Any Sydney Hotel recommendations?

[thespoons]

I'm done with my OW class, about to take the written test and then my checkout dives in the not too distant future. I'm getting my honeymoon planned out and have taken some fellow SBers advice and booked the Spirit of Freedom liveaboard and Queens Court hotel in Cairns.

Now I'm wonder if anyone has recommendations on hotels in Sydney. We'll only be there a few days before heading up to Cairns, and will only be snorkelling at the most. I could pick a place based on the reviews of one of the bigger hotel sites, but it'd be nice to have some one-on-one recommendations. I'm mainly looking in the 100-150 AUD range, kind of like the Queens Court. Nothing too luxurious but also nothing 100 miles out of town. In case it matters for location, some things we'll probably do are the Taronga Zoo, Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Bridge Climb, a bus tour, check out the opera house, spend some time on the beach (though since it will be July, maybe not all day), etc.

Any comments?

 

[AussieByron]

Meriton Serviced Apartments on Kent Street is very nice and new. Its right in the middle of the city and very central to everything. If you use Wotif.com: Hotels, Accommodation, Motels, Serviced Apartments, B&B - Online hotel bookings with instant confirmation you can pick up a room around the $150 which is really good price for Sydney and the kind of place which it is. Highly recommend it.

Regards Mark

 

[El Orans]

We stayed at The Grace last year. :thumbs_up:

 

[thespoons]

Thanks for all the recommendations!

 

[almitywife]

wotif is a good site....

if you dont mind back packers i suggest the Central Y, YHA Australia Hostels - Sydney - Central YHA Backpackers Hostel

you can get a double private bathroom room for some privacy and a short walk from Town Hall, which is where you catch a train to anywhere in this city and about a 20min walk to Circular Quay which is where you catch ferries and where the opera house is

btw, if critters is what you want ot see, i also suggest Featherdale Wildlife Park at Blacktown (birthplace of almitywife btw), you can touch and cuddle the locals for pics. its a 25min trainride to Blacktown then a 5min bus ride

 

[thespoons]

Yes, wotif was definitely helpful. I wound up booking the Sebel Pier One. Judging from reviews, it looks like they went through a bit of a slump but have cleaned up their act. Still a bit noisy with the plumbing, but hopefully their location makes up for it. We splurged for the Waterside King and it was still only USD$225/night.

 

[OceansideOcean]

Hi there,

If it's not too late (and all the places I booked allowed you to cancel more than 7 days out with no penalty) we just got back from that same trip on June 1 (2009) - a week in Sydney and a week in Cairns.

In Sydney, we loved the Hotel Altamont. It's small (I think 14 rooms) but the rooms are a great size, and the location is sensational - about a 2 minute walk to the Kings Cross subway station. In addition, it's right in the middle of about 20 cafes and restaurants, all of which were fantastic. I posted a review on TripAdvisor, one of my favorite websites. We paid about $100 per day USD and that includes free internet, although the repeater was broken so we had to go to the lobby to use it. Everything we requested they happily obliged.

In Cairns, we stayed at the Rydges Tradewinds. We had an ocean view room for the extra few bucks. It was on sale due to time of year, and we paid about $80 USD per day. The hotel is in an unbelievable location. All the action was about a 5 minute walk and all of Cairns was about a 10 minute walk. The hotel is very nice, but don't expect million dollar antique furniture - it's middle of the road hotel furniture. The view, however, was a million dollar hotel view. My only gripe is everything else was an extra charge. The room safe was $3 extra for the entire stay, the internet was $7 an hour, the laundry (very convenient) was $3 to wash, $3 to dry and there is no soap vending so you have to bring your own. Because of the room price, I wasn't out of sorts about all the extra charges - it amounted to about 5 bucks a day - which is still a major bargain.