Quick Trip to Sydney

The Sydney Explorer bus is a government-run, hop-on-hop-off tourist bus that has 26 stops at different points of interest (some more "interesting" than others). The Sydney Explorer bus pass is A$39 for one day of sightseeing. The first bus leaves Central Station past 7 in the morning; the last bus leaves Central Station past 5. If you stay on the bus the whole duration, the entire trip takes 2 hours. After the tour is over, you can still use your pass on other city buses within the vicinity of the Sydney Explorer tourist route.

Don't get the pass if you're aiming is to save money with it; count the pass as an expense. You could save more if you went to all the different tourist spots in Sydney using a regular bus pass, but if it's your first time to Sydney, and your time is limited, you're liable to get confused with all the different bus routes and bus numbers. What the pass "buys" you is the convenience of being able to get from one tourist spot to another without having to change buses.

I woke up late on the day I boarded the Explorer and started my tour past 11 in the morning. I started my tour at Stop #13, Wynyard train station (a train station in the northern part of the business district). I thought I would regret having woken up so late, because it meant having so much less time to visit the different tourist spots. On the contrary, however, my itinerary worked out fantastically because when I arrived at the Sydney Opera House (stop #2), the sun was setting behind Harbor Bridge (it was winter and the sun set at around 5:30pm), so I was able to spend an entire hour taking photographs of the beautiful view.

If you go on the Explorer Bus, I suggest you pick three or four spots you want to visit for the day and use the Sydney Explorer Bus to go to those spots. The other spots, you can always return to another day. The spots I went to on my trip were Darling Harbor, the Sydney Opera House, and Powerhouse Museum. After my trip was over, I hopped on a city bus (still using the Explorer Pass) and went to Victoria Building.

Incidentally, there is another hop-on-hop-off bus run by a private company that charges cheaper rates but stops at less sights.

I imagine the Powerhouse Museum must be a lot of fun for children, but as an adult, I didn't find it as exciting as I thought I would have. I've been to other interactive science museums in other countries, and this was not one of the best. There are exhibits for engineering, computer technology, ecology, the life of the early European settlers in Australia, and Australian design. Some of the exhibits have interactive features, but a lot are just in display cases with cards simply explaining the item being exhibited. Being a Mac user, I did get a kick out of seeing the original Apple 1 computer (on loan to the museum from Steve Jobs), but apart from that, there wasn't a lot else that thrilled me, considering the entrance fee.

Entrance fee: $10; 10% discount if you have a Sydney Explorer Pass; 20% discount using the voucher in the free Sydney guidebook available at the airport. Allot 1.5 to 2 hours if you're an adult, half a day to a day if you're bringing children.

I'm a history junkie, and I love tourist destinations that give a lot of insight about the history of a certain place. The Hyde Park Barracks Museum is a restored building that was, at various times in Australia's history, a prison for convicts, a halfway house for immigrant women, and a court. The displays are very educational, and I learned a lot about the history of Australia and the struggles of the European settlers as Australia transitioned from convict destination to a new land of adventure for free emigrants from the Britain.

The first two floors are the more cerebral of the three floors: explaining the lives of the different inhabitants of the building and displaying various items found during archaeological digs of the building. The third floor is set up for emotional impact: two rooms are set up to look like the barracks that they originally were. One has been transformed into an installation art display to help visitors ponder the individual lives of the barracks' inhabitants.

At two different places in the building, computers are available for visitors to search the database for information on the individual convicts who inhabited the barracks when it was a prison.

Entrance: A$10; 20% discount using the voucher in the free Sydney guidebook available at the airport; allot an hour.

The Rocks is a fascinating part of Sydney where history meets contemporary life. I was fortunate to visit it on a weekend, which coincided with the street market that sets up every weekend.

At the Rocks, restored colonial buildings have been converted into cafes with al fresco dining, bars, and shops. Walking around gives you both a lively modern feel and a sense of Australian history.

The visitor's center at the Rocks has a small museum (free entrance!) that educates visitors about the history of the Rocks from aboriginal times up to present times. A small viewing room continuously shows short documentaries about the Rocks; the one I watched was a very thought-provoking documentary about aboriginal history and the ways that Australians are trying to come to terms with this part of their past.

Paid guided tours are available, and there are museums within the Rocks (including a series of restored houses made up to look like they did during colonial times), but I didn't have the time to join a tour nor to visit any of the other museums.

Entrance: free; allot half a day to a day.

Book lovers might want to take the bus ride to King's Street in Newtown, beside the University of Sydney, to visit Gould's Book Arcade, a big second-hand bookstore, similar to the Strand in New York City, with piles and piles of second-hand books.

Many of the shelves are filled with books of the "intellectual" type, with the proportion skewed towards owner Bob Gould's own intellectual interest, Marxist philosophy. Several shelves are allotted to Marxist philosophy, but there is a whole range of books on other topics as well--art, fiction, philosophy, literature, and so on.

Although most of the books are arranged (sort of) according to category, hundreds of books are just strewn casually all over the place, so you will really need to take the time to search for the books you are interested in. The store regularly opens at 8am, and stays open until midnight everyday, however, so you'll have plenty of time to browse.