What do we do in Australia?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife just got a new job heading the North American operations for a company based in Australia (woo hoo!). She will be flying out to Sydney in a couple of weeks to meet the rest of the company, and then in another month or two, they’ve volunteered to fly me out as well when they bring her back for additional work stuff.

Now, we’ll admit that we’ve never had Australia too high on our list of travel destinations, compared to various other places in Europe, Asia, and South America. Part of the reason for this was reinforced recently as we were looking at Australian travel packages for ideas of what to do while we’re there. In short, Australia is perfect for people exactly unlike us!

We don’t like going to the beach. We don’t like to drink. We’re not really Cruise people (and she doesn’t know how to swim, so she’s always a little hinky around the water). We do love to hike and camp, but have heard so many things about the huge variety of poisonous snakes in the outback (thank you, late Crocodile Hunter guy!) that she’s terrified of doing anything more suited to that part of our limited outdoorsy nature.

Essentially, we’re urbanites. We love big city living/exploring/dining/culture hunting (but not shopping). And while Sydney looks beautiful, it looks beautiful in a San Diego kind of way (please note–that is not a compliment; I grew up in SD and would be overjoyed never to have to go back). We’re more SF/Boston/Chicago types of folk.

So, what the heck do we do in Australia?!? Yes, I’m sure we will visit the beach (once), cruise the harbor (once), etc. But at the prospect of us going back repeatedly, what are some of the things that we’re missing from the travel sites that are more up our interest alley? The prospect of going there really does excite us, but we want to know there will be things we enjoy when we get there! Help!

2

My (admittedly limited) experience of Sydney suggests it is one hell of a city that badly kicks San Diego’s butt and easily rises to SF/Boston/Chicago standards. YMMV, and more knowledgeable posters will soon be along to elaborate.

3

Well, there are certainly large cities here, but the country’s population is only around 20million, so you’ll have to perhaps factor that in when you consider what there is on offer. We certainly have museums, theatre, exhibitions etc, but if you try to judge things by your SF/Boston/Chicago standards continually, you may be disappointed. Sorry if I have misinterpreted your OP, but some people do continually compare back to what they know when they travel, and it can do the location a disservice. Enjoy it for what it is, since you’ll be out here for only a short time.

If you take a broad-minded approach to what this country does have to offer (and yes, that means its spectacular nature at times, regardless of whether your wife doesn’t like the thought of the widlife!), you may enjoy yourselves. You can’t deny that one of the major appeals of Australia is how close you are to the beaches, the bush, and nature, and it’s not as scary as it seems from afar. So perhaps no cruises - but what about paddling around on Bondi Beach? Or a walk into the Blue Mountains?

I’m a pale-skinned non-drinker here, who has lived in the US and London, and I do love it here - for the quality of life, and the attitudes. I live in Melbourne, and you will notice that each city has it’s own flavour - Sydney is considered more brash and lively, Melbourne more arty and cultured, Brisbane very laid back etc.

In Melbourne I like the shopping (lots of little alleyways with interesting independent boutiques), the food (an amazing mix of cultures arrived in Melbourne over the past 60 years, each colonising a little bit of the city and bringing their own cuisine), the ability to exercise between the city and nature (I cycle along the beach between the different suburbs). It’s relaxed but pretty, with lots of period housing from the turn of the century. Short drives out of the city take you to smaller towns in the hills (although recently the fires have affected that), beautiful vineyards (and most have a foodie aspect as well, in case wine is not your thing), spa towns, nature reserves and historic settlements.

Sydney is a beautiful city - spectacular location, and has a great energy, although I probably wouldn’t live there myself - great if you’re only dropping in occasionally. I’ll leave someone else to talk about what you’ll get there.

4

You don’t think you could find anything to do in a country the size of the contiguous US, with diverse and unique landscapes, enviroments, cities and cultures?

I’ll let you in on a little secret: 21 million people manage to live here amongst the poisonous snakes and spiders with a bare minimum of fuss. A lot of them even have active outdoorsy lives, go camping and hiking regularly and enjoy themselves and never get bitten by anything more venomous than a mosquito. We do not check that the Last Will and Testament is up-to-date before heading off for a weekend in the bush because we expect to come back alive even though we know the venomous critters are there. If you avoid leaving the urban areas because of a fear of being bitten by something then you are giving up the chance to have a wonderful time in some beautiful and awe-inspiring settings over a risk that’s probably smaller than the one you took climbing on the plane to get over here in the first place.

5

Paging C3, too…

American expat here. You’ve just upset the Australians, and I can understand why, and Cazzle summed it up nicely anyway. Need to check the American arrogance at the door, please.

Also, please forget everything Steve Irwin taught you. He was a great bloke, but he was in Far North Queensland. This is Sydney, it’s a major metropolitan city. I’ve lived in SF and visited Chicago and SD, Sydney is more like SF than SD.

I also don’t know what you mean about “cruise people”? If you mean harbour cruises, that’s what tourists do, although a dinner cruise in the dark is lovely.

What DO you fancy? If you have a car and a day, go to the Blue Mountains and do a guided bushwalk there. They are absolutly lovely. See the Three Sisters. Learn about Wollemi Pines. If you’re still too worried about snakes and spiders, go the Mt. Annan botanical garden.

Get some history tours, the Rocks is great. The Opera house is a must. Do a Bridge climb, that’s great views a heaps of fun. Learn a bit about the city before you come, there’s a lot of very cool stuff here.

Do you like parks and people watching? The Domain, Hyde Park, Mrs. Macquaries Chair. Do you like seafood? Take the ferry to Watson’s Bay and eat there. Check out the Gap and marvel at the beauty of the place. Anywhere on the heads is just lovely - it’s not all Bondi beach, it’s wild ocean, you don’t swim there.

Like food? The mix of food and cultures here is amazing. Lebanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, African, Thai, Greek, Italian, all sorts. There’s 4 star restaurants here, if you have six months in advance to book.

High tea at The Queen Victoria building at Town Hall is good. Remember that public transport here is cheap and safe (and occasionally on time, but never very late.) North Sydney is often overlooked, but it’s where most of the American expats fetch up, for some reason. It’s a bit upscale white-bread for my taste, but there’s some very nice shops there and Crow’s Nest is a fabulous place to eat.

Try Toronga Zoo, it’s very beautifully done and has lots of education programs (which, not to be snarky, but it sounds like you could use a few.)

If you want to get out of Sydney proper, try Newtown, and eat your way down King Street (another plug for my suburb, LOL!). Try Leichardt, and go to the Italian Forum there. See what’s on at the Enmore Theatre if you want a small, intimate show - although of course we do have an arena and do get the international acts, too. We’re not about to slide off the world.

Cafes are a good way to start your morning, with real coffee that’s not Starbucks crap. I never knew what real coffee was till I moved here. (Though there is more than one Starbucks in town.)

Take a day trip to Melbourne, if you want to fly (less than an hour, then another hour by cab to the city.) It’s a gorgeously beautiful city, but I’ve only been there a few times so someone else can tell you about it.

If you DON’T know how to swim, don’t go in the ocean above your knees. Kids here are taught to swim from a young age.

What are you into other than vaugely taking walks? You’re not getting to the “outback” anyway unless you put in some serious travel time, which if your wife is here on business is not happening.

6

I’d recommend a trip to Margaret River if you have time, except I haven’t been there so I can’t speak from personal knowledge. Everyone I know who has been there loved it, though. You can do interesting wine tours, I am told, which sounds like something that might fit with your interests.

Also, in Sydney near the harbor we ate at the best dim sum restaurant we have ever been to. And I say this as someone who has eaten dim sum in Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia. I wish I could be more specific about the place and name, but if it is still around (this was 6 or more years ago) I imagine you can find it. Damn it was good - unbelievable selection, and every single dish was perfectly made.

7

Come to one of the concerts by my choir.

8

I certainly meant absolutely no offense by the OP, though I don’t see anything arrogant in its content (“elitist”, maybe ;)). I have no doubt that there’s some amazing things to do and see there, which is why I asked in the first place! We love to travel and always go into every new city and country with open minds and hearts; if anything, I just wanted some of the stereotypes (stereotypes, I should add, somewhat reinforced by the travel packages I referred to) dispelled. We are excited about the trip, but wanted some specific ideas about what we should do (especially non-touristy excursions), as well as get some reassurance about our no-doubt-irrational fears (since we do love roughin’ it, though half-ton bears don’t scare us as much as venom-induced death paranoia does).

To that end, thanks to Gleena, CairoCarol, and Girl from Mars for the suggestions, and we would love to check out your choir, Cunctator, if the schedule align themselves accordingly.

9

How serious about hiking are you? Do you have time to head down to Tasmania? The Cradle Mountain / Lake St. Claire Park area is beautiful. Hobart (the capital) may be a little small for you, but there’s plenty of history in places like Port Arthur (where the worst of the worst of Oz’s convicts were sent).

In my experience Tasmania was less like the mainland and more like New Zealand. It didn’t have the picture-postcard Southern Alps, but the flora and fauna were more interesting than was New Zealand’s.

ETA: I’m not from Oz, so the natives may wade in here and disabuse you of anything I’ve said here… :slight_smile:

10

You’re welcome. Sorry if I was harsh on you, but it came out very badly. It’s difficult to judge tone on the net, I suppose. I’m sorry if I misunderstood.

I haven’t looked at any travel packages to be honest, although I can see them pushing the beachy aspect of Sydney (and to be fair, I hate beaches but these are beautiful.)

Also, try the Hunter Valley for winery tours, which is a bit closer than the Margaret, I think. (Which is my way of saying…Margaret River, I think that’s in South Australia, innit?) Even if you don’t drink as a rule, wine tasting is quite nice and do get some cheeses, too.

Darling Harbour is full of stuff to do, Powerhouse Museum, Aquarium, and food. There’s the Art museum, Hyde Park Barracks, and Customs House.

So yeah, all sorts. Love it here, never going back! :slight_smile:

11

Margaret River is way across in the South Western corner of WA… Only way you could get further away from Sydney and remain in country would be to swim to Rottnest Island. :wink:

If you are planning on getting out and about and have a little time, I would throw my hat in and advise “Going Bush”. Get yourselves inland for a while. This country has such a varied environment that you can find anything that could possibly tickle your fancy. Wether it’s Snow (At certain times of the year), desert, rainforest etc…

And as the other posters have mentioned, don’t worry too much about the toothy/venomous death aspect animal related incidents are so rare, they are still considered as mainstream news-worthy when they happen.

12

Ahh, us poor West Aussies, on the rare occasion we do get recognised, nobody knows our name.

Margaret River is a beautiful place (as is most of the South West), but unfortunately a 5 hour flight from Sydney to Perth, followed by a 3 1/2 drive.

As others have suggested, Melbourne is only a short flight from Sydney and is arguably Australia’s culture capital. Fantastic food and always something to see or do. In fact, if you’re there in the month of April, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is well worth checking out.

13

I think you should read the OP once again with an unbiased eye.

I’m tempted to say to you, “Stay home, hang on to your ignorant tourist-information-derived stereotypes and don’t darken our shores”.

I spent the first twenty-five years of my life as a US citizen living a middle-class life in the US. I migrated to Australia in 1971 and have lived here ever since. I think I can speak from a wealth of experience. Australia is so much more than what you see in the tourist brochures. Open up your mind and treat the visit as a learning experience. Try to quietly absorb the quintessential culture of Australia. You don’t even need to visit the pub or the beach or the bush to achieve this. Keep your bloody mouth shut and just watch and listen and watch and listen. Try to act much like a spy, gathering all the information you possibly can. And keep your bloody mouth shut or you’ll break your cover.

And drop your attitude quickly and completely or you might as well stay home, hang on to your ignorant tourist-information-derived stereotypes and don’t darken our shores.

14

Funnily enough, I was born here in 'Straya and lived here all my life, and the OP offended me not at all, really.

Let’s be fair; most of what makes it off-shore is all Crocodile Hunter, Paul Hogan and other associated crap - other than that, we only ever turn up on OMG World Most Deadliest Snakes/Spiders/Octopi!!! television specials, so no wonder folks have the wrong idea about us.

Also, until I visited the States I had no idea how bloody ubiquitous their spiders are. I was walking into webs all over the place. Suddenly I realised why they’re so petrified, and I cut Americans a lot of slack where that’s concerned now.

For the record: spiders and snakes can be dangerous. You may never see a snake in your entire life if you don’t live in the rural/country-ish areas or go hiking. If you do see them, they’re generally* fairly placid if you don’t go provoking them, and more likely to want to get away from you than attack you. Also, spiders are icky but you’ll find one in your house very rarely and even then it’s usually the generic, ugly-but-harmless garden spiders. Personally, spiders just creep me out, so I get my house sprayed for them annually (they gas the roof cavity with pyrethrum) and lo, I see no spiders, earwigs, or other butt-ugly creepy-critters in my home.

Of course, if you’re crazy enough to move to a state that has it’s own specially-branded Funnelweb spider, then you deserve everything you get. (Just kidding! :D)

Personally, I wouldn’t go camping if you paid me, so I don’t know what the wildlife is like if you go and deliberately inflict yourself on it. (Camping isn’t fun, it’s work. Unpleasant work, in an environment that lacks comfort and essential facilities. Bleh.)

15

I’ve lived in Australia for ten years, and have never seen a snake, or a dangerous spider, at all (apart from in Zoos).

But then, I still get excited if I see a kangaroo in a field.

16

Even so, we’re expected to know that the US isn’t just the stereotypes we see on TV, so I think it should go both ways.

And yes, I did find the OP a wee bit offensive. Sorry, but we’re not a continent-sized Theme Park here for the exclusive enjoyment of ill-informed Americans who didn’t realise there was even a country here until they got off the plane. Not saying you’re like that, ArchiveGuy, but we get a lot of American tourists here who are, and our collective patience with them gets a bit stretched at times.

I strongly suggest you buy Lonely Planet: Australia and read it in its entirety; it’s an excellent book for the sort of travel you’re planning and will help clue you in to a lot of things you might otherwise miss.

17

For the record, I wasn’t so much offended that the OP was dissing Australia as irritated that he’d write off a whole country as uninteresting based on tourism brochures. I’d find it pretty irritating to see any country dismissed as nothing interesting to see, uh-oh poisonous wildlife so let’s not go outdoors, haven’t been to the city yet but looks like some place I don’t like, groan that we’re being sent there, tell us something to make it seem less dismal. That’s how the OP read to me. C’mon! It’s a whole other country, different people, different way of life… get off the plane and spend an afternoon on it’s soil before you make up your mind that it’s not for people like you! You might just find it’s the best experience of your life and even if it’s not… well, you get a whole new topic to drop into conversation, you get to argue an informed point of view on “Things that suck about Australia” threads, you get a whole bunch of snapshots in an exotic location, you get to work on your Australian accent - G’day mate! Owzitgoan? - and you get to go back home again when the job is finished.

I can’t tell you a thing about Sydney or New South Wales, but I can tell you about the places near me to give you an idea of how diverse Australia is.

If I drive south for 40 minutes, I arrive here - Tarra Bulga, a cool temperate rainforest. I’ve been there so many times and have never seen either a snake or a spider there - although I’m positive that there are snakes (including highly venomous ones) in the park, they are not something you’ll be tripping over with each step you take. What I have seen there is a lyre bird (video link), a most remarkable little bird. I think the fires have done some renovations to the park, but it will regenerate in time.

If I drive north for about 70 minutes, I’ll get to Mt Saint Gwinear, which in winter is a ski resort. There’s better skiing around if you drive a bit further, but at little over an hour’s drive away, it’s an easy day trip. Along the way, I could detour a bit and visit Walhalla, a relic of the goldmining days with a population of… 8, if I recall correctly. I just love Walhalla, it’s gorgeous, but there’s hardly a flat spot of land in the whole town. Check out the location of the Fire Station.

If I drive east/north east for about two and a quarter hours, I’ll arrive at Lakes Entrance, gateway to the Gippsland Lakes and situated on the Ninety Mile Beach which, as the name says, is about 90 (ok, 94) miles of this. Third longest uninterrupted stretch of beach in the world, I’m lead to believe.

If I drive south west for two and a half hours, I’ll find myself on Phillip Island. Is it any good? Well, 3.5 million tourists a year can’t be wrong. Phillip Island is the home of the Koala Sanctuary, with a tree top walk that will get you as close to the koalas as they feel like letting you, and the penguin parade among other attractions. If you visit Melbourne for more than a couple of days and you want to get to see some Australian native animals up close, try to make the time to see Phillip Island.

True, there’s a chance at the moment that it may burn down but come winter the fires will be out, and if it’s still around then Healesville Sanctuary is less than 2 and a half hours drive west/north west from where I live and is another great spot to see Australian native animals, though in more of a zoo setting. This is where I’ve seen the majority of the snakes I’ve ever seen in my life - thankfully, behind glass. The platypus was the highlight of the visit for me. He was zooming around his tank so joyfully, he looked like he was having a great time! If the native animals don’t do it for you, the rest of the Dandenong ranges are quite picturesque and there’s a number of wineries that can make the day pass quite nicely.

As forMelbourne (2 hours west)… where to start? There are so many shops, so many sights, so many galleries… the museum was a bit naff last time I was there but the price was right (cheap as free!). I tend to make a beeline for the state library because I’ll snatch any chance I can get to go prowling through old papers for death notices but I realise that’s not everyone’s idea of a nice afternoon.

So… that’s a small slice of places I know best, in roughly 1 quarter of the state I live in, the second smallest state in the country (third smallest if you count territories too). If you can’t find something to hold your interest in the whole country then I say you’re not looking hard enough.

18

As someone residing in Perth, I can assure you Margaret River is a nice place. But it has beaches and bush- something the OP with his attitude may not appreciate.

However, we do have sufficient large cities here where you will find little about the true Australia. Or whatever.

Gleena, when we have time we must have a geography lesson :slight_smile: Steve Irwin was based in Caloundra, just north of Brisbane. Hardly far North Qld. He was in Nith Qld when he croaked.

19

I believe that some years ago a former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, quite accurately referred to Sydney as being the cultural centre of Australia. One of the few things that he and I have ever agreed on.

That said, Australia has almost the complete range of possible climates and environments to select from.

If it’s venomous toads, snakes, spiders and crocodiles you want, then head off to North Queensland or Darwin. If it’s bush fires, head off to Victoria, if it’s white pointers, head off to South Australia, if it’s seven ounce beers, head off to Perth. If it’s skiing, stay where you are. The ski season doesn’t start in Australia for another three months or so.

20

If you like dining, then Australia is the place to be. Sydney is wonderfully multicultural, with a huge selection of excellent restaurants and cafes to choose from.
Some of my favourites (with suburb in brackets) are Sri Lankan (Homebush), Lebanese (Campsie & Dulwich Hill), Vietnameese (Cabramatta), Greek (City), Portuguese (Petersham), Everything (Newtown). And you can get good coffee at any decent cafe - but you cant go wrong in Haberfield or Leichhardt.

Here is a link to gourmet safaris in Sydney. I haven’t been on a tour and they seem to be heavily booked out - but you can get some ides from the site.

Also just go for a wander around the south end of the CBD and explore the shops.