Sydney & the Blue Mountains: Travelling Australia solo & on a budget

Sydney is probably the most iconic and well-known city in Australia.. But despite what most people think, it’s not actually the capital! Sydney and Melbourne were arguing over who should be the capital, so to solve the dispute, the government made Canberra (a small city halfway between Sydney and Melbourne) the administrative capital. Nonetheless, it is a very happening city with tons to do.

Here’s what I recommend:

Transport & getting around Sydney

✈️Getting from the airport to the city center: Sydney is an expensive city, and the airport train station is privately owned, so they can charge whatever they want. The taxis are also exorbitantly expensive. Luckily there’s a cheaper way! Avoid the airport train station. Just get an Opal card (works on all public transport) at one of the convenience stores in the airport, then take any bus that goes to Mascot station (420 bus and N20 are examples), which has normal public transport prices. Then, use public transport to connect to your hotel/hostel from there. Shoutout and thanks to throughourlens.au for writing about this method, it helped me save around $15.

🚌 Public transport in Sydney: Make use of that Opal card. You can buy them at the airport, inconvenience stores across Sydney, or at train stations. You can also ‘tap on and tapp off most public transport in Sydney with your debit/credit card, but the fare is a little higher than if you used an Opal card. If you’re planning to use public transport more than once or twice, it’s worth getting the card.

Where to Stay

I stayed in Big Backpacker Hostel. It has probably the cheapest ‘single ensuite rooms’ in Sydney, at around 70-85 euros a night (this was in winter, so maybe not peak-season. Book in advance for better prices). It’s in a great location, just 2 minutes walk from the Central station, which is perfect for getting to the airport and all the main sights. It also has good laundry facilities.

The one downside – the hostel itself was a little dingy and dusty. The kitchen was very messy and not big enough for the number of guests staying there.. But considering I only went to the hostel to sleep, and the price was low, I would still give it a good review.

Cheap Eats in Sydney

Uptown Korea:  

Shop 1/614 George St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

A Korean I met in Brisbane told me all about this hidden gem! The food was cheap and very tasty. It gives real Korean convenience store vibes – they also have extreme budget options like ramen noodles. Most items are under 10 euros, including teokbokki, bibimbap, and kimbap. It’s right in the middle of the CBD so very easy to get to!

The Walrus:  

Shop 1/276 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

I am a hoe for a good brunch and this place did not disappoint. I had an exquisite French toast and coffee for around 12 euros, which was surprisingly cheap for Sydney.

The Tiny Giant

This is an extremely cute and Instagrammable brunch spot. I had a luxurious red velvet latte, but the new travel buddy I came with had a latte with an Yves-Saint-Laurent logo printed onto the foam. You can request more or less any designer logo and they will whip it up for all your Instagram needs. The food was also pretty good, but I think the aesthetic is the main reason people check it out.

Sightseeing

Free walking tour – I always try to do a free walking tour on my first day in a new city, especially when it’s a big city. I think it’s a great way to see most of the sights without stress, plus you learn a lot while walking around, and usually get a few tips from other travelers.

This time I went with im.free tours, and would really recommend them! We hit all the most popular sights, like the Harbour Bridge, the Rocks, Sydney Tower, Hyde Park, and of course the world-renowned Sydney Opera House.

There are a few ways to visit the Opera House, the most popular being the classic guided tours. If you actually want to see a show at the Opera House, reserve this ASAP, they fill up far in advance. 

The second iconic sight on this tour was The Harbour Bridge. Likewise, there are multiple ways to experience it:

<$3- Walk or ferry: Being a cheapskate, I just took the stairs in Cumberland Street and then walked across the bridge (for free) and then took the ferry back for some more views (very cheap, covered by your public transport card). 

$30 – Visit the Pylon Museum: This museum located in a tower on the bridge and has a viewpoint with great panoramic views of the city.

$300+ – Climb up the bridge: If you’re more of a thrill seeker, there are several tour companies which organize climbs up the bridge. It takes around 3 hours and the price varies a lot depending on the time of day and how far in advance you book – if you’re determined to do it, book ASAP or you could end up paying as much as 400 dollars.

Botanic Garden

After the walking tour, I walked across the Harbour Bridge, took the ferry back, then checked out the Royal Botanic Garden. It is completely free to visit and very easy to get to! With 5,000 kinds of plants, it’s the oldest botanic garden in Australia.

The garden itself has beautiful views of the Sydney Harbor and is very pleasant to hang out in. They have tons of exhibitions and events happening, so it’s definitely worth a visit.

Free museums

Sydney has a reputation for being an expensive city, the ‘San Francisco’ of Australia. While it’s true going out drinking and some tourist activities are quite pricey, there are some good budget options (and you can trust this determined cheapskate to find them). Sydney is home to around 30 free museums, including the famous White Rabbit Gallery.

I always check the weather forecast and find out which day of my trip will be the rainiest or coldest. Then, I make that my ‘hit as many free indoor things’ as possible day. In Sydney, I went to the Australian Museum, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the Hyde Park Barracks.

Australian Museum – this is the oldest museum in Australia and covers a broad range of natural history topics. It has tons of interesting exhibits and events, they were exhibiting the winners of the Australian National Geographic Photography contest when I was there.

Art Gallery of New South Wales – This very colorful modern art gallery is definitely worth a visit, it has a mix of Aboriginal and international art work. 

Hyde Park Barracks – This was a very interesting experience! It has a free audio tour which is actually very well-designed and worth doing, it really gives you some insight into the lives of the people who lived here over the years, from convicts who were given a life sentence of hard labour for petty crimes, to refugees during the Irish Famine, and Aboriginal people who were hunted off the land during Colonial times.

The Rocks Walking Tour

The Rocks was the first part of Australia to be settled by Europeans, and the most historic quarter in what’s otherwise a very modern city. Imfree.tours offers a free 90-minute guided The Rocks tour every evening, and while it isn’t a ‘haunted’ tour, it does have a lot of murders and intrigue.

Our guide led us down winding laneways told us wild stories about the lives of people who settled here 200 years ago. Most of the residents were sailors or convicts who had been sent to Australia to do forced labor. After serving their full sentence, they were released into the Rocks where they struggled to make a (usually dishonest) living. There was a high risk of being murdered, robbed, kidnapped and forced into prostitution, shanghaied, or otherwise scammed beyond belief. 

There are several historic and themed pubs, and the Australian Heritage Hotel offers a weirdly popular ‘coat of arms’ pizza featuring the meat of the two animals on Australia’s coat of arms, the kangaroo and the emu. I did not try this.

One of our last stops was Observatory Hill, where we took in some inspiring views of the city lights by night 🙂

Bondi to Congee walk

Bondi Beach is one of those iconic, must-see spots in Australia. I’ve been hearing about it all my life, so it was very surreal to actually go there and experience the real place. I did the classic Bondi to Congee walk, a very scenic 6km route along the coast. It passes lots of landmarks but the main appeal is the blue of the waves and seeing the expanse of the Pacific stretch out in front of you. 

There are plenty of cafes and rest stops along the way, so you can easily spend a whole morning or afternoon here. I started at Bondi and walked south to Congee, but you could technically do it either way. Buses 333, 380 and 389 go from Circular Quay very regularly.

Blue Mountains

Doing a day trip to the Blue Mountains is a MUST while you are in Sydney. I am not a hiker at all (I don’t even like climbing stairs) but even I agree it’s absolutely the highlight of the trip. 

The Blue Mountains look blue because there are so many eucalyptus forests there – the eucalyptus oil droplets, dust, and water vapor infuse together to create a trippy blue haze. There are about 250 kilometers worth of walking tracks in the Mountains, and 900 canyons, but most guided tours just bring you to a few points-of-note – my tour only hiked about 2 hours.

You can also camp overnight, but be warned: there are lots of stories of unusual and unexplained phenomena in the mountains, dating back thousands of years 😉

How to get from Sydney to the Blue Mountains

You have plenty of options to get to the Blue Mountains from Sydney:

Drive: The Blue Mountains are around a 2 to 2-and-a-half hour drive from central Sydney.

Guided tour: I’m a passenger princess – I do love a good guided tour, so I can relax and enjoy the scenery while someone else drives and worries about the itinerary. I did Coast Warrior’s full day Blue Mountains tour, which was around 10.5 hours and cost about 65 euros. Other companies offer overnight and camping tours too, make sure to shop around to get the best price.

Train: You can also go solo on the train for around $5. NSW TrainLink Intercity trains can get you from central Sydney to the Blue Mountains in around 2 hours. 

Scenic World: This theme park located in the town of Katoomba gives you the chance to ride the steepest railway in the world or one of the cable cars for some very scenic views of the mountains. 

Blue Mountains villages, Katoomba & Glenbrook

Chances are, if you take a guided bus tour or take the train, you will start or end your Blue Mountains experience in Katoomba or Glenbrook. Our tour did a pitstop at Glenbrook, and it gave me real Twin Peaks vibes, but in a cozy way. The town itself is very small but well stocked with everything you may need to visit the Blue Mountains (supermarket, cafes, outdoor sport supply store, etc).

Our guide recommended Dolly’s Donuts & Gelato, which has won some prestigious donut award. The donuts were $5-$10 and extremely filling, so I recommend grabbing one to give you some sugar for the hike 🙂

Wentworth Falls

Our first stop on the mountains was Wentworth Falls. We had some truly EPIC views of the mountains, and then walked the Wentworth Falls track. Coast Warriors tour is the only one that actually brings you down the very steepest track, to the bottom of the waterfall – but that part is optional, and not advised if you have any injuries.

I lost track of which spots exactly we visited, but as usual, I was happy to follow the guide and just enjoy the Middle Earth-like scenery.

Three Sisters

The most photographed lookout in the Blue Mountains is the Three Sisters! It’s a really unusual rock formation. The aboriginal legend says that the local tribe was about to be invaded by their enemies, who planned to kidnap the women. A powerful elder transformed his three daughters into stone so the invaders couldn’t find them – but he actually ended up being killed, and so never returned to turn his daughters back into humans. Local folk tales always have such bizarre and depressing endings 🙁

Whale watching

From mid-May to early November every year, 45,000 humpback whales swim past Sydney on their annual winter migration from Antarctica to the warm, sub-tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef. It’s crazy to think the whales travel up to 10,000km!

I booked a 2-hour budget cruise with Fantasea Cruises Sydney, which cost around 40 euros. If that doesn’t float your boat, other operators longer or more ‘luxurious’ cruises. Most tours have a pretty high success rate and manage to see whales almost every day, but if you don’t see whales, most companies will offer you a free ticket to try it again another day.

We did see a pod of whales, including a lil baby one! We also saw some dolphins as a bonus. Pro-tip, take seasickness medication before boarding. A few people on our boat were stuck in the bathroom throwing up while everyone else stood on the deck marveling at the glory and majesty of the whales.

Shopping in Sydney

As I mentioned in my Brisbane article, June is the end of the Financial Year in Australia, and there are some amazing sales happening in stores in June. I usually don’t like to shop when traveling. I feel I could shop online at home any time, but this si my only chance to go out and explore Sydney.. but I have to admit I spent a full day trekking around malls in Sydney and the deals were great!

The Queen Victoria Building is the most iconic mall, it was built in the late 19th century and has real Grand Budapest vibes, with plenty of shops for different budgets. Pitt Street Mall and Westfield are also worth checking out, especially if you’re there during sale season like I was. 

Source: sydney.com

Where to go after Sydney

I basically did the classic East Coast backping route backwards, so Sydney was my 2nd-last stop, and Melbourne/The Great Ocean Road was my last. If you’re doing the same thing, here’s how to go from Sydney to Melbourne:

Flying is the fastest option, but also the most expensive. As usual, I recommend looking far in advance and being flexible on dates if you want to get a good deal.

Looking for more tips for traveling Australia on a budget? Read my other articles: