We are planning to have four days in Sydney without a car, and then come back for another three days. The second time around, we were thinking of renting a car to go up to the blue mountains and other trips in the sydney area for which it might be easier to have a car. Should we indeed rent the car? What places in the area should we use it to get to?

no place around Sydney would you need or what a car. it would be a hindrance

Sydney is a bit hard to drive around for 1st time visitors, it has a lot of one way streets, the ferry systems are wonderful to use, the buses & trains also quite good.<BR>You can take a train to Katoomba , maybe look at staying and hiring a car to look around that area may be the way to go.

Hi, Jose!<BR>Sydney is such a compact city that it really is best to see it on foot, and to save the car for trips to outer areas. If I were going to the Blue Mountains for a day or two and wanted the freedom of a car, I would hop the train to either Emu Plains, where Budget rent-a-Car have an office right near the railway station, or, even better, Leura (only two kilometres from Katoomba, the tourist hub of the Mountains), where there is a Thrifty Rent-a-Car office. Then you are using your car to see what you want to see, not just to get away from the congested city streets. I would imagine that the same principle would apply if you were visiting other regional centres... get there by public transport, then hire.

Jose, just to add to what I said above, if you do train it to Leura and hirs a car there, book in for the night at the Grand View Hotel at Wentworth Falls, and the next morning have breakfast really early -- about 7 a.m. -- and head for Jenolan Caves, which is really best visited by car. If you get there by about 9 a.m., you will be first at the ticket office, which will give you the pick of the best tours, and by lunch time, when the tourist buses have all rolled in, you'll be finished and on your way back to Leura.