Discovery

Character! What Character? I see more of poor planning than character

Willin

I've lived in Syd for two years and love it.........
I travel to Melbourne every few months with work and have extended weekend stays.

I find central Melbourne extremely boring to look at.
The whole central grid American style block system I find makes architecture and exploring quite tedious. The only things of interest are the odd lively tight lanes and the street art. But the main thoroughfares are same/same.

Melbourne does appear to have quite a trendy scene but its quite inaccessible to visitors and takes a number of trips and lots of reasearch to enter the fray. Shopping in Melbourne is definitely better with more quirky stuff and top end shopping.

I don't know enough about Melbourne inner suburbs, have only really started exploring. But I hear great reviews from friends and locals so I'm keen to learn and integrate.

Sydney I think is an easier place to integrate. You are instantly settled with all the iconic features of Harbour, skyline sights and sounds. The CBD is more fun. There is some open space. The suburbs are perhaps more defined.

I am an inner city dweller. I do not wish for more than a 40 minute walk to work. Therefore Sydney would appear to suit me much better.
I would however suggest that if you are planning on living further out Melbourne may be better.

bcworld

I'd have to say I think that's more of a problem in Sydney!

When I lived in Brisbane and used to come down to Melbourne for weekends it was very easy to find the places outside of the inner CBD...they're very well known - St Kilda, Chapel St, Lygon St, Brunswick St, Collingwood etc etc.

With Sydney we used to make the mistake of always staying in the CBD and only visiting the usual tourist haunts - Bondi, Manly, Watsons Bay etc. That's fine for a couple of visits but I got so bored with the place! I find Sydney's CBD more uninspiring than Melbourne's (which I agree isn't the greatest either) once you step away from the Harbour and Botanic Gardens.

Eventually we did discover there is more to Sydney, not Sydney's fault, but I think for visitors places like Newtown would be completely unknown to them.

Weebie

I'm aussie from Perth. I just moved to Sydney after 9 months in Melb.

Melbourne is cool an certainly does have an interesting edge to it. some of the outher city ring suburbs such as St kilda, Prahran, fitzroy, Carlton, Richmond, Collingwood are all fantastic.

Melbourne has better Cafe culture, better pubs and bars but Sydney certainly isn't short of these.

Melbournites are very sport orienatated and alot of their life relvoves around their AFL team. If you can't get into AFL then you can't get into Melbourne.

Cheers

Buzzy--Bee

Not true. I have no interest in AFL, yet in the 2.5 years I have lived in Melbourne I have never found this to be a problem and have a large number of friends, mostly Australian, many of whom also have no interest in AFL.

Buzzy

sr71

Disagree with that, Sydney's CBD is just soul-less IMO. The city is all fur-coat and no knickers.

sr71

Yes, many of the more educated classes aren't into AFL at all. It is excessively reported in the media, but there are other sports too such as NRL and the A-League. And if you are not into sport then who cares.

ozzieeagle

Hmm may stick my hand up here and say after London, Melbourne's Grid system is a tad boring. I was quite enthralled with the twisty turns of Sydney's inner streets.

However dont agree with the rest of your post, but from my point of view you definitely on the right track with the grid. Not many will agree with that point of view though.

Carlton, East Melbourne, West Melbourne, Fitzroy and South Melbourne are all very close to the CBD and afford fantastic walks into the city.

Try Fitzroy or South Melbourne next time your in town Willan.... You'll love the pubs there.


Totally agree on the Street art, Supposedly it is world class in Melbourne.

Saturdays after my years of following football were a little bit of a let down, as I couldnt no matter how I tried get into AFL. The A league has been a god send to me. Going to be a fantastic month for the A league in Melbourne in October. I think it may hit the headlines, hopefully for not the wrong reasons. Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane are all coming this month. Could be 1500 travelling Sydney fans.

IvanM

I like no knicks.

gail.crease

We've just returned from a second trip to Sydney and totally agree. I retract all comments I've made in the past on Sydney. Melbourne is way better . Sydney is like a warmer London. If you like London living then you'll love Sydney. For me it was far to busy and I hated staying there. We like to drive on the weekends in Melbourne as there are so many great places to visit. In Sydney driving was a nightmare. We were constantly stuck in traffic jams and it was very difficult to navigate. The harbour is definitely beautiful but it's an obstacle if you need to travel North or South. It was like a breath of fresh air coming back to Melbourne. We live in Port Melbourne which is only 5 mins out of the CBD and it feels like a quiet small village now compared to Sydney inner city suburbs.

Gail

BadgeIsBack

I would swap Melbourne's winter for Sydney's but leave all the other seasons with Melbourne. But as I can't, I wouldn't worry too much(!)..

I think it's worth pointing out that Sydney's winters are warmer in the sense they get a lot more consistent winter sun and until the drought hit Melbourne, less winter rain.

Those extra degrees you see reported in Sydney are the daytime maxes and only get there for a short period of time but that sun is pleasant.

I found Sydney generally no colder at night and if anything, the cloud cover makes for milder nights in Melbourne. One of the coldest nights I recall was up near Coffs on a starry night...and there are parts of sub-tropical suburban Brisbane that are a fair bit colder than parts of Melbourne at night so there is variation.

Personally for me, I prefer Melbourne as a city - take away the iconic harbour and you're not left with much really.

BadgeIsBack

The thing about Melbourne is that it is up to you whether you follow AFL and many don't, even though people talk about it being a religion - the season ends and people get on with summer.

Part of the charm of AFL is that it is like a party you choose to go to or not - there is an AFL crowd of sorts that treat it like an excuse to do something but even they know it's not compulsory...

It's true that there is an educated elite who will tell you they don't like football but conversely there are some who enjoy it for what it is.

After living in cluttered cities, I love Melbourne's grid system - easy to get around.

I also disagree Sydney is more accessible - I think it's very set up for trivial tourism but little else.

And in my opinion, Melbourne does the inner city thing better than many other cities I know - for me, it practically defines the term. Many people I know do live in the inner burbs and get to work very nicely indeed.

ThKmOZ

which suburb called Melbourne Inner City, I'm from other country and not familiar with Melbourne, please tell me for General Knowledge.

mecheng

Melbourne is better laid out because its a new city in comparison to Sydney. Sydney is more congested and somewhat similar to London in that regard with narrow streets and all because it is Australia's oldest city (Melbourne is a ghost town in comparison).

gail.crease

Totally agree