Sydney
Sydney is a wide open city, and you're never far from the water. Aborigines have lived in the Sydney area for thousands of years, apparent from rock art sites and archeological findings. On his ocean travels, Captain Cook dropped anchor in 1770, and named his landing spot Botany Bay (south of present day Sydney). Today, explore the ins and outs of Sydney with kids, a dyanmic city with a varied multicultural population.
Ride the ferries - Sydney Harbour extends for miles, with many inlets, coves and headlands. Riding the ferries is a good deal and one of our favorite things to do in Sydney. If you're staying in Darling Harbour, it's easy to hop on the ferry to Circular Quay. Visiting Taronga Zoo, Manly Beach or Watsons Bay, a ride on the ferry is part of the fun. Ferries run frequently on different routes, check the ferry schedules here.
Tip: Buy comprehensive day or week tickets, such as MyFerry (good for multiple ferry rides), or MyMulti ticket is even better. A day or week MyMulti ticket is good for unlimited travel on ferries, trains, light rail, and buses. Pick up the tickets at convenience stores.
Family Funday Sunday - On Sundays, for a flat fare, buy family tickets for unlimited rides on ferries, buses, etc. Travel all the way up to Newcastle, down to Wollongong or out to the Blue Mountains.
Fun food
Sydney Fish Market - Head to the Sydney Fish Market in Pyrmont for a tasty lunch outdoors under shady umbrellas. The busy fish market itself is an experience, such an abundance of fish and seafood, mounds of pink prawns, rows of silvery salmon, gigantic live lobsters waving their claws as they're weighed. There's plenty of choices for kids, including fish and chips (try the barramundi). The Fish Market is open daily, to get there, take the light rail (tram) from Paddy's Markets.
Chinatown - Restaurants serving "yum cha" (dim sum) are perfect for families. Pick the dishes you like (even picky eaters like a barbeque pork bun) and the ambiance is pleasantly noisy.
Here's our own Travel for Kids hand-picked list of family hotels, all styles and price ranges, convenient to fun things to do with kids in :
