I will be a single female traveling in Sept. and can get the same rate at these two hotels or am considering a club room at the Shangri-la or Westin. I've been to Australia before but am interested in lots of walking, shopping and a spa and restaurants nearby. What do you recommend? I know the Observatory comes highly rec. but it looks a little frumpy from the photos. Thanks

FS is a better location. shangri-la is always a better hotel, esp. in sydney. forget the westin, bad for the location compared to the others.

may i ask- since your name is "moremiles" and since i saw you had also asked about singapore (just a coincidence i saw both at the same time) are you doing a mileage routing that allows you to stop in both syd and sing on the same mileage ticket, and can you share which airline/how many miles?

there used to be a UA award that stopped in sydney en route to sing, but no more.

thanks.

kerikeri

Hi Keri,
No, I'm not doing a MR this trip but did cash in some miles for a FC SQ air tkt-long way around to SYD but always wanted to try their FC and if my friend in SYD doesn't end up being there in Sept. I'll just stay in Asia. I used DL miles for the tkt and they don't allow for travel into Australia on SQ for some reason-still have to get that segment.

Sorry, forgot to answer re:the miles-it took 140,000 DL miles for the FC SQ award-pretty good use of miles IMO for 18hrs of flying.

thanks for your detailed answer.

reading your post (about walking and shopping) i would point out the observatory is down a hill "behind" where everything interesting is and therefore no opera house view at all andmuch further to start any walk/ shopping excursion.

definitely include darlinghurst if you're a shopper. saturday's paddington markets are there and i got some great tabletop items and one of a kind modern look jewlery. the crafts are much more interesting than the markets that are right in the rocks area.

have a wonderful time!

kerikeri

Thanks-I'll make a note of it!

Observatory is probably the best hotel - but a bit out of the way.

Shangri-la or Four Seasons are better located - around the Quay or a more touristy area.

Westin is mid-city. Good hotel. More for business, but distances are not that great. No views, I imagine.

Definitely FS. Although it's safe, you may find walking back to the Observatory alone at night a little scary. It's very dark and quiet, ie not many people around if you want to enjoy the pub scene and walk back. Whereas with the FS, you can walk along George St and there are many people about. Westin is right smack in the CBD close to shopping but I prefer FS's location. Shangri-la is behind the FS.