We are spending 3 nights in Melbourne and 3 nights in Sydney mid March. Looking for suggestions on hiring a private guide. Also any ideas on side trips outside of Sydney city.

As far as Sydney is concerned you hardly need a private guide because everything is near/in/or around the harbour and is accessable by Taxi/ferry/train. Because you are only there for 3 days you most probably won't have time to do any outside of Sydney trips and most probably won't have time to see the things in Sydney that you want to.

G'day Fran, <BR>For your visit to Melbourne I suggest you take a look at this link. http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/greeterservice/ <BR>From reports I had this is a fantastic service. <BR>If you schedule that for early after your arrival in Melbourne, I'm sure they will be able to make suggestions for the rest of your time in Melbourne. <BR>If you let us know your interests we maybe able to make a few realistic suggestions. <BR>As Liz said, 3 days isn't really much time for Sydney and that also applies to Melbourne. <BR>Enjoy, <BR>Mike.

Liz, thanks for your input. We have been to Sydney before and have seen/done a lot in the city. Interested this time in getting out and about, what ever is reasonable in 3 days, reason why we thought if we had a guide with a car that might work?? Appreciate any additional input.<BR>Mike....have contacted greeter service, thanks for the advise, it sounds perfect as we are first time visitors to melbourne!

As you may have heard the areas around Sydney suffered badly from bushfires this year and therefore a lot of the nice tourist spots are blackened. This week though they are all under water - well just about as it hasn't stopped raining for days. <BR>Perhaps a nice trip up the Hawkesbury would be something you would like. You can do that in a houseboat too if that is something that you're into. <BR>What about a train trip to Canberra? That takes a couple of hours or so so perhaps you would like to spend the night there. Its interesting and there are lots of places to go <BR>Let us know what you are interested in and perhaps people from around Sydney can come up with some good suggestions.