Sydney Tips/Ideas from USA Today!

From USA Today this past weekend, they have this headline: "Planning your first trip to Sydney". Lots of interesting details, tips and ideas are contained within this profile. Plus, many picture options to check out, etc.

Here are a few of their story highlights: "Australia's largest city is also the jumping-off point for exploring Australia, and the city with the most inbound flights from North America. October to March is Sydney's busiest tourism period, when the weather is most pleasant. Airfares are cheaper for travel during Australia's winter months (the North American summer), and higher for the Australian summer. Qantas offers the most non-stop flights, including some on Airbus A380 aircraft from Dallas and L.A. Air New Zealand also flies to Sydney (sign up for both airlines' e-mail alerts since they often send out promo codes with discounts of $200-$300) as does United and Virgin Australia."

Here are a few other key details shared by USA Today: "Hotel rates go down in winter (the North American summer). In the luxury category, the 155-room Sydney Park Hyatt gets top marks, but the prices are a splurge (in the $700 per night range). But perhaps the best value, say TripAdvisor groupies, is the Pullman Quay Grand Sydney Harbor, which recently advertised rates at $160 per night. Top eats? There's no "traditional" Australian or Sydney dish or cuisine other than, perhaps, "shrimp on the barbie," made famous by actor Paul Hogan's appearances in those tourism television ads. But Sydney now has a considerable food culture, even though it's only been in existence for about 30 years. Australian beef is an especially tasty option. For fine dining, two highly recommended options are Nomad, 16 Foster Street in Surry Hills, with its Mediterranean-inspired menu sourced with local Australian ingredients, and long-running Rockpool, now in a new location at 11 Bridge Street in the Central Business District, where chef Neal Perry also provides tasty menus for Qantas."

This article brings back many great memories from our visit there a year ago. This includes about this personal favorite: "Tours of the Sydney Opera House, which, amazingly, took 17 years to build, are extremely popular and a great photo opportunity. The standard tour takes one hour, while the backstage option lasts two hours." We totally enjoyed both the Opera House basic tour and seeing an opera performance there in the Joan Sutherland Theatre.

Lots to love, see and do in Sydney!!

Full story at:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2015/02/28/sydney-australia/24131853/

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 100,533 views for this posting.

I'm not sure whether it was the fact-checking department or the proof-reading department that missed the howlers in this.

I'm with you Globaliser…..

some of it is just plain fairyland… and some of it is scarily wrong…. when did they change our voltage?

any Saturday night the rates for a room are horrendous…. this is irrespective of the time of year.

Plus we have so many other events on that during winter (which is actually also a very busy time as it is the vacation time for the Northern hemisphere and hotels know this) that rates are rarely a good find.

You can guarantee airfares domestically will be horrendous doing the first few weeks of July and also September.