Sydney Downtown Parking
 

I'm wondering what parking facilities there are in Sydney? A lot of the hotels suggest $20 to $30 a night. If I commuted in from the suburbs - like Bankstown - where could I park for the day and how much would it cost? Do they have parking garages in the general downtown area?

How about other areas, like near the zoo, Bondi Beach or other waterfront/beach areas, Kings Cross, or the Botanical Gardens areas?

Does parking get easy once you're away from downtown? Any other hints? (Is there a good place to park and take the train?)

THANKS!

Downtown (city) parking is desperate and/or expensive.There are parking lots etc but imho they are expensive.

If you are staying in the suburbs the most convenient and cost effective way to visit attractions is by public transport.

There are many free parking lots at suburban railway stattions.

Driving around Sydney for a newcomer is not easy.Streets do not follow a simple grid and there is the natural bottleneck of the harbour.

Why do you need a car?
Why do you want to stay in the burbs.

There are a few places where you can park free in Sydney after 6 p.m. -- the very bottom of Kent St, down near the Rocks, for example -- but to get one of these parks you really have to time your arrival to between 5:50 and 6:10. During the day, the only sensible thing to do is to use a suburban parking area and go the last few miles by train. If you are nice and early to, for instance, Ashfield Station, you can use the commuters' car park on the south side -- but it's usually full well before 8 a.m. Nearby Strathfield Station has a few streets on the north side where the restriction signs haven't gone up yet... but these are getting fewer and further from the train.

Over the bridge, you have some quiet little areas around Wollstonecraft and Waverton, where parking is available on the side of the road, wherever there are homes rather than shops, around 100 metres from the station.

You can park in the car park at the Zoo, but it's not free -- there are usually free parks in the streets nearby. Bondi Beach, I think, is all metered parking nowadays, so it's probably best to park in a side street a couple of kilometres away, within sight of a bus stop, and then take the bus to the beach (if you drive all the way to Dudley Page Park, not only can you park the car and get a bus to Bondi Beach in ten minutes, but you will see one of the best, and least-known, views in Sydney).

Another way to park close to the city and travel in by public transport is to park a few hundred metres from a ferry stop, or a bus stop. North of Military Road, Neutral Bay has a few quiet streets, and the bus is only three blocks away. Around Avenue Rd, Mosman is a pleasant and easy place to park, and the ferry goes half-hourly to Circular Quay.

All the major waterfront beach areas are metered nowadays, so be prepared to park well back and do some walking. As a Sydneysider, I try to leave the car at home when I go anywhere near the city nowadays, and, unless you have a very good navigator to help you find these out-of-the-way places, if I were you I'd do the same.

Not very encouraging advice, I fear, but I hope it has been of some help.

Unfortunately (?) we got Aeroplan tickets to Sydney arriving Nov. 21st - the day before the Rugby Cup finals. I didn't know that at the time! Basically, for Friday and Saturday nights, there is nothing reasonable in the downtown area. The best I could do was out in Bankstown - further out than the airport. The next two days, at least I AM downtown.

I agree - I probably don't want to waste too much time navigating streets and finding parking. Commuting from a convenient location via train would be nice. Maybe one of those first days, I'll try the Blue Mountains...

Let me tell you....Bankstown and surrounds aren't exactly flavour of the month at the moment as far as Sydney suburbs go....couldn't you get something in north sydney or crows nest?

There are frequent train services from bankstown to the city.You will be able to sample first hand sydney's wonderful multicultural diversity.

The rocks and opera house forecourt will be hopping on the day/night of the wrc final(particularly if aust. makes it)

Get into town and pick up the explorer bus or get on the ferries.

Hi, again, MD!
Is this your travel agent who has booked you out in Bankstown, saying that there's nothing closer in? Of course, he probably knows nothing about the area except its mileage from the CBD, so it's not his fault that he has booked you into one of the least-attractive areas in the whole of greater Sydney. Please do yourself a favour and go back to him and say, "No". There will certainly be alternatives, despite the World Cup -- that's not going to fill the whole city! -- and you will probably do better than Bankstown, wherever you choose. I realise that you are tight for time now, so I won't suggest you search through this site looking for past suggestions, and I have already looked at wotif.com for you, without turning up anything under about $AUD600, which is absurd; but Bankstown? Forget it! You wouldn't want to travel by train late at night from the city to that area.... Sydneysiders don't like those trains after 9 p.m., and it's a long taxi ride. Try the Criterion or the Coronation near the Sydney Town Hall, or the Grand in Hunter Street.... ring them from the airport. Go the the YHA at central Station. Catch a train to Strathfield and stay at Whelan's Hotel; try the Strawberry Hills Hotel, a coiple of blocks west of Central Station ... or get a cheap one-night apartment at Napoleon-on-Kent, which is only a few minutes' walk from the harbour, but is almost-always ignored, as it is built, for Heaven's sake, directly under the Freeway, and the building going on around there now makes a terrific din....just about anything would be better (and safer!)than Bankstown, even for one night!

MD
Even from Bankstown, lose the car. It'll just be a burden. Try public transport, at least some of the way. Driving in the city will be chaotic. All the places you mentioned are more easily accessinle by public transport than by car.

Try Alan's suggestion of some of the small hotels on the railway line. Bankstown is just not a good place at present.