Non-rev to Sydney
 

The flight loads look great in the near future, but hotel and transportation costs in Sydney itself are rather high for my family (5 kids age 6-17). We are planning on three nights there and any recommendations for a great Australian experience would be welcome!

Non-rev to Sydney
 

It's been a few years since I've been there, but look for events happening in Darling Harbour. The Sydney Zoo is also a nice place to go. In Darling Harbour you have the aquarium, some old ships, a mall, frequent free concerts and shows, etc.
If you decide to go out for an adult night out with your wife and want to club it up, go to Kings Cross. Be wary though, there are some trouble makers there. You can climb the Sydney Harbour bridge, but its expensive.

If i can think of anywhere else i'll reply again. Like i said, its been awhile. You're going to have a blast though! It's one of my favorite cities.

Can't give any recommendations. But I can tell you that you're a cool parent. My parents wouldn't take me beyond Six Flags...

Have a great trip!

If I were going out in Sydney with my wife without the kids, it would be the last place I would go. At least no one has been killed there in the last 8 months.

Kings Cross is about as trashy as it can get to a night out with the wife. Darling Harbour has plenty of nice places to eat, drink, dance or just stroll the water front and people watch.

check AirBnB.com for lodging. It may not be your cup of tea, but I always enjoy it for what its worth.

Too bad you're only down there for three days. If you were staying longer, I'd highly recommend the 5 day learn to dive packages out of Cairns. You'd need to fly to Cairns from Sydney.
The 5 day course includes 3 days living aboard a dive ship and going to the Great Barrier Reef.
It's about $900/person but that's a bargain compared to what you're going to find Sydney costs. EXPENSIVE!!! You'll find it cheaper in Cairns.
A couple of links:
ProDive Diver Training - Cairns, Great Barrier Reef, Australia - Pro Dive Scuba Diving Course - Dive Training
PADI 5 Day Learn To Scuba Dive Course Cairns - Great Barrier Reef Learn To Dive - Pro Dive Cairns, North Queensland, Australia


That's a long way to fly for only three days. That's 28+ flight hours round trip from LA.

Another bit of advice, if you are non reving on UA, LAX can be a nightmare if the flight its anywhere near full. I recently got left behind with a several open seats in all three cabins due to weight restrictions. SFO is much better to avoid weight restrictions. However the amount of non revs that can show up on the list out of both stations (particularly SFO) at the last minute is incredible.

Night out with the wife in Sydney?

Take a water taxi across the harbor to Catalina restaurant on Rose Bay. Make a reservation for a table over-looking the harbor, and enjoy some of their fabulous seafood. Pricey, but worth every penny on a vacation like your's. Dress is casual elegant. You'll want slacks, no jeans. Bring something warm for the wife to wear...it's fall down there right now. Your wife will think you are James Bond for setting it up.

No thanks necessary. You can silently toast me as you enjoy your successful evening out. :cool:

PS - There are some who know about this place and think it is over-priced and not worth it, but I wholeheartedly disagree with them and have loved every time I've been there. In fact, I once had the honor and pleasure of buying the Captain of a visiting US Destroyer a drink there on one occasion. He returned the generosity by hosting my wife and I aboard his ship two days later, giving us the Admiral's tour. Good times!

PPS - For the kids, take them to Bondi beach via the ferry, so they too can get a trip across the harbor and go to a very fun place. Good shopping and people watching too. A good day trip if you are staying anywhere near downtown.

Hope this proves useful to you. Cheers!

There's actually a nice zoo/aquarium/sky tower package special we're thinking about.

This had me rolling - we were actually talking about getting season passes to six flags before we started discussing Sydney! ;)

Looks exactly like my cup of tea, thanks for the resource!!

Worse than that, we're leaving from ATL. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to get a full week off with three in high school so we're making the best with what we have! Thanks for the recommendations!

We're looking at DL but using UA as a back-up. So far the loads look good on both and we are flexible by a couple of days just in case of a MX snafu.

Thanks for the info folks, it all helps and any additional advice is welcome!

Also the person who mentioned UA loads out/in LAX; that is pretty accurate. Getting ZEDs on Qantas may help relive some stress. They've gotten me back from SYD every time I've been left behind on UA.

Its Manly Beach via the ferry from circular quay next to the Opera House.
(Definitely do this.)

Bondi is via the bus, cheaper but not as scenic a ride.

Yes, that's it! I always get those two mixed up, which is stupid given their respective locations. Thanks for setting that right! :D

Pardon me for suggesting you alter plans, but have you thought about Europe? The family will probably be worn out for a couple of days after all of the flying necessary to get to Sydney. I'd save a trip like that for when I could spend a couple of weeks down there ... like summer break.

Now is the perfect time of year for Venice before it gets packed during the summer with tourists. Or there are a ton of other cities in Europe worth visiting.

Great idea from ATL. I was just looking at loads to/from a few cities. BCN looked like a great option for a few days. VCE is another great choice.

We've waffled a bit on this - difficulty is I haven't had anything resembling a few weeks off during the summer in years. Also, with three teenagers, each with their own camp and shortened summer breaks, it gets even more difficult!!

Between the difference in pricing and the wide open flight loads, BCN or Venice are looking a bit enticing though!

It's going to take you three days just to get over the jet lag from the flight to the opposite side of the world.

Have you considered Argentina? Minimal jet lag, Buenos Aires is beautiful, almost like Paris, and best if all, stupid cheap.

As a bonus, you can catch a ferry across the river Plata and go spend a day in Uruguay, either Colonia or even Montevideo. Two passport stamps for the price of one!

Santiago comes to mind as well. Lovely city, bit more expensive but still pretty cheap.

Or how about Central America? Costa Rica, Belize, Panama...

Bottom line, you have a very limited amount of free time; recuperating from the flight alone will eat up most of it.

If you had two weeks on the other hand...

There's a museum at the start of the base of the harbor bridge that gets you a great view for a few $ instead of what they want to climb the bridge which is steep ( pun intended).

Also must walk through arboretum near opera house as there are millions of bats ( the size of dogs with wings) hanging around the trees during the day and then at dusk they start flying away.
Manly beach ferry is a great day trip as you get harbor tour via ferry and beach area can feel like Santa Monica on nice days. At end of manly beach is a man made ocean public swimming pool that is pretty neat to go to. Good walk along beach to get there.
Also although a bit of money but worth it is the jet boat rides from circular quay. The price for a ride is negotiable. In fact if its slow I've gotten two for one a few times especially if you tell them you are a repeat customer or a delta employee or us military. They basically look for excuse to cut price. If very busy though with lots of tourists then may not work as well. Great time especially with kids.
I have three kids and we've gone to Sydney three times in last 6 yrs but we live in hawaii so commute is much shorter for us ie 9 hrs.
Aloha luv

Remember, just because the pax loads to/from SYD look good, you still may not get on, depends on how much cargo is going. Cargo goes before non-revs.

There's always Sarasota, or for your kids, Cocoa Beach, rent some surfboards and let them go nuts. Or take them on a snorkel trip, or rent kayaks, or both, at Pennekamp park in Key Largo and drive on down to Key West.

http://www.pennekamppark.com/

Not as "Exotic" as Sydney, or S/A or Europe, but you won't waste 2 out of 3 days standing in line and sitting in coach either.

Oh, and everyone speaks English in Florida...well...almost everyone.:rolleyes:

The last thing I want to do on my days off is...go to the airport and try to non-rev. I have 4 kids, a huge pita to non-rev with, so we finally moved to Florida so we wouldn't have to do that any more.

Must catch an Australia Rules 'Footy' game, or at least a rugby match. I've spent a lot of time in Oz and experienced a lot it has to offer, this is way up near the top. Manly/Bondi are both cool areas, second the ferry to Manly. Avoid Kings Cross - seedy/red light district. Unless the wife is into strip clubs and variety shows, I'd stick to Darling for a night out.



I second the S. America/Europe vacation. Oz is a hall, I've spent extended periods of time there and still felt pressed for time. Personally, I wouldn't even fathom three days. Although, business class can be a fun experience for the whole family.

I had a long post that got wiped out.

The short version:
1) Nonrevving with 7 people can be a nightmare. I HIGHLY recommend a nonstop destination from ATL, either Central/South America or Europe.
2) Going to SYD sounds like fun but you'll be spending more time traveling to/from SYD than in SYD.

Agree completely. If you live on the west coast and only have to drive to LAX, go for it, but if you are starting on the east coast, have to fly to LAX, sit around, hope you get on, etc. for only 3 days? Not worth the effort, unless you like spending your 'vacation' at the airport and sitting in coach.

I love laying over in Sydney, but I stopped bidding it because I live in Florida and it just takes too long to get to LAX just to start my trip, and then it takes all day to get home too, (6am-7pm) after flying all night, for only a 24 hour layover in SYD? Not gonna do it no mo'.

Now, if it were a 48hr. layover I'd try to bid it, but then I couldn't hold it because EVERYONE would bid it!

It's a great city but it needs a good 5 days or more, since you are going to spend 2 of them enroute.

RE. what Dragnet said in his first line above; HEY MODS, what is with this board timing out? It's constantly logging me out and flushing my pm's.

Have you looked into ZED fares between Buenos Aires and Santiago? I've done the Argentina/Uruguay combo before but I had to do a separate trip to Chile for Santiago...neither I did well from a time management perspective.