I have the day off and was thinking of going to Taronga Zoo mainly for the photo opportunity. Is it worthwhile? If not any recommendations?

Depends on the weather- don't go if it is too hot, as the site is steep and all the animals will go indoors out of the sun!

Take a ferry to Manly- great view of the harbour, then have a leisurely coffee/lunch (depending on the time of day), walk along the beach towards Shelley Beach, see if you can spot all the little sculptures tucked in along the cliffs on the way, or even the resident water dragons.

Thanks. Looks like 28 degrees it will be. Should be ok if I go this morning. Was gonna drive there. Where would I park to catch a ferry? Would love to see the views from it.

I recommend spending a few hours on the ferry network, lots of photo opportunities. I think you can get a day ticket so you can hop on and hop off as you please. Enjoy!

Do the hop in hop off bus tour. It's a great way to see lots of places in one day.

+1 for the bus tour

The Harbour Bridge climb is an adult must do at some stage if you have time. It's expensive but really worth the effort.

If you've got kids, get them to read Playing Beattie Bow and potter around the Rocks seeing all the places (lovely little Patisserie there with a frangipani in the back court yard for coffee and croissant.

The Zoo is OK but, as has been said, not on a hot day!

+1 for Manly. Great day out all round

Visit the Sydney opera house, visit beach and visit museum.

Which museums and beaches would you recommend though?

pub crawl

See some lovely places and meet great people!

in fact I spent two days doing exactly that - met all kinds of interesting folks from all over the world. Got lots of tips for what not to do from tourists & locals, what to see, where to stay away from...

Add to include in the pub crawl a few eateries ....sit back, mingle, relax watch the world go by.

Its the best a tourist can get

I did not venture on any of the typical go see expensive tourist traps

Thanks all for your input. I did the zoo and got some lovely pics and came back mid afternoon. Didn't know I'd have the day off until like Saturday arvo.

Next time I will do the bus tour and ferries etc... Not enough time in one day to do all the suggestions!!! The zoo was really busy, but pretty good.

Slipped my mind about the daily hop on - off off bus tour which is good for any tourist to a major city - that way you can then pick the sights you want to see

I travel quite a bit with my sister and we always do the hop-on hop-off bus if there's one in the city we're in.