• Four Points by Sheraton Sydney
• Novotel Sydney Olympic Park
• Holiday Inn Darling Harbour
• Crowne Plaza Darling Harbour
• Novotel Rockford Darling Harbour
• Holiday Inn Old Sydney Hotel
• Rydges Hotel North Sydney
• Radisson Hotel & Suites
• The Medusa Hotel Darlinghurst
• Vibe Hotel Rushcutters Sydney
• Manly Pacific Sydney
• Mercure Hotel Parramatta
• Rydges Hotel Parramatta
• Carlton Hotel Parramatta
• Meriton Parramatta
• Coogee Bay Hotel
• Accor Menzies Sydney 

Entertainment:

Culture:

Sydney boasts a full roster of musical, theatrical and artistic activity through the year, from the formal - including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Theatre Company, the Sydney Dance Company, and the Archibald Prize - to festivals, including the Sydney Festival, a celebration of free performances throughout January.

Performances are often held in the iconic Sydney Opera House, which contains 5 theatres capable of hosting a wide range of performance styles. For seven months of the year, it is the home of Opera Australia, the third busiest opera company in the world. Other major arts venues include the Sydney Town Hall, City Recital Hall, the State Theatre and the Wharf Theatre.

Opera House:

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most distinctive and famous 20th century buildings, and one of the most famous performing arts venues in the world. Situated on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, with parkland to its south and close to the enormous Sydney Harbour Bridge, the building and its surroundings form an iconic Australian image. To some the spherical-sectioned shells are reminiscent of the flotilla of sailboats commonly cruising there. Tourists - mostly with little or no interest in opera - throng to the building in the thousands every week purely to see it.

As well as many touring theatre, ballet, and musical productions the Opera House is the home of Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It is administered by the Opera House Trust, under the New South Wales (NSW) Ministry of the Arts.

The Sydney Opera House has about a thousand rooms, including five theatres, five rehearsal studios, two main halls, four restaurants, six bars and numerous souvenir shops.

The roofs of the House are constructed of 1,056,000 glazed white granite tiles, imported from Sweden. Despite their self-cleaning nature, they are still subject to periodic maintenance and replacement. The House interior is composed of pink granite mined from Tarana, NSW and wood and brush box plywood supplied from northern NSW.

Museums:

Sydney has five large and many smaller museums.

• The Australian Museum - (Natural History & Anthropology)
• The Powerhouse (Science, Technology & Design)
• Art gallery of New South Wales
• Museum of Contempory Art
• Australian National Maritime Museum

Shopping:

There are some notable shopping malls to explore:

• Sydney Central Plaza - located in the heart of the Sydney CBD shopping precinct, on Pitt Street Mall, is the result of a major redevelopment of the former Grace Bros store located on its site.
• Queen Victoria Bulding - Grand Victorian building located in the heart of Sydney's CBD. The elaborate neo-Byzantine architecture presents a glittering contrast to the more severe modern buildings around it. Measuring 190 metres long by 30 wide, it fills an entire city block, bounded by George, Market, York and Druitt Streets.
• Macquirie Centre - This major collection of various retailers located opposite Macquarie University's main campus features over 200 retailers: Myer, Target, Franklins, Woolworths, plus one of Sydney's biggest group of cinemas and an ice rink.
• Westfield Parramatta - Owned and managed by The Westfield Group, it is the largest enclosed shopping centre in Sydney, and is reputed to be the largest building in the Southern Hemiszphere.
• Broadway Shopping Centre
• Eastgate Shopping Centre

Luna Park:

Luna Park Sydney (originally Luna Park Milsons Point, now formally Sydney's Luna Park) is a historical amusement park, located on the northern shore of Sydney Harbour, Australia. The heritage-listed park first opened in 1935, and is open for business as of 2006, but over its 70 year history, the park has experienced multiple closures, changes of ownership, legal battles, and community action in both support of and opposition to Luna Park's operation.

The redevelopment and restoration of Luna Park was conducted over 14 months. The rides were removed, restored, and upgraded to comply with modern safety standards. Crystal Palace was redesigned with several function rooms, one of which took up the entire lower floor. A 2,000 seat multipurpose auditorium, the Big Top, was constructed.

Luna Park re-opened on April 4th, 2004. Despite rain and low temperatures, several thousand people attended the opening day, many enjoying the opportunity to indulge in nostalgia. Within two months, the total attendance figure reached 200,000.

As of 2006, Sydney's Luna Park is open and operating, having celebrated its 70th anniversary in October 2005. After the closure of Australia's Wonderland at the end of 2004, Luna Park became the largest amusement park in New South Wales.

Based on the enormous smiling faces at Luna Park St Kilda and Steeplechase Park in the United States, Luna Park's 9 metre wide smiling Face, as well as its flanking towers, have presided over the main entrance for almost all of the park's 70 year history. The current Face, designed in 1995 and carved from polyurethane, is based on Arthur Barton's 1950s "Old King Cole" version. 

Food & Drink:

Sydney is a gourmet paradise, with an abundance of fresh seafood, a vast range of vegetables and fruit always in season, prime meats at inexpensive prices, and top-quality chefs making international names for themselves. Asian and Mediterranean cooking have had a major influence on Australian cuisine, with spices and herbs finding their way into most dishes. Immigration has brought with it almost every type of cuisine you can imagine, from African to Tibetan, from Russian to Vietnamese. Some areas of the city are dedicated to one type of food, while other areas are melting pots of styles.

Modern Australian cuisine emphasizes fresh ingredients and a creative blend of European styles with Asian influences. (Some foodies complain that some restaurants use the label "Modern Australian" as an excuse to serve skimpy portions -- like one lamb chop atop a tiny mound of mashed potatoes sprinkled with curry sauce.) At its best, Modern Australian food is world-class, but you'll probably have to go to the best of Sydney's restaurants to see what the scene is all about.

Darling Harbour:

With over 50 restaurants and cafes in the Harbourside complex and across the water at Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour offers plenty of memorable dining expereinces.

Tasty burgers, top quality seafood, gourmet wood fired pizzas and traditional aussie pies are just some of the edible delights available at Darling Harbour. If you'd prefer a liquid refreshment then there's freshly squeezed juices, local and imported beers and some excellent views from the bars situated on the waterfront at Harbourside and Cockle Bay.

Cockle Bay is Darling Harbour's newest addition, home to some of Sydney's most highly awarded restaurants. The modern nautical design imbues a peaceful and open ambience conducive to outdoor and alfresco dining. Cockle Bay is also hoast to the Winter Concert Series. The series features a number of prestigous concert performances presented on a floating stage just off the shore in Cockle Bay.

Cafe Culture:

Debate rages over which cafe serves the best coffee in Sydney, which has the best atmosphere, and which has the tastiest snacks. The main cafe scenes can be found on Victoria Street in Darlinghurst, Stanley Street in East Sydney, and King Street in Newtown. Other places, including Balmoral Beach on the North Shore, Bondi Beach, and Paddington, all have their own favoured hangouts.

The top end of Oxford Street, which runs from Hyde Park in central Sydney toward Bondi, has a profusion of trendy bars and cafes and a scattering of cheaper eateries among the more glamorous ones.

In short, Sydney is a fusion of cultures and cuisine, and you would certainly do yourself a disservice if you only sample the fayre in the hotel restaurant - get out and discover what the city has to offer your palate! 

Night Life:

Sydney has great pubs, jazz haunts, rock venues and nightclubs in most of her quarters - from Darling Harbour to Kings Cross, Oxford Street to The Rocks. If you're looking to party around Darling Harbour, there's a new bar called Watershed in the Harbourside centre. It seems to generate a really good atmosphere, with good live entertainment and great views of the city skyline on every level. The Watershed is open from 11am till late weeknights and until 3am on weekends.

Another popular spot in Sydney is the recently refurbished Hard Rock Cafe in Crown Street, Darlinghurst. In Sydney the Hard Rock Cafe is a favourite with locals as well as overseas visitors, with its world renowned hospitality, familiar atmosphere and great value eats and drinks. The Hard Rock Sydney boasts a supreme collection of fascinating music memorabilia that spans the history of rock 'n' roll - from all-time favourites like Elvis, Beatles and the Stones to Madonna, Hendrix, Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Star City Casino:

Fronting onto Darling Harbour, Star City features three gaming floors, six bars, seven restaurants and four-hundred and eighty hotel rooms. It is licenced to be New South Wales' only casino until 2007. The casino features three gaming floors - the main gaming floor, the Endeavour Room, and the Inner Sanctum; the latter two are only available to high rollers and international guests.

The main gaming floor is divided into three distinct areas or pits - Table Games, Electronic Gaming, and Poker. In March 2005, the amount of poker tables was increased from four to six, then again later from six to twelve.

Star City provides many traditional casino games to patrons, including baccarat, Big Wheel, blackjack, Caribbean Stud, craps, Pai Gow, poker, Pontoon, roulette, Sic Bo and Three-Card Poker. The Casino also provides a selection of electronic gaming machines, including slot machines bingo, and video poker. In January 2006 Star City introduced an new electronic game, Rapid Big Wheel.

Some suggested bars/pubs:

• Hero of the Waterloo Hotel
• Lord Nelson Hotel
• Watsons Bay Hotel
• Marble Bar
• Cargo Bar & Lounge
• Bondi Hotel
• Slip Inn
• Soho Bar & Lounge
• Cheers

Tourist Tips:

Sydney's central business district (CBD) extends southwards for about 2 kilometres from Sydney Cove, the point of the first European settlement.

Densely concentrated skyscrapers and other buildings including historic sandstone buildings such as the Sydney Town Hall and Queen Victoria Building are interspersed by several parks such as Wynyard and Hyde Park. The Sydney Central Business District (CBD) is bounded on the east side by a chain of parkland that extends from Hyde Park through the Domain and Royal Botanic Gardens to Farm Cove on the harbour. The west side is bounded by Darling Harbour, a popular tourist and nightlife precinct. Central Station marks the southern end of the CBD. George Street is the Sydney CBD's main north-south thoroughfare.

The Rocks:

The Rocks is a tourist precinct and historic area near the central business district (CBD) of Sydney, Australia. It borders on the Bradfield Highway, leading to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and is immediately adjacent to Circular Quay (Sydney Cove), the site of Australia's first European settlement in 1788.

The Rocks became established shortly after the colony's formation. The original buildings were made mostly of local sandstone, from which the area derives its name. From the earliest history of the settlement, the area had a reputation as a slum, often frequented by visiting sailors and prostitutes. During the late 1800s, the areas was dominated by a gang known as the Rocks Push. It maintained this rough reputation until approximately the 1970s.

Sydney Harbour Bridge:

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of the major landmarks of Sydney, connecting the Sydney central business district (CBD) with the North Shore commercial and residential areas, both of which are located on Sydney Harbour. The dramatic water vista of the bridge together with the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic image of both Sydney and Australia. The bridge is also known as "the Coathanger" on account of its arch-based design, although hardly any locals call it that.

The bridge was the city's tallest structure until 1967. According to Guinness World Records, it is the widest long-span bridge in the world. The design bears a marked resemblance to that of the New York Hell Gate Bridge. Its design was later used as a basis for the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

The bridge can also be accessed from the south by getting on Cahill Walk, which runs along the Cahill Expressway. Pedestrians can access this walkway from Circular Quay by a flight of stairs, or a lift, alternately it can be accessed from The Botanical Gardens.

Since 1998, BridgeClimb has made it possible for tourists to climb the southern half of the bridge. Tours run at dawn, throughout the day, and at twilight.

Darling Harbour:

Darling Harbour is a large recreational pedestrian precinct situated on the western edge of central Sydney. It extends northwards from Chinatown, along both sides of Cockle Bay to King Street Wharf on the east, and to the suburb of Pyrmont on the west.

The area is home to a number of major public facilities and attractions including the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Paddy's Markets, Sydney's Chinese Gardens, Tumbalong Park, the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Australian National Maritime Museum (featuring museum ships including HMAS Vampire), Star City Casino, the Powerhouse Museum, the Sydney Aquarium, and a number of large international hotels. The Darling Harbour precinct is linked to places in the CBD by the Sydney Monorail.

Darling Harbour is named after Lieutenant-General Ralph Darling, who was Governor of New South Wales from 1825 to 1831. It was originally part of the commercial port of Sydney. By the mid-to-late 1980s it had become largely derelict and was redeveloped as a pedestrian and tourist precinct .

Parks:

Sydney contains a large array of lush parks and gardens, which attract visitors all year round. Sydney has some remarkable natural areas and open spaces situated within the city centre, many of them dating back to the first settlers. Notable parks include the Chinese Garden of Friendship, the Royal Botanical Gardens and Hyde Park (which is named after London's Hyde Park). The city as a whole contains several national parks, including the Royal National Park, the second oldest national park in the world.

Sydney Tower:

The Sydney Tower (formerly known as the AMP Tower, AMP Centrepoint Tower, Centrepoint Tower or just Centrepoint) is Sydney's tallest free-standing structure, and the second tallest in Australia (with the Q1 building on the Gold Coast being the tallest).

It is also the second tallest observation tower in the Southern Hemisphere (after Auckland's Sky Tower); though Sydney Tower's main observation deck is almost 50 metres higher than that of Auckland's Sky Tower. The tower stands 305 metres above the central business district, it is located at 120 Market Street, between Pitt and Castlereagh Streets, accessible from the Pitt Street Mall, and sits upon Centrepoint (to which the tower is often referred), an office building and shopping centre. The tower is open to the public, and is one of the most prominent tourist attractions in the city, being visible from a number of vantage points throughout town and from adjoining suburbs.

Three sections of the tower are open to public access:

• The observation deck - 250 metres above ground level, this fully-enclosed viewing platform features 360 degree views of the city. This floor also features a small gift shop, a readout displaying data on the conditions of the tower (wind speed, direction and sway amplitude).
• SkyWalk platform - 268 metres above ground level, this open-air viewing platform also features 360 degree views of the city. This level, however, is only accessible as part of planned and booked tours.
• The two restaurants - One A La Carte Restaurant and one Buffet Restaurant.

Other Suggestions for sightseeing in the area:

• Sydney Harbour Bridge
• Taronga Zoo
• Luna Park
• Sydney Mint
• Sydney Tower
• China Town 
• Sydney Aquarium
• Sydney Town Hall
• Bondi Beach
• Manly Beach
• Palm Beach
• IMAX Theatre
• Darling Harbour
• Sydney Observatory
• Fox Studios Australia
• Blue Mountains Trip
• Hunter Valley Wineries
• Captain Cook harbour Cruises
• Former Americas Cup Racer "Spirit" harbour Cruise
• Sydney Olympic Park
  

Australia:

Australia is the sixth largest country in the world. It's about the same size as the 48 mainland states of the USA and fifty percent larger than Europe, but has the lowest population density in the world - only two people per square kilometre.

This country has sheer size and diversity on a different scale to most nations, and so apart from the main cities: Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin, there is unrivalled scenery, aboriginal culture, and of course the European influence to add to the melting pot.

From metropolis to desert, to the tropics and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia has every conceivable reason to prolong your stay!

• See our stopover section on Australia for more detailed information!

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