Sydney Self-Guided (City) Day Tour: Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rocks, Sydney Harbour Bridge

Third day, leggo!


This is the third of the Sydney self-guided day tours series (first & second here), and if you're driving, you can squeeze everything within two days if you'd wish. Pick and choose those that will interest you because it is impossible to complete everything proper under two days (envisioned to be so, pre-journey). Good things always deserve more time to browse over. In this first part of the day tour, we went to shuffle our way around The Rocks, Circular Quay area.

TLDR; suggested morning route: 
Sydney Cove > Museum of Contemporary Art > The Rocks > Sydney Harbour Bridge


Recommended time to reach: 9am
Upon arriving by train at Circular Quay, what we saw was Sydney Cove and the Opera House glittering with drop-dead gorgeousness. Allocate some time for dropped jaws to recover, photo-taking, and general basking in the atmosphere. It was a typically good sunny day in Sydney when we were there.


From Circular Quay station to Museum of Contemporary Art: 400m
Recommended time to reach: 10am
It's a bit of a regret that we didn't manage to go to The Museum of Contemporary Art (next time, eh). It opens at 10am and is along the route to The Rocks. It is free entry for everyone, so go if you think you will be interested!




From Museum of Contemporary Art to The Rocks Market: 200m
Recommended time to reach: 10.30am
The Rocks Food Market only happens on weekends. They still have the usual hipster markets selling artisan products on weekdays, but it turns out that the markets weren't much to shout about - you can easily breeze past it... unless you're looking for some shopping to do! Or maybe we were just hungry and looking for breakfast:


From The Rocks Market to Playfair Cafe: 200m
Recommended time to reach: 11am
Staying in budget doesn't mean having to stay in shape. Everything else was on hyper-overpriced mode - what do you expect, sitting right across the Sydney Opera House? The 'famous breakfast place' is Pancakes on the Rocks, but it has since received mixed reviews - mostly negative nowadays - so... maayyybe not. Playfair Cafe is considerably a place that is extremely value-for-money, delicious and huge sandwiches don't go over AUD10, and big breakfasts going at AUD14.50. Their mocha was expectedly good. Some people swear by the brownies.
Playfair Cafe
Shop 21 The Rocks Centre (Playfair Street)
The Rocks, NSW 2000



From Playfair Cafe to Sydney Harbour Bridge: 400m
Recommended time to reach: 12pm
Getting to Sydney Harbour Bridge isn't too difficult, just follow the signs... and the throngs of crowd! There are absolutely no escalators or elevators to speak of. It was a completely different kinda leg-day after walking the grounds for the past few days, climbing flight after flight of stairs to reach the top.. somewhat. The view up there is spectacular, with the occasional breeze and clear visibility that stretches out into the horizon. Sydney is really beautiful.

Important information for the travelers:
Additional charges apply to other access along the bridge such as the
- Sydney Bridge Climb: Prices vary depending on type of climb and timing. AUD148-338 (adults), AUD118-248 (children). Click here to find out details.
- Sydney Pylon Lookout: AUD13 (adults), AUD8.50 (seniors and students), AUD6.50 (children aged 5 to 12)

We ascended a few more stories up to the Pylon Lookout for an even more elevated view of the Sydney Cove, and also an educational tour of the Bridge. We learnt fun facts such as how on a hot day, the steel of the harbour bridge can actually expand and grow up to 180mm, and that the pylon was 89 metres above sea-level! A lot of people also died while building the bridge because there were no safety harnesses during that time, but when it was finally completed, it was the pride of the country.


FromSydney Harbour Bridge to Circular Quay: 400m
Recommended time to reach: 1.30pm
We made our way back to the Circular Quay station after we were done with walking on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the second-part of the day. In Sydney, it constantly feels like there weren't enough time for everything.

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Amie

a travel and food blogger with a constant longing to be somewhere to makes her feel alive ☆ life's an adventure