If you only have time to visit one beach, I'd recommend doing the Bondi to Bronte walk with a swim at Bronte. The cliff views are quite breath-taking. Clovelly, another eastern suburbs beach, is also very good for snorkeling.

Taronga Park Zoo is somewhere I often take international visitors. I'm not a fan of zoos but this is in a beautiful location and you can see Australian animals like the platypus and koalas etc. The ferry ride across gives you a good view of hte harbour. The nocturnal house and the Wollemi environment are particularly good for Australian animals.

There's also the acquarium at Darling Harbour with underwater tanks to see sharks, rays and so forth as well as seals and fairy penguins. Although you can see most of the same fairy penguins and seals at the zoo. Dugongs are only at the Aquarium.

You can walk across the Harbour Bridge for nothing, the Bridge Climb is expensive, a tourist rip-off I think, but lots of people really enjoy it, despite the exorbitant price.

Good value places to eat: Ichi Ban Boshi in the Queen Victoria Building in the CBD (Central Business District). You often have to queue but it's worth the wait for very reasonably priced Japanese. Also in the city, the best place for Laksa (a spicy Malaysian soup) is Chinese Malay take-away. It's 50-58 Hunter St, City. Also the foodhall at Centrepoint has some great options. The Tawainese dumpling chain is my favourite: Din Tai Fung. It's also in George St.

Chinese food is very good in Sydney, Golden Century in Sussex st Chinatown is excellent but more expensive than the ones I've listed above. Avoid Darling Harbour for food, it's a tourist trap and consequently most food venues are overpriced and mediocre.

Hi Susan7,
Thank you for replying and your suggestions. I had toyed with the idea a bridge walk but did think it pricey .. and really that's a few hours I can spend happily exploring elsewhere.

We're not really 'city folk' more 'ramblers/hikers' so the walk from Bondi to Bronte sounds good. Clovelly sounds lovely too and the 'snorkel' factor would appeal to my boys.

No idea what a Dugong is yet .. but Tarronga Zoo sounds a good place to find out (don't agree with them myself either in principle!). We're hoping to see more native animals whilst we're up in Queensland (Rainforests and Atherton Tablelands).

Good advice about Darling Harbour restaurants too ... we are concerned about the cost of things in Aus, as many people have warned us how expensive everything is to buy compared to the UK! Do you have any other good value advice for other typoes of restaurant ... our boys our adventurous with Mexican, Indian, Italian, French (Frogs Legs, Snails) but they've never taken to Chinese Food for some reason. However it's my 46th birthday whilst we're in Sydney so they may have to go with mum's choice on that day!

If we have time I wondered whether anyone would suggest an organised day trip from Sydney to the Blue Mountains or to wait until our 3rd week and drive out by car/campervan?

Thanks again for your help.

Karen

Sydney has superb Chinese food, Thai, Vietnamese and modern Asian, these I think are the real highlights foodwise. Sydney doesn't really have very good Mexican or Indian, the food influences are more from South-East Asia. Although Guzman y Gomez in the Centrepoint foodhall is OK for Mexican. The foodhall would allow you to have Asian while the children have Mexican.

Spice I Am in Wentworth avenue (near Central Station) is a good value Thai restaurant. They also have another restaurant in Kings Cross. For a birthday, think about Red Lantern (Vietnamese). Billy Kwong (Crown st, Surry Hills) is another favourite of mine but it is noisy and has very uncomfortable stools.


Cheap and very good Italian ranges from No Names in Stanley st East Sydney (this is cheap and OK), through to Fratelli Fresh, there's a number of them now, they do amazing food at reasonable prices http://www.fratellifresh.com.au/

For Italian, Berta is a birthday possibility, you can book online, I highly recommend the sagra night on Wednesday http://www.berta.com.au/events

The other cheap eats possibilities are Lebanese food. Surry Hills is where there are a number of restaurants.

And here's the dugong information, Sydney Aquarium has a pair: Pig and Wuru:

http://www.sydneyaquarium.com.au/explore/dugong-island/

They are similar to peixeboi (seacows).

NSW Waratahs (rugby) are playing at Allianz Stadium 24 and 31 March. They actually had a win this weekend!