Visiting Sydney on a Backpackers Budget
Sydney is a must see stop off point for any East Coast Roadie. The city is iconic, very beautiful and well, world famous but this comes with a price – Sydney is pretttyyy spenny (believe me) – you’ve gotta make that money last.
We’ll be sharing with you…
- The ultimate hacks to visit Sydney as a BackPacker
- Where to get EPIC freebies
- How to avoid those ‘city’ food and drink prices
- And OF COURSE, how we can save you money with our discounts..
So, here are some tips and tricks for exploring the city on a budget….
Click images to see more.
Sydney on a budget
Free walking tours
The best way to see all of Sydney’s ICONIC sites, rolled in to one is to hop on a FREE walking tour…amazing!!
These tours are also a great way to meet fellow travellers.
Hostel freebies
When booking your accommodation, keep an eye out for hostels that offer meals. They’re usually a fraction of the price you’d pay eating out and are a great way to mingle and meet people. Some hostels may also provide free brekkie!
There is also always the ‘free shelf’ in the kitchen – sounds super cheap – but you can actually find some decent stuff in there (we said this would be budget friendly ;)).
Getting around
In Sydney, you’ll need to purchase an Opal Card to use on public transport…
All day on SUNDAYS you can travel on the metro, train, bus, ferry and light rail services for $8.40 a day – so Sunday is a good day for exploring the ins and outs of the city.
Free events
Sydney pretty much always has something going on – it’s a big ol’ city that has to cater for everyone.
If you search ‘Sydney free events’ I am sure you’ll find a list of things to go and try out…
Check out: Markets, music events, museum events and if you’re there over NYE you cannot miss out on the fireworks!
with RatPack Travel?
Places to explore
Sure, the centre has got it all going on – and it’s great fun – but Sydney has so much more to offer.
Why not get off the beaten track and head a little further a field:
- Surrey Hills – cool vibes and great cafes.
- Newtown – hipster, cool, artsy vibes.
- Northern Beaches – check out Manly and Curl Curl.
Backpacker bars and nights out
If you’re keen to take on the true backpacker lifestyle, I’m sure you’ll find yourself on some sort of bar crawl/night out…There are quite a few backpacker bars in Sydney, so grab a tinny and let the night begin yeewww…
- Scubar – bar come club
- Sidebar – party party!
- Scary Canary – Great food and drinks
- Darling Harbour – Head to Pontoon and home club. There are also LOADS of happy hours and food deals going on at the many restaurants and bars around the harbour
- Opera bar – Not a backpacker bar BUT abit of a treat and a memory!
Beach Day
THE best activity to do for free – lounging on a beach with a book in your hand – it really doesn’t get better than that!!
I’m a proper water baby and absolutely LOVE the beach, so here is a lil list of my faves:
- Shelly Beach, Manly – paradise (my fave)
- Bronte Beach – surf
- Tamarama
- Watsons Bay
- Curl Curl – Northern Beaches
- And of course, you gotta check out Bondi Beach (check out the walk to Coogee!)
Freebies!
The one you’ve been waiting for…FREEBIES – gotta love em (lol).
So here goes, my little list of freebies to check out in Sydney:
- Harbour Bridge and Opera House – free to look at
- Royal Botanic Gardens
- Mrs Macquarie’s Point – epic viewpoint over the harbour
- China Town – cool at night
- Beaches – lying on a beach is the best thing to do for free!
- Hyde Park – grab a picnic and chill
- Art Galleries and Museums – there are tonnes
- Bondi to Coogee coastal walk
- Luna Park – free entry (pay per ride)
- Manly to Spit walk
- North Head look out – insane views of the city
From our RatPackers
I booked my campervan to travel in NZ via RatPack Travel, who managed to find me the perfect van at relatively short notice and with a discount! It was a real help to have someone do the searching and mediate with the company, once they had dates and information from me. Thanks for the prompt and friendly service!
Great service! Jenner was so much help and gave us lots of options to suit our journey. Very attentive and made it an easy process.
This was the best customer service I ever experienced! I highly recommend you if you are looking for a Van or Camper to leave your email address so somebody of their team can get in touch with you. They compare for you all camper hire company’s and you can choose with one suits you the best. I literally talk to this awesome lady from Holland (as I’m only available after 8pm MEL time, so the arrange for me a call with somebody from the EU team for free) and she got our dream van for the most incredible price few minutes after we talked! And not even one day later I got my booking confirmation from the camper company. Their service is free of charge as they earn commission of your booking but this doesn’t cost you a cent. I did my own research before but the deals they give me was way better than I could find by my own. I highly recommend to get in touch with this team and let them find your Van. They literally saved us our fuel cost for a 3 weeks travel from Cairns to Sydney. Yes- that’s almost $1000 they saved us! Go and get your van! You won’t regret it.
So far, so so good. I should have started with RatPack to begin with and saved all that time searching for a camper and feeling like I was getting nowhere. Jenna was incredibly helpful -doing all the hard yards and getting us the best deal. Very prompt service. Thanks for making it so easy !
Very friendly service with Tammy. Super attentive and keen to help us. Got us a discount and one of the last available options.
Ratpack was super helpful! They were extremely responsive and helped us get an amazing deal on two 3-person camper vans. Highly recommend giving them a shot!
Really straight forward helpful and friendly people!
Mike helped us with finding the best van for us for our 3 week trip and was very knowledgeable. With some quick phone calls he gave us the best quotes and walked us through the process in detail. Everything was made clear and we booked our trip in just an hour! I would highly recommend their service.
Great experience with the RatPack travel team! Really went out of their way to help us book our Van’s for two different trips! They have great rapport with the various Van companies, were able to help us book the last available Van for our time in WA and were able to get us some discounts as well. Zan and Mikey were both so easy going, made it feel like we were chatting with friends who genuinely cared about our travels haha, awesome guys! Definitely recommend the RatPack service, will save you time and money fellow travellers!
Mike was amazing - helped me find a van and gave me quotes, a full breakdown, etc super quickly no stress! Just what I needed. Can't wait to start my trip. Thanks dude!
Booked a 3 week trip with MIKEY! Customer service was on point. No Buls**t straight to the point. Saved us a further % on the original price of the campervan and sent me a map of the east coast with highlighted areas he highly recommended to stop at. looking forward to our trip! 🇮🇪 🇦🇺
Highly recommend this company! Mike was incredibly helpful; he gave us lots of useful info and managed to get an excellent deal on a camper for our trip. The whole process was quick and easy. Thank you! Alison and Amy x
Mikey was amazing at helping us plan our 3 week schedule for the east coast. He went over and above to make sure that we were able to fit everything in that we wanted to in the time we have. His knowledge has been a great asset for us making an itinerary. Can't recommend enough!
If you want to book a camper for your trip, you should only do so with Ratpack. The team is incredibly fast and provides great service. No annoying comparison of providers, since Ratpack takes over. They are looking for the best deal and can offer great discounts. they respond individually to your wishes and give you additional tips for the trip. Since there is also an EU team, you could make calls at individual times of the day - simply excellent all around - thanks for everything
Absolutely delighted with the service provided by RatPack Travel. In particular, the excellent guidance and support offered by Jules! We explained our plans and she found a suitable solution to meet our needs. Very grateful and suggest other travellers use this facility. Thank you 😊
