You To Can Discover Sydney

View from Sydney Tower lookimg west over Darling Harbour with Anzac Bridge in the background.

Discover Sydney is a comprehensive guide to travel in Sydney. Learn about NSW’s capital city, Sydney, how to locate the most affordable flights or the most suitable accommodations for your needs, or read histories of the city and first-person travel accounts. Discover Sydney with Sydney travel accommodation, and get your travel information all in one convenient location.

Australia is an enormous country, and it draws nearly six million visitors from across the globe every year. Although some may come for business or to further their educations, many visit simply to see this incredible continent, a land with vast and colourful deserts, rich rain forests, and thousands of kilometres of beaches. Most people who visit begin their adventures in the beautiful harbour city of Sydney.

We understand that you have a lot of options when it comes to visiting Sydney, and our goal is to provide you with the most balanced view of travel possible. You need accurate, up-to-date information about how to get great prices on your airfare and how to get the accommodations right for you.

There’s a lot more to your holiday than rooms and flights, of course. You want to see the sights and explore as much of Australia’s most populous city as possible during whatever time you have here. We give you insider information about the best beaches, your public transportation options, and share ideas for day trips and fun excursions.

How do you want to spend your time in Sydney? Do you want to enjoy fresh seafood at a trendy waterfront bistro? Do you want to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge? Do you want to spend a night at the Opera?

You don’t have to waste a single minute of your time in Sydney trying to figure out what to do next or worrying about finding cheap flights and accommodations. Let Destination Sydney help you firm up your plans in advance so that you can head off on your Sydney adventure worry-free.

How Great Is Sydney CBD?

Sydney, Australia, has a lot to offer anyone who’s ready to jump in with both feet. From the bounding surf at Bondi to the pulsing nightlife at King’s Cross, there’s always something going on. Choosing a Sydney CBD apartment puts you right in the heart of this world-class city.

Sydney’s CBD overlooks sparkling Sydney Harbour and the impressive Sydney Harbour Bridge. The white sails of the Opera House are an unforgettable sight whether you’re coming or going. The CBD is also home to such spectacular structures as the Queen Victoria Building and the Sydney Tower.

The Queen Victoria Building was built by architect George McRae in the late 19th century. Originally built as a market, the Queen Victoria Building is ornately Romanesque, with stained glass windows, elaborate floor tiles, and a copper dome topped with a cupola. The QVB was made over into a library, office buildings, and even threatened with demolition before it came full circle to become a shopping centre again in the 1980s.

Sydney Tower is equally magnificent. Standing 250 metres above the CBD, it offers some of the most breathtaking views of the city available anywhere. The tower sits upon Centrepoint Shopping Centre, and visitors can walk the observation deck or the Skywalk or just enjoy a meal at one of the revolving restaurants.

On the shores of Sydney Harbour in the CBD is The Rocks. The oldest and most frequently travelled area of Sydney, The Rocks is remarkably well preserved with plenty of Old World charm amongst the lively cafés and arts and crafts stalls.

As bustling as the CBD is, it’s also home to plenty of open, green spaces. With beautifully well-kept gardens and fig tree-lined lanes, Hyde Park is a peaceful oasis on the eastern side of the CBD. It’s the ideal location for busy office workers who want to enjoy a quiet picnic lunch, a quick game of catch, or a giant game of chess.

The Royal Botanic Gardens are another favourite spot for guided walks or pleasant jogs. With more than a dozen gardens featuring rare and endangered flora, indigenous plants, succulents, and ferns, the Botanic Gardens offer educational and cultural pursuits for Sydneysiders and others in search of workshops, exhibitions, lectures, and more.

My First Trip to Sydney

I’m on my first trip ever to Sydney, Australia. I’ve already gotten a good head start on planning my travel and accommodation in Sydney. I hope to visit all the major tourist attractions while I’m there!

I’ll begin at the Taronga Zoo. The Taronga Zoo has animals typical of other zoos, but I am more interested in its native Australian habitats. I have never before had a chance to see animals like kangaroos, Australian sea lions, platypuses, and Australian night creatures up close. The Taronga Zoo also provides keeper talks during which I’ll have an opportunity to learn more about the koalas and Tasmanian Devils.

I also look forward to completing the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb. Even though it is 134 metres at its tallest point, the bridge climb is quite manageable for those who are in good health and reasonably fit. Even better, three different walks are available at several times of the day, so there’s sure to be one to fit my needs.

A side trip to the Blue Mountains is an adventure I won’t want to pass up. The city of Katoomba is said to provide some of the best views of the region, such as The Three Sisters, a rock formation that looks exactly like, well, three sisters.

It will be fun, too, to mingle with the real Sydneysiders as I cycle through Centennial Park. Centennial Park is a green oasis just a few kilometres from Sydney’s central business district. With dedicated cycling paths and beautiful surrounds, it will also be a nice break from all the busy excitement of sightseeing.

My ultimate grand finale will be a concert in the Sydney Opera House. I’ll make a night of it, thanks to the several dining options at the Opera House. Maybe I’ll even take advantage of one of the Opera House tours so that I can learn more about this iconic location. In the end, though, I know the performance will really be the high point of my first visit to Sydney.

Everything You Ought to Know About Sydney Furnished Accommodation

Furnished accommodation apartment living room in Pyrmont, Sydney.

When you’re looking for long term accommodation in Sydney, you have options besides costly hotels or inexpensive motels in inconvenient locations. Furnished apartments are a viable option for many people, providing all the comforts of home in one convenient package.

Even though you may not be living here long-term, where you choose to stay during your visit here depends a great deal on your personal needs and tastes. Whether you are travelling for business or pleasure, you can find Sydney furnished accommodation in the bustling Sydney CBD where you can go sightseeing at some of the city’s top tourist destinations or explore the many shopping and dining districts or live in one of Sydney’s more charming suburbs like Pyrmont or Paddington.

Pyrmont is a lively harbour suburb within walking distance of city’s centre. It is home to a number of art galleries and parks. You can take your pick of nearly 60 restaurants offering a variety of different cuisines or browse through several quiet little booksellers. Working towards the goal of a Sustainable Sydney by 2030, Pyrmont also provides community gardens for the use of its residents, where they enjoy growing organic produce.

Paddington is another nearby suburb of Sydney. Eclectic, Paddington is also quite lovely with its terraced Victorian homes, trendy art galleries, cozy pubs, and boutique stores. Paddington Market is one of its distinguishing characteristics, with stalls selling everything from textiles to baked goods, from jewellery to stationery, and from native plants to porcelain. Paddington’s restaurants are contemporary, and you can enjoy authentic Australian cuisine, ethnic flavours, or trendy little bistros.

A furnished apartment in Sydney’s CBD, Pyrmont, or Paddington will have you right in the middle of all the action you crave, close to public transportation, and within walking or riding distance of all the dining options and sightseeing adventures you desire. You will enjoy all the amenities of a luxurious furnished apartment with everything you need to feel right at home throughout your entire visit.

A Furnished View of Darling Harbour In Sydney

Sydney's Darling Harbour with Sydney CBD skyline in the background.

Imagine spending a day sightseeing in one of the world’s most liveable cities, Sydney, Australia. You spend the evening enjoying the waterfront bars and restaurants of Darling Harbour, and then you tuck in for a comfortable night’s sleep. The next morning, the sun wakens you, peeping in from across your balcony. Does it sound almost too good to be true? It’s not.

You can enjoy all of these luxuries and more in your own Darling Harbour furnished two-bedroom apartment provided by Furnished Properties in Sydney, Australia. Originally part of Sydney’s commercial port, Darling Harbour today is home to numerous attractions, including the Harbourside Shopping Centre, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Aquarium, and the largest screen in the world, the LG IMAX theatre. Located near Sydney’s bustling CBD, Darling Harbour is accessible by car or taxi, bus, train, monorail, or even ferry.

Darling Harbour is home to many businesses as well, including Nestlé, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, among others. The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre is located at the heart of Darling Harbour, and restaurants and cafes abound in Cockle Bay Wharf.

Not just for adults, Darling Harbour also offers a number of exciting opportunities for families, too, including the Darling Harbour Playground, Sydney Wildlife World, or the Chinese Garden.

If you’re ready to enjoy the best Sydney and Darling Harbour have to offer, it’s time you contact Furnished Properties. A two-bedroom furnished apartment comes with its own plasma screen tv and cable access so you can catch up on the news or your favourite programs during your stay. In-house cleaning service packages are available so guests can enjoy everything Australia has to offer without having to worry about the details.

All Furnished Properties apartments come ready for use, with comfortable furniture and modern fixtures, washing machine and dryer, dishwasher, and are comfortably air-conditioned. We supply everything from the furniture to the linens – you only need to bring yourself.

The Only Way To Find Accommodation In Sydney

When people consider visiting another country, one of the reasons a lot of folks cite is “I don’t wanna be stuck in a hotel room for weeks on end!”

Well have you ever considered renting an apartment on travel?

“Isn’t that prohibitively expensive?”

Renting a lavish beach house is expensive, renting a furnished studio can be cheaper than renting a hotel for the same amount of time.

“Wait a minute, you can rent a studio apartment temporarily?”

In most towns around the world, you’re not getting your foot into an apartment if you don’t have first month’s rent, last month’s rent, a deposit, and you’re willing to sign a twelve month lease. In a city like Sydney, on the other hand, the owners of apartment buildings know that by restricting their apartments to permanent residents, they’re missing out on the fact that their city plays host to thousands upon thousands of visitors every year.

Furnished Properties offers a rental home in just about any price range, any size, you could possibly need, from modest studios to four room houses. Whether you’re putting the whole family up or just taking a week down under with your lover, you’ll find something that’s just right.

The benefits to renting your own place in Sydney are almost too numerous to even begin listing, but for starters, have you ever visited New Orleans or the Florida Keys or Alaska, gone on a fishing trip, and wondered how the heck you’re gonna cook the thing now that you’ve caught it? What about buying fresh produce right off a farm in Montana? You can’t cook in a hotel, you can in an apartment.

Not to mention, Sydney is known for its pubs and bars. Do you really want to be sleeping off a hangover only to have housekeeping banging on the door three hours after you finally crawled into bed? If you’re staying more than a night or two, furnished rentals are really the only way to go about it.

Everything You Ought To Know About Hotels In Australia

The big red sunset over Australia.

When contemplating a trip Down Under or considering writing down your thoughts under my travel in Australia, you have to consider where you will be laying your head each night. Australia accommodations range from the inexpensive to the expensive, rustic to luxuriant, indoors and outdoors. Whatever your budget and wishes, friendly service and customer satisfaction is the benchmark of Australia hotels and lodging. Accommodations range from hotels, motels, luxury resorts, bed and breakfast, farm stays, backpackers, caravan, and camping.

Hotels and Motels
International hotels are located in Australia’s major cities with facilities including fitness centres, pools, restaurants and bars, and room service. Rooms and suites are available for daily and weekly rates.
Motels are available close to airports and sport arenas in Australia. Most rooms include television, WiFi, tea and coffee service; some offer a refrigerator and microwave, too.

Luxury Resorts
Luxuriant accommodations with tremendous guest services, plus activities for guests tailored to the location, age, and interests including scuba diving, surfing, wine tasting and fine dining, and tours of cultural and historic sites.

B & B and Farm Stays
Bed and breakfasts and Farm Stays offer home cooked meals, but you wake with the cock’s crow at the farm. B & Bs are restored miners’ cottages, farmhouses, and townhouses with comfortable rooms at affordable rates. Farm Stays are restored farmsteads open for public visits to experience back-to-basic life. Visitors are supervised as they learn how to muster cattle on horseback, fishing, swimming, and bushwalking.

Caravan, Camping, and Backpackers
The scenic country of Australia is at your front door whether parking at a caravan park, pitching a tent, or staying the night at a hostel. Caravan parks usually furnish water and electric hookups, plus hot water showers and laundry facilities. Camping grounds, private and national parks, offer various amenities which will help you rough it easily. Hostels have dorm rooms with several bunks in each room to accommodate the backpacker passing through the neighbourhood. Showers and laundry facilities are available at most hostels.

Travelling through Australia is made easier by accommodating its vistors with a variety of options when searching for a place to rest your head.

The Major Industries in Australia

Mining and farming are two of the major industries in Australia. Despite an ongoing economic slump in Australia, there are predictions that the production of iron ore will increase and help to improve the economy in Australia. The Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics has predicted that an increase in the production of wheat will bring in more profits for Australia, because wheat is a valuable export commodity. The farming industry in Australia is facing a thriving future once again after surviving some of the worse drought conditions in over one hundred years. The mining industry in Australia has suffered and continues to recover from its boom to bust predicament.

Due to the fact that Australia is covered by vast amounts of desert areas and receives little rainfall, irrigation is used in many areas of Australia to produce agricultural crops. Beef is one of Australia’s most profitable agriculture products with its chief exports going to Japan and the United States. Australia has benefited financially from the outbreak of the mad cow disease which occurred in many other countries. Although, Australia is too humid and dry to maintain many types of crops, their flourishing grape vineyards is contributing to the prosperity of Australia’s wine industry. Australia’s warm climate and spectacular scenery makes tourism a lucrative industry in Australia.

Cities in Australia have received huge profits from sheep farming, which produces a large quantity of meat and wool. Cattle ranching is enormously profitable in producing meat for domestic use and for exporting. In Melbourne, the automobile industry, manufacturing industry and tourism are major sources of income for Australia. Melbourne hosts many major sporting events which increases the profits for the tourism industry. Directly east of Melbourne is Latrobe Valley, which has the world’s largest supply of brown coal. Brown coal is used to produce electricity in Melbourne. Half of Australia’s domestic oil is produced in the fields of the Gippsland Basin, which is east of Melbourne. A substantial number of Australia’s mining and mineral production companies are headquartered in Melbourne.

Sydney is Australia’s largest city, and its major industries are manufacturing and the seaport industry. Sydney is a chief port for exporting consumer goods, such as wool, meat, coal, wheat, flour and timber. Sydney has overtaken Melbourne as the capital of Australia’s financial industry, making Sydney a very successful and wealthy city.

Experienced Traveller’s Choose Furnished Apartments

Traveling and visiting different places is a passion many people enjoy. Not everyone, however, enjoys staying in a hotel. Some will prefer to camp or crash on a friends couch while others will opt for a furnished apartment. Of all these choices, the furnished apartment may seem like the most expensive way to go. This isn’t necessarily the case and the benefits of a furnished apartment are often more than worth the money.

Furnished apartments offer so much more than just a bed, a bath and a mini-bar. The furniture is often very stylish and comfortable. The kitchens are ready to use with modern appliances, cookware and dishes. But most appealing is all the space. You can choose between single bedroom or multiple bedrooms which can be ideal for families. Most also have an office or den in addition to a separate living area.

Everyone is trying to save money. Finding the best value is almost an art form and furnished apartments can save many travellers more than a few dollars, pounds or pesos. The average cost of a month in a luxury hotel is twice the cost of a furnished apartment in Sydney, for example. If you are planning to stay for more than just a few days, looking into a furnished apartment is definitely a good way to stretch your budget.

While furnished apartments are readily available in large cities, there are still plenty of great options in less densely populated areas. Places like Boracay Philippines, Farellones Chile and many others have excellent furnished apartments available. In fact, you can find furnished apartments almost anywhere you can find a hotel.

Before you book a hotel room for your next trip, take a look at the furnished apartments available. You will be surprised by what you find.

Are Serviced Apartments Taking Business From Sydney Hotels?

There is a definite increase in serviced apartment bookings in Sydney. At the same time Sydney hotels have a larger number of vacancies. It would appear that there is a causal relation here. On closer inspection, however, that is probably not to be the case.

Businesses have been turning to video conferencing rather than spending money on travel expenses. As the economy improves many of these companies will be authorizing more travel and bookings will increase as a result. Will they book in hotels or serviced apartments? The data would indicate hotels.

The people who stay in serviced apartments are usually looking for larger space than they can get in a hotel. Families, for instance, prefer the serviced apartment option because they are able to keep an eye on the kids more easily than in multiple hotel rooms.

While it looks like the drop in bookings in Sydney hotels may be caused by the increase in bookings in serviced apartments, this is probably not the case. They are appealing to different demographics. The strong Australian dollar is more likely the reason hotels are not keeping pace with serviced apartments as individuals and couples are choosing to travel abroad with their extra buying power.

How Best To Market Your Company

Seller Know Your Market
No matter what type of business a proprietor is involved in, the most important aspect of any business is to be able to clearly and quickly identify your market. Basically, your market is the field from which sales will be plowed. What constitutes the best possible means of identifying your product or service market? Viability, consumer orientation and demand and product and service validity. Even the most unusual widgets find a venue that attracts customers. This is proof that with the right tools a company can market itself in the best possible business environments.

The Website Creates The Brand
Without doubt, a website must be easy to find or it becomes lost in cyberspace. Next, the website has to reflect details that create an incentive for customers to buy what your website sells. Choose your web content carefully. It should always present a unique sales proposition along with need for your product or service. A good example of this is a website for apartment accommodation Sydney

Don’t be afraid to display all of the practiced objectives that support your company’s reliability. In today’s markets, reliability is a huge factor in volume of sales. Trust in the product line or services offered has to be obvious in web content and all blog posts related to the website. Attention to building customer trust is the best possible way to market your company. Emphasize this as often as necessary in all areas of advertising. Trust is the one tool that assuredly helps a website create a recognized brand and enhances market ranking.

GFC not the only reason for a drop in Sydney Tourism

In the two years since the GFC (Global Financial Crisis), tourism to Sydney has dropped by 3.5 per cent. Sydney is a long way from the rest of the world and with less money in people’s pockets, they seem to be reluctant to spend it coming to Sydney. Domestic tourism has also fallen. With the rise of the Aussie dollar, Australians can now enjoy more bang for their buck by traveling overseas. The United States gets you a real value holiday. Australians are even using their holidays to go to the annual Macy’s sale to save even more. And there’s no doubt Sydney is expensive, a cup of coffee will usually set you back $3.50.

View of Sydney Harbour Bridge from the north pylon.

Sydney ranks 24th on the Worlds ‘cost of living scale,’ higher than Barcelona, Dublin or even New York. It’s cheaper to go to the movies in London or New York than it is in Sydney and a liter of milk costs twice as much in Sydney than it does in New York.

So where is everyone going? The number one tourist destination is France followed by America, sliding up the ladder is Malaysia which has reached the top ten. Believe it or not, another region bucking the trend is the Middle East, so even though images from our television might be telling us one thing, tourism figures are telling us another. The strong Aussie dollar and the weak US dollar has everyone going. And not just to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but Qatar with billions of dollars spent on new hotels and airport facilities. Even Oman in getting in on the action.

So if perceptions of violence are being ignored in the Middle East try typing ‘tourist bashed’ in Google and the first things to pop up are reports of violence against tourists in Sydney. The good news? At least there’s an app. Tourism Australia has released a free iPhone app to coincide with the forthcoming Ashes series this summer. It might be the beginning of a new trend.

Serviced Apartments in Sydney – Do They Have Staying Power?

What if you could take all the benefits of staying over in a luxurious hotel room and throw them into a decked out apartment at the locale of your choice, far away from busy front-desk lobbies, overcrowded elevators and parking lots? What if I told you that you wouldn’t have to sacrifice room service, the snack bar and free Wi-Fi? Well you’d have what we call a serviced apartment my friends, and it may just be the thing to eventually give the Sheratons, Hyatts and Hiltons of the area a run for their money.

Serviced apartments appeal to longer-term stays and those travelling with families, who want more of the comforts of home than a standard hotel room will provide, (like a kitchenette, a living area, private bedrooms and complimentary washer and dryer) for about the same cost as one. Guests in a serviced apartment still won’t have to make their own bed or wash their own towels, but they’ll feel less like a visitor in town and more like a host when their own guests come a-calling.

Furnished apartment living room on Market St, Sydney CBD.

As the needs of out-of-towners or those who are transitioning to town continue to become more diverse, serviced apartments continue to grow in popularity. Those looking to book a serviced apartment now have their choice of one, two or three bedrooms, penthouse floor suites, pristine beach side views and more. Statistics show that more and more of these facilities are being created and that their numbers have been steadily increasing for about the last 10 years. The rates, accommodations and amenities of serviced apartments continue to become more competitive with local name hotels as time passes.

So are Sydney hotels worried about serviced apartments? Well, while the Hiltons and the Waldorfs of the world are hardly crying broke, the increasing popularity of serviced apartments suggests that mainstream hotels will certainly have to pay closer attention to customers desiring to make this newer alternative their choice for out-of-town accommodations.

For more information about serviced apartments in Sydney and surrounding areas, visit Furnished Properties to search by various criteria for the serviced apartment that will fit your special needs.