Our Little Jaunt

Sydney City Walkabout and Ferry to Rose and Watsons Bay

We have been getting about Sydney a bit more over the last week once we had got our travel passes and whatnot sorted out, and continued to find more places in Sydney that we like/are enjoying wandering about.

Northern Tourists? Never

We headed back over through the CBD to The Rocks and wandered through the wharfs just north near to the Harbour Bridge – loads of lovely restaurants and things of interest (Art and old buildings and things) – it looked rather posh with the apartments having their own moorings and things. Definitely worth a look, but quite why? erm – I guess its very quiet.

We walked around the headland taking photos and looking like right northern tourists, and then decided that we would hop on the ferry from circular quay to Rose Bay. The main reason that we took the trip was because it was free – I have talked about the [link] travelpasses in another post.

We had expected it to be like the ferry to Manly that we took the other week, erm – no – it was like a blooming speedboat up top – we were a bit blown about by the time we got to Rose Bay.

Rose Bay, Sydney

Erm… pleasant enough, no beach, bus station almost next to the ferry port in Lyne Park that you can hop on a bus over to Watson’s bay – which is exactly what we did.  Apparently it is quite a sports and watersports centre  of activity according to this website about Rose Bay.

Watson’s Bay, Sydney

My sister had said to make sure that we went to Watson’s Bay but to walk there from Bondi (which we will do in the coming weeks), and we were always going to head out that way on Boxing Day to watch the Sydney to Hobart boats racing out into the Tasman Sea past the headland.

We had a moment when we got down to the little beach there, and well – the pictures and video can describe it. Tranquility, Peace, Idyllic – you try and word it… Watson’s Bay Tourist Information here. Doyles Restaurant looked fabulous, if not a little sandblasted on the day that we were there. We hopped on a bus from the top of the park back to Kings Cross – the 314 I think (maybe wrong)

Oh For Stoke

Without the Sillyness

The pictures just don’t do it justice either:

Sydney Central and Watsons Bay Pictures

[View with PicLens]

Enjoy.

Himself.

Tags: Australia, Rose Bay, Sydney, Sydney Ferries, Watson's Bay

Sydney Buses, Ferries and Trains – Getting About

I thought that I would let you in on our experiences with getting about in Sydney on the buses, trains and ferries, as we are just getting used to where everything is.

Sydney Train and Bus Travel Ticket

The city is essentially laid out in a grid manner, with everything being in blocks, and the transport links running out from the central bus, ferry and train stations is very logical and seemingly effective.

The first thing that I would point out – is that Sydney is a modern Olympic City, and as such – everything works really efficiently, is accessible (Wheelchairs/Prams) and to be honest seems to be very switched on with mobile and web technology. They don’t have an oyster card system – but I don’t think that they need it…

Thus far we have worked out that Oxford St. is the main starting point/destination for us in Darlinghurst if we want to travel by bus, and Kings Cross is basically where we can get the trains. Once we go to Central Station we can get almost anywhere. We can head in Bondi direction via either means, so we are pretty fortunate to have such good access to town in all directions.

Sydney On Foot?

For us we like to walk – so have been walking miles and miles and it has meant that we are pretty aux fait with where everything is relative to all the other areas and what not. For example for us to walk to from Darlinghurst to Central is about 15 minutes walk, from Darlinghurst to Kings Cross Station is about 10 minutes walk (just over 5 for us), we can walk to Circular Quay in about 40 minutes, and Bondi Junction/Paddington in about 30-45 minutes depending on which way we go. Most Aussies who we have told that we have walked to Bondi Junction have raised an eyebrow and now that we have the travel passes we are walking less.

We started out on foot to get our bearings a bit better, as we kept getting a bit disorientated on the public transport. We still haven’t found the apple shop again nor the street that we had coffee on on our first day walking about, but hey ho… we just keep getting distracted and going to new places on the ferries and things.

I prefer to walk because it burns the beer off a bit, but I think you see and experience so much more – sights, smells, sounds rather than the heaving breath of an overweight go-lightly sat next to you on the bus.

Red Travelpass – The one to get!

We purchased a Red Travelpass (above) as it is seemingly the best value for getting about. The Red Zone covers most of central Sydney, and we thought we would be as well just going for that, as we aren’t going to go further afield yet. Basically it covers everything within the city centre and the surrounding areas APART FROM Manly ferries. For $38 you can’t go wrong. We both purchased one last week as we were going for interviews and things, but this week we have got one to share, and we are then using either single trip bus cards or buying a ticket as necessary – it will probably be better value for us over the week, as we aren’t spending $38 each on travel – its more like a total of $50 per week at the moment. I think if you were working in the city then you would have to get one if you were living any further out of town than we are.

Sydney Transport Websites

Sydney City Rail

Sydney Ferries

Sydney Buses

All of them are accessible through mobile and have text services is you want – they are pretty hi-tech if you need them to be.

Sydney Taxis

The only times that we have had any bother trying to find somewhere are when we have twice gone to walk to Surry Hills, and got lost because we couldn’t find the road that we needed. Since then we have worked out how to get to Crown St without having to walk two sides of a square. The second problem that we had was just trying to get our bearings in the city centre – its the same in any city – tall buildings all looking the same – you just learn I guess.

The three times that we have got taxis, they have been fairly good value – I think it cost us $40 from the airport to Darlinghurst, then $12 from Kings Cross to Circular Quay, and about the $10 from Darlinghurst to Surry Hills.

With such an accessible city, when you can’t walk, you can get the train, bus or ferry… if you are lazy it will cost more but the taxi’s are plentiful and not too expensive.

Tags: public transport, Sydney Buses, Sydney Ferries, Sydney Trains, Underground