IvanM

My own favourites are

Breakfast at Bondi walk to Bronte for Brunch walk to coogee for lunch.

Manly ferry

Blue mountains walks

For shopping there is always the toolshed to put the wicked in the witch.

Geordie George

Newtown and Glebe are definitely the place to head for New Age shops. I know Glebe better than Newtown, as I used to live there - although not for a while! In Glebe, head for Glebe Point Road - there's a couple of NA shops there. The Saturday markets are also worth dropping into. And GPR has a good choice of cafes/restaurants. As does King Street in Newtown. The second hand bookshops in Newtown is also worth dropping in on. Both are very easy to get to from the CBD - buses run regularly.

sonlymewalter

The harbour cruise I went on cost $22 - hardly broke the bank account and you got a free beer in with that (check out for coupons online)

Bernieboy

Yeah great choice,done that a few times

Bernieboy

And the bus is always empty

Pollyana

How long is the walk? Happy to give it a go but I don't want to kill myself

IvanM

Bondi to Bronte is easy. Bondi to Coogee is a hike. Best done out of the heat.

Bernieboy

You may not have to kill yourself,the drug crazed looneys will take care of that

sonlymewalter

sod the sandcastles seen one seen em all find a pub instead

Pollyana

I'll wait and see how the weather goes then, struggling in the heat here already this year

Awww thats no fun, I'd rather dall over a cliffedge or something exciting!!
It was the rocky coastline bit that appealed, not really a beach person! Pubs on the other hand.... got a good list of them now!

sonlymewalter

I was talkin about the beach sculptures mate

Kooky.

All good recommendations. Tons of places to eat, all cuisines and prices.

Somebody mentioned Kenji's at the Opera House - we eat there a lot. Other options available as it's part of the Opera Kitchen (sort of upmarket foodcourt) on the lower concourse, next to the Opera Bar. One of my favourite places to watch the sun go down - glass of brut in hand of course


Somebody mentioned Brett Whitely's gallery - I'd add his wife Wendy's garden. Go over on the ferry to Milsons Point, wander through Luna Park, have a drink/snack/meal at The Deck, then carry on round the boardwalk into Lavender Bay and up some steps into the Secret Garden. It's amazing.

http://www.au.timeout.com/sydney/aro...-secret-garden

Time Out is a very good resource generally, and this might also be useful http://urbanwalkabout.com/sydney/ You can pick up free maps on all those areas, in the shops and cafes.

There's tons of free stuff to do. Botanic Gardens are beautiful, and you can walk through them to or from the Art Gallery of NSW, where the Picasso exhibition is on. All the permanent exhibits are free to see.

Somebody mentioned Cockatoo Island. It's a great place just to go wander round, camera in hand, but at the moment there's this on:

http://www.outpost.cockatooisland.gov.au/index.html

edit: pressed the button too early!

There's a Banksy exhibition as part of that, that I want to see. Will be busy on a weekend I'd say.

Fish Markets - wander, shop, fish, do a cookery lesson?

Take a ferry to McMahons Point and sit on the grass at the bottom of Blues Point Rd for one of the best views around, especially at night. (You can't walk round from Lavender Bay, unfortunately, but you can walk up some very steep steps and back down again That used to be my 'hood.)

I just love walking around Sydney, TBH. Sitting in a cafe or on a bench, people-watching. It's fab.

It's also bloody hot - not sure what it topped out at today but yesterday was 37C.

Pollyana

Looks like I should spend this weekend going through all this and planning stuff!!
Please God it won't be 37C; the last three years Ive been able to sleep through the day and avoid the heat, this year its making me ill already as I have to be awake and walking to work in it I'm starting to feel I hate Australia again because of it so I need to get out and convince myself otherwise

IvanM

Only 30 today but back burning has smoked the place out. It is normally less humid than Brissie.

Kooky.

I did one recently - Seafood Barbeque Course. The kitchen assistants kept trying to make me gut fish and de-beard mussels but I only went to make sure The Geek learned how to do it all (although I did actually clean a squid, I mostly prepared the salads )

(Do I cook? I finally told my cleaner the other weekend, not to bother cleaning the oven. Lived here since June 2010 and never switched it on )