

I’m nearly a year late but it’s finally here, my Sydney travel guide! After our trip, I wanted to be able to share all the sights we saw, restaurants and bars we loved, and a few tips to make your trip as easy as possible! 

Z and I spent 9 days in Sydney in the spring (or fall in Australia) and did a ton of research. Neither of us had ever been, and most of our friends have never been either, so we turned to the Internet. Australia is such a huge country, and we wanted to see as much as possible without overextending ourselves. Since we were flying into Sydney, we decided to only do Sydney and see as much as we could! 

How to Get There

If Australia wasn’t SO far away we would have gone by now! We flew from DFW to LAX, then from LAX to SYD. The longest stretch was 14 hours, so be prepared to watch a few movies and attempt to sleep! I already have a post about how to survive long flights, so check that out before you go!

Things to Know

Australia is super easy to visit, once you get there! It’s English speaking, they use the Australian Dollar (AUD, the exchange rate was great when we were there), public transportation in the major cities is easy to navigate, and the food is incredible. Australia isn’t super cheap, but you can budget your trip! Try not to splurge every single day, there are plenty of affordable restaurants and happy hour spots, making it easier to spend money on activities you are really looking forward to. 

Sights

Sydney Opera House. Did you really go to Sydney if you didn’t see the famous opera house? This was our first stop once we were checked into our AirBnB and freshened up. We spent a long time taking pictures and walking up and down the harbor to get as many photos as possible! Even if you aren’t seeing a show, there are always events going on around the opera house- we even did a sunrise yoga class one morning! 

Royal Botanic Gardens. We walked through the botanic gardens on our way to the Opera House, and loved seeing the plants and watching the kookaburras fly around. When you reach the end of the gardens where the harbor begins, they have several small trucks and kiosks where you can buy snacks and drinks and walk around the harbor with them! 

Beach Walk. This is a MUST in Sydney! There are several different versions of the walk, but we chose to do the full Bondi to Coogee Beach walk so we could see as much as possible. We started by taking the bus to Bondi Beach in the morning, then hiking along the coast and passing all the different beaches, ending in Coogee Beach. The walk isn’t incredibly challenging, but we’re glad we went when the weather was perfect. 

Federation Cliff Walk. This is another hike you have to do in Sydney. The route runs from Watson’s Bay to Dover Heights, but you can keep going all the way down to Bondi Beach. Once you get to Watson’s Bay, take some time to head north and loop up to the Hornby Lighthouse. It sits on a peninsula where Sydney Harbor meets the Tasman Sea, and you can see straight across to Manly. 

Manly. We took a day trip across the Harbor to Manly, a beach town on Sydney’s north side. It was nice to spend a day on the beach and relax. Manly had tons of cute shops, restaurants, and even a brewery. 

Taronga Sydney Zoo. We are normally not zoo people (I can’t tell you the last time I visited one) but we had to visit the Taronga Zoo for one reason- koalas. While you can’t legally hold or pet koalas in New South Wales, you can pay extra on top of your ticket and be allowed inside their enclosure. We ended up just a few inches from these cuddly animals! After leaving the koalas, we walked into the Australian Walkabout, where you are inside the enclosure with kangaroos (!!!), emus, and wombats. Kangaroos were hopping within a foot of us as if we weren’t even there! We had no idea you could get that close to these incredible animals as part of the regular zoo! 

Look how close we are!

Museums

Museum of Sydney. The Museum of Sydney was perfect for first-time visitors- it was small and easy to navigate, and tells the story of the founding of Australia and Sydney. While we were there, they had a really cool photography exhibit on mugshots from the 1920’s- we learned so much about Australia’s mob history during Prohibition and learned the neighborhood we stayed in was mob territory! 

Australian Museum. This is Sydney’s natural history museum, along with being the oldest museum in Australia. We loved learning about the country’s history and all of the insane animals native to Australia. 

How to Get Around

We love taking public transportation as much as possible when we travel- it’s always way cheaper and lets you see more of the city! Sydney had great transportation between buses, subways, trains, and ferries. We bought an Opal card (like a Metro card) at the airport and used it to take the train straight from the airport into the city and stopped near our apartment. We took the bus all over the city and had no trouble figuring out how to get around. 

Where to Stay

We try to stay in rentals as often as possible, especially for long trips. It ends up being cheaper and usually more convenient. Sydney had no shortage of rental options, and we wanted to be as central as possible without being in the business district. We stayed at a sweet little one-bedroom in Darlinghurst, or Darlo, and it ended up being the perfect spot. There were tons of restaurants and bars in the neighborhood (more on that below!) and it felt like the East Village in New York. If we lived in Sydney, Darlo is the kind of neighborhood I’d want to be in! 

What to Eat

The food in Sydney blew us away- every single place we went to was incredible. From fancy restaurants to local coffee shops, we tried a little bit of everything. 

Bill’s. We went here on our first morning since it was near our AirBnB and we needed a place to hang out before we checked in. While we showed up super early but by the time we left there was a wait, so get there early on weekends.

Bloodhound Espresso. Where do I begin? We ate here every. single. morning. of our trip, except for two days. We even stopped on the way to the airport on our last morning! It was the most incredible, fresh, healthy-ish food with the BEST coffee. It was only a block from our apartment, and we stumbled in the first day and never looked back.

East Village. Right across the street from Bloodhound, East Village was a multi-level bar with a rooftop. We tried both their first floor bar and the rooftop and loved the drinks at each. We didn’t try their brunch but it looked great and they had a Bloody Mar bar! 

Darlo Bar. This was one of our favorite bars! Just a few blocks from our apartment (sensing a theme?), we went multiple times during our trip.  The decor, the drinks, the pool tables, the whole bar was our dream. I need that neon sign! 

The Beresford. This Surry Hills spot was great for drinks, pizza, and people watching. With several bars inside and a big garden in the back, it was the perfect spot to sit outside and enjoy Sydney.

Mr. Wong. This was one of our favorite restaurants in Sydney. Upscale Cantonese food in a massive space, this was one of the best meals I’ve had. We are very picky about our Chinese food, especially Cantonese-style, but this did not disappoint. We chose a variety of dim sum dishes and noodles and it. was. amazing. It is almost always packed, and they only take dinner reservations for large groups. Luckily, since there were only two of us, we were seated immediately! But even if you have to wait, trust me, it is worth it.

Cafe Lounge. Another favorite bar, we spent several nights here. It’s a super cool semi-underground space with cool vintage decor.

Harry’s Bondi. We stopped at Harry’s for coffee before heading out on our coastal walk and loved it. We drank an obscene amount of coffee in Australia, since they do it so well, but Harry’s was great for a pre-hike flat white.

Henry Deane at the Palisade Hotel. The Palisade Hotel has several bars inside including Public House and Henry Deane. We chose the rooftop at Henry Deane for a post-brewery, pre-dinner cocktail and loved the views. Even though we went super early, it was already starting to fill up with people who were just there for the ‘gram, so be warned!

Chester White. If you know Z and I, you know we can’t resist a good charcuterie board. We popped into Chester White while exploring Potts Point and loved sitting on the front porch (it’s inside what looked to be an old house) with wine and a fantastic meat and cheese board.

Dumplings and Beer. Oh my gosh, Dumplings and Beer! This was the best spot for cheap, well, dumplings and beer. They played Bruce Lee movies all night and it was perfect to relax, enjoy the movies, and eat delicious dumplings after long days of exploring. We ate here twice and got it for takeout as well one night! As I said for Mr. Wong, we’re very particular about our dumplings and these passed the test.

What to Drink

One of our favorite things to do when we travel (or just when we’re in Dallas!) is go to breweries and tap rooms. No matter what city or country we’re in, we always find a few to visit. Below are a few of the ones we visited and loved!

Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel. This is the oldest continually operating hotel in Sydney, and home to Australia’s oldest pub brewery. The beer was great and the historic space made it even cooler.

Endeavour Tap Room. We visited Endeavour on our first day in Sydney and loved it! Located next to The Rocks Market, we loved people watching from the tap room and trying out a few ‘tasting paddles’ aka beer flights. If you’re not a beer lover like us, they have wine on tap as well.

All Hands Brewing Company. This King’s Wharf spot was a favorite, as we could easily walk around to the other restaurants along the wharf.

4 Pines Brewing Company. We stopped here on our day trip to Manly and loved their beers.

A few places we didn’t get to but heard good things about: Coogee Pavilion, Grounds of Alexandria, Sean’s Panorama, North Bondi Fish, Papi Chulo, Three Blue Ducks, The Butler, and Young Henry’s Brewery.

Sydney was incredible, and we can’t wait to explore more of Australia as soon as possible! If you have other Sydney questions, let me know in the comments!