Sydney Lastminute Hotels & Travel Guide
Sydney provides a very warm welcome to visitors with it's stunning harbour, perfect climate, superb restaurants and an energetic nightlife. Sydney is recognised as one of the most live able cities on earth and is a must do destination for holiday goers.
With its stunning iconic architecture of the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, city centre play area such as Darling Harbour, diverse restaurants, museums, shopping, street artists and lots more makes Sydney a truly world class city.
Shopping
Sydney provides pleasure to shoppers with its range of shops. Shopping hours are normally 9.00am to 5.30pm (with some staying open until 9pm), on Monday to Friday with late night trading on Thursday to 9.00pm. Most stores open until 5.00pm on Saturdays and most, but not all, operate on Sundays. Upmarket shopping areas are around Pitt Street Mall, between Market Street and King Street, in The Strand and Queen Victoria Building near the Town Hall. Shopping is also found in Darling Harbour at Harbourside and Market City.
Town Hall – The Town Hall is in the centre of Sydney and an area of shopping malls including the historic Queen Victoria Building.
Queen Victoria Building – A good example of 19th century architecture and also an upmarket shopping arcade. Fashion boutiques, antiques, jewellery and more that opened over 100 years ago.
Harbourside Shopping Centre – A complex of shops and restaurants in Darling Harbour. Many of the shops specialising in Australian made merchandise.
Chinatown – The Chinese have been in Sydney for two hundred years. Between 1909 and 1915 the City Council built a market complex at Darling Harbour for the Chinese marker gardeners. This developed over the years into a significant development with shops, restaurants and a centre for Chinese goods.
Harbour Haven
An extensive, leisure and entertainment area immediately to the west of the CBD with many hotels. At Darling Harbour you will find the Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World, Australian Maritime Museum, Powerhouse Museum, lots of shops, restaurants and even an IMAX cinema. At the entrance to Darling Harbour are the Chinese Gardens of Friendship with ponds, pavilions, waterfalls and even a traditional teahouse.
Museums
Sydney has an excellent collection of museums. Most open daily from 9am or 10am until 4pm or 5pm and some closed on Mondays.
Australian Museum – This museum deals with Australian natural history and the culture of the Aboriginal people. Exhibitions feature bio diversity, skeletons and dinosaurs and changing temporary exhibitions.
Museum of Contemporary Art – This 1930s building used to be the home of the Maritime Services Board but has served in its present capacity since 1991. Located at Circular Quay West, The Rocks. Free admission, except to special exhibitions.
Outback Centre – Not just an art gallery but in this section as there are rotating art exhibitions. However there is more and the Centre is all about promoting the Outback.
The Rocks Discovery Museum – Learn about the Cadigal people who were the traditional owners of the area, explore the history of the English colony and see how the whalers, sailors and traders lived. Delve into the reasons behind the 1970s protests which preserved the Rocks, or try out the interactive technology on the archaeological artefacts found in the area.
Beaches
Bondi Beach – The famous Sydney beach and also the busiest.
Manly Beach – Manly Beach rivals Bondi Beach in fame. Easy to reach on the ferry from the CBD and well worth the trip. A long beach with good surf and a strip of caf´s and shops behind.
Palm Beach – Palm Beach is a long beach with Barrenjoy Lighthouse on the headland and makes for a good walk with great views. It is the beach used in ‘Home and Away’.
Bronte Beach – A pretty beach in the eastern suburbs with large park and a strip of cafes along Bronte Road. The beach has bad rips but the Bogey Hole a natural tidal rock pool at the south end of the beach provides safe swimming.
Feast of Foods
Sydney provides for a diverse number of restaurants, some are not licensed and use the phrase BYO to mean bring your own wine. Some licensed restaurants will allow BYO and a small corkage charge will be made. Prices vary according to location, expect to pay more for Sydney Harbour facing cafés and restaurants. Credit cards are almost universally accepted.
For the tourist in the heart of the city the main dining areas are Circular Quay, The Rocks, Darling Harbour and Chinatown. Some really fine dining is found in the restaurants of five star Sydney hotels and well positioned restaurants on Sydney Harbour. The team at Sydney eGuide have listed one or more restaurants for each cuisine type mainly in the city but some are a little way out.
Sydney’s restaurants cover every conceivable cuisine and budget, from takeaways to fine dining. You can enjoy al fresco fish and chips in Watsons Bay, freshly cooked seafood from the Sydney Fish Market or an array of Asian specialities at one of the many food halls around the city.
Sydney's Nightlife
Sydney has a vibrant and energetic nightlife scene. There are numerous cafés, bars and clubs. There is an active gay and lesbian club circuit. Some bars feature live music or stand-up comedians. An active performing arts scene means there is always a play, opera or a film to be enjoyed. The Sydney Morning Herald and other magazines have extensive listings.
Oxford Street, between Hyde Park and Taylor Square has pubs and dance clubs and a thriving gay scene. Cockle Bay Wharf in Darling Harbour has bars, restaurants and nightclubs. The Central Business District is more formal; pubs and clubs spill down to The Rocks. Surry Hills has casual restaurants and pubs and Glebe is popular with students. George Street in the Rocks has busy pubs.
Kings Cross is the traditional red light area with bars (some seedy), clubs, betting venues, burlesque shows, video shows, massage parlours, strip clubs and exotic dance clubs. Kings Cross comes to life late at night. If not sure where to start then Darling Harbour has something for everyone and very popular during the warmer summer months. Legal brothels operate in Sydney and advertise openly in many free tourist magazines.
