What to do? 5 and 1/2 days in Australia in November. In/out of Sydney
 

Hi there - Arrive 10am on a Friday and depart the following Wednesday afternoon from Sydney.

What should we do?

Option 1 - I've heard maybe 2 days in Sydney and 3 days in Great Barrier Reef?

Option 2 - Sydney the entire time but do side trips like Blue Mountains?

Option 3 - Sydney and Christchurch?

Option 4 - ?????

Help!

As you only have four whole days in Sydney, I would suggest Option 2. You'll find there is no shortage of things to do and see. It is a beautiful city, and at that time of year, the weather is typically quite warm or hot so you'll be able to enjoy a few of the great beaches in the city and up and down the coast. As you mention, there are also great places to see outside the city, like the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands and the South Coast (including the Royal Nat'l Park).

Given the limited time you have, why waste the better part of two more days flying all the way up to Cairns (~1700 miles away) or even further away to another country (Christchurch, NZ)?

Don't waste your valuable time in airports, stay in the vicinity of Sydney for the duration.
Loads to do.
Enjoy

Muck

Agree! Option 2 makes the most sense.

Thanks for the tips!

Follow-up q: in exploring Hunter Valley, Euroka and Blue Mountains is it better to stay at a hotel in that area or keep my hotel in Sydney (probably Blue) and make day trip?

The Blue mountains is easily accessible from Sydney by train, we did that once. It only took a couple of hours and was a good way to do it. Alan, a poster here always had good advice about this trip, I will see if I can find some of his old posts on the subject. I remember he always used to say look out for the track works at the weekend.

Muck

Agree with Mucky - there is often trackwork on the Blue Mountains line and the Illawarra (South Coast) line on weekends.
You can check this on www.cityrail.info , as there is a guide on the right side of the page indicating what the service on various lines is like.

Lavandula

Great, thanks we'll plan to make a day trip to Blue Mountains from Sydney. That seems like the way to go.

I think we'd like to do Hunter Valley vineyards as well, was thinking 1 day of touring there is enough, is it better to stay locally or do day trip from Sydney? My wife is not a big drinker, so she'll probably do the driving.

Thanks again for the help board people.