Sydney - things to do
 

Hi,

I have a 5hour transit time in Sydney in December, and would like to know what I can do (I am travelling to Sydney after for 4 days and covering beaches, harbour tour, and other regular touristy stuff). If there's any historical sites or heritage parks/buildings, then I'd like to visit those in this time instead of waiting at the airport.

Thanks in advance for all suggestions.

What does five hours mean? Completely free time, from the time you walk out of the arrival terminal to the time you need to check in for your subsequent flight? If so, you can take a taxi into the CBD (Central Business District, the city centre from Circular Quay to the north down to roughly Central Station to the south). It is a fairly short ride depending on traffic, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. There is a train also, but I wouldn't bother.

Once in the CBD, you might want to check out the Queen Victoria Building (www.qvb.com.au‎), or walk your camera around Circular Quay and the Opera House, or walk through the Rocks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocks,_Sydney) up to the Pylon lookout (www.pylonlookout.com.au), or go for a stroll through Chinatown (www.sydney-chinatown.info‎) and the Darling Harbour area (www.darlingharbour.com), or visit the fabulous Australian Museum (http://australianmuseum.net.au) - where you must find the large flat table with the computerized "animals" that track your hand motions - reach out and a "virtual" reptile looks like it's biting your hand off etc. - last time I was there it was located on the ground floor.

That's just a few off the top of my head. Have fun!

thanks for your suggestions, and good point, transit is 5 hours, so i guess collecting luggage, etc, and before getting onto the next flight, i would have just over 3hours to galavant around, outside of the airport that is.

should probably cover darling harbour and opera house, etc when i return to sydney after 5 days. so this is just a quick stroll to somewhere more cultural/heritage-like, with old rustic charm!

Well, rustic charm is hard to find... The old-colonial Rocks is very touristy - the buildings are sort of preserved in the old style, but my oh my is it ever geared towards visitors!!!

I'd have the cabbie drop me along George Street in the Rocks, near the corner of Argyle Street, then I'd walk up Argyle and take the stairs in the wall on the right halfway up, cross over the street above and take the next set of stairs up to the bridge level and walk to the nearest pylon, pay the few bucks and climb up. Great views, a rewarding experience that doesn't take all that long. On the way back down you may have time for a drink at one of the pubs, and there are always cabs to be found near where yours dropped you off or closer to the ferries.

If it's more of an indoors sort of a weather day, the QVB is an elegant building with classy shops and coffeeshops and such, it could be a nice olde-worlde respite from the starkness of airlines and airports, look it up and you'll see pictures.

For a leg stretch you might want to walk through Hyde Park before catching a cab back to the airport. Realize that the international and the domestic terminals are not linked, they are a long way apart.

thanks