Hi - born and bred Sydneysider here. But I have been to various states in the US a LOT. Sydney is more like SanFran (always 10 years prior, and rather flatter) and Melbourne like Boston than any other cities in the States.
Maybe if you give us an idea of what you enjoy we might be able to suggest things. Have you searched any of the previous threads on what to do when in Sydney/Aus?
Will you be driving or using public transport? (Affects whether we suggest day/weekend trips).
Where in Sydney are you staying? (Suburb). If it is Parramatta for 2 days there is not a lot of point recommending a ferry trip to Manly.
Are you totally abstemious or social drinkers? (Affects whether we suggest wineries).
Collect art? Jewellry? Books? Like photography?
Will you be visiting other cities? One thing that always seems to surprise overseas visitors is the sheer size of this country. It is roughly the area of the continental USA, with about 10% of the population, most of whom live in Sydney and Melbourne. Weekend driving trips to the next state capital are out, assuming you want to see anything at the other end!
Leave the tour websites alone - no good will come of them. Try the tourist bureau ones as an example. And if you can do a day trip from Sydney, the Jenolan Caves are worth a look.
Interesting; I found San Francisco to be an incredibly uninteresting city with little to do for the casual tourist (with the major exception of Alcatraz), whilst Sydney is just chock-full of interesting places to go and things to see etc.
San Francisco and Auckland (New Zealand) have a lot in common though, IMHO.
And FWIW, I read the OP the same way Cazzle did. Didn’t take offense, but got the same flavour. And on re-reading, it still comes over as “persuade me why I should deign to leave the hotel room in your grubby little country.” From your subsequent posting, that isn’t what you meant. There may be a clash of communication styles.
Give us more info and I am sure we will be able to help you find things to do.
He was based in Beerwah - or at least, that’s where Australia Zoo is, in the Glasshouse Mountains near the Sunshine Coast. He did a lot of his in Australia filmwork up in FNQ and Cape York. So unless he was at Australia Zoo that’s what you were seeing on camera.
So we’re both right, really. (Sorry, huge fan I must say, it’s the American in me, I can’t help it!)
On the other hand, my vauge idea of the location of the Margaret River failed me utterly. I knew it was Not Here, which generally means it’s Out There! Or it means, “Hey honey, where is…?”
Huh, I remember reading that post of yours about San Fransisco, and wondering which one you visited. I almost replied but just thought different strokes, you know? It’s got an amazing amount of stuff to do in and around the city.
I might be biased, it’s my second favorite place on earth, though. (Sydney is first.)
Well, to be fair, when I said I was going to America for six weeks, there were a LOT of people whose response to that information was a variant on ‘Uh, WHY?’, as though there was nothing of value in the US and all things cultural and entertaining must be sourced in Europe or something.
So, y’know, it does go both ways. We can be pretty ignorant of anything US-based if it’s not found on a television series.
I guess a couple of years ago I would have been highly irritated by the OP’s tone, but having been on the opposite end of that conversation and having to explain that the US isn’t wall-to-wall maniacs with guns and that I was highly unlikely to be murdered as soon as I stepped off the plane, I’m now kind of embarrassed for both our countries when it comes to this kind of discussion and just like to quietly help set things straight.
I think the ‘horror of guns’ is the Aussie equivalent of the US ‘horror of spiders’. Except I’m sure you’re considerably less likely to get bitten by a spider in Australia than you are to be shot in the US.
By the way, I had a ball in San Francisco. LOVED the Palace of Fine Arts, and we walked all over. We walked 11 miles in one day, covering the wharf, Chinatown, the Japanese area, the Castro and pretty much everything in between. And we still didn’t even get to Alcatraz.
Don’t think bagging ArchiveGuy or being rude about his wife will help improve our communication any. I made my comment because if he accepts that many people read his OP the same way, then he has the choice of understanding that there is a communication clash, and doing differently next time (or not!!).
Oddly, though I would never think of trying to persuade an abstemious person to try drinking (well, not early in the evening when still sober myself :)), my reaction to the “not liking water” bit was to think “but you HAVE to learn how to go in the surf - for safety if nothing else”. And that’s not rational - it would be (counts on fingers, then toes - runs out of digits ) many many years since I went into the surf.
[whisper audible to Aussies only]He’s onto the drop-bears. We could, however, tell him that no-one ever, ever takes their shoes off at the door before going into someone’s house[/watAo]
And not all Australians are terrified of guns, you know.
We did a lot of walking but just weren’t impressed by what we saw. I can see why some people like San Francisco but ultimately I can’t think of a compelling reason to bother visiting again.
I understand - I had no interest in going to the US before the first time I happened to go there (trailing spouse deal, plus my best friend moved there so I needed to visit). Now my attitiude to any overseas trip is “People live there, and move there, so there must be fun things to do there. I will always find things to do after I arrive”. I am almost never disappointed. And I try to always leave one thing on my list unfulfilled so I have a reason to go back.
ArchiveGuy, please update with more info so we can suggest activities. Meanwhile, as background briefing, I suggest you watch The Games. Maybe from NetFlix?
Although the Ugly American stereotype does indeed exist, it’s often hard to tell how pervasive it actually is in Real Life since my wife and I usually don’t travel in those kinds of packs or seek out the ultra-touristy places and activities that act as magnets for that behavior. But if I hadn’t made it clear in the OP, we are quite enthusiastic about going, and never feel a sense of entitlement about being “entertained” no matter where we are. We like discovering unique things for ourselves, but are ready to admit that sometimes, guideposts can help.
Our intent is always to accept the city and culture on its own terms, and find the things we do like to do but also things we’ve never really tried before. There may be some experiences that “define” a place, and we want to try those, but we also like to be spontaneous and not take a managed, sheltered, scripted approach to a new location. It’s a mixed bag, because there are some things we like and some things we don’t, but we’re always game if its got enough enthusiasts. But being half-way across the world, the Australia cliches are hard to surmount, simply because of scant information alone (I checked two weeks of Travel Channel programming, and couldn’t find one show on the continent).
I could go to any ol’ site, but I trust Dopers (I have plenty of travel threads here soliciting info on an upcoming trip); if anything, the OP was made out of haste–this job has come as quite an unexpected surprise to us, having learned about her hiring only 48 hours ago. So while Australia wasn’t ever on the top of a travel list (not because there’s anything wrong w/Australia; there were simply plenty of other places we’d always imagined visiting first), we are genuinely excited about going but had to admit that we didn’t know much and wanted some more personal Inside Scoop. My thanks, again, to those who took that inquiry in the spirit it was intended and apologies, again, to those I insulted in the process.
Thanks for your patience. Like I said, we like “city” activities–cultural events, street fairs and festivals, museums and historic districts, walking tours and shopping nooks (small personal stores, not malls or outlets). Yes, lots of non-metropolitan areas offer these, but cities tend to offer them in larger quantities and varities, and we find exploring/wandering can often be the best way to discover a city. However, some cities–like San Diego–are not pedestrian friendly or do not offer good public transit; Sydney may have phenomenal bus and subway systems, but we don’t know one way or the other right now. And our enjoyment of a place is often inversely proportional to how much time you need to spend in a car to navigate it.
Road and day trips are a separate thing; we love doing both (by car or train), and we do love to go hiking and camping. We visit at least one US national park every year for outdoorsy activity, but prefer the ones without tons of gift shops over those which seem set up to insulate people from the Nature Stuff. How commercial is it out there? If anything, the personality stereotype of Australians–fun-loving, casual and carefree–encourages us that we’ll get along there fine. But if all we’re doing is stuff surrounded by other tourists, that sort of defeats the purpose for us; so the smaller experiences, ones that may be atypical (or simply less well-publicized) but worth the effort are the things we’re looking for the most.
I’ve enjoyed reading many of the suggestions so far, so thanks again for all the input.
I’ve wanted to go to Australia since I was a little girl. I even had an Australia fund before the kids came along and stripped me of all my money, not to mention half my mind.
I still intend to visit Australia one day, but it’ll have to wait til we retire, I’m afraid. I find the 24 hour commute too daunting unless I have 3-4 weeks to spend on the other end.
OP, your wife’s company undoubtedly has some resources for you. I’m sure they’d be happy to steer you towards activities that will complement your personality.
Respectfully, you spent two weeks watching TV for information but haven’t purchased a guidebook written by people who live here?
I see your point (not much information on Australia in the US) but Australia is more of a “Destination Location” than a General Holiday Spot; ie you come here because there’s something specific you want to do (Ride the Indian Pacific railway, go skiing at Thedbo, rainforest hiking in Far North Queensland, Outback Safari somewhere, climb Ayer’s Rock in the Northern Territory etc) rather than “Hey, let’s go to Australia and see what’s there!”
I’m going to be truthfully honest with you, ArchiveGuy: I think you’re going to be bored shitless here.
All that sort of stuff you mentioned (shopping nooks, historic areas) is confined to a fairly small part of Sydney (The Rocks). In most other respects, Sydney is like any other large metropolitan city, so you may be disappointed by that.
Australia is a BIG country. Huge. You can’t really do “Day Trips” from any of the major cities to anywhere else of interest, for the most part., with a few exceptions noted elsewhere in the thread.
The National Parks here are completely unlike the US ones; they’re (generally) just an area on the map marked “National Park” that you’re not allowed to go hunting in. There’s usually nothing to “see” there except trees or desert, which is fine if you like trees or desert, but based on your posts I honestly can’t help but feel you’re going to be standing there saying “Well this isn’t very impressive.”
Sydney’s public transport is notoriously inefficient, slow, and strike/breakdown-plagued, FWIW. I can’t speak for the cultural scene in Sydney but I’m told it’s pretty vibrant, and Melbourne gets all the best Theatre productions (I like Melbourne, FWIW).
One other thing: in Australia we drive on the left hand side of the road, with the driver sitting on the right hand side of the car. Central Sydney is NOT the place to try and get used to that.
Also, we use a different power supply to the US- we’re on 240v 50Hz, which means the only electronics from the US that will work here are your laptop and your cellphone charger, and that’s provided they’re dual voltage (look on the charger or adaptor; it should say “input 100-240v 50/60hz” or something with approximate numbers). You’ll need a plug adaptor, but they’re not expensive.
As for finding non-touristy “unique experiences”: Good luck, and I don’t mean that in a snarky way. Remember how we said how empty Australia is? If there’s no-one else around (ie other tourists/people), there’s a reason for it.
Unfortunately, Australia’s tourism advertising has been relying on the “Crocodile Dundee/Steve Irwin/Mystical Aboriginals” thing for entirely too long and it has NOTHING to do with what this country is actually like. Some of that stuff does exist- in Far North Queensland, which is nowhere near Sydney.
Um…no, not really, it’s the entire inner west, which is FAR off the beaten track but easy to get to.
Lateish, yeah - 10, 15 min now and again. Strike plagued? We get the occasionally all morning bus strike. Like, once a year? Slow? Nah, quicker then driving in the city. Sorry, I don’t agree. People like to bash CityRail and it’s corrupt as hell but the service is ok. Not steallar, but safe, reasonably clean, and somewhat on time.
I completely agree with this. Right down to the fact that the thing that will surpise ArchiveGuy the most is that most people will sound “British” to American ears because few people sound like Irwin/Hogan.
Fair enough; I’ll defer to you. I’ve got a couple of friends in Sydney and they’re constantly lamenting how the trains never run on time and the drivers seem to go on strike a lot for no particular reason. And it’s “Slow” in the sense that getting from anywhere to anywhere else just takes a long time, IMHO. Yes, it’s faster than driving, but it’s still time consuming in my experience.
(Sorry, huge fan I must say, it’s the American in me, I can’t help it!)
