What do you think folks? This is the Wondermap for my upcoming trip to Sydney. The pink icons are the Sydney attractions we’re currently planning to visit. If you follow the link, you can enter your suggestions for places to visit and things to do. I can associate blog posts, photos and vidoes with locations on the map. I’m very grateful for my friends at Travellious for allowing me to be an alpha-tester for this application.

There are many, many things to do in Sydney – with or without children. I’ll be traveling on my own with my boys and we’ll be spending most of our time with my sister and her three-month-old so as I’ve been planning this trip, I’m assuming that long sightseeing days will really be out of the question – and that’s OK, those are the trade-offs you make when you travel with children.

So, with that in mind, here’s everything on my “Sydney attractions must see” list. If there’s something you think we should try to include, please do leave a comment.

Sydney Beaches

Spending time at the beach is top of my list because being outdoors is a great way to knock jet-lag on the head and, well, because it’s Sydney. There are many good ones to choose from:
Manly Beach, Bondi Beach (well, duh!), Watsons Bay – although this is partically an excuse to eat at Doyles, Freshwater Beach and the family-friendly Dee Why Beach.

Sydney City Attractions

We’ll be trying to spend at least a couple of days doing ‘city sightseeing’ visiting the Opera House (the 1-hour tour), the Australia Museum, the Botanical Gardens (yes, Victorian as it is, I love walking around Botanical Gardens) but I suspect we may end up spending even more time at the Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool that day. The Aquarium, the Taronga Zoo and the Powerhouse Museum are also on our list – although at this stage I know we’ve got way too much on our list and my money is on my geek-boys ditching the nature stuff and indulging their inner geeks at the Cyberworlds exhibit at the Powerhouse.

Day trips

If we can, we’ll be heading out of the city for at least a day or two. Currently we’re targeting Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park and Kangaroo Valley.

We’re staying at a condo in Balmain (with a killer view of the harbor and the river, I might add) so I haven’t even thought about restaurants. That said, I think a grownup-style “date night with mom” may be possible with my boys; my sister and I are certainly planning to have a girl’s night out (baby permitting, and hey, if he comes too, it won’t be the end of the world); and I’ll be insisting on playing generous auntie at least once while I’m in Sydney and sending my sister and her husband out while I watch all three boys. So, folks, I’ve heard Sydney has some great restaurants. Which one do you think is worth checking out? Leave a comment or (even better) add it to the Wondermap.

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