Sydney Travel Forum

My wife and I will be in Sydney for the first time for 8 days in a few weeks. We will be staying downtown, not far from the Harbor. I was told not to rent a car due to not being familiar with right hand drive and traffic. It appears there are good trains and buses. A week pass is $170pp. It includes ferries. We plan on also going out of Sydney whenever possible, blue mts etc. I also think its extra for the airport and out of town.

Is this pass a better option than using taxis? Are taxis reasonable for two or more expensive. Any thoughts?

Mike from Alaska

The railway line from the airport into town is privately owned, and as such I guess not included in rail passes. From memory, it cost $14.60 single, that was in April this year.

The traffic in Sydney is fairly heavy. parking is expensive and there are tolls on many of the major routes, including the Harbour Bridge. These can no longer be paid cash. Better not to rent a car, driving in a busy city and not being in the correct lane can be a nightmare! I hate it & I grew up here!!! The public transport system is good. I will leave it to other VT'r's to give you further advice on the cost and travel boundaries of the weekly passes, as I'm not sure whether they cover the Blue Mountains.

Enjoy your trip!!

$170 seems quite high for a weekly transport ticket - although if you want to include the Blue Mountains, maybe not.

If you're just going to the Blue Mountains once (even if it's over a couple of days), you might be better getting a cheaper weekly ticket and buying separate tickets to the Blue Mountains - a weekly pass is priced on the assumption that you commute daily.

Another tip is that if you start using your pass after 3pm then it is valid for that day plus the next 7 days - so you might get 8 days for the price of 7 depending on what time you arrive.

Even though the airport train line is privately owned, your weekly ticket is valid on it. You just have to pay an additional station access fee - $2 - $3 from memory.

Probably the most useful tip I can give you is to go to Sydney's public transport web site - www.131500.com.au - it covers trains, buses and ferries, plus the price of the various kinds of passes.

Have fun in Sydney...

$170pp sounds a bit of a rip off.You can get daily passes that offers travel by bus,train or ferry.The Train trip to the Blue Mountains cost approx $3o-$35 return--I did this last year.Can't quite remember the exact amount.Sydney is a very walkable city and as I said you can get a day pass which is relatively cheap.I would not use taxis at all.I agree with the previous post about the nightmare of Sydney driving and parking.Enjoy your holiday without the hassles of driving.
Sydney is a fabulous city to explore.

the bus seems horrendously high! is it just for transport?

if you need to take a taxi i have found them reasonably priced - just try not to use them during rush hour - one can get stuck in gridlock - go and have a coffee or something and wait for the rush to die down

before you get in though ask if the driver knows the place you are going to

so many drivers now don't know sydney at all and speak very poor english - they ask you to direct them

you can hail cabs on the street (they have the light on on top if they are free) or go to a rank

The 170 pp for the week includes all buses, trains and ferry's, except the airport. Yes it sounds high and that is why I wanted to try to compare it to using taxi's for the three of us. But, if traffic is really bad, maybe the rail is the answer.

i think that ticket is just a rip off - the weekly transport pass in melbourne is about 50 or 60 bucks

it is a rip off if it doesn't include entry to museums and the aquarium etc

maybe it includes the monorail which is an expensive (and short) ride

After re-looking at the info on the Sydney pass for 170 it includes: * Sydney Explorer
* Bondi Explorer
* Sydney Buses
* Sydney Ferries
* CityRail trains in the Red TravelPass zone
and a round trip from the airport. It covers 8 days. I see the explorer buses have commentary and have 25 stops at Sydney hot spots as well as the Bondi Explorer that goes to all of the beaches.

The RT fare for the airport is 22.50
One trip on the explorer is 39.00 or 68 for one day on explorer and Biondi.
The ferrie is up to 12 RT to Manly or 10 shorter. So, the way I see it
One trip on the explorer,the biondi, RT to the airport and one ferrie ride costs over $100.00. So I guess you could say for $70 extra you can have unlimited trips and add the buses. I think it could work.

It's still expensive as a Weekly travel pass for the red zone is only $38 so if you bought all the other explorer tickets and airport tickets separately plus a red weekly you'd be up for only $140 - maybe the extra $30 is ok for the convenience factor, but personally i'd spend it on a nice meal. (And sydney food is pretty good so you get a nice meal for $30)

It's still expensive as a Weekly travel pass for the red zone is only $38 so if you bought all the other explorer tickets and airport tickets separately plus a red weekly you'd be up for only $140 - maybe the extra $30 is ok for the convenience factor, but personally i'd spend it on a nice meal. (And sydney food is pretty good so you get a nice meal for $30)