Tips for Planning Your Trip to Sydney, Australia

Tips for Planning Your Trip to Sydney, Australia

Article by Kim Allarie

Travelers who’ve been to Sydney, Australia often remark that the experience “changed their lives.” Some people talk of the laid-back, friendly atmosphere and the kindness of complete strangers who were so full of vivaciousness and creativity. Others may talk about the astounding beauty of the natural surroundings — the beaches, the mountains and the ocean, and even the man-made wonders like the Harbor Bridge or the Sydney Opera House. From the moment you heard those stories you wanted to go; you need to be there to experience it for yourself. Yet the question is how do you get from point A to point B?

To begin your Sydney holiday planning, you’re going to have to crunch some numbers. Yes, it’s ugly, but the inability to budget is what keeps so many Americans stuck in the U.S., rather than sunning themselves at Bondi Beach. Sit down and go over your fixed expenses, such as tuition, rent/mortgage, utility bills, food, car payments and other regularly scheduled deductions. Take your monthly income and subtract these fixed expenses, then divide by 4. Now you’ll have the number for how much you can sock away into your Sydney vacation fund each week. Well, you will want a little bit of spending money too, so you should leave yourself a small pittance for outings, gifts and unexpected expenses. Now, as you’re looking for hotels and airfares, you will know how much money you need to save by the time you’re ready to go Sydney.

When it comes to airfare, you can save a lot of money simply by deciding to travel at a certain time of year. For example, if you were leaving in October, you might pay upwards of ,000 for your ticket. But if you decide to visit Sydney in February, March or April instead, the same ticket would only cost about ,300.

The next step in planning your trip to Sydney is finding the best hotel deals, which is an area you could feasibly spend a small fortune on if you’re not careful. Trip Advisor is a decent place to start looking for flight and hotel packages or hot deals to Sydney, Australia. For instance, you could take a 14-night cruise on Holland America that stops in Sydney for 7.07/night. Or you can stay in a four-star Stamford Plaza hotel for just /night, saving 25% off the retail price from Deal Base. As you can see in the right-hand column, most of the top-rated hotels are between 0 and 0, so you may need to do a bit of digging around.

Lastly, you’ll want to read some vacation reviews and travel guides to decide what sort of activities you’ll want to do in Sydney, Australia. Popular travel guides exist at Fodor’s, Dorling Kindersley Travel Guides, Frommer’s, Planet Ware, the Sydney Morning Herald, Lonely Planet and the Sydney Backpacker’s Travel Guide. If you want a heads up on the best eateries, then you will find this information in the travel reviews at tripadvisor.com — whether you’re craving Asian cuisine at Tetsuya’s, Italian cuisine at Fratelli Paradiso, Aussie cuisine at Est, romantic dining at Cafe Sydney or just a simple breakfast at the Bourke Street Bakery.

About the Author

Vacations to Sydney are a delightful mix of marveling at modern wonders and walking along historic tree-lined streets. As the most populous city in Australia, a vacation in Sydney promises a vast array of different cultures brought together from places like England, India, China and Japan.