Best Ways to Save Money When Travelling Sydney Australia

If you are a budget traveller wanting to plan a trip to Sydney Australia here are some of the best ways to explore Sydney on a budget.

Sydney, Australia is one of the largest cities in Australia, and most people when they think of big cities they also think of big prices. I am here to tell you that you can travel to Sydney, Australia on a budget and I’m going to tell you how.  

I am a big budget traveller and I visited Sydney Australia and came up with some ways to save some money while also taking in everything Sydney has to offer. 

This post is all about the top ways to save money while travelling Sydney Australia.

Top 4 Ways to Travel Sydney Australia on a Budget

City Walks

City walks are going to be your best friend if you want to travel around Sydney on a budget. They’re free and you get your exercise in, it’s a win-win! There are 3 major walks I would recommend, to first-time travellers to Sydney, to see the major locations. Each walk will take up most of your day but you will be visiting so many places to check off your bucket list. 

Walk One: Ultimate Sydney Tourist Attractions Walk

Time/Distance:

The walk can take anywhere from 2 hours to 8 hours depending on how long you spend at each location. It’s a total of 6km. 

Locations:

• Royal Botanical Gardens 
• Sydney Oprah House 
• Sydney Harbour Bridge 
• Observation Hill Lookout 
• Darling Harbour 

Map:

Walk Two: Manly to Spit Coastal Walk

Time/Distance:

The Manly to Spit walk takes around 3.5-4 hours to walk and it is around 10km. But from the city center, it takes around an hour to get to Manly Wharf and around an hour to get from Spit bridge back to the city center. 

Locations:

• Circular Quay 
• Manly Warf 
• Manly Beach 
• Fairlight Beach
• Forty Baskets Beach
• Spit Bridge 

Map:

Walk Three: Bondi to Coogee Walk

Time/Distance:

The walk is 5.5 km and takes around just over an hour from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach.

Locations:

• Bondi Beach
• Marks Park
• Tamarama Beach
• Bronte Beach
• Waverly Lookout
• Closely Beach
• Gordons Beach
• Dolphins Point
• Coogee Beach

Map:

Food

I’m not going to sugar-coat it, when it comes to food prices in Sydney Australia they aren’t cheap. It may not be an option for everyone but I think the best way to eat in Sydney on a budget is to make your own food. At almost every hostel in Australia, they have kitchens available for you to cook your own food. So the way I found to save money on food was to grocery shop and cook for most, if not all, your meals.  

Accommodations  

Australia’s Hostel life is great and the most affordable type of accommodation in Sydney. There are hostels located all around the city, you can stay in the city center or by the water. Check out Hostel World when booking your hostel. When we stayed in Sydney we stayed at Mad Monkeys Backpackers. The cost of an 8-bed mixed dorm per night at the Mad Monkey Backpackers was $46 CAD. It wasn’t anything fancy but had everything we needed for our time in Sydney. Two other highly rated hostels located in Sydney Australia’s city center include Wake Up Sydney Central (a 10-bed mix dorm room costs $48 CAD per night) and Sydney Harbour YHA (a 6-bed mix dorm room cost $54 CAD per night).

Transport

Public transit will be your best bet for budget-friendly transport in Sydney. They have buses, trains, and ferries that can get you pretty much anywhere you want to go. I would recommend if you plan to transit a lot to get an Opal card. An opal card is a transit pass that you can get over the counter at opal retailers, at the Sydney airport, or online. It doesn’t cost money to purchase but you must put a minimum of $20 on the card for adults and $10 for children. The Opal card will be cheaper than using your card every time you use transit, I didn’t know about this card when travelling to Sydney and I wish I did.

 

For anyone planning to travel to Sydney Australia, I hope these tips can help you save some money. And make sure to add those three city walks to your travel bucket list and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.