Australia questions - as a tourist

Val

Hi! So, we've finally booked or trip to Australia & we're now refining the details so I'd love any recommendations you have for this itinerary (in Feb/March):

Days 1-5: Sydney, staying in Rocks area (on our list: opera house, climb bridge, zoo, walking around, Manly/Bondi?)

Days 6-12: Brisbane (staying with assorted ILs) but we'll have to entertain ourselves during the working week

Days 13-17 or 19: Port Douglas (plan so far is snorkeling/do helicopter ride over GBR/day trip to daintree & general beach/us time)

Days 18 or 20 to 27: Brisbane (ILs again)

Days 28-30: Sydney (Rocks area again) - what we missed first time around/enjoy not being on a plane before horrible flight back

I'd especially appreciate recommendations of things to do/see and places to eat/go for drinks in Sydney and Port Douglas as we'll be with locals in Brisbane... though as they don't go out much, do let me know if you have a favourite restaurant/bar to recommend and we can take them out one night :-)

wise_rita

Brisbane GTG?!

Knitty

Are you sure you want to spend so much time in Sydney? What about one night the first time and then get a car and drive to Brisbane? The NSW North coast is beautiful. Then you could do the Sydney tourist stuff in a couple of days before you leave.

http://www.holidaycoast.net.au/

bail229

If you are in Sydney that much you might want to ttake a day tour of the Hunter Valley (wine region), the Blue Mountains or even to Canberra. You can do a day tour from the city to all of these places.

bail229

Oh, and if you want to get up close to Aussie animals (feed the kangaroos, photos with koalas, that kind of stuff) I would recumbent Featherdale park (in Sydney western suburbs). I don't know if this is something you want to do or plan to do in another city. Park is fairly small (you would not need a full day) but there are a lot of animal encounters. Come to think of it, I think some of the tours to the blue mountains stop at Featherdale on the way.

gblake

My favorite restaurants in Brizzy are Char Char (it's a pricey steakhouse, but worth every penny. Get the Waygu cap rump, it's not listed on the menu). Bamboo Basket. The Smoke, it BBQ. Bamboo Basket and the Smoke are more laid back but the food is delicious. Also, I recommend Sono; a Japanese restaurant. Pricey sushi and what not, but delicious. They have two locations; one in the CBD and one Hamilton. I prefer Hamilton over the CBD.

gblake

And a Brisbane GTG sounds awesome!

allibally

If I had that much time in Sydney I would probably day trip out of the city for a day too. I wish I could of gone to the Blue Mountains.

I did get to go to Canberra I thought it was nice. I went on a tour of the old parliament house. We also checked out the Australian War Memorial too. It was stunning!

AmericanInOz

yea you definitely have enough time in Sydney to do a day trip - definitely do the blue mountains - it's gorgeous - definitely go to Leura - it is the cutest little town!!

a visit to the hunter valley is always lovely - beautiful wine region

manly is a great day trip - beautiful beach and you must do the walk from manly to shelley beach - its only like 10 minutes - but GORGEOUS!! lots of nice places to eat facing the beach too - if you're up for a big 'meat' meal try ribs n' rumps!

the Bondi to Cooggee walk is AMAZING - definitely worth doing - its long though - like an hour and a half - bring a hat - it's HOT but stunning

the rocks are nice - lovely to walk around and have a bite to eat

ditto bail - Featherdale is wonderful for seeing Australian wildlife up close (free photos with koalas & you can touch & feed the wallabies - very cool)

of course Targona zoo is a must too - fabulous & amazing views

 

Val

Thank you for the replies!

wise_rita/gblake - Brisbane GTG sounds great, I'll pm you closer to the time so we can organise something! Surely, the ILs will free me for a lunch/evening/something, right? right?

Re time in Sydney, the flight days are included in my count so it's actually 4 days at the start and 1.5 at the end and I'm expecting to be relatively comatose the first day to be honest.

Thank you for the recs! I'll look into the walks, Featherdale park (are you kidding bail, I absolutely must get close to koalas!) and a day trip to the blue mountains.

klingklang77

Ditto to what other people said- Bondi to Bronte or Coogee (depending on how ambitious you are!), Featherdale, day trip to Hunter or Blue Mountains. 

Some restaurants I liked when I lived in Sydney: Element Bistro

Rock Pool Bar and Grill ($$$$)

Red Oak Brewery (makes nice kangaroo) on Clarence street

Chinese Noodle Restaurant (yes, that's the name) for great cheap dumplings

I like Laksa House on the bottom of QVB for a nice lunch of laksa

Atom Thai in Newtown

Sultan's Table in Newtown (Newtown has great ethnic restaurants) for Turkish, good Indian in Surrey hills (I never went there as I lived south and I went to a nice restaurant there, but it's a bit out of the way for you)

people say Spice Siam is good for Thai, I wasn't a huge fan of it but it'll do

Doyle's for Fish platters and fish and chips

El Bulli for nice tapas in Randwick or Surrey Hills

Churasco (spelling?) on 60-70 William Street for all you can eat Brazilian BBQ, I can go on and on, I love the food there; I'm a big foodie!

For more restaurant suggestions check out www.eatablity.com.au. You can check for all the major cities.

If you decide to do a trip to the Blue Mountains, Avalon is a nice restaurant in Katoomba.