Headed for Australia
 

We will be visiting Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

Any 'absolute must see' locations, events?

I am a big architecture fan, and we dig being off the beaten path and hanging with locals. We will have a 2.5 year old in tow. She is a trooper, but rave partys or white water rafting are off limits.

Any REALLY nice places in Sydney to stay. Less than $500 a night.

July 28th through August 16th.

Of couse its the middle of winter in AU right now......

I loved Sydney and there is a lot to see there. Take the elevated shuttle around town and you can see it all, then get off and explore.

Have not made it to any of the rest of Oz but hear some of its very nice. Meet up with some Pelicans down there and have them show you the sights!

the architecture biggies for sydney are the obvious ones: opera house and harbour bridge. queen victoria building (qvb) for shopping. for the latter, pre book a bridge climb. the blue mountains are beautiful and only 60-90 mins away (train available). a harbour cruise is a must do also.

lots of great restuarants and bars especially in the eastern suburbs like paddington and surry hills. prasit's thai (crown st) looks low rent but the food is unbelievable and sub US$20 a head.

most 5 star hotels in the city should be sub US$500. the hilton has just been redone and is right in the middle of the cbd. some good stuff on the harbour too.

i'm biased (moved here 12 years ago from perth) but i think sydney is one of the best cities in the world. shoot me a pm closer to your arrival date and we'll try and arrange a beer/meal etc

You can stay at any 5 star hotel in Sydney for less than $500 per night. The Four Seasons (George St, The Rocks, just 1km or so from the CBD) generally has the best service.

If you can't get a room at the Four Seasons, then try the Park Hyatt, Shangri-la (but make sure you get a newly renovated room), Westin and Intercontinental, in that order.

However note that all the above 5 star hotels are only 4 star by international standards. Until Emerites opens its new 6 star resort in the Blue Mountains, you're not going to get true 5 star service anywhere in New South Wales. Note that I didn't even mention the Hilton. The service is nowhere as good as it should be, the rooms are stark and the windows are small. The problem with service in Australian hotels is that the majority of hotel workers in Australia have the attitude that, "I'm not beneath you", and as such rarely go out of their way to please guests. Furthermore, the fact that they rely on tips much less here than in the US does not help improve service levels at all.

Aside from prestige accommodation issues, Sydney is a pretty good city. :)

BTW are you in Sydney from July 28 - August 16th or is that your time in Australia in total?

Below is an illustration of the service problems from an email conversation I had with a friend who stays in Sydney hotels (and hotels around the world for that matter) very regularly. He's graduated from one of the world's best hotel management schools, and has lived and travelled on just about every continent. Of course it's just one person's opinion, but from what I have heard from other sources it's just about bang on.


""
Service in Aus isn’t up to US standards for the same hotels. It’s the whole "I’m not beneath you complex, so I’m not going to bend over backwards to serve you. In big us cities all the employees are immigrants so they don’t mind serving you the customer and they respect you; they know they have to work for their money from tips. And in the South and Midwest they don’t think they're beneath you but they are genuinely pleasant so it makes up for it. 5 star hotels in the US have good staff. Asia of course is completely subservient as with Latin America and Africa and in Europe its not subservient but they have a tradition of fine service. So we are pretty much just ****ed here (Australia) ****ing work shy peasants. ****ing convict blood.""

Moral of the story? Don't expect too much from Australian hotel workers, and you'll have an absolutely great trip. :)

Re: Headed for Australia
 

In Sydney we always stay at The Observatory. Small hotel - at which you can usually get a good deal - but very, very nice - and great location.

A million must sees! Get some good guide books and read up. Rent the Billy Connolly series on Australia (on DVD) - that will get you started.

Yeah, in Sydney, do the harbour cruise or at least jump on one of the ferries.

You Aussies need to help him out more on the "off the beaten path and hang with the locals", I reckon. More recently when I've been to Sydney I've been hanging around in some of the inner city suburbs and its been great (Paddington, Surrey Hills, inner west).

And I can't believe there has been no "Melbourne is better" spam yet either :)

"And I can't believe there has been no "Melbourne is better" spam yet either"
Well it has to be believable to be worth spamming :)

If you've got a spare day it's worth getting out of the cbd and doing a drive down south (i'm biassed living down this way). You can see some great ocean scenery, valleys, waterfalls etc. Hire something like an mx5 from a local company & if you're interested I'll send you a little map with a fun route or meet up on the day for a drive. You won't see any tourist buses but will see some lovely sights & quite a bit of wildlife.

Around the cbd I'd recommend getting hold of a brochure that's available down at circular quay (and probably in all of the hotels) titled 'walking around sydney' or similar. It's all pretty easy stuff & gets you off the beaten path, while still being in the thick of things. If you don't want to do a guided harbour tour, the ferry to watsons bay is quite nice, with doyles on the water offering a casual seafood lunch. It's a short walk up the hill to a coastal track with some nice harbour & ocean views. If you feel like a lengthy walk (not sure how the little one would go), you can pretty much walk all the way to the eastern suburbs beaches. A shorter stroll along the harbour foreshore from Watsons bay should give you some semi-interesting architecture of the housing variety to look at.

If you've never done a twilight or dawn zoo experience before, Taronga Park Zoo offers (or used to ) a feeding type tour that's a bit different. The zoo's not big by international standards but it is set on the harbour which has its own benefits.

And I second prasits thai - very tasty.

Edit - if you're in sydney for a while it may be worth looking at apartments if you've after a non hotel experience. There are plenty around the harbour with great views & you don't need to worry about the overly 'casual' hotel service that way.
If you're into japanese food I'd recommend Azumas but only for dinner as the lunch feel is a bit 'suity'. Tetsuyas is also worth a look for a different take on japanese influenced french. Sounds strange but it's quite nice.

You have good taste! I have a standing reservation for dinner every Thursday at Azuma. Lots of sushi, nigiri, beef rolls, sashimi and of course a heap of Azuma cocktails and sake :D. Had the wagyu beef shabu shabu last week - very nice.

Tetsuya's is very good, probably the only place in Sydney you'll get true Michelin star service. But be aware you will have to book a long time in advance and I don't know if the kid would be welcome.

Yup, forgot about the lead time on bookings. It's 3 months at the moment so scratch tetsuya off the list.

I booked for my birthday lunch on June 18th on June 2nd or so and it was fine for a Saturday lunch, but I'm sure dinner would be booked out months in advance.

Wow, thank you for all the responses. We will only be in Sydney a short time, thus the want to slurge on a hotel. I need to get with the commander in chief (IE wife) to see what she wants to see. We will be in Melbourne for 4 days.

Thanks again.

Melbourne is a nice, relaxed city with lots to see and do, but it just doesn't have the eye candy that Sydney does.

It's like comparing San Francisco with Boston.

Contrary to what the Australian intelligentsia would like everyone to believe, Australia is a fairly xenophobic country. Expect to experience some mild anti-American sentiment during your stay.

Aussie: "That president of yours is a f*cking moron."

Harddrive: "True."

Aussie: "Right. Well thank you for staying at the Sydney Hilton, we hope you enjoyed your stay."

Harddrive: "It was lovely."

Seeing as you're a big architecture fan, you'll love these Melbourne buildings:

<b>RMIT Building 8</b>

http://www.walkingmelbourne.com/imag...tbuilding8.jpg

"One of the most outstanding Post-Modern works in Melbourne today, Building 8 set the tone for a number of projects which changed the way people saw Melbourne city.

The aim was to delight and break down the dominant and seamless city-wall mood RMIT presented on Swanston Street. The buildings front, side and rear elevations create a whole from fragments and a collage of design ideas. It presents itself to the city on its own terms.

The building engages the idea of uniting opposites. It demurs to Melbournes built past: memories of Walter Burley Griffin, the Manchester Unity, the Block Arcade, the Shrine et alia are fleetingly seen in its aesthetic.

It was described by a national architectural commentator as a building that "thinks it's a city". The building is widely recognised nationally as being distinctively Melbourne in character and idea. This strong sense of regional identity and pride is no small achievement in this international era."

http://www.walkingmelbourne.com/building366.html

<b>Federation Square</b>

http://www.federationsquare.com.au/i...plaza_shot.jpg

http://www.federationsquare.com.au/index.cfm?pageID=56

Nothing to add on Sydney. I did happen to like Melbourne better - so there. In Brisbane, there is a tropical bird park that your kid will enjoy.

Here is a travel page I half-finished, it has some sections on Sydney, Melbourne, etc. Kind of idiosyncratic, out-of-date, and we were on a severe budget - but might give you some flavour of the places. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/johnliu/

LOL. You'll be fine.

You can get a good hotel room in Sydney for well less than US500 a night. Use one of the "lastminute" type websites, you'll pick up good rooms for around US200-250, same in Melbourne.

Post on the A/NZ forum when you arrive and Im sure someone will take you for ride in a wrong sided porker and/or buy you a beer.

When I was last in Sydney, the hotel was forgettable, but Doyles on the Beach was a restaurant wourth visiting.

You should plan on getting down to Bondi, as well.

Sounds painful. Will he need to wear leathers / have a mustache?

Edit: Not that there is anything wrong with that, just get that sort of thing out of your system in Sydney before coming down to Melbourne. ;)