SYDNEY ITINERARY

DAY 1: AIRPORT TO HOSTEL

DAY 2: ROYAL NATIONAL PARK – WEDDING CAKE ROCK- NORTH CRONULLA BEACH

DAY 3: I’M FREE WALKING TOURS SYDNEY – MANLY BEACH – KATOOMBA

DAY 4: BLUE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK- THREE SISTERS – BONDI JUNCTION – BONDI ICEBERGS CLUB:

DAY 5: BONDI BEACH – COASTAL WALK FROM BONDI TO COOGEE – TAMARAMA BEACH – REDFERN

DAY 6: REDFERN – SURRY HILLS – UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY – VICTORIA MARKET – OPERA HOUSE – ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN

DAY 7: SYDNEY DOMESTIC AIRPORT – MELBOURNE

Sydney is situated on Australia’s east coast and it is the state capital of New South Wales.

Everyone said Sydney is an expensive city, no doubt the cost of living here is high. My Sydney trip was mainly focused on sightseeing and exploring free things to do here.

I started to track the flight ticket price since a half year ago before my trip starts:

My Flight ticket:

RM422 (1 way from KL -Sydney, 20 kg check-in luggage) – Air Asia

RM270 (1 way from Sydney to Melbourne comes with 10 kg check-in luggage) – Tiger Air

RM 990 (1 way from Melbourne back to KL, 20 kg check-in luggage) – Air Asia

Total Flight Fares = RM 1682

Since I was visiting both cities of Sydney and Melbourne, here is a brief history between Sydney – Melbourne rivalry:

“There has been a long-standing rivalry between the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest cities in Australia. The rivalry between the cities was the reason that neither Sydney (the oldest and now largest city) nor Melbourne (the largest city at the time) was chosen as the capital of Australia when the nation was federated in 1901. Because of this disagreement, section 125 of the Australian Constitution specified that Melbourne would initially serve as the seat of government on a temporary basis, while the permanent capital of the new Commonwealth must be located within the area of New South Wales but at least 100 miles from Sydney. This city became Canberra.” ~ Wikipedia

OPAL CARD

It is a useful and convenient card to be used for public transports access. You may get the card once you have arrived at the airport.

Tip: For Opal Card, apparently after you have used $15 a day it is free. So you can use ferries (check which ones) buses metro etc all day and that saves you an awful lot of money.

As mentioned previously, On every Sunday, the public fares only cost AUS 2.70 per trip for the whole day.

SIM CARD

I took TELSTRA prepaid plan after comparing with other TELCO offer packages. You may compare all different packages at the airport.

 

DAY 1: CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT

From KL to Sydney it took 8 hours 25 mins on way. I arrived at Sydney airport at the local time around 820 pm. It’s rather a convenience from the airport to the city centre by taking public transport. I took the train (one-way costs $14.30) which only took 20 minutes to arrive at Sydney Central Business District aka CBD which is the main commercial centre of Sydney, the state capital of New South Wales.

Tip:  For safety purpose, as a solo female traveller if you are arriving your destination at night/midnight time, it is always good to book the accommodation which is easy access by the public transport and it is within walking distance from the bus stop/ train station.

During my travel time, most of my accommodation was booked via www.booking.com

I chose Big Hostel at that time as the location was rather a convenience, furthermore, they provide complimentary breakfast and kitchen utensils in this hostel which able us to prepare our own meals during our travel time.

There was nothing much I have done on day 1 due to the long flight and it was already late night here. Most major shopping centres close at 5 pm every day, with the exception of one night a week with what is so named ‘late night shopping’.

DAY 2: Royal National Park -Wedding Cake Rock

Prior to Sydney, I have searched online and looked for group activities that I could join when I was there. I like using Couchsurfing and Meetup apps to get to meet new friends.

Finally, I managed to know a girl from Indonesia who will be coming to Sydney the same week as me. She invited me to join a group trip to Royal National Park together with other travellers.

I met the team in the morning and in total 5 of us drove all the way to the Royal National Park. Initially, the group wanted to explore both wedding cake rock and Figure 8 Pools at Royal National Park Sydney. However, the road to Figure 8 Pool was closed.

If you plan to reach the park via public transport, I read somewhere. It requires you to catch the ferry from Cronulla to Bundeena (25 minutes trip and another 30 minutes’ walk through the village of Bundeena to get to Beachcomber Avenue.)

Admission: Free

Trekking to Wedding Cake Rock

It was an easy trail to walk into wedding cake rock and it’s a good exercise for all age group. Just remember to apply sunblock to prevent sunburn. Views along the way:

National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) have fenced off the actual rock for safety purpose.

 

North Cronulla Beach

We arrived at Cronulla which is a beachside of the suburb of Sydney :

And enjoyed a nice dinner at Eat Burger https://eatburger.co/

After the dinner, while most us already feel tired but there were two of them still trying to persuade to explore the nightlife in Sydney. I decided to go back to the hostel early and join the Free city tour tomorrow morning instead.

DAY 3: I’m Free Walking Tours Sydney

Another traveller, Intan that I have met yesterday decided to go together with me for the free city tour.

https://www.imfree.com.au/sydney/

1030am city tour and it took about 3 hours to walk around the city.

Tip: Remember to wear a comfortable shoe and prepare some money (as a tip) for the tour guide to appreciate his efforts and hard work of touring us around the city.

As mentioned previously, On every Sunday, the public fares only cost AUS 2.70 per trip for the whole day. Yes, it is only available every Sunday. We took this chance to take the ferry to Manly beach (where on a normal day it costs AUS $15 per trip).

It took 30 minutes ferry trip to reach the Manly town. Both of us were spontaneous enough to buy a set of bikini and took tons of pictures at the beach.

Thanks to Intan for the impromptu suggestion and it turned out a great memory for both of us.

Lastly, we took a Thai food since she missed Asian and spicy food a lot (she is currently a graduate student in Canberra)

Even though it was not a cheap meal here but we had a great time at Manly town.

Once I was back to the town, I went to the hostel and took my backpack and took a night train all the way to Katoomba for a 1-night stay at the mountain area. Again, it is worth to take the train to Katoomba since it only cost AUS 2.5 one way up to the mountain.

Tip: Remember to check the train schedule and departure time online (use google map), so that you know what time you should reach the train station. It will take 2 and 1/2 hours to arrive at the station and it was almost 1130pm when I arrived. The place was super quiet, to be honest, it was a bit scary at night and I had to walk for 5 minutes to arrive at the hostel.

However, once I have reached the hostel, I feel everything was worth and I wished I could stay there longer. I even checked online if I could extend one more night here and postpone my stay at Bondi tomorrow instead.

Anyway, it was another great day.

Day 4:

It was a quiet and refreshing early morning. The lovely host greets me nicely and mentioned if I would like to extend 1 more night at the hostel since I arrived late last night. Or else she mentioned I could stay at her place till late at night and catch the night train to Bondi beach instead.

The hostel provides a simple breakfast.

It was so nice till I tried to pour the second oats and made a mess where I dropped the whole muesli on the floor. I was shocked and screamed. Most of the other travellers were laughing.

The host was kind enough did not scold me and helped me to clean up my mess. What a wonderful way to start my day XD

Later, I tagged along other two travellers to walk up to Blue Mountain Park which takes about 20-30 minutes of walking from our hostel.

“The Three Sisters are an unusual rock formation in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, on the north escarpment of the Jamison Valley. They are close to the town of Katoomba and are one of the Blue Mountains’ best-known sites, towering above the Jamison Valley.[1] Their names are Meehni (922 m), Wimlah (918 m), and Gunnedoo (906 m).[2]”

After visiting the three sisters, I have decided to go back to the hostel and have some private time for reading and meditation.

I have decided to take the 630pm trip back to the central and transferred to Bondi Junction.

To be continued >>  Sydney Trip Part 2

More pictures: Instagram

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